(G)I-DLE’s Yuqi Shares a Pitch-Perfect Cover of Miley Cyrus’ No. 1 Hit ‘Flowers’

March 14 marks Asia’s holiday called White Day, which acts like a response to Valentine’s Day for lovers to reciprocate a present to those who showed them love a month earlier. For this year’s White Day, (G)I-DLE member Yuqi gifted fans with a cover of the current global No. 1 song and a reminder to love oneself.

The K-pop star shared a music video she filmed for a cover of Miley Cyrus‘ smash single “Flowers,” which returned to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart for its seventh week on top. Like Yuqi’s previously shared in her rock-leaning solo singles like “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Giant,” the Chinese-born star’s raspy delivery is not only a perfect fit for the breezy pop-rock stomp of “Flowers” but specifically for taking on Cyrus’ vocals, making this a pitch-perfect cover.

Yuqi filmed a casually fun music video for “Flowers” that opens with the star looking out wistfully to sea on the beach before snapping out of it and going shopping, painting in a garden, and hopping around the city while embracing the song’s famous message of finding happiness in loving ones’ self.

The video ends with a message for viewers, with text across the screen saying: “Always be proud of yourself.” Upon sharing the cover, Yuqi included a short letter to (G)I-DLE fans, known affectionately as Neverlands. “Love you guys so much,” she wrote on Instagram to her five-million-plus followers. “At the same time, I love myself hard as well…just like the lyrics said, ‘I can love me better than you can.’ Not only about love; we should love ourselves first. Happy White Day to all of my Neverlands.”

Yuqi also included a message to Miley, sharing that she’s a “big fan” and how “it’s my honor to have this opportunity to cover this amazing song.”

Watch Yuqi’s cover of “Flowers” below:

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SWV Sings No.1 Hit ‘Weak’, Talks ‘SWV & XSCAPE: The Queens of R&B’ & More | Billboard News

Legendary R&B group SWV sings No.1 hit ‘Weak’, talks about their new Bravo reality show ‘SWV & XSCAPE: The Queens of R&B’, give their thoughts on how they think R&B has changed and more!

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Marshmello Scores First Entry on Any Latin Chart With Manuel Turizo Collab ‘El Merengue’

There is a new face on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart: Christopher Comstock, better known as Marshmello, makes his first chart visit with “El Merengue,” with Manuel Turizo, as the song debuts at No. 4 on the March 18-dated ranking. It also becomes the EDM music producer and DJ’s first top 10. Colombian Turizo claims his third straight top 10.

“El Merengue” is a tropical tune peppered with electronic beats and was released March 3 via Joytime Collective/Sony Music Latin. It starts with 6 million in audience impressions earned in the U.S. during the March 3-9 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The song is the first pair-up by the electronic DJ and Turizo. The latter previously spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on Tropical Airplay (starting the August 6, 2022-dated list) with his first official tropical attempt, “La Bachata.” Prior to “La Bachata” Turizo secured a first No. 1 through his featured turn on Piso 21’s “Déjala Que Vuelva” (two weeks at No. 1, 2021), when Tropical Airplay was a station-based chart.

As mentioned, Marshmello lands his first top 10 through his first foray on a Latin chart. He also becomes the third non-Spanish-language-speaking act to secure a top 10 on Tropical Airplay this year. He follows Justin Timberlake and Lil Jon. Timberlake spent five weeks in the top 10 since January through his Romeo Santos three-week champ collab, “Sin Fin,” which debuted and peaked at No. 1 last Sept. Lil Jon, meanwhile, completed three weeks in the top 10 this year through “Let’s Get Crazy,” his partnership with Don Omar. The track peaked at No. 5 last October and held strong in the upper tier for a total of 15 weeks.

“El Merengue” also contributes to the individual Latin Airplay ledgers for Marshmello and Turizo: as the song bows at No. 14 on the all-genre ranking, it becomes Marshmello’s highest start following two English-language tracks that peaked outside the top 40 in 2018. Turizo concurrently scores his highest start there after the No. 25 debut of “La Nota,” with Myke Towers and Rauw Alejandro, in Oct. 2020 (the song later reached No. 1, in Jan. 2021). In total, the Colombian singer-songwriter has landed nine top 10s there, with five of those reaching No. 1.

Elsewhere on Latin charts, “El Merengue” makes its No. 9 debut on Latin Digital Song Sales; a first chart visit and top 10 for Marshmello there.

Further, Turizo makes his debut on the Dance charts as “Merengue” debuts at No. 6 on Hot Dance/ Electronic Songs with 2.7 million U.S. clicks logged in its first tracking week plus 500 downloads.

All charts (dated March 18) will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (March 14).

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SWV Talk ‘The Queens of R&B’ & Still Being the Same ‘Around the Way Girls’

SWV and Xscape: The Queens of R&B premiered March 5 on Bravo, and to celebrate the reality series, SWV sat down with Billboard‘s Gail Mitchell to discuss their incredible career.

“It’s a blessing,” Lelee said of the trio’s success. “We didn’t even know we were going to make it, let alone be here 30 years later. I mean, as long as the fans want us here, we’re going to show up.”

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As for what it is about SWV that still resonates with music fans after all these years, Taj says that it’s all about consistency. “We haven’t changed one bit from day one. This is us,” she shares. “We were always the quirky, around the way girls who just love to have fun and sing. We’re still that, but we’re just much older.”

The six-episode Queens of R&B series follows SWV and Xscape as they prepare for a joint concert and navigate personal drama that could derail their stage plans. The reality series explores “the inner working of putting on a live concert performance” while exposing “the discord and complex dynamics of sisterhood within singing groups.”

The hardest part, Taj says, was being away from their families during filming. “You just want to be portrayed the right way,” Lelee adds. “Everybody don’t take your life and your story serious. It’s not their baby. It’s television.”

“Don’t get caught up in the hype,” Coko replies when asked what she wants fans to take away from the show, before adding with a laugh, “Enjoy it and don’t at me.”

Watch SWV’s full interview with Billboard above, included a gorgeous a cappella rendition of “Weak.”

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Selena Gomez Uses a Miley Cyrus Song Title in Instagram Caption

Selena Gomez seems to be enjoying Miley Cyrus‘ new album just as much as everyone else.

The “Lose You to Love Me” singer took to Instagram on Monday (March 13) to share a stunning makeup-free selfie with the simple caption, “Violet Chemistry,” which is a track title from Cyrus’ freshly dropped eighth studio album, Endless Summer Vacation.

“Stay awhile, don’t deny the violet chemistry / Stay awhile, stay awhile with me / Stay awhile, put your arms around me,” Cyrus sings in the synth-filled, sultry song.

Gomez and Cyrus have been close for years, as both singers began their careers as Disney Channel stars, Miley on Hannah Montana — on which Gomez had a recurring role as Mikayla — and Selena on her series, Wizards of Waverly Place.

Cyrus first announced Endless Summer Vacation in January, with a post revealing steamy album cover, in which the 30-year-old star is seen in a black unitard, sunglasses and heels, swinging from a trapeze bar against a deep blue background.

Gomez took to the comments section at the time, writing, “Damn.”

Fans can experience the entire album live for the very first time by tuning into Miley’s Backyard Sessions concert special celebrating the release, as well as the fifteenth anniversary of “The Climb,” on Disney+.

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Audience for 95th Oscars Rebounds Slightly to 18.7 Million

Whether it was the lingering drama of The Slap or the prominence of blockbusters in the best picture race, a bigger audience was lured back to the Oscars this year.

The 95th Academy Awards, which aired Sunday night on ABC, was viewed by an estimated 18.7 million, according to preliminary Fast National Live+Same Day numbers released Monday by ABC. That’s up 12% from last year’s show, but still low compared to most years.

The evening’s main counterprogramming, the season finale of “The Last of Us” pulled in 8.2 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. The show began at 9 p.m. EST, an hour after the Oscars started.

A frequent criticism of the Oscars is that the show celebrates films that don’t have wide appeal. This year was markedly different, however, with two billion-dollar blockbuster sequels in the mix: “Top: Gun Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were both nominated for best picture. Angela Bassett was nominated for a Marvel movie, a first. Even the winning film, A24’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” made over $100 million at the global box office and played in theaters for months.

For many years, the Oscars were often the second most-watched television program of the year behind the Super Bowl. Until 2018, the Oscar telecast had never slipped below 30 million viewers, according to Nielsen records. The high-water mark was the 55 million people who watched “Titanic” clean up in 1998.

From the 43.7 million who watched in 2014, viewership declined steadily to 26.5 million in 2018, then went back up to 29.6 million in 2019, and 23.6 million in 2020. The bottom fell out with the pandemic-diminished show in 2021, seen by 9.85 million. It rebounded last year to 16.6 million, which was the second lowest-rated show ever.

Jimmy Kimmel, who presided over the ceremony in 2017 and 2018, returned to host the show, parachuting on to the Dolby Theatre stage. The show also featured performances from pop stars like Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

Broadcast television viewership has gone down across the board in the streaming era, and awards shows have illustrated that. The show boasted 27.4 million total social interactions across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and was the No. 1 worldwide trending topic on Twitter for its duration.

By Monday afternoon, Ke Huy Quan’s acceptance speech had over 1.3 million views on YouTube, and Brendan Fraser’s was up to 2.6 million.

The ABC broadcast also had 1.8 million views of the American Sign Language live stream.

“What we wanted to do was go out and execute a show that people would really like and a show people would talk about,” Oscars producer Glenn Weiss told The Hollywood Reporter in the hours after the show. “We think we did accomplish that. I sure hope that (Monday) delivers good news in the ratings front, but either way, I think it was a successful evening.”

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