NEWS
Polestar Precept Show Car Gets the Green Light
It was supposed to be a flight of fancy. A vision quest, a commitment car, and a bunch of other adjectives, all of which led Polestar to go so far as to forgo calling its Precept show car a “concept.” Despite this, Polestar is now sending the well-received, low-slung electric sedan into production at a new plant in China. Expected name: Polestar 4. Polestar, the electric performance vehicle brand jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding, is still fledging. The first offering in 2017, appropriately named the Polestar 1, was a plug-in hybrid grand touring coupe. But the brand’s mandate soon became all-electric cars only, and to that end, the 2021 Polestar 2 arrives as a battery-electric sedan that delivers 408 hp, 487-lb-ft of torque, and a targ...
Keith Urban Snags Australian Chart Crown With ‘Future Of Now’
Australia’s country superstar Keith Urban bags a fourth chart crown in his homeland as Future Of Now opens at No. 1. Urban, a five-time ARIA Awards winner, previously ruled the ARIA Albums Chart with The Story So Far in May 2012, Fuse in September 2013, and Ripcord in May 2016. Future Of Now is the followup to 2018’s Graffiti U, which peaked at No. 2 on the national albums survey. Also new to the ARIA Chart this week is Ava Max’s long awaited debut album Heaven & Hell, which starts at No. 7. The LP contains the U.S. pop artist’s breakout single “Sweet But Psycho,” which hit No. 2 in Australia following its release in 2018. Just one place below is Mildlife’s sophomore album Automatic at No. 8. It’s the award-winning Melbourne psych-jazz outfit’s first appearance on the ARIA Albums Chart...
Miley Cyrus’ ‘Midnight Sky’ Makes Its Move on U.K. Singles Chart
Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky” (RCA) is looking to climb high on the U.K. singles chart this week as 24kGoldn’s “Mood” (Black Butter) featuring Iann Dior gets set for a second week at No. 1. Miley’s latest single races 11-5 on the Official Chart: First Look, which measures sales and streaming activity for the first 48 hours in the chart cycle. Based on early data published by the Official Charts Company, “Mood” continues at the top of the leaderboard, ahead of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” (Atlantic) and “Ain’t It Different” (Relentless) by Headie One, AJ Tracey and Stormzy, respectively. Last Friday, “Mood” ended the three-week reign of “WAP.” 24kGoldn could land another track in the Top 10. The rising British rapper is a guest artist on Clean Bandit’s “Tick Tock” (Atlantic),...
How Mushroom Group’s Michael Gudinski Pivoted and Built New Channels During the Pandemic
Michael Gudinski always has something extra up his sleeve. When the 360-degree company became a fashionable term, Gudinski had his own spin. Mushroom Group, his independent music empire, was a “365” company, reflecting the number of days it operated in a regular year. Launched in 1973, Mushroom Group today spans more than two-dozen companies and brands from Frontier Touring, one of the world’s leading independent promoters, to The Harbour Agency, labels I Oh You, Liberation and Bloodlines, Mushroom Music Publishing, neighboring rights operation Good Neighbour, and the new addition, Reclusive Records. The pandemic has caused income to dry up for so many entertainment companies, particularly those exposed to concerts and touring. Mushroom Group is built on a bedrock of live music. Gudi...
Apple Music’s Karlie Hustle on Getting Cancer, Finding Perspective & the New Film That Documents It All
It was December 2018, and music executive/podcast host Karlie Hustle was about to fulfill her longtime dream of directing a documentary. But on Christmas Eve, she received a diagnosis that changed the trajectory of her life. “Right as we were getting ready to book flights and get everything together for a shoot in April of 2019, I was diagnosed with [breast] cancer,” Hustle tells Billboard. At a point when many would have bowed out of the project altogether, Hustle and her producer Dan Eason instead made the decision to lean into her diagnosis. Originally intended as a feature-length documentary that would focus on Hustle, a self-described “city slicker,” “getting back in touch with nature” in the Oregon wilderness, the focus pivoted to become a story about her journey through the ri...
Mariah Carey Says She Worked On an Alternative Album While Recording ‘Daydream’
Mariah Carey was recording Daydream by day and a very different album by night in the mid-’90s. In her new memoir, the pop star reveals that she worked on a rock album with the band Chick around the time period of the Daydream sessions. “Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream,” Carey wrote on Twitter, where she shared an excerpt from her upcoming book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Sunday afternoon (Sept. 27). “Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days.” “Here’s a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey,” she said. Carey added in her tweet, “S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer.” In the excerpt, she admitted, “I actually started ...
Blackpink Announces New Single From ‘The Album’
With just days to go until the release of The Album, Blackpink has served fans a new teaser of what’s to come. Jennie, Rosé, Jisoo and Lisa tweeted a poster previewing “Lovesick Girls” as a “title” (or main) track from their upcoming debut full-length studio album Sunday night (Sept. 27). The teaser poster shows the song name and the girls leaning on one another in nighttime lighting, with a reminder of The Album‘s almost here Oct. 2 release date. Blackpink has already treated fans to two tracks ahead of the album drop, “How You Like That” and the Selena Gomez collaboration “Ice Cream.” Before The Album is here, the quartet welcomes fans to join them for “Comeback Live,” a live streaming event set to take pla...
Trump’s TikTok Ban Stopped by Judge
A federal judge is issuing an injunction at the 11th hour. A D.C. federal judge is giving TikTok a temporary reprieve from the U.S. government’s rollout of a ban on the popular video app. A partial injunction order came after an emergency court hearing on Sunday. TikTok owner ByteDance had been facing a Sunday deadline to satisfy the Trump Administration’s national security concerns about data scooped up by the Chinese-owned company. TikTok has argued there’s no sound basis for any alarm that user information would be shared with the Chinese government, but that hasn’t satisfied President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order stopping transactions with TikTok. Since the ban announcement, TikTok has pursued an agreement with Oracle and Walmart that would allow ...
24kGoldn’s ‘Mood’ Ends ‘WAP’ Reign In U.K. as Pop Smoke Makes Chart History
24kGoldn is in a right mood. With “Mood” (Black Butter), the British rapper’s collaboration with Iann Dior, 24kGoldn dethrones Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion as the U.K.’s chart champion. After a six-week climb “Mood” lifts 2-1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, after finishing the week more than 7,000 chart sales ahead of “WAP,” snapping its three-week streak at No. 1. According to the Official Charts Company, “Mood” snags 61,000 chart sales, including 7.8 million streams. “WAP” (Atlantic) dips 1-2, as Justin Bieber grabs the highest new entry with “Holy” (Def Jam) featuring Chance The Rapper. “Holy” is new at No. 10 for Bieber’s 21st Top 10 single, and the Chicago hip-hop star’s fifth. Also impacting the current frame is Sam Smith’s “Diamonds” (Capitol), which starts at No. 22, for the...
Alison Wonderland Featured on New Amazon Billboard in Times Square
In honor of the release of her latest single, New Yorkers and visitors alike might find themselves locking eyes with a 200-foot Alison Wonderland during their travels. No, this wasn’t the unexpected result of an experiment gone wrong—she’s the featured artist on Amazon Music‘s Times Square billboard. Featuring art from her newly released single “Bad Things,” the billboard home is smack-dab in one of the most packed areas in the Capital of the World. On Twitter, she shared photos of the billboard and later exulted in the song’s release and seeing her vision come to life. In addition to the new billboard placement, her latest single and her likeness has been included at the forefront of Amazon Music’s “EDM Bangers” playlist. The thre...
Mariah Carey Reveals She Made an Alternative Album While Recording Daydream
As Mariah Carey counts down the days to the release of her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah, she’s sharing some pretty interesting book snippets. Over the weekend, the pop icon revealed on Twitter that she “did an alternative album” while recording 1995’s Daydream, “Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days.” She gave a shout out to her friend Clarissa, who sang lead while Carey provided “a hidden layer” of vocals, and shared an excerpt from the book, along with a clip of one of the songs. In the book, she writes: I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully c...
Jennifer Lopez Shares Sweet Message From Her Daughter Emme: ‘You’re the Best Mom’
Jennifer Lopez shared a heartfelt message from her 12-year-old daughter, Emme Muñiz, in honor of National Daughter’s Day. The 51-year-old superstar took to Instagram on Friday (Sept. 25) to share the sweet video in which Emme tells her how much she loves and misses her. “Hi, Mom! I just want to let you know that you’re the best mom — actually, you’re over there — you’re the best mom in the whole entire world, and I couldn’t ask for a better one,” says Emme, Lopez’s daughter with ex-husband Marc Anthony. “I really miss you, and I love you. Well, I want to make this before you come over because it’s supposed to be a surprise. I really love you and you’re the best mom in the whole entire world, and I don’t kno...
