International
Juice WRLD’s ‘Legends Never Die’ Rises to No. 1 In Australia
Juice WRLD’s posthumous album Legends Never Die (Interscope/Universal) climbs to the chart summit in Australia, as Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” (Columbia/Sony) enters a fourth consecutive week atop the national singles survey. Legends Never Die, which has ruled the albums chart on both sides of the Atlantic, now completes the job in Australia where it rises 3-1 in its second week. It’s the second posthumous hip-hop LP to top the survey in three weeks, following the No. 1 entry of Pop Smoke’s Universal set Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon (it improves 4-3 on the current frame). Lighting up the Australian tally is Gaslighter (Columbia/Sony), The Chicks’ first album release in 14 years. The American country trio (formerly The Dix...
Taylor Swift Set to Land Three ‘Folklore’ Tracks In U.K. Top 10
Taylor Swift’s isolation album Folklore is ready for a chart party in the U.K. No less than three songs from it are on track for Top 10 debuts on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, based on early sales and streaming activity. The single “Cardigan” (EMI), which was accompanied with an official music video, is on target to snare the week’s highest new entry. It’s at No. 4 on the Official Chart First Look, based on 48 hours of data. Also, Swift’s “The 1” is at No. 5 and “Exile,” her duet with Bon Iver, is at No. 7. If all three hold inside the Top 10, it would lift the pop star’s tally of U.K. Top 10s to 16. Taylor’s eighth studio album arrived with just 24 hours’ notice, and judging by the reaction from fans and critics, it couldn’t have come soon enough. Folklore has sold over 1.3...
Ellie Goulding’s ‘Brightest Blue’ Bows at No. 1 In U.K.
Ellie Goulding bags her third U.K. No. 1 album with Brightest Blue (Polydor), while “Head & Heart” skips past “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” to give Joel Corry and MNEK their first leader on the national singles chart. Goulding’s collab-stacked new album bows at the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart, eclipsing the No. 3 peak of its processor, Delirium from 2015, and equaling the feats of her debut Lights from 2010 and its followup Halcyon from 2014. Brightest Blue features a collaboration with the late rapper Juice WRLD, whose posthumous album Legends Never Die (Interscope), slips 1-2 on the current tally, while Bob Dylan’s former leader Rough And Rowdy Ways (Columbia) bounces 16-4 following its release on vinyl. The Chicks complete their comeback with a top...
Brazilian Funk Powerhouse KondZilla Launches Twitch Channel With Exclusive Deal
The arrangement — which involves exclusive music, video and gaming content — follows the Twitch deal with rapper Logic earlier this week. Brazilian funk music company KondZilla, which operates one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world, has signed a partnership with Twitch to operate a channel on the streaming platform, in one of the first major deals Twitch has done with an international artist or label. Under terms of its deal, KondZilla is providing exclusive music, gaming, video and podcast content, including live remixing of video game tracks produced by DJs on Kondzilla Records, Andre Izidro, head of marketing and intelligence at KondZilla, tells Billboard. The Twitch channel will promote games, chats and feature funk music and stars from KondZilla, such as Mc Jotta...
The Track List For Max’s New Album Confirms the Collab With BTS’s Suga We’ve All Been Wishing For
The just-revealed track list for pop singer Max‘s upcoming sophomore album, Colour Vision, features the BTS collaboration he’s been teasing since he revealed that he hung out with his “new brother” Suga earlier this year. The pair will meld their voices on the track “Blueberry Eyes,” one of a handful of duets on the album, due out on Sept. 18. They previously teamed up on “Burn It” from Suga’s D-2 mixtape. Also included on the 12-track release are previously-released collabs with Hayley Kiyoko (“Missed Calls”), Chromeo (“Checklist”) and Quinn XCII (“Love Me Less”), and the next single, “Working For the Weekend,” which will drop on Aug. 14. Check out the full Colour Vision track list below....
Alice Ivy Taps Extraordinary Lineup on Globe-Trotting New Album ‘Don’t Sleep’
With the benefit of hindsight, Alice Ivy was in wonderland when she cut Don’t Sleep. The new LP captures a glorious time not so long ago, filled with mates and late nights in faraway places. That was, before the pandemic ruined everything. Speaking with Billboard from her home in Melbourne, which has just entered a second lockdown, Don’t Sleep is the followup to 2018’s critically-lauded I’m Dreaming. Spanning 13 tracks, Don’t Sleep was written across a dizzying stretch of timezones, and features a diverse lineup with numerous female, non-binary, LGBTQI+, and BIPOC artists and voices. “I’m a very collaborative person,” she explains. “I would have struggled to get a lot of things over the line (stuck) in a room by myself.” [embedded content] In the mixing p...
Tones And I, Benee, Hayden James & More Top Yours & Owls 2021 Festival
BRISBANE — The end of the pandemic is still a long way off, but the summer festivals season is already starting to take shape Down Under. Tones And I, Benee, Cosmo’s Midnight and DMA’S lead the bill for the Yours & Owls 2021 fest, due to take place Jan. 23-24 in Stuart Park, Wollongong, about 90 minutes drive south of Sydney. Lime Cordiale, whose new album 14 Steps To A Better You, is the best-seller on Australia’s albums chart this week, is also booked for the show, alongside PNAU, Hockey Dad and many more. Yours & Owls is the festival template of the future or, more specifically, until a vaccine is widely available. With rigid quarantine restrictions placed on any visitors to these parts, international acts won’t be playing Australian stages anytime ...
Lime Cordiale Score First Australian No. 1, Juice WRLD’s ‘Legends Never Die’ Makes Big Chart Splash
Lime Cordiale land their first No. 1 in the Land Down Under, while Juice WRLD makes a big entrance with his posthumous album release Legends Never Die. Brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach, the backbone of Sydney indie-rock oufit Lime Cordiale, bow at the summit of the ARIA Albums Chart with 14 Steps To A Better You (Chugg Music/MGM), their sophomore set which contains three tracks from the 2019 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown: “Robbery” (No. 7), “Inappropriate Behavior” (No. 13) and “Money” (No. 32). Lime Cordiale’s chart effort easily beats the No. 79 peak of their debut LP Permanent Vacation, from October 2017. 14 Steps To A Better You is the tenth Australian No. 1 album on the ARIA Charts in 2020. Completing an all-Australian top two is DMA...
DJ Khaled Set for Top Debuts on U.K. Singles Chart
Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo are on track for a fourth successive U.K. chart crown with “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)”. But they’ve got a battle on their hands. The Kiwi producer and U.S. R&B artist lead the U.K. sales blast with their viral hit, which races to an early lead of 1,500 combined sales lead over Joel Corry & MNEK’s dance track “Head and Heart.” After 48 hours of the new chart week, “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” takes top spot on the Official Chart: First Look Top 20. “Head and Heart” is “catching up,” the Official Charts Company reports. If the pair can outpace the incumbent, it’ll be both artists’ first No. 1. Elsewhere, DJ Khaled is set to score the two highest new entries...
England to Allow Indoor Concerts Starting Next Month
Social distancing will be required as the country enters phase 4 of a five-stage reopening plan. Audiences who adhere to social distancing can return to indoor theaters, music and performance venues beginning Aug. 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday (July 17). The policy represents the fourth phase in the country’s five-stage reopening plan for live events. In the lead up to the August start date, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will conduct pilots of performances with socially-distanced audiences — including the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Luke’s London — using the findings there to inform final guidance for venues. The announcement notes that “audiences, performers and venues will be expected to maintain social distancing at all tim...
Retired J-Pop Producer Tetsuya Komuro Returns with Nogizaka46’s ‘Route 246′
J-pop girl group Nogizaka46 is set to release a new single composed by veteran music producer Tetsuya Komuro, called “Route 246.” After announcing his retirement from music in early 2018, the legendary hitmaker was persuaded to emerge from hibernation by longtime friend and collaborator Yasushi Akimoto, Nogizaka46’s producer and lyricist for most of their songs, including this one. “He retired once, but as we met for dinner from time to time, I learned that his passion for music hadn’t waned,” Akimoto shared. “I’m sure he has his reasons, but I wanted Tetsuya Komuro to somehow have another opportunity to become involved in music.” Komuro explained the concept for “Route 246” is friendship: “I created this song with the...
Queen’s ‘Greatest Hit’ Notches U.K. Chart Milestone
Long live Queen. The legendary rock outfit’s Greatest Hits (Virgin) album chalks up an impressive milestone by passing 900 weeks on the Official Albums Chart Top 100, and is just the third album to do so. Released in 1981, the career retrospective is behind just Bob Marley & The Wailers‘ 1984 hits album Legend (933 weeks) and ABBA’s Gold compilation, the longest-running U.K. Top 100 album ever, with 949 weeks, according to the Official Charts Company. There’s one category in which Queen’s Greatest Hits reigns supreme. It’s the best-selling album in British recorded music history with more than six million copies sold, the OCC reports. The 900-week-plus accomplishment comes at roughly the same time the band celebrates 50 years since their first London gig, on July 18, ...
