Podcasts

When Shawn Mendes eventually gets back on the road and in front of crowds, one can bet that his explosive new single “Wonder” will make for a massive moment onstage. On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), the team discusses why the new track (which is paired with a video filled with epic elements — from monster-size trees to huge crashing waves) will be a major cathartic moment for fans in concert. That is, whenever concerts happen again. Also on the show, Pop Shoppers Katie and Keith chat about why Mariah Carey’s new archival compilation album “The Rarities” is a gift to fans, and review big chart news from Travis Scott, Machine Gun Kelly and Fleetwood Mac. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating sho...

Leading the way for Michaels’ upcoming full-length set is her new single “Lie Like This,” which was released Oct. 1. While releasing her own music, Michaels continues to be an in-demand songwriter. In the past year, acts ranging from Michaels’ frequent collaborator Selena Gomez to The Chicks, Kelsea Ballerini and Dua Lipa have all released tunes co-written with Michaels. (Among them: Gomez’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Lose You to Love Me.”) Below are some highlights from Michaels’ interview on the Pop Shop Podcast, including what inspired the single “Lie Like This,” how her upcoming album will be full of love, what it’s been like to experience the success of “If the World Was Ending.”   On how “Lie Like This” started — and what inspired the track and its ly...

As Justin Bieber’s “Holy” arrives at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 – marking his 20th top 10 hit – what does the single mean for the pop star’s next move? Bieber himself has called “Holy” the beginning of a “new era,” and he’s currently at work on recording a new studio album. (It’s “some of the best music I’ve made,” Bieber said in a livestream recently.) So, what might “Holy” suggest for the sound of the new project? On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), the team discusses if the enlightened sound of “Holy,” where Bieber sings “the way you hold me … feels so holy” points to a specific genre or sound on the upcoming project. Will it be a continuation of the journey Bieber began with his recent album, Changes, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 earlier in the year...

Pentatonix’s Kirstin Maldonado remembers when she called her bandmate Kevin Olusola in a mild panic, as she was setting up her new home studio as the group was settling into quarantine earlier this year. “I was like, ‘Kevin, I have this, this and this. What cords am I missing? What do I need? What am I doing? Like, what is happening?,’” she now recalls, laughing. Eventually, Maldonado got her studio together, and her and Olusola — along with the other three members of Pentatonix: Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying and Matt Sallee — dived into recording their new covers EP, appropriately titled At Home. The six-song project, which was released on June 24, includes the group’s takes on Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over,” The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Dua Lipa’s “Break My Heart,” and came a...

This year was already an incredibly fruitful one for Harry Styles on Billboard charts, thanks to the consistent success of his Billboard 200 No. 1 album Fine Line and its top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Adore You.” But now, he’s scaled to new heights – garnering his first No. 1 on the Hot 100 with the Fine single “Watermelon Sugar.” On the latest Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), the team reviews just how “Watermelon Sugar” surged from No. 7 to No. 1 on the Aug. 15-dated chart, the tune’s wild success at radio over the past few months and what helped make “Watermelon Sugar” such a smash hit. So far, since Fine Line’s release last December, the set has yet to depart the top 25 on the weekly Billboard 200 chart, and has earned over 1.6 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according...

Alessia Cara says that her latest project, a live covers EP of her own material, This Summer: Live Off the Floor, “brought a whole new life” to her songs. “I feel like hearing them this way just makes them a lot more nostalgic, cathartic in a way,” she tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “It feels a little bit more emotional than they do on the original record.” The project sees Cara putting a new spin on the songs she released on her last release, 2019’s This Summer EP, in addition to a couple earlier hit singles not found on the set, like “Scars To Your Beautiful” and “Here.” Released on July 17, the new live effort also has a charity bent, as all of Cara’s proceeds from the album, for the next 21 years, will benefit Save the Children. She says that so much has been “unc...

When Taylor Swift’s surprise album Folklore blasted in atop the Billboard 200 chart with the biggest week of the year for any album, she not only did it without the benefit of any pre-release promotion, but also while taking a sonic left-turn away from pure pop and into a more alternative soundscape. On the latest Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), the team discusses Swift’s epic chart feats achieved with Folklore and its single “Cardigan,” and speculates on if the album would have achieved such great heights if it had been a surprise-released customary pop effort. The Pop Shoppers also chat about on how Folklore may have brought in new fans to the Swift fold, thanks to her collaborations with alt-rock acts like Bon Iver and The National’s Aaron Dessner. And finally, could Folklore factor in...

Jessie Ware cuts right to the chase when talking about the imagery and inspiration behind her new album What’s Your Pleasure? “Oh my god, so much imagery. So much filth in my head!” the singer-songwriter tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “I mean, in my head, I was somewhere between (legendary and scandalous nightclubs) Studio 54 and Berghain in Berlin. That’s where it was. It was intentionally cinematic… I was imagining it in the club, but in my perfect version of a club, that, you know, would be selling a dirty martini and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps (chips).” What’s Your Pleasure? marks the British star’s fourth studio album, and it debuted on the Official U.K. Albums Chart at No. 3 – her highest charting effort yet (and fourth top 10 in her homeland). War...

With the big No. 1 arrival of the late Pop Smoke’s album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon on the Billboard 200 chart, and with Juice WRLD’s own posthumous release Legends Never Die likely to make a splash high on the tally next week, it’s clear that both albums are resonating with fans in big way. On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), the team takes a closer look at these two albums, why the two posthumous projects have connected with fans and dive into a discussion about the complications and concerns involved with releasing albums by artists who are no longer with us. In addition, Pop Shop hosts Jason and Keith chat about big chart news from the world of Broadway, as the Hamilton: An American Musical cast album surges to No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The pair also re...