Innholdsfortegnelse for March 30, 2024 i Billboard Magazine

On the Billboard 200, Grande’s Eternal Sunshine scores a second week at No. 1. It’s her third consecutive, and total, full-length studio set to open with a personal-best two weeks at No. 1, following Positions (in 2020) and Thank U, Next (2019). GO TO BILLBOARD.COM FOR COMPLETE CHART DATA…

Michael Marcagi’s American Romance lifts 2-1 on Heatseekers Albums, earning him his first No. 1 on a Billboard albums chart. The five-song set, which arrived Feb. 9, earned 7,000 equivalent album units the week of March 15-21, according to Luminate. It’s the Cincinnati native’s second leader on a Billboard chart overall following the collection’s single “Scared To Start,” which has spent one week atop Alternative Digital Song Sales (Jan. 27). Concurrently, “Scared To Start” jumps 67-56 on the Billboard Hot 100, a new high. It also lifts 5-3 on Alternative Streaming Songs thanks to 8.8 million official U.S. streams. The song has appeared on a pair of airplay charts as well: Adult Alternative Airplay, where it’s No. 17, and Alternative Airplay (No. 21). Marcagi previously fronted the band The…

WHEN MEGAN Thee Stallion released her single “Hiss” on Jan. 26, she let the music do the talking, with two exceptions: On Jan. 30, she appeared on Good Morning America, the top-rated network morning show. Then, on Feb. 1, she logged on to social-audio platform Stationhead to speak directly to her most dedicated supporters. “Let me tell y’all something — if ‘Hiss’ hits No. 1, I’m having an OG ratchet-ass Hottie party,” she said on the HottieRanch fan channel, laughing along as two of her longtime fans hosted an off-the-cuff conversation with her. “[My first single] ‘Cobra’ and ‘Hiss’ are the first two music videos that I’ve done since I’ve been off of my labels, and I did this shit because I finally had full creative range. I could…

WHEN SOUTH AFRICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Tyla turned 22 years old in late January, she was on top of the world — literally. Her label, Epic Records, invited a few hundred music executives, artists and fans to Harriet’s Rooftop in West Hollywood, Calif., for her birthday bash. The party was a dual celebration: Tyla had also recently scored her first Grammy Award nomination, for best African music performance — one of three new categories the Recording Academy introduced this year — with her 2023 breakthrough hit, “Water.” Waiters surprised Tyla — who had transformed a corner of the rooftop bar into her own private VIP section, complete with glam shots of herself decorating the walls — with a glittery sheet cake. Epic chairwoman/CEO Sylvia Rhone and president Ezekiel Lewis presented her…

ON ITS SURFACE, CALI VIBES seems like a normal music festival. In February, the three-day Long Beach, Calif., event held its third annual edition, welcoming 20,000 fans per day with a bill topped by Gwen Stefani, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid and Rebelution. But a closer look reveals quiet innovation. Attendees drink from reusable plastic cups instead of single-use ones. Solar panels power the artists lounge. Staff members posted at each garbage station advise guests on whether waste should be thrown away, recycled or composted. Excess food is donated to local shelters. The festival is a fun time — and a testing ground for sustainability initiatives that may eventually be used throughout the live sector. In 2023, Goldenvoice parent company AEG Presents designated Cali Vibes as an incubator to pilot…

THESE DAYS, COLDPLAY approaches touring “as a traveling R&D lab,” says longtime manager Phil Harvey — and the band’s ongoing Music of the Spheres tour does feel a bit like a stadium run as science experiment. There are compostable wristbands, biodegradable confetti and stationary bicycles that fans on the floor can ride mid-set to generate power to the production’s smaller C stage. Five years ago, frontman Chris Martin declared that Coldplay would not tour until he could ensure the act’s stadium dates would “have a positive impact” on the environment. Now, thanks to the numerous green innovations put in place since Music of the Spheres began in 2022 — including not only the aforementioned measures but also renewable-resource batteries and routing that reduced air travel — the band achieved…

After spending nearly nine months on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, Maeta’s “Through the Night” (featuring Free Nationals) finally hits No. 1. The coronation comes after a 6% jump in plays for the March 15-21 tracking week, according to Luminate. By taking 35 weeks to reach the summit, the song completes the second-longest trek to the top in the chart’s 30-year history, behind only the 41 weeks it took Snoh Aalegra’s “I Want You Around” to make it to No. 1 in 2020. Maeta, who is based in Los Angeles, also extends the streak of lead women at No. 1 in 2024, following Mary J. Blige’s “Still Believe in Love” (featuring Vado), with seven of its eight total weeks at No. 1 in 2024; Tyla’s “Water,” with two weeks;…

IN EARLY SEPTEMBER 2022, organizers of the Harvest Moon festival in Miramar, Fla., were forced to cancel their three-day country music event for an unusual reason: They could not find affordable cancellation insurance for the festival, which was scheduled to take place Oct. 27-29 — little more than a month away. Executives with destination-festival producer Topeka thought they had a policy in place when they announced Harvest Moon — which was to feature headliners Eric Church and the Turnpike Troubadours — and had no problem getting coverage in the past. The festival fell outside the official hurricane season, but approximately six weeks before the event, weather forecasts indicated that Miramar could be in the path of two developing superstorms. As a result, sources close to the festival tell Billboard…

WHILE ACCEPTING THE AMPLIFY AWARD at the 2024 Billboard Power 100 event in Los Angeles in February, the members of boygenius began their speech the same way they had started most shows on their 2023 tour. Lucy Dacus, standing alongside Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, dedicated the moment to the elders and descendants of native peoples and also asked for action from the crowd — which happened to include the music industry’s most powerful executives. “We believe in land back,” Dacus said. “Which is also water back and air back. I encourage you to look into this if it’s a new concept for you. It’s not only a cause that centers Indigenous sovereignty, but the general well-being of the earth and all of its inhabitants.” Welcome to Territory, also…

WHEN CO-OP LIVE, the latest arena from developer Oak View Group (OVG), opens in Manchester, England, in April, it will look a bit different from most similarly sized British venues. Inside, it will serve up an eminently modern offering: the United Kingdom’s largest arena concert capacity, an acoustically efficient infrastructure and a star-studded concert lineup including Stevie Nicks, Olivia Rodrigo and Nicki Minaj. But outside, the venue’s innovations will be most visible. Situated on the Manchester Ship Canal, Co-op Live is surrounded by a “biodiversity ring” — over 29,000 square feet of lush greenery offering a natural habitat for local wildlife and a surrounding green wall to attract bees. A mile-long pedestrian path partially along the water will encourage more environmentally friendly travel to and from the 23,500-capacity venue.…

CATCH SOME RAYS Most festival stages are powered by generators burning diesel fuel, but advances in solar technology now make it possible to store and generate enough power to meet a major festival’s heavy energy needs. Late last year, Massive Attack announced Act 1.5, the first 100% solar-powered festival in the United Kingdom, with the help of solar panels and battery packs that store sufficient energy on site without needing diesel generators. IT TAKES A VILLAGE Tennessee’s Bonnaroo offers fans interested in sustainability a dedicated place at the festival to organize and learn about new green efforts proposed by its nonprofit division, Bonnaroo Works. That includes the Roo Works cafe, where green entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas in a group setting; a nonprofit village where patrons can interact with…

AS THE 18,000 FANS gathered at Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad de México on Feb. 14 screamed at deafening levels, the duo Los Temerarios ran onstage — Adolfo Ángel from the left, Gustavo Ángel from the right — and embraced briefly but fiercely upon meeting in the middle of the vast platform. Then, Adolfo, 60— dressed in black pants and shirt and light blue jacket — took his customary place behind an array of keyboards while frontman Gustavo, 55, dressed in a shining black and red embroidered jacket, picked up his microphone. Without preamble, he sang the first notes of the first song of the brothers’ last tour, Hasta Siempre (Until Forever). After more than four decades together, 41 entries on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart and an astounding 46…

ON FEBRUARY’S TOP TOURS LIST, U2 is in the winner’s circle with monthly earnings of $56.5 million from 166,000 tickets sold. Since launching in 2019, the monthly Billboard Boxscore recap has detailed touring breakthroughs, particularly in country and Latin music — highlighted by Morgan Wallen and Bad Bunny, respectively — as well as reporting quirks along the way, including Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s dual coastal ensembles during the holiday season. The latest development: U2’s recent domination makes the band the first act to lead Top Tours without actually traveling from venue to venue. The group’s haul north of $50 million comes from 10 shows, all at Las Vegas’ Sphere. The Irish quartet christened the Sin City arena with the first show from its U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency in September and,…

LAST FALL, R&B singer October London performed “Back to Your Place” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a Snoop Dogg introduction and a seven-piece band including harp and violin players. In other words, the performance wasn’t cheap — and probably far more expensive than the few thousand dollars late-night talk-show guests typically receive under union rules. According to London’s manager, Adrian L. Miller, the appearance, which has scored 281,000 YouTube views so far, was worth it. London’s more stripped-down GMA3 performance in February had even more concrete benefits, boosting ticket sales for the singer’s show at Brooklyn Steel later that night by 100. “It’s not nothing,” he says. “It’s good to have the logos and the exposure through TV.” Still, Miller concedes that the promotional benefits of late-night TV performances…

IN 1992, Maná scored a hit with “Vivir Sin Aire,” a love song that also served as a metaphor for the environment — and set the Mexican rock band down a path it still walks today. Not only has the group included one song inspired by environmental or social change on every album since, but in 1996, the band — comprising Fernando “Fher” Olvera, Alejandro González, Sergio Vallín and Juan Calleros — cemented its environmental commitment by launching the Selva Negra (Black Jungle) Ecological Foundation, which protects species, restores ecosystems and promotes environmental education. Nearly 30 years since its creation, Selva Negra has more than delivered on its mission. It has directly hatched and released 8 million sea turtles, planted over 800,000 trees, produced over 500,000 plants in its…

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LONG BEFORE BILLIE EILISH became a global superstar, she says she was “notorious” among her friends for something else entirely. “When I would get a present, I would carefully undo the tape and carefully unwrap it and not let it rip and I would fold it up so that it could be reused — I didn’t want to destroy it,” she says with a sincere chuckle. In the eco-conscious house where Eilish grew up, everything — wrapping paper included — was treated as reusable. In 2012, with the help of a government rebate program, the family transitioned its Los Angeles home to run on solar power. And, in 2014, Eilish’s parents, Patrick O’Connell and Maggie Baird, removed the grass from their front yard to save water. “Those were big…

IN THE EARLY ’00S , ADAM GARDNER’S home and work lives didn’t align. “We would live an environmentally friendly lifestyle at home, and then he would go off on the tour bus powered by diesel, using Styrofoam and plastic utensils, and just feeling miserable about it all,” recounts the Guster frontman’s then-girlfriend, now-wife, Lauren Sullivan. “He realized other artists were feeling the same way.” Gardner cared about sustainability. Many music business stakeholders that he met, in touring especially, didn’t. So he and Sullivan — a veteran of environmental organizations including Rainforest Action Network — set out to redefine how the industry approaches its footprint. In 2004, they co-founded REVERB (they’re now co-executive directors), partnering in short order with prominent eco-friendly acts like Dave Matthews Band and Jack Johnson. Twenty…

When Kurt Cobain was found dead by suicide on April 8, 1994, it was a generation-shaking tragedy comparable to the 1980 murder of John Lennon or the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. An era-defining band that enjoyed — or perhaps endured — critical acclaim and commercial success, Nirvana remade rock in its own slouching image. The group’s 1991 breakthrough, Nevermind, has sold 10.3 million copies in the United States, according to Luminate, contributing to overall album sales of 30.3 million, as well as Nirvana’s legacy as the most important band of the ’90s. ‘NEVER’-LAND The band’s 1989 indie debut, Bleach, didn’t chart on the Billboard 200 when it came out, but Nirvana made a significant impact when it jumped to major…