From Beyoncé to Dua Lipa, waiting for Taylor: the spring of pop

He thought about opening the dance Ariana Grande, ending the long reign of the duo of Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign and Travis Scott. “Eternal sunshine”, the new album by the American pop star, released last March 8, flew straight to first place in the weekly chart of the most streamed in the world on Spotify, overtaking “Vultures” by Ye and his partner and “Utopia” by Scott. In the first week of its release, Ariana Grande's album sold the equivalent of 227 thousand copiesbetween physical disks (77 thousand units), streams and downloads: it is the highest result achieved by a record in the United States since the beginning of the year Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign themselves, for example, had stopped at 148 thousand copies sold in seven days.

The song of the Boca Raton nightingale ideally awakens the other golden throats of pop: the superstars of the genre awaken after their winter hibernation. And once again taking flight, they try to oust rappers and trappers from the charts.

The Justin Timberlake “case” and Shakira's boom

And never mind that someone is a little numb after the long winter. Justin Timberlake with his new album “Everything I thought it was” has so far disappointed expectations: the album debuted just at number 61 on the Spotify Weekly Top Albums Global and at fourth place on the Billboard 200 with “sole” 67 thousand copies sold (the lowest figure of his career, practically less than a quarter of “Man of the Woods”, which in 2018 sold over 290 thousand copies in the first seven days of its release).

The former NSYNC takes his revenge in the touring championship. The “Forget Tomorrow World Tour” – which at the moment does not include visits to Italy, despite the pop star being very close to our country: in 2012 he chose to celebrate his wedding with Jessica Biel in a former farmhouse in Savalletri di Fasano, in the province of Brindisi – is already .the most successful tour of Timberlake's career so far: the over 70 shows, the first of which is scheduled for April 29th at the Roger Arena in Vancouver (the European branch will start from Krakow on July 26th), have already brought in revenue from pre-sales alone 140 million dollars. On Spotify you have instead depopulated “Las mujeres ya no lloran”, the new album by Shakira, also helped by the many feats with Latin music superstars who generally generate millions of clicks on the platform, from Bizarrap to Rauw Alejandro, passing through Grupo Frontera, Ozuna, Karol G, Manuel Turizo and Fuerza Regida. Only with the singles that preceded the album, inspired by the much talked about end of the relationship with Gerard Piqué, the Colombian star had already achieved over 2.5 billion streams on Spotify. “Las mujeres ya no lloran” took second place in Spotify's Top Albums Debut Global, the ranking of the most listened to albums of the weekend on the platform among all those released the previous Friday.

Beyoncé and her country record

And there is already sky-high anticipation for “Cowboy Carter”, the new album by Beyoncéthe ideal successor to “Renaissance” of 2022. To announce it, last month, the former Destiny's Child chose one of the most prestigious showcases: the Super Bowlthe final of the National Football League championship, the American professional football league, one of the most followed and commented media events in the USA.

During a commercial break, CBS aired a commercial in which, advertising a well-known telecommunications company, the voice of “Listen” asked comedian Tony Hale to film her while she was trying to do something to “crash” the internet: ” Announce that I'm about to release new music,” she said, after having tried everything, from announcing her candidacy for the US presidential elections to presenting the robot version of herself equipped with artificial intelligence. When fans took a peek at the pop star's official website, they realized that Queen Bey was serious about releasing new music. In fact, she had already done it: the singles “Texas hold 'em” and “16 carriages” immediately appeared on streaming platforms. .A beautiful pop moment, iconic in its own way, just as Queen Bey is iconic, who with her country twist has also created quite a debate in the USA. “Texas hold 'em” a week after its release it became the first Beyoncé song to appear on Billboard's Country Airplay chart, as well as debuting at #1 on the Hot Country Songs Chart: “This album took over five years to make. The criticisms I faced when I started dedicating myself to this genre forced me to overcome the limits that had been imposed on me. I challenged myself and took my time to blend genres together. I hope you can feel my heart and soul, all the passion I poured into every detail,” he says about the album.

Taylorswift mania makes everyone tremble. And Billie takes her time

If Beyoncé chose the Super Bowl to announce her return, Taylor Swift instead he focused on Grammy Awards. After making history by becoming the first artist to win the “Album of the Year” award four times, beating out fierce competition from SZA and her “SOS” with “Midnights”, the singer-songwriter revealed that “The tortured poets department” will arrive worldwide on April 19th: it is the eighth album released by the pop star in the last four years, after “Folklore”, “Evermore”, “Midnights” and the re-recordings of “Fearless”, “Red”, “Speak now” and “1989”. Dua Lipa will have to hope that for the May 3 the novelty effect of her colleague's album has vanished: that day the star of Kosovan origins will send her “

Radical optimism”, preceded by the singles “Houdini” and “Training season”. It is Dua Lipa's first album of unreleased songs in four years, after “Future nostalgia”: no mistakes. the new album by Billie Eilish it still has neither a title nor a release date: “It seems somehow different from the rest of what I've released so far – she said, offering a preview of the album – for example: I'm twenty now. And my God, it's so weird. I've never released music as an adult until now.” Even if the ideal successor to “Happier than ever” is officially over, the Los Angeles pop star after the Oscar she just won with “What was I made for?” – the second, at just 22 years old – decided to take his time. After all, as the old adage went: what was the hurry, damn spring?