KATSEYE are ready to pull fans into their latest sonic universe. The six-member girl group unveiled their highly anticipated second EP, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, on Friday (June 28), marking a bold evolution from the dreamy, melodic pop of their debut. Released […]
When a pop artist follows a specific release pattern over the course of their career, it’s easy to assume that a new album and corresponding promotional cycle are all part of a pre-ordained plan, meant to deliver fresh art for more commerce at regular intervals. That’s why, when 2025 began, a new Lorde album and tour felt like safe bets for the calendar year — considering that, since she was a teen prodigy from New Zealand, she had released a full-length every four years, followed by an extended live run and then a period relatively out of the spotlight, until she returned four years later. Her last album, Solar Power, came out in 2021. We just knew that this particular pop comet was due to re-enter our orbit soon enough.
But artists do not create like clockwork, and behind the scenes, Lorde, now 28, was wondering not whether she would release a new album on schedule, but if she would release one at all. “In 2023 I thought for sure I didn’t have any more music in me and all this was over,” she wrote on Instagram two days before the release of her fourth album, Virgin.
The promotional campaign for this album has involved tales of a bitter breakup and body dysmorphia, creeping feelings of stage fright and questions about her gender identity. Instead of retreating from the intimate pressure points and personal changes that have defined her mid-twenties, she poured them into a new album, and is now hoisting them up for the world to see. One listen to Lorde’s Virgin confirms that it is by far the bravest album of her career.
Yet repeated plays showcase the expertly crafted nuances of the project — which Lorde largely created with producer Jim-E Stack, and which was deeply informed by the concrete rhythms of New York City. Gone are the sun-kissed arrangements of Solar Power, replaced by raw, brawny beats; Virgin is dominated by drums, and sometimes the songs bend in service of their percussion more than Lorde’s voice.
Whether she’s singing about pain, enlightenment or their symbiotic relationship, however, Lorde remains an authoritative pop singer-songwriter, brimming with piercing lines and always delivering them with expressive care. The style and subjects may shift, but the fundamental, self-possessed talent does not.
Virgin is a knowingly messy album, full of left-turn song structures, untamed physicality and giant rhetorical questions placed in small, hushed sequences. The path between albums three and four was not an easy one for Lorde, but that journey resulted in an artistic shake-up that’s downright triumphant. Whether her next project is four years, four months or forty years away, Lorde remains a pop artist worth investing in, now and long-term.
Below, see Billboard’s preliminary ranking of the 11 songs from Lorde’s Virgin.
Current Affairs
Patience is a virtue, a fact that fans of New Zealand-born pop phenomenon Lorde have learned time and time again throughout her career. But luckily, patience is no longer required when it comes to the singer’s newest full-length project.
On Friday (June 27), Lorde unveiled her much-anticipated fourth studio album, Virgin. Released via Universal Music, the new album features 11 new songs, including its three previously released singles “What Was That,” “Man of the Year” and “Hammer.”
In a statement released alongside the album’s announcement back in April, Lorde compared Virgin to the color “clear” — and, more specifically, all the things that are clear. “LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL,” she explained of the record. “I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.”
Trending on Billboard
While the singer touted the importance of having some of the same sounds throughout the project, one thing that remains very different about Virgin is the producers the singer teamed up with; the LP boasts a series of new collaborators for the singer, including Jim-E Stack, Dan Nigro and Dev Hynes, while her Melodrama and Solar Power producer Jack Antonoff doesn’t make an appearance. While Lorde called Antonoff a “positive, supportive collaborator,” she added that “I just have to trust when my intuition says to keep moving.”
In the lead-up to the new project, Lorde also spoke extensively about how Virgin was inspired by her recent examination of gender. The singer said that a conversation with fellow pop star Chappell Roan prompted her to think more critically about her own gender identity. “I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man,’” she said. “I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”
Stream Lorde’s new album Virgin below:
After more than a decade away from the top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart, The Beach Boys return to the region, as the greatest hits set Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys jumps 52-14 […]
If he had only composed the unforgettable instrumental theme from Mission: Impossible, Lalo Schifrin would be fondly remembered. But the Argentine native had a seven-decade career that made him one of the premier composers in both film and television. Schifrin died Thursday (June 26) at age 93.
Schifrin received 19 Grammy nominations spanning 40 years (1962-2002) and multiple genres (both jazz and pop) and skillsets (composition, arrangement and performance). He won four Grammys.
Schifrin received four Primetime Emmy nominations – three for Mission: Impossible and one for his music for David Wolper’s The Making of the President 1964. He received six Oscar nominations, five for scores (Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror and The Sting II) and one for a song, “People Alone” from The Competition (1980), which he co-wrote with lyricist Will Jennings.
Trending on Billboard
Schifrin never won a Primetime Emmy or an Oscar in competition, but in 2018 the Motion Picture Academy awarded him an Honorary Oscar “in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring.” He was just the third film scorer to receive such an award, following Alex North (1985) and Ennio Morricone (2006). A fourth film scorer, Quincy Jones, was awarded an Honorary Oscar posthumously last year.
Schifrin’s Honorary Oscar was presented by Clint Eastwood, for whom Schifrin had scored many films, from Coogan’s Bluff (1968) to The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004). Their work together included the iconic 1971 film Dirty Harry and its four sequels.
“I am very honored by this distinction that touches me profoundly,” Schifrin said in accepting the award. “My love and appreciation for motion pictures started very early in my life. I remember when I was five years old my parents took me to see a movie, a horror movie, and at that moment I realized that without music it wouldn’t be so scary. And it’s true. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with great, outstanding directors, producers, and talented musicians in the creation of musical scores to support their projects. … Composing for movies has given me a lifetime of joy and creativity. Receiving this Honorary Oscar is a culmination of a dream. It is a ‘mission accomplished.’”
For all he accomplished, Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible theme is unquestionably his greatest hit. His music for that drama series, which aired on CBS from 1966-73, brought him two Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy nominations and high placements on the Billboard charts.
His “Mission-Impossible” theme reached No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1968. It won a Grammy for best instrumental theme in 1968 and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017.
Schifrin’s M:I score brought him a second Grammy in 1968 – best original score written for a motion picture or a television show. In the latter category, Schifrin bested scores from four feature films, which is highly unusual for a TV project, then or now. Schifrin’s album Music From Mission: Impossible reached No. 47 on the Billboard 200.
Schifrin told the New York Post in 2015 that the M:I theme came to him very quickly. And he said he composed it without seeing any footage from the show.
“Bruce Geller, who was the producer of the series, put together the pilot and came to me and said, ‘I want you to write something exciting, something that when people are in the living room and go into the kitchen to have a soft drink, and they hear it, they will know what it is. I want it to be identifiable, recognizable and a signature.’ And this is what I did.”
The theme transferred to the long-running film franchise starring Tom Cruise (who is slated to get his own Honorary Oscar in November.) Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 recorded Schifrin’s composition for the first M:I film in 1996. Their version reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy for best pop instrumental performance – where it competed with Schifrin’s own new rendition of the theme which he recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. (Both lost to Béla Fleck & The Flecktones’ “The Sinister Minister.”)
Schifrin’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 was a 1962 studio album, Bossa Nova – New Brazilian Jazz, which reached No. 35.
He won his first two Grammy Awards in 1965 and 1966 for “The Cat” and “Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts,” both of which were voted best original jazz composition.
Schifrin also wrote the pitch-perfect theme song for Mannix (also produced by Geller), which helped that Mike Connors P.I. series stay on the air for eight years (one year longer than M:I). His other TV themes include The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Medical Center, Starsky & Hutch, T.H.E. Cat and Petrocelli.
His other film scores, not already named, include The Cincinnati Kid, Bullitt, Enter the Dragon and all three Rush Hour films.
Born Boris Claudio Schifrin on June 21, 1932, Schifrin was a second-generation musical talent. His father was the concert master for the Buenos Aires Philharmonic for more than three decades. The younger Schifrin began playing piano at the tender age 5. When he was about 16, his classmates turned him to jazz records, and he was hooked for life.
He studied music and law for four years at the University of Buenos Aires, and received a scholarship to the Paris Conservatory of Music in 1952. In 1956, Schifrin returned to Buenos Aires, formed his own jazz band and became active writing music for TV and radio programs.
Schifrin arrived in New York City in 1958. He reconnected with early mentor Dizzy Gillespie in 1960, and worked on Gillespie’s hit album, Gillespiana, which brought both musicians Grammy nominations – Gillespie for best jazz performance – large group (instrumental) and Schifrin for best original jazz composition. Around the same time, Schifrin also arranged jazz albums for the likes of Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan.
Inspired by the success of such film composers as Henry Mancini and Johnny Mandel, Schifrin moved to California in 1963. He landed his first Oscar-nominated score, Cool Hand Luke, just four years later.
Schifrin also conducted several of the world’s top orchestras, including those in London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Israel, Mexico City, Houston, Atlanta and Buenos Aires.
In 1987, he was appointed musical director for the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra, which was formed for the purpose of recording music for films. He held the post for five years.
Schifrin received the BMI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1988 and received a Trustees Award at the Latin Grammys in 2017. He was a Lifetime Achievement honoree at the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) Awards.
He is survived by his wife, Donna; sons Will, a TV writer (The Fairly OddParents), and Ryan, a writer-director (Abominable); a daughter, Frances; and four grandchildren.
ATEEZ achieve its fifth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated June 28) as the act’s latest release, GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3 debuts atop the list. All fif of the group’s leaders have been consecutive, starting with 2023’s THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW.
GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3 sold 101,500 copies in the United States in the week ending June 19, according to Luminate. In total, ATEEZ has collected eight top 10s on the Top Album Sales chart.
Also in the top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart, the latest efforts from Brandon Lake, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Calum Hood and iTZY all debut in the region. Meanwhile, Metallica’s former No. 1 Load returns after an expanded reissue and SZA’s SOS reenters after new CD and vinyl editions for the deluxe LANA edition of the album dropped.
Trending on Billboard
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.
ENHYPEN’s DESIRE : UNLEASH falls to No. 2 on Top Album Sales (27,000; down 71%) after debuting at No. 1 a week ago. Brandon Lake notches his first top 10 and biggest sales week ever as King of Hearts bows at No. 3 (20,000).
Metallica’s Load, first released in 1996, reenters the chart at No. 4 with 12,000 sold (up 6,925%) after its deluxe reissue in multiple formats with bonus material. (All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.) Load debuted at No. 1 on the June 22, 1996-dated chart and spent four consecutive weeks atop the list that year.
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard notch its highest charting album ever on Top Album Sales, and fifth top 10, as Phantom Island debuts at No. 5 with nearly 11,000 copies sold. The band had previously gone as high as No. 7, twice, with 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest and 2024’s Flight B741.
SEVENTEEN’s chart-topping SEVENTEEN 5th Album ‘HAPPY BURSTDAY’ is a non-mover at No. 6 (nearly 10,000; down 32%) and Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 I’m the Problem rises 9-7 (9,000; down 12%).
Calum Hood’s debut solo album ORDER chaos ORDER arrives at No. 8 with 8,000 sold in its first week. SZA’s SOS reenters at No. 9 with 7,500 copies sold (up 228%), following the release of the vinyl and CD editions of the SOS Deluxe: LANA version of the album.
iTZY rounds out the top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart, as the act’s Girls Will Be Girls bows at No. 10 with a little more than 7,000 sold. It’s the seventh top 10, all consecutive, for the group.
A celebration is in order: Billboard’s global charts turn 250 weeks old with Saturday’s June 28-dated rankings. Across almost five years, only a handful of songs have been there every single week – five on the latter and just two on the former.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts launched with charts dated Sept. 19, 2020. On the former, Cardi B led with “WAP,” featuring Megan Thee Stallion. On the later, Maluma was No. 1 with “Hawaii.” BTS’ “Dynamite” was No. 2 on both, eventually topping each list for multiple weeks. 249 weeks later, none of those songs remain, though “Dynamite” did crack Global Excl. U.S. earlier this year, last appearing at No. 150 on the Jan. 18 chart.
Only five songs from that first Global Excl. U.S. chart are still hanging on:
On the Global 200, the only songs that have appeared on every single list are The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Sheeran’s “Perfect.”
One thing tying these global hits together? They’re all performed in English and are by artists from the U.S., the U.K. or Canada. Even extending to the 22 songs that have lasted 200 weeks or more on either chart, the only broader international representation comes from Daft Punk (France), featured on The Weeknd’s “Starboy” with robotized backing vocals; a-ha (Norway), with the 1980s classic “Take on Me;” and Pinkfong, the South Korean educational company responsible for “Baby Shark.”
“Blinding Lights” reached No. 2 on both lists, but none of the other songs above have cracked the top 20. It might seem counterintuitive that some of the longest-lasting chart hits peaked outside that range, but it makes sense that the 250-weekers were pre-existing songs that have continued to linger. Most chart-toppers debut at No. 1 or climb there early in their runs, which means that outside of the inaugural batch, most global No. 1s have been handicapped simply by their release date in terms of appearing on the charts the longest.
“Blinding Lights” was released in November 2019 and topped the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 in April 2020, on its way to becoming the chart’s biggest hit of all time. Globally, it worked its way to No. 2 in January and February of 2021, powered in part by hype around The Weeknd’s Super Bowl Halftime performance, but could have topped the lists had they existed months prior.
“Someone You Loved” was released in 2018 and found its way to the top of the Hot 100 in November 2019. The other three 250-week hits all came out in 2017: “Shape of You” that January, “Believer” in February and “Perfect” in March.
All five songs are on this week’s global charts, topped by Sheeran on both lists: “Perfect” on the Global 200 at No. 66 and “Shape of You” on Global Excl. U.S. at No. 44. The march to 300 weeks and beyond continues as they likely aren’t going anywhere soon – “Shape of You” is higher than it’s been in three-and-a-half years.
50 Cent is heading back to the silver screen, as the G-Unit mogul — born Curtis Jackson — is slated to star in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 50 will be joining a star-studded cast […]
Gunna is the latest hip-hop artist to be open to the idea of using AI to make music. The Atlanta rapper was the recent cover star of for UPROXX, where he talked with Will.i.am about his career so far and […]
Drake and Playboi Carti have another collaboration in the stash. DJ Swamp Izzo premiered the unreleased track at an After Hours Til Dawn Tour afterparty at Zouk nightclub in Los Angeles on Wednesday night (June 25). Explore See latest videos, […]
Stay up to date on exciting projects and upcoming events from the Black Promoters Collective.
©2025 Black Promoters Collective (BPC) All Rights Reserved.
