Therapy Session #53
COMPILED BY Dona Senara
The first collaborative work by Colombian star Shakira and Argentine DJ Bizarrap – titled Shakira: Bzrp Music Session, Vol. 53 and released on 11 January – and their effort instantly broke the longstanding rules on pop diss tracks. It took only 24 hours for the session to confirm its top spot on Spotify’s Top 50 – Global playlist with more than 15 million streams on the service. On YouTube meanwhile, Shakira’s video garnered over 55 million views – making it the first Spanish song to do so. With its single day count, Vol. 53 was able to soar onto Billboard charts within two days of release. The session was at No. 8 on the Billboard Global Excl. US and No. 12 on the Billboard Global 200 in the first week of its release. On this track of almost four minutes, the Colombian singer roasts her famous 36-year-old ex, Gerard Piqué, for leaving her for a 23-year-old. Vol. 53 was a badly needed therapy session for Shakira’s 12 year relationship with Piqué; and to everyone’s entertainment, the 45-year-old artiste has given the world a more implacable and empowering closure to their love story: “Women don’t cry anymore, they cash in.”
MADONNA’S WORLD TOUR
To celebrate her four decades in the music industry, Madonna announced her 12th world outing, dubbed ‘The Celebration Tour.’ Starting in Vancouver on 15 July and ending in Amsterdam on 1 December, Madonna will be taking her celebration to 35 cities including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Barcelona and Paris.
RECORD-BREAKING HEROICS
Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero rewrites her own record for the longest Billboard Hot 100 reign, beating the seven week rule of Blank Space in 2014 and 2015. According to Luminate, from 6-12 January, Anti-Hero scored 88.5 million radio airplay audience impressions, 16.8 million streams and 7,000 copies sold.
DIOR’S NEW GLOBAL AMBASSADOR
The French luxury fashion house Dior appointed BTS star Jimin as its new global brand ambassador for 2023. The partnership was announced on social media with images of the 27-year-old sporting the brand’s sportswear inspired summer 2023 collection. Jimin’s relationship with Dior dates back to 2019 when the brand’s Artistic Director Kim Jones designed the stage costume for the K-pop band’s global tour Love Yourself: Speak Yourself.
SOPORIFIC SONGS
Research by Aarhus University in Denmark shows that songs of top artistes such as BTS, Khalid and Billie Eilish help listeners to fall asleep. The study analysed 225,626 tracks from Spotify and found that 985 are related to sleep. While comparing ‘sleep songs’ with other general works, researchers revealed that music used for sleep differs from the stereotypical soft and slower genre, and instead display a large variation – including high energy and tempo characterised music.
MILEY BLOSSOMS
Miley Cyrus’ new hit Flowers secured the top spot on the UK singles chart, which acquired 92,000 chart units with almost 10 million streams in the song’s first chart cycle. The Official Charts Company reported that it is the 30-year-old’s first and biggest opening week for streams, as well as the market’s largest debut week since Harry Styles’ As It Was.