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Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Justin Bieber's ‘Swag': All 21 Tracks Ranked
On Thursday, July 10, billboards across cities including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Reykjavík popped up all teasing the same thing: Justin Bieber is back. More from Billboard Revisit 'Brat Summer' With Charli xcx's Exclusive Urban Outfitters Collab Watch Justin Bieber Have a 'Sweet Spot' Dance Party With Sexyy Red in New Video A Full List of Current Las Vegas Residencies (Updating) The various billboards showed black and white photos of the superstar, with one in particular showing him shirtless standing in front of his wife Hailey Bieber, who is holding their son Jack Blues Bieber (though his face isn't to the camera). The images were shot by Renell Medrano, the same photographer who shot the album art for Kendrick Lamar's 2022 Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers; and, as many fans have pointed out on social media, it seemed likely that Bieber's new album could follow a similar theme of chronicling his journey towards healing. While other billboards depicted the word 'SWAG,' which proved to be an album title, some listed 20 titles, which proved to be the album's track list (plus one more track not listed on the billboards, culminating in 21 total). Titles included 'Therapy Session' and 'Forgiveness,' further solidifying similarities between Bieber and Lamar's confessional projects. In all, the surprise promo added up to a quick campaign for Bieber's anticipated seventh album. But the few hours notice was more than enough to generate hype — as fans have been seated and waiting for new music since 2021. Out Friday, July 11, Swag is the superstar's first album in four years, since Justice. Sources told Billboard that Swag was in the same lane of R&B only much more experimental, referencing artists such as Dijon and (both of whom are credited on the album). And while Swag arrived as a surprise, it's also an expected move from the artist who has been making headlines of late for everything from financial woes with his former manager, Scooter Braun, to concerns over his marital status. With Swag, Bieber is taking control of not only the present narrative but his and his family's future. As he famously said recently, in a paparazzi clip that has since gone viral: 'It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business.' After one listen through Swag, it immediately clocks just how serious Bieber is about protecting what matters most. And really, what's swaggier than that? Below, see Billboard's preliminary ranking of all 21 songs from Bieber's Swag. The 21st and final track on Swag is by pastor and gospel singer Marvin Winans, a fitting choice for someone so rooted in his faith like Bieber — and an even more fitting title to end his album on. Because if he's proven anything across Swag, it's that forgiveness is all he is, and ever has been, asking for. 'You got some soul on this album,' says Druski on this interlude, before joking that Bieber 'kinda sounds Black' on the project. 'Your skin white, but your soul Black, Justin. I promise you.' Given that 'Standing On Business' wasn't included in the original tracklist being teased on the billboards spotted earlier in the day suggests one of two things: there was a clearance issue, as Bieber uses the now viral audio of him telling a paparazzi: 'It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business, is it? I'm a human being, you're standing around my car, at the beach!' Or, Bieber himself wasn't sure on cementing a fleeting moment on his album forever. 'I like that you pronounce business,' says Druski, poking fun. 'You were pronouncing every word. You can't do that…I'm gonna start going to the beach and looking for motherf—–s just to say that s–t to.' Druski returns on this confessional interlude where he laughs about Bieber trolling, which he says causes the public to overreact and say, 'he's f—ing losing his mind!…Nah, he's just being a human being, he's enjoying social media like the rest of us, he's just doing it his own way.' 'That's been a tough thing for me recently, is feeling like I've had to go through a lot of my struggles as a human really publicly, so people are always asking if I'm ok, and that starts to really weigh on me,' says Bieber. 'It starts to make me feels like I'm the only one with issues and everyone else is perfect.' 'See,' says Druski, 'that's why I said I'm gonna be your counselor.' '405' is the first song — not to mention, it's the 17th track — that could be called a filler. But given the album's theme and how much of Swag plays out like a direct line into Bieber's brain of late, this 3-minute and 33-second hypnotic, racing track sounds like what likely runs through his head when mindlessly driving on the freeway. As he repeats, 'keep loving you' over and over again, it sounds just as much like a mantra as a promise. 'We need more people to get together,' instructs Lil B, calling for less separation and hate around the world, and more love. And as Bieber repeats the track's title over and over, it takes on double meaning: it sounds like he's saying both 'Dad's love' and 'that's love' — and as he aims to prove, isn't that one in the same? As he's made clear in recent paparazzi clips, Bieber is a dad now. And viral jokes aside, here he's well aware that leading with love is the only way through. 'Way It Is' is one of the most straightforward R&Bieber tracks on the album, offering a reminder that despite some of the more experimental swings he takes throughout Swag he's still the same artist his fans have loved all this time. Gunna's verse, though brief, fits in seamlessly thanks to Bieber harmonizing just below his vocals, as if he was too into the track to step away even for a moment. 'We get high and we go down again,' sings Bieber on this reflective track about how he ended up here in the first place — and who he considers to hold the title of 'first place' in his life. The uptempo production offsets the more sobering lyrics, with Bieber saying 'I don't wanna lose you now, that's the worst case.' He continues to admit 'it's been this way for a long time,' after questioning, 'where do I begin?' Swag seems like an appropriate, and necessary, first step. For the album's title track, Bieber brought his friends along. Featuring rapper Cash Cobain and close collaborator Eddie Benjamin, on 'Swag' the three manage to share the spotlight with ease as they assure, 'I'll put you on.' As Cash attests, 'That's swag, for certain.' 'Sweet Spot' does exactly as the title implies, balancing a retro R&B beat with the more experimental production that unites all of Swag. And while some of the lyrics call back to the more cringe-worthy moments on 'Yummy' (still, a certified banger), Sexxy Red's extended verse certainly helps sell the inclusion of this sex-positive track. If it wasn't included on his own album, it may be hard to guess that 'Yukon' is a Bieber track. Save for his own backing vocals, which are undeniably JB, this track finds the singer questioning: 'What would I do, if I didn't love you?' And while the Latin-inspired riff and hand drums add a bit of intrigue, 'Yukon' serves a similar purpose to '405,' both of which seem like real-time ruminations that often occupy Bieber's mind. After a song like 'Swag,' 'Zuma House' comes as a welcome shock. Another raw offering, much like 'Glory Voice Memo,' this song sounds much like what the title suggests: Bieber alone in a house near Zuma Beach recording himself via voice memo on an acoustic guitar. After just one-minute and 23 seconds, the song trails off, almost like you were caught eavesdropping, and don't want to risk being caught by lingering too long. The impromptu end leaves the listener wanting more and yet feeling fortunate enough to have heard anything so intimate at all. It makes sense for the snapping 'Things You Do' to follow 'Go Baby.' It's as if 'Baby' is what Bieber wishes to say to the public, while 'Things You Do' is his more intimate, loving offering to his wife. Singing over a simple riff, it's easy to picture Bieber sitting on the edge of the bed playing this while strumming and snapping along, shaking his head to accompany his own signature vocal flourishes. 'Money, money, money,' says Bieber, in audio clipped from another recent paparazzi encounter. The addition, as all the paparazzi clips do, makes Swag feel just as fresh and urgent as its arrival, and here Bieber uses this specific interaction as inspiration for a commentary on the things people often desire. 'Butterfly, go away,' he begs. It's as if Bieber is both being chased by and chasing after something, before concluding, 'I'm 'bout to slip away.' But as the sixth track on the album, it's clear he's nowhere near done running just yet. And some things, he might be realizing, you can never really outrun anyway. After a near hour worth of reflection and baring his soul, 'Too Long' brings a feistier side to Bieber to the forefront, supported by a classic R&B beat. 'When you do me like that, it's hard to take…I've been waiting, I've been patient/ I've been waiting too long.' It's as if everything up until this point was a plea with himself, with his family and even with the public to understand where he's coming from and what he's been up against — but just in case none of that made his case, 'Too Long' is one final Hail Mary. 'I want to let it go,' Bieber admits, 'it's been too long.' Whatever he's seeking, though, can only be granted by himself alone. No one else. The rawness of 'Glory Voice Memo' makes it feel like a 2025 all-grown-up version of the YouTube video that made Bieber a viral sensation. There's not much to it, just pure vocal talent — the kind that makes your noise wrinkle and eyes close — over a fuzzy, acoustic guitar. If there was ever a doubt, this 84-second clip proves JB has still got it, and never lost it. 'That's my baby, she's iconic/ iPhone case, lip gloss on it,' sings Bieber, speaking of his wife Hailey and her Rhode beauty empire, which recently sold to Elf Beauty in $1 billion deal. 'When sunlight turns to shadows and it gets hard to face… nothing needs to work out and nothing needs to break/ don't need to pretend you're ok.' The chorus, though nothing more than the repeated line 'go baby, go' is an instantly classic anthem for supporting a loved one. And with this one song, Bieber seems to shut down any speculation of his marital status by telling his wife: 'Cry on my shoulder… you better believe I can hold all the weight.' Sure, things may not always be perfect — but isn't that the beauty of having a partner to celebrate the good and brave the bad with? And for the Biebers, they have to live their highs and lows out loud. 'Go Baby' proves that there's no love lost — rather, they're one another's biggest fans when they need it most. This vibey, gilmmering opening track immediately sets the stage for what's to come: as promised, an experimental, alternative take on the R&B of Bieber's prime. And even through the layers of production and vocal editing, Bieber's voice shines through as confident as ever as he repeats: 'And it's all I can take.' There's a sense of freedom in the confession — and what a note to start on. 'Walking Away' is a goosebump-raising confessional about why Bieber isn't 'walking away' from his marriage — no matter how tough it gets. 'We better stop before we say some s–t, we've been testing our patience,' he admits, before declaring, 'Baby, I ain't walking away.' This song functions like a refreshingly honest vow renewal, as Bieber recalls giving Hailey her ring and promising to change. 'It's just human nature, these growing pains,' he assures. He sounds undoubtedly sincere — but then again, there's only one listener who can be the judge of that. A Justin Bieber and Dijon collaboration sounds exactly as one would hope: like a warm, all-encompassing hug. 12 tracks in and this pairing makes perfect sense, as Swag creates a similarly intimate and lo-fi atmosphere to Dijon's own debut album, 2021's Absolutely. There's a beautiful calm to 'Devotion,' with Bieber taking a moment to put any fears or frustrations aside and simply live in his present. Admitting in the first line, 'I'm starting to be open to/ the idea that you know me, too.' As they say, to be known is to be loved, and it seems Bieber is finally learning that to be true — and taking comfort in that rare kind of intimacy, or rather, devotion. Following a lead track like 'All I Can Take,' on which Bieber's vocals were a bit clouded by the production, 'Daisies' arrives as a welcomed follow-up as his voice is much more the focal point, supported mostly by a crunchy, lo-fi guitar — signature to Swag. There's an intimacy to this track, as if it places the listener directly in the garage — or whatever small, comforting and likely hazy space — it was recorded in. And for a superstar like Bieber, who is over 15 years and seven albums into his career, it's no small feat to craft an alternative-pop track that sounds like it's being made directly in the listener's ear in real time. And as a whole, that's what Swag accomplishes best; in addition to helping Bieber get some things off his chest, never has a star of his magnitude sounded more real, in every sense of the word. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bad Bunny Takes Shots at Trump's Immigration Policies in Music Video for 'Nuevayol'
Bad Bunny released the video for his latest single, "NUEVAYoL", on Friday, July 4 It features a voice that has an uncanny similarity to President Donald Trump In the video — which comes days after Trump toured the newly opened I.C.E. detention facility "Alligator Alcatraz," — the voice apologizes to Americans, stating that the country "is nothing without immigrants"Bad Bunny dropped the video for his single "NUEVAYoL" on Friday, July 4, featuring a cameo from a voice that sounds suspiciously like President Donald Trump. The retro-styled video, directed by Renell Medrano, begins with scenes of the Puerto Rican artist attending a classic-looking quinceañera, complete with a nervous 15-year-old honoree, dancing chambelanes and a host of raucous family members. The song, from Bad Bunny's latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, samples "Un Verano en Nueva York" by Andy Montañez and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, adding to the retro feel. However, in keeping with the 31-year-old artist's recent releases, there are also a few pointed political messages. One shot of the video shows Bad Bunny saluting from the crown of the Statue of Liberty, which has been draped in a Puerto Rican flag. Immediately following that shot, the video cuts to a group of men standing around a 1970s-style boombox. The voice emanating from the speaker is a soundalike of President Trump, only the words are nothing like his usual rhetoric.' 'I made a mistake," the voice says. "I want to apologize to the immigrants in America. I mean the United States. I know America is the whole continent." "I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans," it continues, before the men shut it off and walk away. The video ends with images of the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York, some in black and white, but all keeping with the retro feel. It ends with a simple message in text: "juntos somos mas fuertes," or "together we are stronger." The "NUEVAYoL" video follows a week of the administration's continued escalation of anti-immigration policies. On Tuesday, July 1, Trump toured the newly opened "Alligator Alcatraz," an I.C.E. detention facility built in the Florida Everglades in just eight days. The massive warehouse, full of chain link dividers and hundreds of bunk beds, will be a holding area for up to 5,000 ICE detainees. The administration has touted the area's surrounding wildlife — which includes alligators, panthers and pythons — as an added measure of security. "You don't always have land so beautiful and so secure [with] a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators that you don't have to pay them so much," Trump told reporters. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Recent years have seen Bad Bunny using his platform to send more and more powerful political messages, in his music — particularly Debí Tirar Más Fotos — and beyond. After comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage' during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden last October, Bad Bunny released an eight-minute video celebrating his homeland. Captioned simply "garbage," the clip — which was originally shown before 2021 Bad Bunny concerts in Puerto Rico, but never released publicly — highlighted the island's sporting legends and musical innovations, praising the nation as "the definition of heart and resistance." In a January 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, Bad Bunny opened up about his decision to be more outspoken about his political beliefs and the criticism that might come from it. 'People are used to artists getting big and mainstream and not expressing themselves about these things, or if they do, talking about it in a super careful way,' he said. 'But I'm going to talk, and whoever doesn't like it doesn't have to listen to me.' Read the original article on People
ABC News
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Feature Video: Lorde - Hammer
We're not sure if it's love or if it's ovulation, but we're absolutely certain that Lorde's ode to city life and horniness 'Hammer' has to be this week's Feature Video. Filmed on location at London's Hampstead Heath (a spot Lorde, a.k.a. Ella, frequented whilst living in the city in 2023), the music clip for 'Hammer' features a variety of steamy, even animalistic at times, scenes, including Lorde hanging naked in a net, getting a butt tattoo in the woods, making out with somebody in a car, smoking, swimming and sunbathing in London's measly spring sunshine. The clip marks Lorde's first collaboration with Dominican-American photographer and director Renell Medrano, who is well known for her raw, intimate style. In an interview with the United States' International Center of Photography (ICP) last year, Renell explained 'I would say the common thing that you do see in my images is just honesty and intimacy… even if you know that person is a celebrity, or a regular human being, having that person in front of me and them letting their guards down is what draws me to people…' 'I kind of tend to photograph people in like raw places, just so that way it's not about the place it's just about them and who they show up as. And I let that be the moment, you know.'
Elle
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
The Deeper Meaning Behind Lorde's 'Virgin'-Era Wardrobe
Five Gum, headphones, duct tape, and shoelace belts. Alongside a vinyl copy of AM by the Arctic Monkeys and a rotting pair of Toms, these are the items we would likely find in the time capsule of a teenager who came of age in the early 2010s. They are also part of the objets d'inspiration the New Zealand artist Lorde cited in the making of her forthcoming album, Virgin . Lorde's inanimate muses evoke memories of Tumblr, the digital Wild West that facilitated a generation's much-too-early exposure to crash diets, cigarettes, and Maison Margiela. It is also where Lorde found a global fan base in 2013 via her ultra-indie, ode-to-suburban-despair debut single, 'Royals.' The music video for the hit track set the tone for the decade: messy white bed sheets, harsh black winged eyeliner, and an authentic appreciation for lower-income suburbia. Spliced in between footage of a 16-year-old Lorde are clips following a group of shirtless neighborhood boys shadowboxing and sneaking into pools and basketball courts. Though the song and visuals convey a certain kind of strip-mall doom, the boys seem free—as boys often seem from the outside looking in. This is the kind of freedom Lorde is channeling as she promotes her upcoming release, over a decade later. That's evident in her latest single, 'Hammer,' and its accompanying music video, which can be best described as : the sapphic Abercrombie & Fitch ad we never got. Directed by Renell Medrano and shot in London's Hampstead Heath, Lorde is seen donning bikinis, cocooned in a netted hammock wearing nothing at all, and rocking sweet little braids, yet she's as boyish as ever. She's tearing into a piece of white bread without pause (with gusto, even!), play-fighting with girls in a lake, and shaking the wet out of her hair with the uninhibitedness of a golden retriever. View full post on Youtube The themes of renaissance are felt throughout the video, with its various depictions of water, nudity, and wombs. They also run through the whole album, or at least the glimpses we've seen so far, from the lyrics ('I might have been born again') to the Ultrasound Tour. Lorde has been chipping away at the facade of who she's been and gestating in the raw, messy reality underneath. With Virgin , it seems, we're seeing a rebirth. A tabula rasa for her to express herself without any ties to a past—perhaps more commercial, or even more traditionally feminine—self. The naked truth within Lorde. 'It was really important to me with this album to document a femininity that is the way I'm a woman in the world,' she said in a recent interview with Zane Lowe. 'There's edges to that. There's no apologies. The body that made this album bleeds and aches and sheds, and I really tried as hard as I could to make this without shame…' The positive responses to the music so far, she says, is 'giving me a lot of faith about what kind of woman you're allowed to be in 2025.' In 'Hammer,' she sings, 'Some days, I'm a woman, some days, I'm a man,' and I think about the avalanche of jerseys, jorts, carabiners, and Realtree baseball caps that has taken over the wardrobes of once-coquette New Yorkers. 'I feel like she's pushing her fan base to ask, What is my body? What is anyone's body? ' says Alexa Penn, a Lorde superfan based in Brooklyn. Though the wider shift from a scantily-clad 'brat' summer to baggier, angstier doomsday-chic wear predated Lorde's Virgin era, there's no denying that ultra-femininity or even casual femininity has been overtaken by a more masculine aesthetic and attitude. View full post on Youtube While it may seem daunting to find that rakish swagger within yourself—especially after a lifetime of avoiding it in favor of being a 'good girl,' as Lorde suggested in a recent Rolling Stone interview—it is not impossible. Take the androgynous outfit she wore in the music video for her lead single, 'What Was That.' In a diptych posted to Instagram, Liana Satenstein, the style writer behind the popular Substack NeverWorns, compared it to a look worn by Shane McCutcheon of The L Word with the caption, 'It made sense in my head!!!??' For an overwhelming majority of chic queer women, the character (played by Kate Moennig) is the sartorial North Star in the long-running Showtime series. Or as Satenstein tells me, 'Carolyn Bessette but for lesbians.' Though the side-by-side comparison may seem obvious on its surface—Shane is wearing a collared white shirt and stomping through a Malibu pool party; Lorde is wearing a collared white shirt and stomping across a Manhattan walkway— it goes beyond the button-down. 'Lorde channeled that sort of unstoppable Shane confidence,' she said. 'It's hot!' And that confidence is clear in her music. 'The not-trying-so-hard-to-be-perfect is, frankly, the ultimate flex.' The journey towards this, for lack of a better term, 'inner Shane,' seems to have begun after Lorde released her last album, Solar Power , in 2021. The album couldn't offer a starker contrast to the visuals we've received from Virgin —lots of bright colors, two-piece sets, and plenty of palo santo. 'This crazy optimism is not how [Lorde] started her career,' Penn says. The musician publicly acknowledged through her newsletter that though Solar Power is not what her fans expected, it was what she needed to create to get to her next body of work. Paula Lobo // Getty Images Lorde performing in New York City in August 2021. XNY/Star Max // Getty Images Lorde out and about in New York City on June 24, 2025. In the time since, Lorde has focused on addressing her performance anxiety and relationship with food. She is also revisiting the teen culture she so deeply influenced. Enter the aforementioned Five Gum, headphones, duct tape, and shoelace belts. These accessories are generally considered accessible, but evoke subtle cultural codes in the right context: In the 'What Was That' video, styled by the much-buzzed-about celebrity stylist Taylor McNeill, Lorde has a piece of duct tape wrapped around her leather boot, a popular skater-boy alternative to torn-up Vans. Shoelace belts, similarly, have long been used to hold up dragging leg hems from the sidewalk. Boyishness is in the details that often occur by accident. Small, blameless blunders that are overlooked in the pursuit of a good time. Tattered jeans, a cute shirt stain, a hole in a good pair of white socks. A scraped elbow, perhaps. The not-trying-so-hard-to-be-perfect is, frankly, the ultimate flex. In 'Man of the Year,' Lorde's outfit is simple: a white T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans. She peels her top off to reveal a chest that has been bound by duct tape—we saw a wink at this in her custom Thom Browne look at this year's Met Gala—a detail she says felt 'fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.' View full post on Youtube Over the years, I've witnessed many people rock a poolside-taped boob, but never quite got the appeal until I tried it out for myself. In an attempt to understand Lorde's gender journey, I went to my local bodega and picked up a pack of watermelon-flavored Five Gum and a roll of duct tape. Wearing baggy, low-slung jeans similar to those in the video for 'Man of the Year,' I took my shirt off and applied two big strips of duct tape over my breasts. I also chewed on a stick of tangy gum, which reminded me of high school, when 'Royals' played on every radio station. 'Being in your body without the discomfort of being gawked at or reprimanded feels intoxicatingly freeing.' As someone who grew up going to topless-friendly beaches in Miami, I've never felt any sort of hesitation when it came to exposing my chest in public, but I have experienced other people's hesitation on my behalf. (A particular beach experience, in which a friend's ex-boyfriend told me to put my bikini top back on because there were families nearby, comes to mind.) If I didn't have breasts, I'd be able to walk into a coffee shop topless, mid-conference call, and buy an iced latte for all anyone cares. I understand how a taste of that breezy feeling brought an album out of Lorde. Being in your body without the discomfort of being gawked at or reprimanded feels intoxicatingly freeing. Like you could find some instant relief in a blistering heat wave, sneak in and out of a stranger's pool with carefree swiftness, or eat a massive sandwich with whatever you want in it, and not worry about it at all.
