Elias Leight

Lake Oswego

Senior Writer at Billboard

Senior Writer, Billboard. I'm not on Instagram - anyone contacting you there and saying they're me is a scammer

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Articles

The 50 Best Songs of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)

2 days ago | flipboard.com | Katie Atkinson |Eric Brown |Leila Cobo |Mackenzie Cummings-Grady |Hannah Dailey |Stephen Daw | +18 more

3 hours agoWe're so back. Lila Moss attended the Saint Laurent Menswear Spring/Summer 2026 show on Tuesday in Paris. • For the outing, the model wore a totally see-through top with a polarizing 2010s trend: the high-low skirt. • Zoe Saldaña wore a similar style to the 2025 Oscars after-party. What's old is new again …
The 50 Best Songs of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)

2 days ago | yahoo.com | Katie Atkinson |Eric Brown |Leila Cobo |Mackenzie Cummings-Grady |Hannah Dailey |Stephen Daw | +18 more

Generate Key TakeawaysThe 50 Best Songs of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)As we mentioned in our midyear albums list, one of the biggest themes of 2025 on the Billboard charts has largely been about smash 2024 hits that refuse to die — songs by the likes of Benson Boone, Shaboozey and a record-setting Teddy Swims that are still populating the top 10 a year after originally climbing there.
The 50 Best Albums of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)

3 days ago | yahoo.com | Katie Atkinson |Katie Bain |Eric Brown |Stephen Daw |Kyle Denis |Angel Diaz | +20 more

Generate Key TakeawaysThe 50 Best Albums of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)Blockbuster albums have dominated the charts in 2025. Look at the Billboard Hot 100 at various points this year and you’d have seen multiple songs in the top 50 from Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and GloRilla’s Glorious, among others — many of which are still excelling on the chart even as we reach the year’s halfway point.
How The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' Became a No. 1 Hit

1 week ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Brian Wilson, who died on June 11 at age 82, by looking at the third of The Beach Boys’ three Wilson-masterminded Hot 100-toppers: the absolutely singular “Good Vibrations.” “Oh my God.
How Leo33 Took Zach Top to Breakout Chart Success: Label Look

1 week ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

Few artists fib as sweetly as Zach Top. On breakout hit “I Never Lie,” he sings about his life as a model citizen — an unfailingly punctual teetotaler who always gets a full night’s rest and remains impervious to heartbreak. It’s only at the end of the chorus that the illusion is shattered. “I wish I could say I miss you,” Top croons. “But you know I never lie.” The last falsehood is impossible to believe, and the rest of them fall like dominoes.
Folamour ‘Felt Dead Inside’ – His New House Album Revived Him

2 weeks ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

Roughly a decade ago, Bruno Boumendil, the French producer who goes by the name Folamour, perfected a distinct strain of soul-sampling house music, fragile yet fierce. For source material, he mined plush soul ballads from the late ’70s and early ‘80s, dropping vocal snippets into productions that flew forward, so the charismatic voices seemed to be battling to maintain their stately dignity.
Indie Album Sales Certification Program Launched by Luminate, A2IM

2 weeks ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

Courtesy of A2IM The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and Luminate unveiled a new certification program on Thursday (June 12) to celebrate commercial success in the independent sector. One Star will signify 50,000 album sales, while Two Star marks 100,000. The Three Star award is a big jump up, equating to 300,000 sales.
‘People Still Love Hearing the Classics’: Kevin Saunderson on the Return of e-Dancer

2 weeks ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

In 2023, the producer Kevin Saunderson wandered into the home studio he shares with his son Dantiez in Detroit. What he heard blasting from the speakers seemed familiar. “I said, ‘Man, that sounds like me!'” Saunderson recalls with a laugh. “[Dantiez] used some of my bass sounds.” As one of three men widely credited with inventing Detroit techno, Saunderson is used to encountering artists who have borrowed scraps of his style.
‘People Still Love Hearing the Classics’: Kevin Saunderson on the Return of e-Dancer

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Elias Leight

In 2023, the producer Kevin Saunderson wandered into the home studio he shares with his son Dantiez in Detroit. What he heard blasting from the speakers seemed familiar. “I said, ‘Man, that sounds like me!'” Saunderson recalls with a laugh. “[Dantiez] used some of my bass sounds.”As one of three men widely credited with inventing Detroit techno, Saunderson is used to encountering artists who have borrowed scraps of his style.
‘Do What’s Best for the Creators’: Richard James Burgess on His Decade Leading A2IM

2 weeks ago | billboard.com | Elias Leight

Since January 2016, musicians who have struggled with the vagaries of compensation and regulation in their industry have been able to turn to one of their own for guidance, support and solidarity. That year, Richard James Burgess — who produced four top 20 U.K. hits for Spandau Ballet, managed bands, performed in one and oversaw business operations for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings — became president/ CEO of the American Association of Independent Music.