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Billboard's Friday Music Guide is your handy guide to the biggest songs releasing this Friday — the big songs everyone's talking about today, and the songs that will dominate playlists this weekend and beyond.
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Check out the latest videos, charts and news
Check out the latest videos, charts and news
There's a lot going on this week, with Eminem returning to recapture his glory days, Normani's debut album finally just weeks away from dropping, and Foster the People returning with a new sound on a new label. Check out all of this week's picks below.
Eminem “Houdini”
It's no surprise then that Eminem kicks off “Houdini” (reportedly the lead single from his upcoming album, The Death of Slim Shady) with a callback to the 2002 classic “Without Me,” recreating that song's famous “Guess who's back?” intro. Even more surprising is the riff that follows. Not only does Eminem rip off the backing melody of Steve Miller Band's 1982 Billboard Hot 100 torch “Abracadabra,” he also recreates nearly the entire chorus, simply replacing Miller's “I wanna reach out and grab ya” with “I'm bout to reach in my bag, bruh.” Unfortunately, in this case, Eminem getting in the bag involves making jokes about R. Kelly, the Megan Thee Stallion shooting, and his “transgender pussy,” before declaring, “If I think that shitty, I'll say that shitty/Cancel me, how about you?” Well, if Eminem still hasn't made it after 25 years as a superstar, this song isn't going to do it.
Normani “Candy Paint”
There's only two weeks left until Normani's long-awaited debut album, Dopamine, is finally released. In the meantime, she's dropped another lead single, “Candy Paint,” in which she brags about her ability to steal your man whenever (and however) she feels like it. “If I let him take you, you might never get him back/I'm a bad girl, I don't know how to act,” she declares in the chorus, before the opening verse evolves into “When I'm done, baby, I'll get him back.” It's a rollicking, fun-filled three minutes, and the coke-bottle-clinking beats from co-producers Stahler and Tommy Brown keep it all in motion.
Shabuzzi, where I've been is not where I'm going.
Of all the artists releasing albums in 2024, only Virginia-born country artist Shaboozy has leveled up this much since his last LP. Shaboozy was on the biggest live setlist of the year with Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, before scoring his own breakout hit with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The still-growing smash appears on Shaboozy's third album, Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going, which also features bangers with subtle hip-hop influences like “Highway” and “Let It Burn,” and ballads like “East of the Massanutten” and the Noah Cyrus collaboration “My Fault.” But the artist also has fun new styles, like the Post Malone-esque pop-rock of “Annabel” and the trappier, Big Exta Plug-featuring “Drink Don't Need No Mix.”
Charlie XCX feat. Robyn & Yung Lean, “Robin and Yung Lean 360 Remix”
Yes, that's the real title of the star-studded new remix of Charli XCX's single “360,” which features two other guests: Swedish rapper Yung Lean and pop icon Robyn. The three of them breathlessly trade lyrics almost every time through the two-minute remix, elevating the already impressively driving energy of the original. And, of course, the best lyric belongs to Ms. Karlsson: “I started out so young I didn't even have email/ Now my lyrics are on your chest.”
The year Ira Starr turned 21
Rising Beninese-Nigerian singer-songwriter Ira Star will release the aptly titled The Year I Turned 21 this week, her follow-up to 2022's 19 & Dangerous. Featuring the top 10 Billboard US Afrobeat Songs hit “Commas,” the album seamlessly mixes Afrobeat with genres like pop, R&B, and amapiano, all held together by Star's rich, deep vocals. “It just feels so cohesive because of my voice,” she told Billboard earlier this week. “My voice is my sound, so no matter what genre you're in, if my voice is there, you're going to hear Afrobeat.”
Foster the People “Lost in Space”
Speaking of Whodini-esque artists, 2010s alt-pop hitmakers Foster the People are back this week with a new single, “Lost in Space,” the first track off their just-announced upcoming album, Paradise State of Mind, FTP's first new work in seven years. “Space” has a squelching synth bassline and a disco groove closer to “Pump Up the Jam” than “Pumped Up Kicks.” Lead singer Mark Foster's falsetto vocal hook also adds to the auspicious beginning of a new era for the group. After spending their first three years with Columbia, they move to Atlantic Records.