Scoreboard: Camila Cabello, Grammy Scores

This week on Scoreboard Camila Cabello takes over the charts and Grammy scores are tallied

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated January 27, 2018

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

Grammys week happens to be the week of Camila, the debut album that took #1 on the Billboard 200 and put Camila Cabello at #1 on the Artist 100. To top it all off, Cabello’s enduring hit “Havana” ft. Young Thug surged to #1 on the Hot 100, becoming her first #1. To top it all off, Cabello got to speak on behalf of the Dreamers at the Grammys, where she also joined an all star performance of Kesha’s “Praying.” Scoreboard has more on that performance and on the Grammys later in this week’s edition.

Alessia Cara performed and took home Best New Artist at the Grammys

Camila Takeover

Camila Cabello’s origin story begins in Havana, where she was born in 1997 to a Cuban mother and a Mexican father. Her family ended up moving to Miami, where she got her musical start. In 2012 @camila_cabello auditioned for The X-Factor and although she did not make it far as a solo performer, she was recruited with other contestants to form girl group Fifth Harmony. In forming the group Simon Cowell followed the formula that successfully created boy band One Direction and it paid off. Fifth Harmony released two hit albums with Cabello and reached a Hot 100 peak of #4 in 2016 with “Work From Home” ft. Ty Dolla $ign. Realizing her star potential, Cabello left Fifth Harmony at the end of 2016. This week her Zayn move pays off as she tops all three major Billboard charts.

Cabello’s debut album was initially titled The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving and its first single “Crying The Club” was a tropical Sia/Christina Aguilera mashup that got a great cover out of Kidz Bop Kids, but stalled on the Hot 100, where it only peaked at #47. Then came “Havana,” which shot up to #2 in the fall of 2017 and forced a pivot in Cabello’s musical style. Instead of the hurting and the healing we now get Camila, a Latin-infused pop collection anchored by the humidity of “Havana.” Like her crossover predecessors Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, and Aguilera, Cabello mixes pop with soft rock and surprisingly dials down the EDM. The closest she gets to the abandoned sound of “Crying In The Club” is the soft dance ballad “Never Be The Same,” which is the album’s second single. With the album out, the song has shot up to #30 on the Hot 100. Can Camila keep up the momentum? Check Scoreboard every week to find out!

Camila Cabello got to make some famous friends at the Grammys

Grammys Scoreboard: Bruno Mars and Kesha Win

The Grammys took place Sunday night in New York City and the results are in. The night’s biggest winner was Bruno Mars, who took home three of the top four awards, winning Record of the Year for “24K Magic,” Song of the Year for “That’s What I Like,” and Album of the Year for 24K Magic. In fact, @brunomars won in all six categories in which he was nominated, bringing his career Grammy total to 11. Amazingly, last night was also the second time Mars won both Record of the Year (the first win was for the Mark Ronson #1 hit “Uptown Funk” two years ago) and Album of the Year (he was among the producers on Adele‘s 25, which won last year). To top off all the winning, Mars got together with Cardi B to perform “Finesse (Remix),” which may get that shot at #1 on the Hot 100 after the Grammys.

Bruno Mars led all award winners with six Grammys; he became the first person of color to win Album of the Year as lead artist since Herbie Hancock in 2008

When it comes to Grammy moments, The Knockturnal summarized the show’s top five performances here. The biggest social moment of the night, according to Nielsen, was when Kesha took the stage to perform “Praying” accompanied by Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels, Andra Day, Bebe Rexha and The Resistance Revival Chorus. Janelle Monáe introduced the performance by noting that the music industry is not immune from the #metoo movement. From 2014 to 2016 Kesha was involved in a lawsuit against producer Dr. Luke whom she accused of abuse and retaliation. Although charges were eventually dropped, “Praying,” which came out in the summer of 2017, had a very specific message for you-know-who: “and we both know all the truth I can tell.” Surrounded by women in white, Kesha took over Madison Square Garden and social media. Artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Logic, and U2 also delivered social and political statements during their performances but for one night, @iiswhoiis levitated above all others.

Kesha’s “Praying” had the biggest one-day sales unit increase for any song performed at the 2018 Grammys