3 songs to stream this week: Sara Bareilles, Ariana Grande, Blackpink
Sara Bareilles performs at the Bowery Ballroom on March 22 in Manhattan. Credit: Getty Images / Mike Coppola
So many singles, so little time. Here are three songs to stream right away:
Start lining up the awards. Sara Bareilles’ poignant anthem for immigrants, “A Safe Place to Land” (Epic), is a stunning collaboration of greats, co-written with “Humble and Kind” composer Lori McKenna and sung with John Legend. “Say ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ twice,” they sing together in gorgeous harmony. “Hold your babies tight. Surely someone will reach out a hand and show you a safe place to land.”
Ariana Grande continues on her roll, with yet another new single, “Monopoly” (Republic), even though her second album in six months came out in February. The pop insta-hit, featuring frequent collaborator Victoria Monet, immediately got people talking, as Grande sings, “I like women and men” and then refers to giving up 90 percent of the songwriting royalties on her hit “7 Rings” to the estate of Rodgers and Hammerstein to clear her interpolation of “My Favorite Things.”
K-pop queens Blackpink set a YouTube record for most views in one day — 56. 7 million — with their single “Kill This Love” (YG/Interscope), a weird, intriguing mix of rap, marching band horns and girl-group harmonies that just begs for repeated listening.
