Music That Has Shaken the World in June

First and foremost, after a lot of anticipation with successful viral singles and one of the most talked about rebrands of the decade, Addison Rae finally revealed her debut album, achieving 6.57 million streams on Spotify Global and reaching the number one spot on Apple Music in 20 countries.

What is even cooler than this is the fact that she did all of it with two women. Instead of using the same-old big male names from the industry, she intentionally opted to collaborate, both on songwriting and production, solely with two female writers and producers: Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser.

The recipe has proved to be a complete success and I hope it is a tendency that we continue to see more and more (as women are still underrepresented in music production and make up only 6.5% of producers), especially in times where efforts for affirmative actions have been reduced and delegitimised by leaders around the world.

Besides the album, Addison also announced a world tour, and she will join Lana Del Rey as a concert opener; a perfect match since Rae openly draws a lot of inspiration from Lana, even making references to her in her songs.

Speaking of women producers and songwriters, as an honourable mention, Kali Uchis and Miley Cyrus' new albums, released in May, are incredible. Kali once again delivered a beautiful album, a mix of R&B, neo soul, dream & psychedelic pop that is both intimate and vulnerable. She is also the sole writer of all songs, which is a love letter to motherhood. Miley is credited as producer and songwriter for all songs on her new album. It is her most ambitious work to this day, with alternative rock, psychedelic pop, R&B, and even disco elements.

Now, going back to June releases. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: everything that Anderson.Paak touches turns into gold, especially the Summer bangers. In June, the world was gifted with two of his collaborations. First, we had an interesting and unexpected collab with Mariah Carey for 'Type Dangerous,' a fresh song that also draws inspiration from '90s R&B, making it also nostalgic and has Mariah singing in lower register, which is a surprise to a lot of her fans but for me it was a pleasant result. More recently, 'Stare at Me' with Jane Handcock is a fun track with a funky and soulful instrumental, evoking the infectious and effortless West Coast bounce.

Last but not least, May The Muse's new album 'No Please, Yes Thank You' co-written and produced by her life partner Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) is a completely different sound territory exploration for her, an experimentation that leaves behind her previous introspective, melancholic and mesmerising music and is a collection of eclectic songs from neo-soul to rock and country.

What to expect from the next few months? One thing I am certain: I can’t wait for what in my opinion is the most anticipated collaboration of the year: the collab between Fred again… and the Argentinian most talked about duo Ca7riel y Paco Amoroso that have been gaining popularity around the world with their genre blending and unique sound and seems like we have a sneak peak of how it will sound like.

Viral Recaps of the month:

Addison Rae's debut album, Addison

PinkPantheress' single 'Illegal' and the shaking hands TikTok trend

Mama Duke performing her authentic song 'Feel So Good To Be You' on America’s Got Talent

Keenan’s video of his niece Zippy improvising lyrics and vocals to his beat, now also released on Spotify due to high demand

You can listen to all of it and more in the Spotify playlist: