Side-by-side pictures of Shakira, Miley Cyrus, and Madonna.

Readers, start your weekends — and may the best LGBT win!

This was a week of mothers mothering. Jennifer Coolidge and Regina Hall carried the Golden Globes, M3GAN carried the box office, and Miss Piggy carried the tabloids.

Now, the mothers (and general parental figures) of the music world are poised to carry us through the weekend. Two stannable faves are back with a vengeance, while another pulled a newly hot track from her majestic vault.

From crashing a birthday to bashing the worst bae, here’s your weekly bop roundup!

“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus

With her new comeback single, Miley has launched a million “ENDED LIAM” and “IT’S OVER FOR HIM” tweets in PopCrave replies. She not-so-subtly dropped this song about a failed relationship on her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday while interpolating Bruno Mars’ 2012 hit “When I Was Your Man” in the chorus. She also adds in double-meaning details like “Built a home and watched it burn”, a nod to their home that was destroyed in a 2018 wildfire as well as their former marriage. There’s just something about a divorce album that hits.

“Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions, Volume 53” by Shakira & Bizarrap

While Miley goes a sassy “I can love me better” direction, Shakira goes straight for the jugular, singing “I was out of your league, that’s why you’re with someone just like you” in Spanish. Her incredibly boppable hate-mail track to her ex, former soccer player Gerard Piqué, has already become the biggest debut of any Latin song in Global Spotify history. If she can actually impact the stocks of two major companies with just the line “You traded in a Rolex for a Casio,” imagine what she can do to one retired athlete with the whole track.

“Back That Up To The Beat” by Madonna

This “Back That Up To The Beat” demo has had an incredible Homeward Bound-esque journey to finally reach its 2023 release. The demo was first cut from Madge’s 2015 Rebel Heart album before being totally reworked and included on the deluxe 2-CD version of Madame X, where it really didn’t make much noise. The demo, however, recently made its way to TikTok and spread like sonic wildfire. Now, Madonna has finally made the TikToking titan available to stream (alongside a Zoomer-friendly sped up version).

“Gimme” by Sam Smith ft. Koffee & Jessie Reyez

They may not exactly be mothering, but Sam Smith is certainly attempting to legal guardian. Their sexy foray that kicked off with “Unholy” is only leveled up in “Gimme” — as well as on their Instagram. We could not have predicted in the sadgirl “Stay With Me” era that Smith would become such an explicit advocate for thiccie rights, but it’s an important cause to champion.

“salvatore” by Bentley Robles

In what he refers to as “the little but loud brother” of Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro”, Bentley Robles gives what needs to be gave. “Queer Chicano synth-pop hottie” is already such a winning string of descriptors, and this track has the highly danceable vibes to back it all up. Robles put out a good number of underground pop jams in 2022 like “kim kardashian” and “body language”, and at this point, we need the album.

Join us here next week for another Bop After Bop!

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