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Rb Hip Hop

Daniel Caesar Shines With ‘Who Knows’ Performance on ‘Fallon’: Watch

Wearing a red toque and a blue hooded jacket, the late-night musical guest commanded the spotlight for this soul-filled number.

Daniel Caesar photographed on May 5, 2025 at Corner Studio in New York.

Daniel Caesar photographed on May 5, 2025 at Corner Studio in New York.

Heather Hazzan

All hail Daniel Caesar.

Just hours after he was crowned on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, Caesar stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a performance of “Who Knows.”


Wearing a red beanie (toque for our Canadian viewers) and a blue hooded jacket, and wielding an acoustic guitar, the late-night musical guest commanded the spotlight for this soul-filled number.

“Who Knows” is housed by Son of Spergy (via Hollace/Republic Records), which bowed atop the list dated Nov. 8, for his first leader. Son of Spergy, the title for which is a nod to the nickname of Caesar’s father, gospel singer Norwill Simmonds, is the fourth album by the Canadian singer-songwriter.

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The collection also enjoys splashes across various Billboard tallies, including a No. 1 start on the Top R&B Albums chart, his first time atop that tally; plus a No. 4 entry on the all-genre Billboard 200, for his first top 10 visit on the main survey; a No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, and No. 11 on the Top Streaming Albums ranking.

Meanwhile, 10 of the album’s tracks crack the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, led “Who Knows,” which debuts at No. 23 — his best result as a lead artist.

Caesar (real name: Ashton Simmonds) has already reaped serious rewards in his career. He won a 2019 Grammy Award for “Best Part,” featuring H.E.R.; was featured alongside Giveon on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021; and his fruitful collaboration with Tyler, The Creator played a big role in sending the rapper’s 2024 album, Chromakopia, the leadership on the Billboard 200.

Son of Spergy was two years in the making, shaped during sessions in Oracabessa, Jamaica and at Paris’ Rue Boyer and New York’s Electric Lady studios.

“It’s about religion, but more importantly, it’s about my father,” he told Billboard and Billboard Canada of the new album. “In your childhood, your father is a lot like God. He’s the person you fear the most on earth and also the person whose love and respect you desire more than anyone else on earth. It’s the source from where all your blessings come.”

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Watch Caesar’s late-night performance below.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.

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Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.
Courtesy Photo

Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.

Pop

In This Season of Giving, Mariah Carey Shares Throwback Clip From 1994 Manifesting a Potential Christmas Classic One Day: ‘So Grateful’

MC only had to wait 25 years for her all-time holiday classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Mariah Carey is the undisputed Queen of Christmas. The pop singer has lorded over the holiday charts for the past six years with her ubiquitous wintertime classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It seems hard to believe it now if you’ve been anywhere near a store since Halloween, but the yuletide favorite that was released in 1994 did not chart until 2000 and did not hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until 2019, fully 25 years after it first hit our ears.

Now, as the holidays really ramp up, the best-selling Christmas song of all time in the U.S. seems like a no-brainer to top the charts every year. But on Tuesday (Dec. 9), MC gave thanks for how it all started in a throwback video she re-posted from a fan feed of an interview she did in 1994 in which she was asked if she hopes one of the songs from her first holiday album, that year’s Merry Christmas, might some day be as ubiquitous as such standards as “White Christmas” or “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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