When Cardi B revealed that she’s pregnant with baby No. 2, she did it in perfectly over-the-top fashion onstage at Sunday’s BET Awards, where she performed with husband Offset and his Migos bandmates wearing a bedazzled black catsuit with a strategic mesh cutout around her belly.
While pop music fans are used to this sort of very public pregnancy reveal now, thanks to Beyoncé announcing that she was pregnant with Blue Ivy almost a decade ago at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, after Bey performed while five months pregnant with twins Rumi and Sir at the 2017 Grammys, Vanessa Williams tweeted about her own, very different experience performing at the 1993 Grammys while pregnant. “They never showed my pregnant belly when I sang my nominated ‘Save the Best for Last,'” Williams tweeted. “Oh how times have changed! Kudos Beyoncé!”
On the latest episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we take a look at the evolution of how musician moms have announced their pregnancies — or not! — over the years. Listen now:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Olivia Rodrigo returns to No. 1 and H.E.R. gets her first top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Plus, we’ve got news on Britney Spears’ shocking conservatorship hearing and Ed Sheeran’s poppy new single “Bad Habits.”
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s deputy editor, digital, Katie Atkinson and senior director of Billboard charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
