mental health
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As the most followed woman on Instagram, Selena Gomez knows better than anyone how draining social media can be on a person’s mental health. That goes especially for times of heartbreak, something she experienced firsthand in 2018 following her split from Justin Bieber (who got engaged to his now-wife, Hailey Bieber, that same year).
After the two stars parted ways following a decade of on again, off again dating, Gomez took a break from social media that would last four years. Now back online, the “Calm Down” singer has opened up about that time in a new interview with Fast Company that chronicles the success of her Rare Beauty empire.
“I had just gotten my heart broken,” Gomez recalled. “I didn’t need to see what everyone was doing.”
“Then there were those moments of not feeling positive about how I looked because of what I’d see on Instagram,” she added, remembering how she used to think, “Wow, I wish my body looked like that.”
Gomez was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder around this time, although she didn’t share this publicly until 2020 via an Instagram Live conversation with fellow former Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus out of fear that her public image might suffer. “I grew up being a people pleaser,” she told the publication. “I had a responsibility at a very young age — young people were looking up to me. I didn’t know who I was. Having that responsibility would make me walk on eggshells a lot.”
“I thought maybe it would be damaging to tell people who I am,” she added. “It started to become a threat that freaked me out. Well, if you’re not right, then you can’t work.”
Now, at the age of 30 and the head of a mental health-oriented beauty company expected to clear $300 million in sales this year, Gomez is feeling much more confident about herself, as well as her relationship to her fans. “I’m not unattainable,” she said. “I look at someone like a Beyoncé, and I am amazed. My jaw drops. Every part of her is just impeccable, and it’s just so beautiful. I went to her show and was blown away. But I’m just not that, and that’s okay.”
“I’m me, and I’m a little silly, but I also like being sexy and fun, and I also want to do good with the time I have here,” Gomez continued. “We need goddesses like Beyoncé and Adele. But I’m just happy to be your best friend.”
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Source: Paras Griffin / Getty / Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott has had a very successful music career, but along that journey, she has dealt with mental health issues, and now she is opening up about having to overcome them.
Spotted on HipHopDX, the “Work It” crafter spoke about dealing with depression and anxiety and how it can hit anyone in a very candid conversation as part of her cover story with Essence.
Per HipHopDX’s reporting:
“Now I’m fine with being like, ‘Hey, I got anxiety’ or ‘I went through depression,’” the Grammy Award-winning artist said. “Even the biggest artist, or just the regular everyday working person, we all go through shit. We all do. And it’s okay to say, ‘Hey, I’m not okay today.’ Probably we would keep a lot of people around if we were that open because we would be able to uplift each other.”
“We’d know that I’m not going to look at you crazy if you say, ‘Hey, I’m having a rough day.’ Maybe you’re thinking things that you shouldn’t think, or whatever the case may be.”
Elliott details an encounter with a peer that helped her out.
“I had a peer of mine say, ‘Hey, look, I’ve been through the same thing.’ And he was just like, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to put a mirror in front of your face, so you can remember who you are and all that you’ve done.’”
This is not the first time Elliott has spoken about her mental health struggles. In a November 2019 interview with Billboard, she touched on them, detailing how her anxiety began during childhood.
Missy Elliott’s Recent Wins
Just recently, Missy Elliott made history by becoming the first female Hip-Hop star to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In an Instagram post, she said receiving the honor was not just “huge” for her, and it now opens the doors for all of the other women in Hip-Hop.
Shoutout to Missy Elliott for being so open about her mental health struggles.
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Photo: Paras Griffin / Getty
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Conway The Machine is one of the most talented rappers of his generation and arguably its best representative in some circles. With a renewed sense of vigor, the gruff-voiced Buffalo, N.Y. star shared in an interview that therapy aided him in creating some of the best music of his career.
Conway The Machine sat down with Zane Lowe for Apple Music in support of his latest body of work, Won’t He Do It. The sound on the new project is decidedly more polished and upbeat than some of Conway’s earlier work although he’s shown his sonic diversity several times in his ongoing career.
At one pivotal point during the chat with Lowe, Conway gave credit to therapy getting him to a point of appreciating his formidable gifts and the success it helped him achieve.
“Growing up in a hood and stuff, and particularly with young men and just in the communities and stuff, we look at wanting to get therapy or stuff like that, it’s like a, I don’t know, a slight, I guess or, we look at it like it’s a weakness or something,” Conway shared.
“But I realized quick that it really wasn’t. It was actually very helpful. You know what I’m saying? And got me to this point to where I’m back making music, I think some of my best music.”
Emerging from the Griselda camp and released several acclaimed projects over the past few years, these days Conway The Machine is the founder of the Drumwork Music Group, a stacked recording label featuring talented standouts rappers 7xvethegenius (said Lovethegenius) and Jae Skeese.
Check out a snippet of the Conway The Machine interview below.
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Photo: Getty
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Demi Lovato is continuing to use their platform to shed light on their difficult journey with eating disorders, suicidal ideation and substance abuse. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “The very first time that I went to treatment was when […]
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Fresh off his energetic performance of “Just Wanna Rock” on The Tonight Show, Lil Uzi Vert told TMZ that he supports the decision of his City Girls rapper girlfriend, JT to start therapy. He added that everyone should “embrace themselves.”
JT shared on Twitter that she is “eager” to start therapy while encouraging her fans to do the same.
Many of her fans congratulated the 30-year-old City Girl rapper on the social media site adding that her public decision could “inspire” others.
Lil Uzi’s support may come from his own journey into wellness. He announced earlier this month that he is sober and that the songs from his newest release “The Pink Tape,” were all born out of his sobriety.
He told TMZ that being sober allowed him to choose better song topics and encouraged other rappers to do the same, saying, “It’ll change your life.”
The couple has had an on-again-off-again relationship since first being romantically linked in 2021. But, earlier this year, she gushed about her admiration for Uzi telling Angie Martinez that she is “lucky” and “fortunate.”
“I can say Uzi is a great man, no matter how the internet tries to paint Uzi,” the Miami native told Angie with a big smile, according to Madame Noire. She added, “I’m so lucky and fortunate to have somebody like him because he’s so inspiring. When I see him in his bag, I’m like ‘I gotta get in my bag.’”
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Ted Lasso, one of the most acclaimed television shows to come out in the past few years, shined a light on the importance of mental health with a careful and deft hand. The cast of the hit Apple TV+ series visited The White House on Monday (March 19) to touch more on mental health and more.
As reported by The Washington Post, the cast of Ted Lasso was in Washington, D.C. to speak on the underlying theme of the show, which is Coach Ted Lasso’s journey toward addressing the things that plague him mentally. Played with expert pluck by Jason Sudeikis, the actor shared that the heart of the show is to work on healing what ails us and said that it’s more common than one would think.
From the Post:
“So, please, you know, we encourage everyone and it’s a big theme of the show is like to check in with you know, your neighbor, your co-worker, your friends, your family and ask how they’re doing and listen sincerely,” Sudeikis said.
“And while it’s easier said than done, we also have to know that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help ourselves,” he added. “And that does take a lot, especially when it’s something that has such a negative stigma to it, such as mental health, and it doesn’t need to be that way.”
Ted Lasso is set to enter its third and potentially final season although Sudeikis seemed warm to the idea of continuing the tale of the beloved American college football turned-soccer coach.
Ted Lasso returned to the airwaves on March 15.
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In the decade that has passed since Music Health Alliance launched in 2013, the non-profit organization has become a critical healthcare resource, providing free healthcare advocacy and resources to artists, music industry professionals and their families.
The MHA’s 15-person staff has saved clients more than an estimated $100 million in healthcare costs and provided free advocacy and support to more than 20,000 music industry clients in 50 states. Along the way, the organization has saved nearly 2,500 families from bankruptcy due to medical bills, aided 31 people in getting life-saving transplants, and provided urgent diagnostic care to 57 clients via the Ben Eyestone Fund.
But behind those massive stats are incredibly personal stories of musicians, artists, songwriters and industry members who lives have been impacted for good.
“Getting access to healthcare is the biggest thing,” Dierks Bentley tells Billboard. The country singer-songwriter is a longtime MHA supporter/client and now celebrity ambassador. “I’ve had some of my own crew that was sick in Canada with a life-threatening illness. It would have cost him like $550,000 out of pocket. He ended up paying $5,000. It saved his life, and it’s amazing what MHA does. It’s God’s work.”
MHA’s services are free to any person who has worked in the music industry for two or more years, or who has credited contributions to four commercially released recordings or videos. Spouses, partners and children of qualifying individuals may also receive access to the nonprofit’s services from birth to end of life.
“About 12 years ago, when I was chewing on the idea of Music Health Alliance, I looked at all the economic impact studies of cities where they had big entertainment economic bases,” says Tatum Allsep, Music Health Alliance founder and CEO. “At that point it was around 76% of all entertainment industry employed were small businesses and self-employment.”
Allsep is empathetic to the plight of primarily self-employed and small-business music creatives and professionals navigating the complex healthcare process. The organization’s typical “busy season” arrives Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, the window for open enrollment for individuals and families to get health insurance. “We see about 6,000 clients in total, and about 3,200 appointments to get people insured across the nation. Probably 68% of our clients are in Middle Tennessee but we also have a footprint now in all 50 states.”
Dierks Bentley with MHA Team
Courtesy Photo
Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston tells Billboard of the importance of MHA’s efforts in offering peace of mind to songwriters.
“Songwriters are independent contractors, so they don’t have access to group insurance plans,” Gaston says. “When Music Health Alliance came along, they were the gateway to providing help to get songwriters into affordable insurance plans. Our health system is so complicated, and MHA is a safe place for songwriters and anyone who works on [Music Row] to call and it’s completely confidential and free. It is such a unique and remarkable service for our community.”
Allsep notes that MHA was created to be nimble, given the ever-shifting needs of the music industry. But in March 2020, at the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization was put to the test, right along with the rest of the industry.
“Literally, overnight, the calls we were getting usually saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got a huge medical bill,’ or ‘I just got this diagnosis,’ went from not being about medicine and doctors, but people saying, ‘I need food, I need diapers and formula for my kids,’” Allsep says. “There is no more basic form of healthcare than food — and we just said, ‘We gotta get food into our industry, because that’s what they need.’”
The Music Health Alliance board and staff turned to a fund named after MHA’s first public client, producer Cowboy Jack Clement, the famed writer-producer known for working with such artists as Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, as well as for his work as a music publisher and label operator.
“We had this fund, which had no revenue strings to it and it had about $60,000 in it,” Allsep says. “We went to City National Bank and said, ‘We need to withdraw this cash because we tried to order gift cards online and we could only order one or two at a time.’ So we literally went to Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and other places and bought $20,000 in gift cards. We thought we would end up doing this for like three months; we did this for a year and a half, to the point where anytime we would walk into Trader Joe’s, people would cheer.”
The team also curated lists of additional resources for places to get diapers, formula, mortgage and rental assistance, utilities assistance and more. The organization provided access to more than 1 million meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Music Health Alliance also began offering resources for mental health counseling, with Allsep noting that between 2019 and 2020, MHA saw a 300% increase in requests for counseling.
“That was another pivot for us: finding a way to administer getting counselors paid, because most counselors don’t accept health insurance,” Allsep says. “So we created the MHA’s mental health fund that the Music Biz Association, Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music and so many individuals and organizations pitched in to help find a way to get counseling to the masses. Every Tuesday we have our finance meeting, and we write, on average, 150 checks that go out to counselors across the nation. To date, we’ve provided more than 3,500 counseling sessions. I am so proud of that, because people are talking about mental health and our industry is a right-brain, creative industry. They are more predisposed to facing things like depression and self-medicating. If we can get ahead of that and dispel the negative stereotypes around counseling and mental health, that’s good for the industry.”
Gaston adds, “A big secret to the creative is simply being in a good mental place to be able to create. At Sony, we were able during the pandemic to start a songwriters’ assistance program to offer free mental health counseling to all of our songwriters. But the MHA, for songwriters outside of Sony, have been able to help them find counseling [and] get paired with the right people to address mental health needs — especially when it was at an all-time high during the pandemic.”
In 2021, the CMA honored the MHA’s work by naming Allsep and MHA’s CFO and certified senior advisor Shelia Shipley Biddy as CMA Foundation Humanitarian Award recipients, alongside singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Last year, Big Machine Label Group founder/president/CEO Scott Borchetta and his wife Sandi Borchetta made a $150,000 grant to MHA through their Music Has Value fund.
“It has been remarkable to witness Music Health Alliance in action over the past decade,” Borchetta tells Billboard via statement. “Their efforts to provide accessible healthcare to countless members of our beloved music community, especially throughout the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, are undeniably heroic. Their contribution and dedication to the wellbeing of our industry is truly awe-inspiring and we are honored to continue supporting their mission.”
Launching its 10th year, MHA has added a fund dedicated to dental health. The new resources are in conjunction with the Richard M. Bates SMILE fund, in memory of the music enthusiast and Walt Disney Company longtime senior vp of government relations.
Allsep says the next stage for Music Health Alliance will focus on the senior population, with Shipley Biddy leading that division.
“The senior population is the legacy of our industry, and there is such as deficit when it comes to things like home health, or being sent home from the hospital and not being able to take care of yourself,” Allsep says. “Home health is not covered by health insurance and it’s so expensive, but it enables someone to live with dignity and that’s important to us. We are focused on how we can do better for the legacy of our industry.”
Nick Carter will be performing his new tribute song to his late brother Aaron Carter, “Hurts to Love You,” for the first time at a special benefit concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday (Jan. 18).
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The Songs for Tomorrow benefit concert, hosted by Angel Conrad and Lance Bass, will raise awareness for mental health and was inspired by the life of Aaron, who died in November at age 34. All money from ticket sales will go toward On Our Sleeves, the national movement supporting children’s mental health.
In addition to Nick, the concert will also feature performances from various early 2000’s superstars including O-Town, LFO, Ryan Cabrera, B. Howard, and David Archuleta. Other performers include *NSYNC members Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirpatrick, and BackSync — consisting of Nick Carter and AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys. The night will conclude with a special surprise finale performance.
Tickets for the Songs for Tomorrow benefit concert can be purchased here, and a livestream link is also available for purchase here.
Aaron Carter’s manager confirmed the singer’s death to Billboard on Nov. 5 without a cause of death immediately given. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department also told The Hollywood Reporter that a suspicious death took place at his address, but did not confirm the identity.
Nick took to social media to mourn his younger brother a day after the devastating news. “My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a photo gallery of childhood photos with his brother. “I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here.”
On Monday (Dec. 19), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) shared a recap with the company’s artists and earnings participants on the progress of its Artists Forward initiative, which encompasses SME’s legacy unrecouped balances initiative, healthcare assistance, advances on projected earnings and more.
Notably, the recap offers never-before-reported stats on Sony Music’s artist portal and real-time insights platforms. Introduced in 2019, the features offer music creators and their teams “best-in-class” payment capabilities and real-time updates on consumption of their music and audience engagement data. According to the company, artists and other earnings participants have withdrawn nearly $50 million combined from both the cash-out feature, which allows users to cash out payable monthly account balances, and the real-time advances feature, which allows users to receive advances on qualifying projected earnings.
Newly announced as part of the recap is Sony Music’s recent introduction of healthcare advocacy services for on-roster and legacy artists in the United States, designed to make it easier for artists to navigate the process of obtaining and utilizing healthcare coverage, finding a doctor, managing healthcare bills and more. Since launching in the fall, the program has helped U.S.-based artists realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare cost savings, according to the company.
The label first introduced the Artists Forward initiative in June 2021 with its legacy unrecouped balance program, which waives the unrecouped balances of artists who signed to Sony Music prior to 2000 and have not received advances since that same year. The following month, the program was expanded to include songwriters, and this past May, Sony Music began offering eligibility on a rolling 20-year basis — meaning artists not initially covered by the program will become eligible once they hit the 20-year mark of signing with the label. According to the Dec. 19 recap, eligibility notifications recently began going out to the first group of qualifying artists and participants under the new criteria (those who signed with the label prior to 2001) in select markets around the world.
In September 2021, the company further expanded Artists Forward by launching “Artist Assistance,” an initiative covering mental health services for its artist roster. According to the Dec. 19 recap, over 100 artists globally have since been provided with information and support related to the program, with dozens across more than 12 countries having utilized these services to establish recurring sessions with a licensed therapist or receive in-the-moment support to deal with “acute issues.”
You can read the full recap here.
If you’ve watched the Selena Gomez documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, you know that it delves into some pretty difficult chapters in the 30-year-old singer’s life. From her battle against autoimmune disease lupus to a diagnosis of bipolar disease that sends the singer into a dark place, the Apple TV+ doc directed by Alek Keshishian (Madonna’s Truth or Dare) pulls back the curtain on some challenging passages in Sel’s career.
Keshishian told EW that the he could “feel her authenticity and her vulnerability” during the years-long shoot, a process that was “very difficult” for Gomez’s family to watch, especially her mother, Mandy Teefey. “The complicated feelings of a parent knowing her daughter suffered like that and she wasn’t able to help,” he said of Teefey, who had “huge reservations” about participating in the film at first.
“They’ve healed their relationship and they’re in a really good place but obviously making a documentary or even speaking about it in a sense, it’s like recutting yourself a little bit and having to face that moment again,” the director said of the at-times estranged feelings between mother and daughter. “It was a very delicate discussion and I was so happy and amazed, because Mandy is a really brave woman and she does a lot of work as well to help in the mental health space. And you see where Selena gets that desire to help others and to treat other people as equals, and it all comes from Mandy, in her upbringing. I was just myself and I spoke to her for a while before she agreed to do it. She was nervous on the day, and we just did our best.”
As for whether Teefey has seen the final product, Keshishian said Selena “definitely” has, but the last he heard her mom had not. “Mandy hasn’t felt ready to watch it,” he said. “And she talks about it on a recent podcast she did, where she says she’s not quite ready because of the pain for her of watching what her daughter went through, she’s not ready quite yet to face. But they’re in a beautiful place in their relationship”; Teefey told Jay Shett’s On Purpose podcast this week that she’s not ready to re-live her daughter’s struggles on film because, “It’s going to hurt my stomach and put me in that mindset. I’m going to wish I could go and protect her.”
Gomez, 30, celebrated a very special moment this week when she accepted the 2022 Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion for her work to raise awareness and educate young people about prioritizing mental health. The singer, who delves into her struggles with bipolar disease and mental health issues in My Mind & Me, told People what the award from the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation means to her.
“I am honored to be the recipient of this year’s Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion,” Gomez said in a statement. “Mental Health impacts all of us, and we each have a role to play in ensuring that everyone – regardless of their background – has access to mental health services. I hope by sharing my own story and using my platform, we can empower each other and more young people to address mental health. We know that the stigma associated with mental health has led to silence around the issue. I want to change that, especially for young people. I’ve been open and honest about my own journey with my mental health, and it hasn’t always been easy, but it’s something I’m constantly working on.”
Jay Ruderman, president of the family’s foundation, said in a statement that Gomez “powerfully” embodies the Foundation’s mental health mission, “which continues to take on greater importance amid today’s unprecedented mental health crisis for teens, young adults, and the entire population. Drawing inspiration from her personal journey, Selena has given voice to the struggles of countless individuals who have endured mental health challenges, while working tirelessly to increase access to indispensable mental health resources and programs.”
The singer have found multiple ways to raise mental health awareness and tie charitable donations to her projects recently, including tying donations to her HBO Max cooking show, Selena + Chef, as well as her Rare Beauty brand, whose Rare Impact Fund aims to raise $100 million for mental health services over the next decade.