Music News

20 Jul 2024

Brazilian Singer Ayres Sasaki Fatally Electrocuted After Hugging Wet Fan at Concert

Brazilian singer Ayres Sasaki has died after being electrocuted during a live performance in Brazil.

The 35-year-old musician died almost instantly after hugging a soaking-wet fan during a concert on July 13 at the Solar Hotel in Salinopolis. The contact between the two triggered a nearby cable to jolt, causing the fatal electric shock, according to The Mirror.

It was not immediately known why the concert-goer was soaked, but Salinópolis Police are investing the incident. The Pará Civil Police say that witnesses have given statements and they have requested expert reports, Istoé Gente reports (per People).

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On July 14, the Solar Hotel shared a statement through social media, saying that the facility is cooperating with the investigation.

“We are fully dedicated to providing support to his family and taking the necessary measures. We reaffirm our commitment to fully cooperating with the competent authorities for the proper clarification of the events,” the hotel wrote in a translated message on Instagram. “Our thoughts and condolences are with Ayres Sasaki’s family and friends at this difficult time.”

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In addition to being a singer, Sasaki was also a newly married architect and urban planner. He is survived by his wife id 11 months, Mariana.

On her Instagram Story, Sasaki’s spouse shared her thanks for the support she’s been receiving following her husband’s untimely passing.

“I would like to thank you for every message of affection and comfort, for every prayer during this difficult time that we are going through,” Mariana wrote, per Istoé Gente. “I haven’t been able to read all the messages yet, but as I feel better, I will respond to each one. Thank you.”

19 Jul 2024

Rory Feek Marries His Daughter’s Teacher, Surprises Her With Special ‘I Do’ Song at Wedding

Congratulations are in order for Rory Feek, who married his 10-year-old daughter Indiana’s teacher, Rebecca — who is also a longtime family friend — in a romantic ceremony on July 14.

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The country star opened up about the ceremony on his blog, noting that the duo tied the knot under a “timber-frame pavilion here in Greycliff, Montana,” adding that his daughter played a major role in getting the two married.

“We knew marriage was a possibility,” Feek shared in his post, “it wasn’t something that either of us felt like we could seriously talk about. Mostly because up until that time Indiana only saw Rebecca as ‘Miss Rebecca her schoolteacher and our friend.”

He then recalled Rebecca telling him about a conversation she had with Indiana in March. “I asked Indy, and she told me that she said, ‘Ms. Rebecca, I think you should marry Papa,’” he noted. “Of course, I was happy, but caught off guard and told her that that was something we’d all have to start praying about.”

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Rory said that Indy told him and Rebecca: “My Mama’s been gone a long time. And if she marries you, maybe she could be my new mother.”

In 2016, Rory’s first wife Joey Feek died after a battle with cervical cancer. The duo performed under the name Joey + Rory. She was first diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, and Rory revealed in the fall of 2015 that they had decided to end treatment.

During Rory and Rebecca’s nuptials, the country star surprised his new wife with a song called “I Do.” See the full blog post here.

19 Jul 2024

Watch Benny Blanco Convince Selena Gomez to Try a Watermelon Pickle Sandwich

Benny Blanco is the latest victim of a social media “doom scroll.”

The producer took to TikTok to share that after “four hours” of scrolling online after taking part in some marijuana, he “came upon this f—ing watermelon sandwich. There’s no bread, like the watermelon is the bread.”

The clip inspired him, and he took fans along the journey of making and trying the sandwich, which includes cheese, pickles, balsamic and basil in between two slices of watermelon. When the recipe was complete, Blanco took a bite and after taking a moment to ponder the flavor, he concluded that the concoction is “not bad.”

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He wasn’t done yet. He then called on girlfriend Selena Gomez to try out the bizarre combination. “I don’t want to [try it],” she reluctantly says. “I’m not going to like this, but I love pickles.”

After taking a bite, the “Single Soon” singer is seen hilariously shaking her head in disapproval as she walks off-camera.

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The video is the latest in a string of TikTok trends the sweet couple has been taking part in recently. Earlier this month, Gomez shared a clip in which she and Blanco answer a series of “Who’s Most Likely To?” questions about their relationship. The duo revealed who eats the most (Blanco), who takes longer to get ready in the morning (Blanco), who is more romantic (both) and more.

Most notably, they revealed who said “I Love You First,” with Gomez smiling wide as she sweetly pointed to herself. Watch it here.

19 Jul 2024

Jack White Secretly Released an Album & Third Man Records Shops Are Sneakily Giving It to Customers

Jack White has some tricks up his sleeve. The rocker seemingly released a brand new album on Friday (July 19), and employees at Third Man Records’ retail shops have been secretly slipping it into customers’ bags.

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According to Stereogum, a fan on Reddit posted in White’s subreddit forum that they received a mysterious vinyl in their bag titled No Name at Third Man Records’ retail location in London’s Soho neighborhood. “Picked up a tee from third man soho today and the guy on the tills put this in my bag too…. I asked and thought maybe it was his demo or something aha but he didn’t seem to have a clue, saying he’d just been told by ‘management’ to give it out to customers),” the post reads. “I’m not gonna have access to a record player until after work sooo curious to know if anyone else has seen this/it means anything to anyone? Maybe I’m overthinking the blue.”

The same thing happened to another user in the same forum, who visited Third Man’s Nashville location. “I can totally confirm that is a new Jack White album,” the Redditor wrote. “I gave it a listen and it’s pretty good.” 

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The album reportedly contains 13 songs. White’s last album was 2022’s Entering Heaven Alive, which included singles “If I Die Tomorrow,” “Love Is Selfish” and “Queen of the Bees.” The project arrived just three months after his Fear of the Dawn album dropped.

19 Jul 2024

Two Posthumous XXXTentacion & Juice WRLD Collabs Could Be on the Way

The late XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD have two songs that are ready to see the light of day, according to Lil Bibby and DJ Scheme.

Bibby — who heads the label that reps Juice WRLD, Grade A Productions — took to his Instagram Stories and posted a screenshot of a group chat between his team and XXX. DJ Scheme posted the IG Story on his X account, asking, “Who’s ready?”

A few minutes later, Scheme sent out another tweet, saying, “Confirmed two songs are coming out.”

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Both artists were working together before they suddenly passed away. Juice WRLD died of an overdose in 2019 and XXX was shot to death during an armed robbery a year prior in 2018.

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In 2020, Scheme — who was XXX’s DJ and a close friend to Juice — sent out the tweet below implying new music from the two and responded to a fan who told him to “keep his word” by saying, “Working hard to make this happen as we speak.”

However, Juice WRLD’s ex-girlfriend Ally Lotti threw cold water on Scheme’s tweet, telling a fan on social media who asked about a possible collab, “I was there when he recorded the verse for jah.”

Adding, “This happened over a year and a half- two years ago y’all. This wasn’t new info. Doubt it’ll come out. I’m guessing if it was it would have already been. so idk but i have video from that night. J made two or three song a we were in a hotel room over seas.”

Juice WRLD released a two-song EP in honor of his friends XXXTentacion and Lil Peep after the former had passed.

The rumored songs won’t be the first time the late rappers have had their work released posthumously. XXX’s team released albums Skins in 2018 and Bad Vibes Forever in 2019 while Juice’s team dropped albums Legends Never Die in 2020 and Fighting Demons in 2021, respectively.

XXXTentacion’s debut studio album 17 made our list of the 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time.

19 Jul 2024

JoJo Siwa Celebrates Beating Out Taylor Swift, Katy Perry & Ariana Grande for Most YouTube Dislikes

JoJo Siwa is finding small victories wherever she can. In a new TikTok posted Thursday, the 21-year-old aspiring pop star celebrated beating out top artists such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande in one not-so-triumphant category: this year’s most dislikes on a female artist’s music video (so far).

In the clip, Siwa — sporting a characteristically loud outfit that includes a bedazzled construction vest — energetically reads out a list of 2024’s least-loved visuals from female stars. According to her numbers, which are corroborated by an online dislike viewer, Grande attracted 290,000 thumbs-downs for her Billboard Hot 100-topping “Yes, And?,” while Perry won second runner-up with 330,000 on her new single “Woman’s World.” (The Dr. Luke-produced track has since shot up to an estimated 550,318 dislikes as of press time.)

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Increasing her volume, the Dance Moms alum then announced that Swift’s “Fortnight” had attracted 350,000 dislikes since topping the Hot 100 in May. And then…

“Your No. 1 first place overall goes to…,” Siwa tells the camera, practically screaming as she draws out the faux suspense. “‘Karma,’ JoJo Siwa, with an astonishing, record-breaking 3.1 million dislikes!”

“I am the only person that can say I beat Taylor Swift on a list of something,” she adds, shutting her laptop and shrugging. “I’ll take it.”

“WHAT A DAY TO CELEBRATE. KARMA BROKE A RECORD. 900% MORE THAN 2ND PLACE. A WIN IS A WIN,” Siwa captioned the clip.

The So You Think You Can Dance coach’s choice to find a silver lining comes about three months after she dropped her polarizing single “Karma,” which has since earned countless memes and even a Saturday Night Live sketch. The track appears on her new EP Guilty Pleasure, which dropped July 12.

“I think I just want to make it more clear that gay pop is a genre,” she told TMZ of her new musical era in April. “I am not the inventor of gay pop, for sure not. But I do want to be a piece of making it bigger than it already is. I Want to bring more attention to it.”

Watch Siwa’s TikTok below.

19 Jul 2024

Sabrina Carpenter Teases ‘Espresso’ Performance in VR Concert Trailer

That’s that Me-ta, espresso! Meta premiered its new trailer for Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming VR concert, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 19 exclusively in Meta Horizon Worlds’ Music Valley.

In the clip, Carpenter is seen dancing around onstage to her Billboard Hot 100 top five hit, “Espresso,” alongside her dancers against a vintage hotel-looking backdrop.

Fans can stream the VR concert in Music Valley, one of the Meta Horizons Worlds available on Meta Quest headsets. The Music Valley concert series gives fans front-row access to music concerts in an immersive, virtual reality space that lets you watch VR concert live and interact with other concertgoers.

Recently, the 25-year-old pop star discussed the reactions to the slightly awkward syntax of her hook’s lyric: “That’s that me espresso.”  “So much of what I like is the punchline,” she explained to Sean Evans on Hot Ones. “If people don’t know the punchline, it’s like, waste. That’s how I feel about ‘me espresso.’ I’ve heard a lot of people that were like, ‘She should’ve said, That’s that blonde espresso, duh.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, yes. That is another song as well that deserves its spot in the world, but this one for me … ‘me espresso’ just felt like the right thing to say, and it rhymes with the line before it.” 

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“I just think it’s so funny,” she continued, shrugging. “Maybe everyone’s right.” 

Sabrina Carpenter: A VR Concert in Music Valley is set to stream on July 19 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Watch the trailer below.

19 Jul 2024

Bruce Springsteen Is Officially a Billionaire

Bruce Springsteen has officially gone from blue-collar hero to billionaire, according to Forbes.

On Friday (July 19), the publication reported that the 74-year-old rock star had reached an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion by a “conservative” estimate. In terms of other musicians who’ve crossed into billionaire status, he ranks under Jay-Z ($2.5 billion), Rihanna ($1.4 billion) and Taylor Swift ($1.3 billion).

Much of Springsteen’s wealth comes from his decades-spanning catalog, which he sold back to his longtime label — Sony’s Columbia Records — for a whopping $500 million in 2021, the largest deal ever for an individual body of work. At that point, his recordings had racked up 65.5 million sales in the U.S., including his iconic multiplatinum albums Born In The U.S.A. and The River.

“I am one artist who can truly say that when I signed with Columbia Records in 1972, I came to the right place,” he said in a statement at the time. “During the last 50 years, the men and women of Sony Music have treated me with the greatest respect as an artist and as a person. I’m thrilled that my legacy will continue to be cared for by the Company and people I know and trust.”

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Springsteen has also remained a touring force well into the later years of his career, with the 20-time Grammy winner’s global trek in 2023 selling more than 1.6 million tickets and generating $380 million in revenue, according to Pollstar. He and his famed E Street Band are currently on tour again, with dates planned all the way up through July of next year.

Raised in a mill town in New Jersey, Springsteen is widely regarded as one of the bestselling artists of all time. He made his name writing and singing songs about working-class life in America, topping the Billboard 200 a total of 11 times over the course of his career. His most recent album, Only the Strong Survive, debuted at No. 8 on the chart in 2022.

And though he’s been at it for half a century, the guitarist also recently nabbed a chart first; this week, he made his debut on the Hot Country Songs ranking for his appearance on Zach Bryan’s “Sandpaper,” which also marked Springsteen’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 in over 15 years. The track entered at Nos. 26 and 71 on the respective charts.

All in all? Not a bad week for The Boss.

19 Jul 2024

Kid Rock Performed at the RNC & the Internet Has Thoughts

Kid Rock took the stage at the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention on Thursday (July 18), performing his 2000 track “American Bad A–,” switching up the lyrics to support Donald Trump.

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Throughout the performance, the singer shouted “Fight, fight” into the crowd, in reference to the July 13 shooting at a Pennsylvania Trump rally, where the former president was seen mouthing the same words to the audience as he was taken away by his Secret Service team after being grazed on the ear by a bullet.

“American Bad A–” samples Metallica’s “Sad But True,” though the band has yet to publicly react to the RNC performance.

Earlier in the day, Kid Rock announced on social media that he had arrived in Milwaukee, Wisc., ahead of the convention. “We just arrived in Milwaukee to support our tried and true, red, white and blue, 100 percent American bada‑‑ president,” he says in the clip, wearing a National Rifle Association cap. “What’s gonna happen tonight? Tune in to find out. But here’s a hint — are you scared?”

Following the performance, a number of users took to social media to share thoughts about Kid Rock’s time at the RNC — and he was mostly met with viewers mocking the situation. Former First Lady Melania Trump’s reaction to the performance went viral, with viewers noticing that she appears to be containing laughter, though it is not confirmed what she actually thought.

See below for some of the best reactions to Kid Rock’s RNC performance.

19 Jul 2024

Friday Dance Music Guide: The Week’s Best New Tracks From Snakegang, Deadmau5, Hugel & More

This week in dance music: Anyma was announced as the first electronic artist to play Sphere in Las Vegas, with two additional shows quickly being added to the originally announced New Years Eve Date. Will Ferrell announced that Swedish House Mafia will be playing his big charity show in Chicago this fall, Charli XCX told us about her brat summer strategy in our latest cover story, we went inside the Saudi Arabian dance-focused festival Soundstorm and dropped exclusive sets from Lightning In a Bottle 2024.

You wanted more? Baby, we’ve got more. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.

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Snakehips x Earthgang, “Glimmer”

U.K. production outfit Snakehips links with Atlanta hip-hop duo Earthgang for a project that could of course only be called Snakegang. The fearsome foursome come hot out the gate with “Glimmer,” which mind melts house music as bubbly as freshly poured champagne with breezy verses for a finished product that’s just plain summertime fun. The track comes from the just out Snakegang EP Vol. 1, a five track collection with a name that we hope means that more volumes are en route. Hear it on the floor during Snakehips’ U.S. club tour, which extends through late September.

Deadmau5, some ep

The one and only Deadmau5 has dug into his archives for the new four-track some ep, which features three new Deadmau5 tracks and a fourth from his techno project Testpilot. Like the lead track “Quetzacotl” which came out last week, “Sever” is quintessential Deadmau5, with pulsing, cinematic synths giving way to territory that’s darker but, as ever, produced so cleanly that it seems to glow. “Sever” comes with a video of the song’s live show visualizer, with Deadmau5 himself currently building a new studio, wherein he will soon get to work on a new full-length. In the meantime, he’s got a stacked summer and fall schedule that includes performing with Rezz as Rezzmau5 at Tomorrowland this weekend and his own Day of the Deadmau5 shows in October in Chicago, Washington D.C., Mexico City and Puerto Rico.

Hugel, Topic & Arash 7 Daecolm, “I Adore You”

If the phrase “simmering lust” had a soundtrack, it’d be this one from French producer Hugel, German/Croation producer Topic, Swedish artist Arash and Zimbabwe-born, London-raised singer Daecolm. Together, the guys fuse Latin and Afro-house rhythms for a track, out via Astralwerks, that’s subtle, sophisticated, radiating romance and perhaps most crucially, currently blowing up on TikTok and other social platforms.

Gorgon City, “Are You Feeling It Too?”

Two of the most consistent guys in the game, Gorgon City today drop their club-focused summer album Reverie. The track opens with “Are You Feeling It Too,” a query which in this moment in time could refer to the creeping feeling of societal dystopia but which in this case seems to just mean the chemistry between two humans who are very into each other. In any case, the juxtaposition of the dreamy/stoney vocals and shifts into tougher, darker, higher-BPM material that, just like so much of the GC catalog, works very well.

Overmono, “Gem Lingo (ovr now)”

This one from the Welsh duo was debuted during a Lot Radio set alongside Fred again.. and Lil Yachty this past February, quickly becoming an in-demand ID. Officially out today via XL Recordings, it’s clear why — with the shuffling garage beat serving as a foundation for clouds of synth and vocals from Jai Paul’s Paul Institute-affiliated singer/songwriter Ruthven, whose presence gives the whole thing a plaintive, soulful and deeply human quality.

Sofi Tukker, “Hey Homie”

Coming from Sofi Tukker’s forthcoming album, Bread, “Hey Homie” is lyrically about romantic love, although the video for the gentle, Brazilian-influenced track gives it a platonic twist, with the clip built of home-movie style clips of the duo’s Sofi Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern traveling the world, making music, performing and generally being, well, homies. A sweet as hell recommended watch.

Praxis feat. Kathy Brown, “Turn Me Out (Extended Dance Remix)”

Kathy Brown is the legendary singer whose voice has graced dance classics including Eminence’s “Give It Up” and Soul Central’s “Strings of Life”, with a new collection celebrating her truly dazzling catalog — and also functioning as a fundraiser to help Brown pay for her current stage four cancer treatments. Out via Glitterbox, which will direct all profits towards Brown’s healthcare fund, Legacy brings together some of her classics, along with new edits — including an undeniable take on “Turn Me Out,” a 1997 Dance Club Songs No. 1.

“None of us can live forever, but some are fortunate enough to create a body of work that will endure long after we are no longer physically present on this Earth,” Brown says in a statement. “I always put the entirety of my soul into every single performance and recording, and that is what the world will hear when they listen, play, and dance to this album. That will be my legacy.”