Music News

16 Oct 2023

Here’s What Katy Perry Thinks About Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s Romance

Much like seemingly the rest of the world, Katy Perry is here for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s romance.

After the rumored couple essentially confirmed their relationship by holding hands en route to a Saturday Night Live afterparty over the weekend — just after they both made surprise cameos on the show’s season 49 premiere — Perry was one of many fans to chime in on the photos that surfaced afterward.

“I ship,” the pop star commented on pictures shared by Vogue on Instagram.

Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift

A Timeline of Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s Relationship

The SNL afterparty went down at Catch Steak in New York City early Sunday morning (Oct. 15), shortly after Ice Spice made her musical guest debut on the Pete Davidson-hosted episode. Swift was on air to introduce one of her “Karma” collaborator’s live songs, while Kelce appeared in a skit poking fun at the NFL’s continuous coverage of the two stars’ relationship.

In photos and videos from the weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was seen helping Swift out of the car and guiding her through a sea of paparazzi camera flashes. On Sunday night, the two were once again spotted holding hands, this time while out to dinner at New York City’s Waverly Inn.

The two outings mark the “Anti-Hero” singer and Kelce’s public debut as a couple, unless you count the time they first sent the public into a frenzy by leaving Arrowhead Stadium together in September. Since then, Swift has shown up at two more of the football player’s games, once with a fleet of celebrity friends including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Sophie Turner and Hugh Jackman.

It’s a love story that the world can’t seem to take its eyes off of, including Perry, with whom Swift has been on good terms with since the two ended ended their beef years ago. The “Teenage Dream” singer’s comment supporting the pop superstar’s new romance on Vogue‘s post garnered a couple hundred replies: “me too,” responded several fans, while another wrote, “@katyperry we all do ???.”

16 Oct 2023

Jada Pinkett Smith Says She and Will Smith ‘Working Hard’ to Reconcile, Heal Their Relationship

After a week of slow-drip bombshell revelations about her relationship with Will Smith while promoting her upcoming memoir, Worthy, Jada Pinkett Smith told The Today Show on Monday morning (Oct. 16) that the couple are working to reconcile and rebuild their fractured marriage.

“There’s no finding another great love, and I think that’s the point,” Pinkett Smith said. “It’s like we are in a place now that we are in a deep, healing space. And we are really concentrating on healing the relationship between us.”

The update came after Pinkett Smith revealed last week that the two have been living “separate lives” for the past seven years — while presenting a unified front in public — and that though they are not legally divorced they have not been together for many years.

“There’s no divorce on paper. We really have been working hard. That’s the whole thing. We are working very hard at bringing our relationship together. Back to a life partnership,” Pinkett Smith told Today co-host Hoda Kotb. “Here’s the thing about husband-wife marriage for me, for my healing process,” she said. “I came into that with very specific ideas that were blocks to me seeing Will as who he is. He can’t be this perfect, ideal guy husband. I have to be able to accept him for the human that he is, he accepts me for the human that I am. And we want to love each other there.”

In a New York Times interview, Pinkett Smith said one of the other things that shocked her about her estranged husband’s attack on Chris Rock at last years Academy Awards was when Smith shouted “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” after violently slapping the comedian across the face after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s bald hairstyle; the actress suffers from alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss.

“Even though we hadn’t been calling each other husband and wife in a long time, I said, ‘I’m his wife now. We in this.’ That’s just who I am,” Pinkett Smith told the paper: “That’s the gift I have to offer, like, ‘Hey, I’m riding with you.’” Though not divorced, not in an open relationship or polyamorous, Pinkett Smith said she and Will are in an agreement they refer to as a “relationship of transparency.”

Will Smith told the Times in an email statement that Jada’s memoir “kind of woke him up,” adding that, “when you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.”

The 52-year-old actress/singer also told the Times that as a 50th birthday present to herself she bought her own place in Calabasas, where the couple also shared a home together; the book reveals that the Smiths have been separated since 2017.

In speaking to Kotb last week for a prime-time special, Pinkett Smith described the breakdown of the relationship. “I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” she said. “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

Jada and Will were married in 1997, with son Jaden born a year later, followed by daughter Willow in 2000.

16 Oct 2023

Israeli Doc in Works About Hamas Massacre at Supernova Music Festival

An Israeli production company is working on a documentary about the horrific Oct. 7 terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im by Hamas militants. The assault by air and land by the militant arm of the terrorist organization that governs the more than two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip included the killing of more than 260 revelers at the Paralello Universo Supernova Sukkot Gathering electronic dance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Israeli production company Sipur is working with Israeli broadcasters HOT Channel 8 and HSCC on a feature documentary about the assault that was part of Hamas surprise raid on the Southern border of Israel that found the militants killing more than 1,300 Israeli men, women and children and kidnapping nearly 200 civilians and soldiers.

The film will be directed by Yariv Mozer (The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes) using exclusive footage from participants and key people at the party, with the team aiming to “present an in-depth look at the festival before, during and after the horrific event,” according to THR, including interviews with investigators, soldiers and journalists and unseen footage from attendees.

“I have seen things in my life. I have lived through wars; I have fought in wars and I have even filmed during a war,” Mozer told THR in a statement. “But nothing prepared me for the harsh images I have seen in the remains of the massacre that took place at the Nova music festival. I see it as my duty as a documentary filmmaker to bring to the world the testimonies and horrific stories from the survivors of this slaughter. Young women and men whose only sin was their desire for music, and the passion to celebrate free love, spirit and freedom.”

President Biden referenced the massacre during remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict days after the attack, naming “young people massacred while attending a music festival to celebrate peace” among the violent incidents of the previous few days.

Sipur CEO Emilio Schenker said the team “moved quickly” to begin work on the doc within a week of the attack because they believe it is “imperative to do everything in our power to shine a light on the greatest evil committed against our people since the Holocaust. The Supernova Music Festival must be seen and understood in its entirety to truly understand the larger meaning of the unspeakable crimes against humanity that occurred there. The world must never forget.”

The producers of the Supernova Gathering issued their first statement on the massacre on Friday. “Our dear tribe of Nova, first and foremost, we want to convey our sincere and heartfelt condolences to all the families, friends, partners and couples who have lost their loved ones or have been affected by the tragic events that unfolded, following that magic night and that turned into an exceedingly heavy morning,” they wrote.

“What was planned to be the happiest and largest electronic music festival of the Nova Tribe has turned into a scene of unspeakable tragedy, an inhumane war crime, an unprecedented violation of the most basic human values,” it continued. “This is the epitome of pure and unbridled evil, the horrifying and senseless murder of countless innocent angels, whose only ‘crime’ was being Jewish and living in Israel.“

The festival was attended by approximately 3,000 people, with a lineup focused on the electronic psytrance dance subgenre. Around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists entered the site by truck, motorcycle, ATV and paraglider and began killing festival attendees with machine guns and RPGs, while also taking a number hostage and transporting them to Gaza.

Israel is expected to launch a major land invasion into Gaza in retaliation within days with the stated aim of wiping out Hamas’ infrastructure and leadership.

16 Oct 2023

Travis Scott Postpones Second Raleigh Utopia Circus Maximus Tour Gig at Last Minute With No Explanation

Travis Scott was just three dates into his just-launched Utopia — Circus Maximum Tour when he postponed a date on the outing at the last minute. According to the News-Observer, Scott played a sold-out show at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. on Friday night, but when fans arrived at the arena for what was slated to be a second show at PNC on Saturday night they were told that the show had been postponed shortly before curtain.

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At press time spokespeople for promoter Live Nation and Scott could not be reached for comment on the cause of the show’s postponement. PNC Arena told fans to hold on to their tickets, which will be honored at a to-be-determined future date; the second show in Raleigh was added by LN in response to the first gig selling out.

WRAL reported that a number of fans showed up to the gig unaware that it had been postponed, with an announcement at the venue greeting them with the message that the gig was postponed due to “reasons beyond our control.”

The Travis Scott Presents Utopia — Circus Maximus tour is the first run of dates from Scott since the deadly 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy, which left 10 people dead and thousands injured after a crowd stampede. The tour kicked off on Oct. 11 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. and was slated to play the PNC Arena on Oct. 13 and 14.

The next scheduled date is Tuesday night (Oct. 17) in Dallas at the American Airlines Arena. Scott did not appear to have addressed the postponed show on his socials at press time. Over the weekend, his Instagram feed featured a picture of the tour’s stage and the message “Raleigh let’s do this” followed by a Sunday post hyping the Texas show, with the caption, “TEXAS LETS DOOO THIS Dalllas seee YOU sooon SOON NC THANK YOUUU !!!
F–king turnt wtf.”

Fan comments on the latter post told a story of frustration, with disappointed ragers writing, “2 instas and not acknowledging postponing raleigh is craaaaazy,” “2 instas and not acknowledging postponing raleigh is craaaaazy,” “Wow this is ridiculous. Hours before night 2 and not a word said ????” and “What happened to the 2nd show. Flew up here and paid BANDS to come see u!!!!”

See Scott’s latest post below.

16 Oct 2023

P!nk Clarifies That She Doesn’t Fly Any Country’s Flags at Her Shows After Receiving Threats: ‘I Am Human. I Believe in Peace’

P!nk said she has mistakenly been dragged into the heated rhetoric surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas because of mistaken information about elements of her live show. “This post will be controversial for some. At this point, breathing is controversial. I am getting many threats because people mistakenly believe I am flying Israeli flags in my show. I am not,” the singer explained in a post on Sunday night (Oct. 15).

“I have been using Poi flags since the beginning of this tour. These were used many, many years ago by the Māori people in New Zealand and because they and the Māori people are beautiful to me, we use them,” she explained, adding that, “I do not fly flags in my show in support of anything or anyone except the rainbow flag. That will remain my position.”

According to media reports in New Zealand, the images of P!nk’s dancers flying blue and white “poi” flags on long poles are similar to those on YouTube of “flag poi spinning” in which users spin around while waving pieces of colorful cloth tied to flexible sticks; the segment of the show in question has been part of P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour since the beginning of June, months before the armed wing of Hamas invaded Israel more than a week ago in a terror attack that left more than 1,300 Israelis dead and nearly 200 men, women, children and soldiers kidnapped.

“I am human. I believe in peace. Equality. Love,” added P!nk. “I am deeply saddened by the state of the world. I pray for all of us.”

P!nk recently wrapped up her 41-date stadium tour, which she hit pause on to kick off a North American arena tour in support of her Trustfall album before she heads to Australia and New Zealand in early 2024 for a stadium run.

P!nk’s post about the flag confusion came more than a week after Palestinian militant group Hamas staged a murderous assault on Israel in which more than 1,000 civilians were brutally killed in their homes — including more than 260 at a desert dance festival — leading to retaliatory strikes from Israel’s defense forces that have killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians. At press time Israel was preparing to launch a ground assault on the Gaza Strip in an effort to eradicate Hamas from the disputed territory.

See P!nk’s post below.

16 Oct 2023

Christina Aguilera and Latto Star In Lavish New Menulog Campaign

Burgers and fries, sticky Thai rice, ice-cream: Christina Aguilera and Latto have got the lot for a new campaign.

The U.S. stars of pop and rap join forces for the first time on a new recording of “Did Somebody Say” and its “hip-hopera” video, a project for the online food delivery service.

Latto, the Powerhouse Award recipient at Billboard’s 2023 Women In Music event, takes the lead and dishes out rhymes on how the Aussie business offers more than just “burgers and fries,” its menu has more “flavors than you tasted or you heard in your life.”

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Staged in what appears to be a Versailles-inspired palace, the official video sees Aguilera and Latto dressed to impress in elaborate 18th century outfits, as a team of men present their selection of tacos, poke bowls, sushi and more.

Christina brings the house down – or at least a crystal chandelier – with a run of high notes.

“Working with Menulog and my girl Latto on this genre-fusing project was honestly a blast,” comments Christina Aguilera in a statement. “We laughed a lot, sang loud and got to make a lavish video all in celebration of our favorite takeaway and grocery app.”

Latto adds: “When I heard about the opportunity to work with Menulog I was actually abroad on tour using the app! It was a no-brainer for me especially with the iconic Christina Aguilera involved. I had so much fun with this collab and have loved seeing it come to life.”

The “Just Eat Takeaway” campaign builds on previous, music- promotions led by Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry.

““Did Somebody Say’ has “helped put the Menulog brand on the cultural map and it’s amazing that the latest evolution reflects our own evolution as a business,” comments Simon Cheng, marketing director at Menulog, “with Latto and Christina speaking to our move into delivering grocery, convenience and non-food essential.”

Following Deliveroo’s exit from Australia’s app-based food delivery space in November 2022, three major food delivery platforms operate, led by UberEats, with Menulog said to occupy second place, ahead of Doordash.

15 Oct 2023

Drake’s 6-Year-Old Son Adonis Drops Debut Song ‘My Man Freestyle’

Drake‘s kid is making music. Adonis, the rapper’s 6-year-old son with artist Sophie Brussaux, has a song out now, titled “My Man Freestyle.”

“Happy birthday my son…MY MAN FREESTYLE OUT NOW,” Drake wrote on Instagram Sunday night (Oct. 15), a few days after Adonis’ Oct. 11 birthday. He shared a clip of the track and its cute music video.

“My Man Freestyle,” with Adonis credited as a writer with producer Lil Esso, starts with a chorus. “Don’t talk to my man like that/ I like it when you like it/ My, my, my, my man/ My, my, my, my man,” Adonis says.

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On the track, Adonis describes a day leading up to a game: “I was waiting for this moment to arrive/ I was driving in the car and I smash my car/ I was playing in on my iPad and I broke my iPad/ I’m going to my house, seeing my dad/ I am saying hi to my dad and I have to go change/ I’m playing basketball.”

The accompanying music video, below, shows Adonis on the court and giving a pep talk to friends.

“We just have to work harder. We have to shoot better. We have to play better. Get your energy up,” he says to applause.

Dad Drake — who currently has the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 — also makes an appearance toward the end of the clip.

Adonis recently co-starred in Drake’s “8AM in Charlotte” music video, which begins with a cute father-son conversation about Adonis’ artwork. When Drake asks his child how much he earned for his beautiful drawing, he laughs and says, “Oh please.” The visual for the For All the Dogs track was released in early October.

In September, Drake revealed that his son’s line-drawing of a red-eyed pooch would be the For All the Dogs cover art.

Check out Adonis’ “My Man Freestyle” below.

15 Oct 2023

Fans Choose Bad Bunny’s ‘Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music

Bad Bunny‘s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana tops this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Oct. 13) on Billboard, choosing Bad Bunny’s latest album as their favorite new music release of the past week.

Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, which loosely translates to “Nobody Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow,” brought in more than 37% of the vote, beating out new music from Ice Spice feat. Rema, Troye Sivan, Offset and more.

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The Puerto Rican superstar’s fifth studio album, with 22 tracks, explores the uncertainties of what tomorrow may hold. He debuted the set to 16,000 guests at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (aka El Choli) in San Juan on Thursday (Oct. 12).

Check out Billboard‘s preliminary ranking of the songs on Bad Bunny’s new album here.

Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana follows Bad Bunny’s 2022 hit album Un Verano Sin Ti, which was only the second all Spanish-language album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it spent 13 nonconsecutive weeks at the top.

Trailing behind Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana on the poll is Ice Spice feat. Rema’s “Pretty Girl,” with 20% of the vote, and Troye Sivan’s Something to Give Each Other, with 18% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s poll below.

15 Oct 2023

Taylor Swift’s ‘Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)’ Soundtracks New ‘Migration’ Movie Trailer

It’s almost time for 1989 (Taylor’s Version), and Taylor Swift has dropped another preview of what’s to come with a snippet of her re-recorded “Out of the Woods.”

“Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)” is featured in the latest trailer for Illumination and Universal’s animated film Migration, due out in theaters Dec. 22.

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“Out of the woods and… not in the clear yet,” a tagline reads on Illumination’s YouTube channel. Directed by Benjamin Renner, Migration‘s voice cast includes Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Caspar Jennings and Awkwafina.

Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) arrives on Oct. 27. In September, the pop icon revealed the full track list, which is rounded out by several “From the Vault” songs: the highly anticipated “Slut!,” “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Say Don’t Go” and “Suburban Legends.” 

Listen to a sneak peek of Swift’s updated “Out of the Woods” in the trailer below to get hyped for 1989 Day.

15 Oct 2023

‘I’m Just Pete’: Pete Davidson Parodies ‘Barbie’ Hit ‘I’m Just Ken’ on ‘SNL’ Return

“I’m Just Ken” got a funny new twist on SNL Saturday night (Oct. 14), thanks to host Pete Davidson.

The former cast member performed his own version of Ken’s rock ballad from the Barbie soundtrack on the season 49 premiere, which finally arrived after the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an agreement to end a screenwriters’ strike that went on for five months.

Davidson joked about his comedy career and reputation, singing: “I’m just Pete/ Anyone else, I’d be a three/ But I guess I’m hot for dudes in comedy/ ‘Cause it’s an ugly industry.”

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“I’m just Pete/ Looking like a meth head on the street/ People online still call me ‘Skete’/ Because of a guy whose name I can’t say legally,” he added, making a reference to Kanye West‘s history of trolling him.

Barbie: The Album‘s “I’m Just Ken” was a Billboard Hot 100 hit over the summer, debuting at No. 87 on the chart in August.  It also debuted at No. 4 on Hot Rock Songs and No. 5 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, as well as No. 39 on Digital Song Sales. “I’m Just Ken” was Barbie star Ryan Gosling’s first entry on the Hot 100.

Watch the “I’m Just Pete” music video below. In case you missed it, check out Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s cameo in a sketch poking fun at the NFL’s recent Taylor Swift coverage, and get a glimpse at Swift herself on the SNL stage, introducing musical guest Ice Spice.