Music News

Devilish Doja Cat Terrifies Christina Ricci in Horror-Themed ‘Demons’ Video

Christina Ricci knows a thing or two about spooking people thanks to her iconic role as Wednesday Addams in a pair of Addams Family movies. But the actress has the tables turned on her in the video for Doja Cat‘s single “Demons,” which dropped on Friday (Sept. 1).

In the terrifying visual for the latest single from Doja’s Scarlet (Sept. 22) album, the Emmy-nominated Yellowjackets star plays a mild-mannered homeowner whose bedroom is haunted by a razor-clawed Doja Devil. The clip co-directed by Christian Breslauer and the rapper/singer, opens with an image of the “sold” sign in front of Ricci’s new house as the suburban mom tries to get some shut eye on a stormy night.

The only problem is the terrifying red-eyed, midnight black horned demon crawling (and rapping) on her ceiling, illuminated by a snowy TV screen in an homage to another freaky suburban nightmare classic, Poltergeist. “How my demons look (How your demons)/ Now that my pocket’s full?/ How my demons look/ Now that you b—hes shook? (B—h)/ Yeah, how my demons look/ Now that my pocket’s full?,” Doja raps as she crawls menacingly into bed with Ricci.

Cut to a bald, naked Doja in a bathtub overflowing with black water, sweetly rapping about blocking her enemies from her V.I.P. section as two black demon hands reach up out of the water, with one pulling her head back to reveal milky white eyes. The demon party really takes off at that point, with two more hellhounds joining Doja in the attic for a Beelzebub dance party.

Ricci reaches for an old-school on-the-shoulder video camera to capture footage of Doja typing out the song’s lyrics on a typewriter and wearing a “cash cow” t-shirt in another homage to The Shining, while, inexplicably, surrounded by baby goats. And, spoiler alert, it just gets worse from there.

“Demons” follows in the heels of previous Scarlet singles “Paint the Town Red” and “Attention.”

Watch the “Demons” video below.



Jack Sonni, The ‘Other Guitar Player’ In Dire Straits, Dies at 68

Jack Sonni, the ex-guitar player with Dire Straits, whose contributions can be heard on the band’s 1985 release Brothers In Arms, one of the U.K.’s all-time best-selling albums, died Wednesday (March 30). He was 68.

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Born Dec. 9, 1954 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Sonni’s passion for music began at a young age, when he learned various instruments, including piano, trumpet and the six-string, which he mastered.

Sonni furthered his career with a relocation to New York, and he’d make his mark in the history books as the “other guitar player in Dire Straits,” a reference he was happy to share on his official biography.

Dire Straits’ lead guitarist is, of course, frontman Mark Knopfler, widely recognized by his peers as one of the finest to ever play the instrument. The two axemen reportedly met in a guitar shop, after which Sonni was invited to record parts for the band’s fifth studio album.

The result was Brothers In Arms, which led the Official U.K. Albums Chart for 14 weeks, and reigned over the Billboard 200 for nine weeks. The album smashed records around the world, shifting an estimated 30 million copies worldwide, and won two Grammys (best music video, short form for the title track, and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for the Billboard Hot 100 leader “Money For Nothing”).

When the rockers embarked on a major world tour in support, Sonni wore a distinctive red coat. That tour, too, was a record-setter. In Australia, fans bought more than 950,000 tickets, a record that stood for decades.

Sonni played guitar synthesizer on album cut “The Man’s Too Strong” and performed on stage with the band for the Wembley Stadium leg of the historic 1985 Live Aid concerts.

Following the birth of his daughters, Sonni calling time as on his career as a musician in 1988, instead pivoting to marketing. He went on serve as vice president of marketing for Guitar Center, a role that kept him connected with his beloved instrument.

Writing on his official site, Sonni described himself as “a writer, musician, nomadic raconteur, father and grandfather who has taken to heart the reality in the hard-learned lesson that life is short.” In life, he embraced the philosophy to “live well and live now” in pursuit of “creating memorable moments with friends and family”.

In recent years, he played alongside fellow alum on Dire Straits Legacy, ”born from our love and respect for the music of Dire Straits, and to bring the music to fans who have been starved of hearing it played live by the musicians who made it, for far too long,” DSL wrote in a 2018 statement.

Dire Straits leads tributes to the late artist. “Rest In Peace,” reads an official post. Another, from DSL, explains: “Our beloved Jack has left a void in our heart and soul… we will miss you so much, you are forever with us.”

Timbaland Reunites With Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake for ‘Keep Going Up!’: Stream It Now

If you see them in the club, they’ll be acting real nice — because they just reunited for a new collaboration.

That’s right, 16 years after TimbalandJustin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado unveiled their Billboard Hot 100 chart topper “Give It to Me” in 2007, the trio came together on Friday (Sept. 1) for their newest team-up, “Keep Going Up!”

Leading up to the release, Tim posted a teaser video for “Keep Going Up!,” which he captioned “WE BACK,” alongside peeking eyes and exploding head emojis. “Da king has returned!” The tease came a month after his Instagram post in which he and Timberlake hopped on a FaceTime call with Furtado while the pair worked on Tim’s upcoming sixth studio album.

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“[Timbaland and Timberlake] had thought it out quite a lot,” Furtado previously told Billboard of working with her longtime musical collaborators. “What’s great about them is they’re like, ‘We want you to do your thing. We want you to lead the ship in that direction.’ Then they had some great music and parts together. If the three of us are on a song, then we’re all equals, and that’s a really good feeling.”

All three artists have released new music so far this year, with Timbaland teaming up with BIA in March on “I’m That B—-,” Furtado dropping the Dom Dolla-assissted “Eat Your Man” in June and Timberlake guesting on a remix of Coco Jones’ “ICU” in July.

Listen to “Keep Going Up!” below.



Nicki Minaj Returns With ‘Last Time I Saw You’: Stream It Now

The Queen is back! Nicki Minaj is giving fans the first taste of her Pink Friday sequel with her new single, “Last Time I Saw You,” released on Friday (Sept. 1).

“Beggin me to stay and then you walk away/ There’s something that you wanted to say/ I was in a rush and you say you were crushed/ But I said I’d be back, it’s OK,” the 40-year-old superstar sings over a breezy, R&B beat.

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Minaj first teased the track on Instagram Live earlier this month, and fans immediately gushed over the upcoming release.  “Glad you like the lyrics,” the rapper responded on X (formerly known as Twitter). The irony is that my fave part of the whole song is the very end… like the last 30 seconds. can’t wait for you guys to hear the whole thing.”

Minaj is also gearing up to release her fifth studio album Pink Friday 2 this November. The project will be Minaj’s first studio album since 2018’s Queen, which featured “Chun Li,” “Good Form” and “Barbie Dreams.” “Yesterday I worked on my current TOP 2 songs off [Pink Friday 2],” she tweeted last month. “The eargasms that y’all are about to have. Ooohhhh chiiiii huntyyyyy don’t make dat serveeeee.” 

Listen to “Last Time I Saw You” below.



Doja Cat Casts Out ‘Demons’ On New Single: Stream It Now

As she continues to ride “Paint the Town Red” to global chart success, Doja Cat is turning her “Attention” to “Demons” on her latest Scarlet single.

On Friday (Sept. 1), the Grammy-winning star released the third pre-release single from her forthcoming Scarlet album. The D.A. Got That Dope-produced track finds Doja continuing the death-minded imagery of “Paint the Town Red.”

Doja first teased “Demons” on Aug. 22 with an Instagram post that captured her shadow striking a fierce pose. In the post, Doja’s shadow dons a pair of devil horns. A follow-up post on Aug. 29 unveiled the official single artwork for “Demons,” a scene straight out of supernatural suburbia. Doja, completely covered in black, hangs upside down in the corner of an unassuming living room with the song’s title spelled out in vacuum streaks on the carpet. The music video for “Demons,” which stars Emmy-nominated Yellowjackets actress Christina Ricci, premiered alongside the release of the track.

“Demons,” “Paint the Town Red,” and “Attention” are all set to appear on Scarlet. Doja’s new album is her first full-length project since 2021’s Planet Her. That album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, spawned Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles like “Woman,” and won the Grammy for best pop duo/group performance for “Kiss Me More” (with SZA).

On Thursday (Aug. 31), Doja revealed the updated album cover for Scarlet. The original cover art featured a fittingly scarlet-colored spider, but Doja seemed to have deleted the post and changed the cover after fans noticed that German hardcore band Chaver also used the same spider on the artwork for their upcoming album cover.

Watch the official music video for “Demons” below.



Luke Combs Welcomes Baby Boy: ‘We Couldn’t Love You More’

On Aug. 15, Luke Combs and wife Nicole welcomed their second baby boy into the world, the couple announced Thursday (Aug. 31).

“8.15.2023 – Beau Lee Combs,” the country star and his wife captioned a co-post on Instagram. “Welcome to the world. We couldn’t love you more.”

In the Instagram video — soundtracked by Cory Asbury’s 2023 ballad “These Are the Days” — a pacifier and an infant’s hospital hat are laid out on a cream-colored blanket, joined by a developing Polaroid picture with “Beau Combs” and a heart written on it in Sharpie. As the video progresses, a picture of baby Beau comes into view.

Beau joins his older brother, 1-year-old Tex, who was born last summer, on June 19, 2022.

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Combs announced the news of his second baby back in March, writing on Instagram: “Joining the 2 under 2 club! Baby boy #2 coming this September!!” — so it sounds like Beau came a couple of weeks early. He also took the opportunity to introduce the then-new song “Take You With Me” a few days before releasing his latest album, Gettin’ Older, which arrived on March 24. The sweet song addresses fatherhood and how quickly time passes. “I got a young’un of my own/ He’s too young to understand it/ When he gets a little older watching the stage where I’m standing/ He’ll know it’s about him when I sing I take you with me,” he sings.

Another song from Gettin’ Older, Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” has become one of the biggest hits of his career, so far peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending five weeks at No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.

See the video introducing Beau Combs below:

Benji Madden Says He’s ‘One Lucky Man’ in Adorable Birthday Post for Cameron Diaz

Benji Madden rarely posts on Instagram, but his wife Cameron Diaz’s 51st birthday is definitely something to celebrate with a sweet post.

“I’m off line mostly these days, just working, painting, making things and doing family life, but I have grown to like my little tradition of coming back on special occasions to show love to my Queen,” the rocker wrote on Wednesday (Aug. 30) alongside a photo of the actress cuddling the couple’s cat. “So today, it’s a very Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, best friend, best partner in everything, ride or die, greatest Mom to our little girl, @Avaline wine boss, family chef, advisor, collaborator and everything else. You do it all ❤️So grateful to have our family and I am one lucky man – I know that seems obvious but it really is nice to say it out loud now and then when you’re feeling it ❤️ ? I love you •forever •always •yours •true love ❤️ Happy Birthday Cameron.”

Diaz and Madden met in 2014 through Benji’s twin brother Joel and his wife Nicole Richie. On January 5, 2015, the couple tied the knot and later welcomed their first child — daughter Raddix — in December 2019.

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In September 2021, Diaz was a guest on the Anna Faris Is Unqualified podcast and discussed first meeting Madden. “I met mine through my now sister-in-law and brother-in-law, I met them first and then they didn’t set us up but we were in the same room because of them, and then we found each other,” she explained.

“I was like, ‘How come I didn’t see him before?’” Diaz continued, before her business partner, Katherine Power, chimed in, “Which is funny because you saw his twin brother.”

“They’re not the same, they’re so different,” Diaz replied. “Even though they’re twins, they’re very, very different obviously.”

Oprah Winfrey & Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Inspired by Dolly Parton to Launch Fund for Displaced Maui Residents

Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson have committed $10 million to make direct payments to people on Maui who are unable to return to their homes because of the wildfires, through a new fund they announced Thursday.

The People’s Fund of Maui will give $1,200 a month to adults who are not able to return to their primary residences because of the recent wildfires, including people who owned and rented their homes, according to the fund’s website. The fund will also seek donations to extend the length of time it can provide the support.

“How do we help?” the Young Rock star said he and Winfrey asked each other during the wildfires, saying in a video released along with the announcement that they grappled with how to best direct their efforts. “You want to take care of the greatest need of the people, and that’s giving them money.”

They are looking forward to the help of “every person who called me and said, ‘What can I do?’” Winfrey said in the video. “This is what you can do.”

The pair were inspired by a similar fund set up by Dolly Parton after wildfires swept through Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in December 2016, killing 14 people and destroying 2,400 structures.

Jeff Conyers, president of The Dollywood Foundation, said he consulted with Winfrey’s team multiple times in the past weeks to share the lessons that they’d learned from administrating the fund, which eventually granted $11 million to families who had lost their homes.

“Dolly’s idea was that, ‘Hey, look, these are my people and I want to take care of them and we trust them to know what recovery looks like for themselves and their families in the days and weeks following this immediate catastrophe here,’” Conyers said.

Parton’s fund, called My People Fund, worked with first responders and a local utility company and asked residents to help them determine which structures were destroyed and who lived in those homes, Conyers said. Around 1,000 families eventually received assistance from the fund, according to an evaluation from the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. That included a final $5,000 lump sum transfer at the end of six months.

To qualify for the People’s Fund of Maui, applicants must show a government ID and a utility bill in their name for a lost or uninhabitable residence, the fund’s website said.

Winfrey, who lives on Maui part-time, visited an emergency shelter on Maui in the days after the wildfire hit and worried about effectively getting resources to residents. At least 115 people were killed in the fires, though an unknown number are still missing. The fire that ripped through the historic town of Lahaina on Aug. 8 was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

Forecasters warned Wednesday that gusty winds and low humidity increased the risk that fires could spread rapidly in the western parts of each Hawaiian island, though they were not as powerful as the winds that helped fuel the deadly blaze three weeks ago.

In the announcement, Winfrey and Johnson said they consulted with “community elders, leaders and residents including Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla, Keali’i Reichel, Archie Kalepa, Ekolu Lindsey, Kimo Falconer, Tiare Lawrence, Kaimana Brummel, Kaleikoa Ka’eo, Brian Keaulana, Kaimi Kaneholani, Henohea Kāne, Paele Kiakona, Ed Suwanjindar, Shep Gordon and Jason Momoa.”

The Entertainment Industry Fund, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps celebrities administer their charitable work, is sponsoring the fund, the announcement said.

Johnson and Winfrey hope the fund will continue to make transfers to qualifying residents for at least six months, but Winfrey said it would be up to the American public to determine how long the fund extends, based on their support and donations.

When setting up a direct cash transfer program, it’s important to define the objective, said Holly Welcome Radice, the regional representative for the Americas at CALP Network, a collective of organizations that studies cash assistance programs. In this case, $1,200 should correspond to the price of housing or the living costs for an adult in the area or whatever the need is the fund is seeking to meet, she said.

“The objective will be difficult to meet if your transfer value is not connected to the reality of the people,” she said, adding the fund should consider if the local economy can respond to the influx of money and map out what other services people may need.

“If it’s feasible and appropriate, then cash is a very direct way for people to benefit and have agency,” Radice said.

The fund should also spend time communicating the parameters of the program clearly, she said, “so people understand who qualifies and why they qualify and making sure that there is some type of feedback mechanism where people can place grievances.”

Miley Cyrus Says Viral Photo With Taylor Swift & Demi Lovato Made It Clear She’s Bisexual

Miley Cyrus is strolling down memory lane in her ongoing TikTok series based on her new single, “Used to Be Young,” and in part 19, she reflects on a throwback photo in which she’s seen walking alongside her Hannah Montana costar Emily Osment, Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato.

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While the other three girls look party-ready in dresses and heels, Cyrus is seen in sweatpants, and oversized cardigan and slipper-like boots. “This picture has become a meme, where it says, ‘Be the Miley of your friend group,’” she says, looking at the photo. “If you guys didn’t know I was bisexual from this damn picture, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.”

The 30-year-old superstar added that the girls were headed to the Cheesecake Factory after the Grammy Awards. “These are some classy ladies,” she teased.

Earlier in the day, Cyrus looked through a video of herself dancing the “Hoedown Throwdown” from 2009’s Hannah Montana: The Movie. “This was the original kind of like a TikTok dance,” she explained. She then called out the choreographer Jamal Sims for his hat, before joking, “Honestly, my zipper jeans aren’t doing anything for me either.”

See the two new parts of Cyrus’ “Used to Be Young” series below.

Taylor Swift ‘Eras Tour’ Movie Prompts ‘Exorcist: Believer’ to Move Release Date: ‘Taylor Wins’

Look what she made them do. Taylor Swift’s forthcoming Eras Tour movie is continuing to rock the planet weeks before it hits theaters. On Thursday (Aug. 31), Academy Award-nominated film producer Jason Blum surprised horror fans with a new release date for The Exorcist: Believer — thanks to Swift’s new film.

“Look what you made me do,” he tweeted. “The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23, #TaylorWins.”

The original release date for The Exorcist: Believer was Oct. 13, the same date Swift chose for her Eras Tour concert film. The Exorcist: Believer will serve as the sixth installment in The Exorcist franchise; it is also a direct sequel to the original 1973 Exorcist film. The cast includes Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Ellen Burstyn and more. Given that fans have already crashed the AMC app in their quest for Eras Tour tickets, Blum likely made a wise decision in moving the release date.

On Thursday, Swift announced that a concert film of her massively successful Eras Tour would be hitting AMC theaters across North America. She shared an 80-second trailer for the film, writing, “The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far. I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon. Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged.” Swift is the latest megastar to partner with AMC; last month, Travis Scott collaborated with the theater chain to premiere his Circus Maximus film in support of his Billboard 200-topping Utopia album.

Standard tickets for the Sam Wrench-helmed film cost $19.89 (plus tax) for adults, while tickets for seniors and children cost $13.13 (plus tax). The film has a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes and will be available in AMC theaters in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. If those prices seem a bit curious, that would be because they are a nod to 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s latest re-recording, which arrives just two weeks after The Eras Tour hits theaters on Oct. 27. And as for the kid/senior price, 13 is Swift’s lucky number.

Check out Jason Blum’s announcement here: