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Katy Perry is almost ready for launch — and she’s giving fans a peek inside the capsule before liftoff.
The pop star is set to board Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission on Monday morning (April 14), joining a groundbreaking, all-female crew for the company’s 11th human spaceflight.
Ahead of launch, Perry shared a behind-the-scenes look from inside the capsule, posting a video to Instagram where she appears in full flight gear with her fellow passengers.
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“I think I’m gonna sing,” she says in the clip. “I’ve got to sing in space!” As the camera pans to show the six-woman team seated together, Perry adds, “These are all of my astronaut girly friends,” flashing a grin as the capsule runs through final simulations.
Joining Perry on the mission are journalist Lauren Sánchez, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen, producer and entrepreneur Kerianne Flynn, and CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King. The crew is scheduled to launch at 7 a.m. CT from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility, where they’ve spent the past several days completing astronaut training.
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This will mark the first all-women crewed mission to space since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo flight in 1963.
Earlier this week, Perry described the emotional resonance she felt while preparing for the mission, explaining that she experienced what she believed were signs from the universe that confirmed she was on the right path.
“When I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up the capsule. On the very front of it is the outline in the shape of a feather and when I saw that it was like a total confirmation because my mom has always called me Feather,” she said.
“Then they reveal the capsule name… The capsule’s name is Tortoise. A wave, just the most energetic wave, just shot through my body. My mom calls me two nicknames. Feather and Tortoise. What are the chances that I’m going to space on a rocket in a capsule with my symbol, the feather, called Tortoise?”
“There are no coincidences,” she added. “And I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.”
Perry has embraced the symbolism and style of the mission, joking in a separate post, “There will be lash extensions flying in the capsule… Mine are glued on. They’re good.” She added, “Space is going to finally be glam.”
Lauren Sánchez echoed the sentiment, saying, “We’re going to put the ‘a**’ in astronaut.”
For Perry, the mission also serves as a message to young women. “I’m motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space — literally and figuratively,” she wrote on Instagram.
After the short journey into space — which will include four minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth — Perry will begin her Lifetimes Tour in support of her upcoming album 143, launching April 23 in Mexico City.
The flight will be broadcast live on CBS with coverage beginning at 7 a.m. ET with a special edition of CBS Mornings, followed by the “Gayle Goes to Space” special at 9 a.m. ET. Paramount+ will also stream the entire Blue Origin launch and flight.
Awich dropped a new song called “Butcher Shop feat. FERG” on digital platforms last Friday (April 11) at midnight Japan time.
RZA, founding member of Wu-Tang Clan who has greatly influenced hip-hop history, produced the track, the first single from Awich’s album that he produced in full. The collaborative track is a bold number with a global and classic hip-hop feel.
The “Bad B***h Bigaku” rapper and Gravediggaz artist first met when the latter visited Japan a few years ago. They felt a deep resonance both musically and spiritually from the beginning and hit it off immediately. For RZA, who has incorporated Asian culture into his work with Wu-Tang Clan, and for Awich, who was preparing to make her U.S. debut, it was a natural progression from there to start collaborating. The YENTOWN MC spent time at RZA’s base, Wu Mansion, to take in his ideas and sound approach, and over time she built the foundation for her new album.
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Awich had been interacting with FERG, the featured artist on her new release, since before, when she performed at music festivals overseas and visited New York. At a live event hosted by Jordan Brand earlier this year, the rapper made a surprise appearance on stage with Awich and the two performed this song for the first time. Awich and FERG’s the backgrounds and skills clash in the mic relay of this track, thrillingly developed by RZA’s precise and cinematic production.
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“Butcher Shop is a place where the three realities of Okinawa, where I was born and raised, Tokyo, where I live now, and New York intersect,” says Awich about this single. “Together with the legendary RZA and FERG, a supreme artist who embodies the streets, we’ve carved out today’s borderless atmosphere with cutting words and beats. This song is a crossroads where everything collides: Japan and New York, culture, fashion, luxury, fun, sin and its price. Everyone brings their own ‘meat’ and carves up the truth. Welcome to our Butcher Shop.”
The accompanying music video, which the press release says is immersive like a short film featuring performances by Awich and FERG set to RZA’s signature dark and majestic worldview, was unveiled Monday (April 14) at 8 p.m. Japan time.
Awich’s new single follows her recent collaborative track called “ASIAN STATE OF MIND” featuring South Korea’s Jay Park, India’s KR$NA, Masiwei, the leader of the Chinese group Higher Brothers, and Cambodia’s VannDa released at the end of February.
The rapper has also been giving back to the community, organizing the Know The World – Awich Global Education Project – (Study Abroad in Atlanta & Study Abroad in the City) program for the second year in a row. This project reflects her wish to contribute towards solving the issues of child poverty, experience discrepancy and education in her home prefecture of Okinawa by providing free English learning opportunities to young people.
The program aims to foster a spirit of “turning adversity into strength” through international exchange experiences and studying abroad. 100 young people from low-income households in Okinawa, from first year high school to those aged 22, will be provided with free “study abroad in the city” homestay experiences with foreign families in the prefecture, and three people will be provided with free short-term study abroad experiences in Atlanta, where Awich studied, after the local homestay stint.
Shirley Manson is pushing back against media commentary about her appearance, calling out what she describes as “weaponised” language used to diminish women in music as they age. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news On Saturday (April 13), the Garbage frontwoman took to Instagram to share a […]
Neil Young, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers shared the stage at a Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy rally over the weekend, delivering a powerful, multi-generational performance of Young’s protest anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
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The moment took place on Saturday (April 12) at the political rally hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Los Angeles’ Grand Park. The event, which centered on anti-corporate messaging and grassroots political reform, also featured solo sets from all three artists.
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Young, who closed out the rally, began his brief performance with “Rainbow of Colors,” a song from his 2019 album Colorado, before launching into “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Midway through the song, Baez and Rogers walked onstage to join him, taking turns on vocals and leading chants of “Power to the people” and “Take America back” between verses.
Baez, who recently marked her return to public performance following her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2023, also performed a five-song solo set earlier in the evening. Her selections were all covers, beginning with “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Turn Me ’Round,” a Freedom Singers civil rights anthem. She followed with Phil Ochs’ “There But for Fortune” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Toward the end of her set, Baez was joined by Rogers for renditions of “America the Beautiful” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” It marked a rare public musical appearance for Baez, who formally retired from full-length touring in 2019.
Rogers, who released her sophomore album Surrender in 2022, recently teased new music on social media and has continued to appear at benefit concerts and politically focused events.
Sanders has been very vocal in his disdain for the Trump administration’s controversial tariff policies. During a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Sanders lambasted Trump’s pugilistic approach to foreign policy, saying, “We don’t have to hate China. We don’t have to hate other people. Let’s figure out a way to work together.”
Young, a longtime supporter of progressive causes, first released “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 on his album Freedom, and has performed it across decades of political moments. In 2020, the rocker filed a copyright infringement lawsuit over Trump’s unauthorized use of “Rockin’ in the Free World” at campaign events.
Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap have claimed they had their pro-Palestinian messaging cut from the recent livestream of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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The trio – who have become known for their outspoken political views on and off the stage – made their debut appearance at Coachella on Friday (April 11), with their performance gaining a small amount of notoriety thanks to an onstage chant celebrating the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Thatcher, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 87, has been a noted target of Kneecap, largely due to her outspoken conservative policies and her involvement in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which aimed to put an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
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During the trio’s Coachella set, the band could be heard calling out to fans, “If anybody was wondering, Margaret Thatcher’s still dead.” This was then followed by a singalong of “Maggie’s in a box” to the tune of “Give It Up” by KC and The Sunshine Band. However, after this portion’s absence from the livestream was noted by NME, the group noted that this instance wasn’t the only part of their set that was removed from the broadcast.
“Not the only thing that was cut – our messaging on the US-backed genocide in Gaza somehow never appeared on screens either,” Kneecap wrote on socials. “Back next Friday Coachella and it’ll be sorted.”
The following day (April 12), Californian pop-punk veterans Green Day performed a headline set at the festival, with their appearance being noted for frontman Billie Joe Armstrong once again altering lyrics in response to ongoing political issues. While Armstrong changed the “American Idiot” line “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda,” their track “Jesus of Suburbia” also received a similar revision during their late-night slot.
In that instance, Armstrong changed the line “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimized” to “Runnin’ away from pain, like the kids from Palestine,” though by all reports this lyrical alteration was not removed from the stream.
Kneecap will return for the second weekend of Coachella in a matter of days, and will perform another run of North American dates in October.
Rob Hirst, the drummer of Australian rock veterans Midnight Oil, has revealed he is currently battling pancreatic cancer.
69-year-old Hirst, who co-founded the Sydney rock outfit in the ‘70s, revealed his diagnosis publicly in an interview with The Australian, explaining that he has been living with the disease for two years. Hirst noted he had received confirmation of his condition about six months after Midnight Oil wrapped up the Australian leg of their farewell tour in October 2023, and he’s been receiving constant medical assistance since.
“So it’s ongoing,” Hirst told the publication. “I’ve had pretty much every treatment known to man – every scan, ultrasound, MRI. I’ve kind of had ‘the works.’”
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Hirst explained that he was diagnosed “early,” with his tumor being caught while at stage three. Upon learning of his condition, Hirst embarked upon months of chemotherapy before an unsuccessful eight-hour “Whipple” surgery to attempt the removal of the tumor. He has since continued with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
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Though initially keeping his diagnosis a secret, Hirst has since gone public to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, noting that it “hasn’t really attracted the attention, for example, of skin cancers or breast cancers or others.” According to data from Cancer Australia, the average survival rate of individuals between 2016 and 2020 was 13%, with men given a chance of 12%.
“Coming up to two years, I thought I just need to get this, literally, off my chest,” Hirst explained. “Also, I think that the lesson for me – and maybe why I’ve lasted this long – is because, if you do have any of that kind of symptom, where there’s something that you feel is wrong, just go and get a simple blood test. It could be life-changing, and life-extending.”
Midnight Oil first formed in Sydney in 1972 as Farm, before adopting their later moniker in 1976. The group initially released eleven albums before splitting in 2002, with their breakthrough coming in 1982 with 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which hit No. 3 in Australia.
Their following three albums – 1984’s Red Sails in the Sunset, 1987’s Diesel and Dust, and 1990’s Blue Sky Mining – all topped the Australian charts, while the latter gave them a peak of No. 20 on the Billboard 200. Their 1987 single “Beds Are Burning” is often considered a landmark of Australian music, with its message of Indigenous land rights also resonating internationally and peaking at No. 17 on the Hot 100.
While the band would be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006, they would reform a decade later in 2016, and following a global reunion tour, they issued The Makarrata Project in 2020 and Resist in 2022. While both albums would reach No. 1 in Australia, the former was released just one week before longtime bassist Bones Hillman passed from cancer at the age of 62.
If you watched music on TV at any point in the last 50+ years, you most likely experienced the work of Don Mischer, who directed and/or produced hundreds of hours of programming, including six Super Bowl halftime shows and variety specials headlined by such icons as Barbra Streisand and Willie Nelson. Mischer, who amassed 15 Primetime Emmys for his work, died on Friday (April 11) in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Mischer produced and directed Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the star-studded 1983 special on which Michael Jackson introduced his Moonwalk. Mischer also produced and directed a 1985 sequel, Motown Returns to the Apollo. In 1993, he reunited with Jackson when the superstar headlined the Super Bowl halftime show. That performance is credited with elevating the halftime show to its current status as the world’s top platform for a music performer.
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Mischer worked on five more Super Bowl halftime shows, headlined by Paul McCartney (2005), The Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (2008) and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (2009). The most memorable of these was the show which Prince headlined amid a downpour. It regularly tops lists of the greatest halftime performances of all time.
Mischer directed The Kennedy Center Honors across four decades (1978-86 and 1992-2005). He also produced and/or directed three of the four EGOT-level awards shows — working on three Tonys telecasts, three Oscars telecasts and nine Primetime Emmys telecasts. He never worked on the Grammys, but he served as executive producer of the Billboard Music Awards three times (2011-13).
He produced and directed the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and served as executive producer of the 2002 Winter Olympics ceremony.
He worked on many superstar specials, including Goldie & Liza Together (1981), where Oscar winners Goldie Hawn and Liza Minnelli memorably teamed up. Others included Willie Nelson: Texas Style (1989), Sonny & Cher: Cher Remembers (1999), Barbra Streisand: Timeless (2000) and James Taylor: One Man Band (2007). He also worked on dance specials headlined by Twyla Tharp, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, and comedy specials starring Eddie Murphy and Don Rickles.
Mischer worked on many “event” TV specials, keyed to anniversaries or re-openings. Among them: Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday at Carnegie Hall (1988), Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1991), Bob Hope: The First 90 Years (1992), To Life: Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (1998) and National September 11 Memorial & Museum Dedication (2014).
Mischer’s first major credit in TV was directing Great American Dream Machine on PBS (1970-71). That led to directing In Concert, a late-night music series on ABC (1973-75).
Mischer produced the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which led to a rare, if understandable, slip on his part. After John Kerry’s speech accepting the nomination for president, balloons were supposed to drop from the ceiling onto the delegates below. However, the balloons got stuck and did not fall. Mischer lost his temper and let out a string of expletives — which went out live on CNN.
In January 2009, Mischer had a happier experience when he produced and directed We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, which featured performances by Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
Mischer received 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for outstanding directorial achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Peabody Award (for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever). In 2012, he received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. In 2014, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
In November 2023, Mischer published his memoir :10 Seconds to Air: My Life in the Director’s Chair. Kirkus Reviews called it “a frank, insightful recollection of an accomplished career.”
“Don was simply iconic,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA, said in a statement. “His mastery of directing live events was a fast-paced symphony of meticulous planning combined with on-the-spot decision-making that elevated our nation’s greatest cultural events, always capturing the human spirit behind them. … Don’s skill as a director elevated the emotions, excitement and importance of these live worldwide moments, creating lifelong memories for audiences around the world.”
After directing and producing hundreds of hours of live television, Mischer knew what he was doing and felt at peace when a show went live.
“There’s nothing like that feeling that the clock is ticking down and you’re sitting in the truck, and then suddenly it’s time, and everybody gets quiet,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “That’s when I get calm.”
Mischer is survived by his wife, Suzan; four children, Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily; and two grandchildren, Everly and Tallulah.
Benson Boone is making the leap from Coachella to the SNL stage in just a couple weeks, when he’ll perform live as musical guest on the May 3 episode. It will mark Boone’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live. His SNL debut will be alongside Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson, who’ll serve as host for […]
“I’m terrified,” says Post Malone while kicking back in an Indio, Calif., villa. He’s at an intimate but rowdy party hosted by Poppi, the fast-growing prebiotic soda he was an early investor in, and is speaking about his upcoming Coachella 2025 headlining gig that will close out both weekends of the festival on Sunday night April 13 and 20).
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“They want me to do something crazy, and I’m terrified to do it,” he teases, not saying much more. Even so, Posty says he gets nervous before every show. Except for, maybe, the first time he played Coachella in 2018 at the Sahara tent. “I wasn’t as nervous back then… I’m just old now. Everything hurts.”
Getting older is, in part, why Post was so eager to support Poppi from the jump. “I remember kicking soda was a hard thing,” he says, speaking of a few years back when he decided to swap in some healthier day-to-day choices. He says his manager, Austin Rosen, told him about the then-new option, which Post tried and declared, “This is f—ing banging.”
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Other than stopping by to hang and support Poppi (which in March celebrated a nearly $2 billion acquisition by Pepsi Co), Post has stayed tucked away for most of Coachella weekend one. And the day after his set, he reveals, he’s right back to work cutting vocals for his upcoming album.
And yes, he’s cooking up another country set.
While speaking about how kind the Nashville community has been since he had started working on his chart-topping 2024 album, F-1 Trillion, he says that every time he gets together with his crew out there — which includes buddies and fellow artists like Ernest, Hardy, Thomas Rhett and many more — “we just have fun. We just sit and f—ing talk and make songs. And so I’m pretty excited for the new record already.”
Posty says he’s already done two trips to Nashville for the project and has “made probably 35 songs; it’s just a matter of which one’s rock, and which one’s sock,” he says. (As for whether or not he’ll perform any new music during his headlining set, he says with a laugh: “Absolutely not.”)
Malone is currently working with scratch vocals, but shares that the band has already cut a bunch of songs “and they’re f—ing killing it… I sit there and listen to these songs, and I usually hate listening to my music, but listening to the band play, I get so excited.”
That excitement Post feels for the country music genre is evident — plus it works. F-1 Trillion spawned the Hot 100 No. 1 hit “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, while a total of 18 songs off the album charted on the tally. F-1 also debuted atop the Top Country Albums chart. And in May, Post will compete for album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
While country music has been the vehicle to help launch Post into this stratosphere of success, his hits-filled catalog that spans hip-hop, pop and even rock will be on full display during his headlining set, he assures.
“You put a twist on the instrumentation and the musicianship of it,” he says of crafting a cohesive show. “We have Lillie [Mae] playing the fiddle and Cheese [Chandler Walters] playing the steel [guitar] and incorporating that into the old songs and then transitioning into the new s—… that’s always been the thing about me, is it’s all just f—ing music. And I think that’s a really neat thing that we actually got booked to play Coachella; I think it’s special that even if you don’t like country music or if you don’t necessarily like pop or hip-hop music, everybody can come together.”
And thanks to F-1, not only is Post headlining Coachella, but right after will head out on his first stadium tour, the Big Ass World Tour, alongside new pal Jelly Roll. While the correlation between Post’s foray into country music and his global superstardom is clear, he sees his current path as the only one that felt right.
Post has released an album every year since 2022 — “some better than others,” he says softly — starting with Twelve Carat Toothache, then his pop-country-stepping-stone project Austin, and then last year’s F-1.
“[They weren’t] really, I don’t want to say not well received, but, you know, it was something that I had to do,” he says of Toothache and Austin. “We just slowed everything down and that’s kind of what I was going through at that point. And [F-1] was just f—ing bitching. It was so fun to make. And I said in an interview a while ago, ‘When I’m 30 years old, I’m gonna make a country record.’ And I made it at 29, so I wasn’t too far off. But you know, it just happened naturally. I was like, ‘F— it, let’s go to Nashville. Let’s give it a go.’ I think finally bringing the fun back into what I was doing really showed on the record. And I think a lot of folks had fun listening to it. And we’re going to attempt to do it again. I’m excited to keep going.”
So does that mean he will continue his trend of releasing an album a year? “Hopefully,” he says, “we’ll have some music releasing very, very soon.”
Cynthia Erivo‘s “Worst of Me” tops this week’s new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (April 11) on Billboard, choosing the Wicked actress’ dramatic new ballad as their favorite new music release of the past week.
“Worst of Me” captured 73% of the vote, surpassing recent releases from artists like Lana Del Rey (“Henry, Come On”), Jessie Murph (“Blue Strips”), Bon Iver (SABLE fABLE), Rauw Alejandro (“Carita Linda”), and others.
“Worst of Me” is the second single from Erivo’s sophomore album, I Forgive You, which is set for release on June 6 through Verve Records/Republic Records. In addition to showcasing her powerhouse vocals, the project marks a new chapter for Erivo as a songwriter, as she has co-writing credits on every track.
The new single sees Erivo soaring vocally as she closes the door on a toxic relationship. Lush string arrangements and intricate harmonies elevate the emotional ballad, as she declares: “I came here for love, oh, no I don’t want it anymore. I gave you my home, but you took the worst of me.”
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It’s is shaping up to be a banner year for Erivo. Following the blockbuster success of Wicked in 2024, she received a best actress nomination at the 2025 Oscars, where she also delivered a show-stopping performance of “Defying Gravity” alongside co-star Ariana Grande. Still ahead, she’s set to host the 2025 Tony Awards, take on the role of Jesus Christ in the Hollywood Bowl’s Jesus Christ Superstar, and headline WorldPride’s post-parade stage in Washington, D.C. All this leads up to the release of Wicked: For Good, the final installment of the franchise, premiering Nov. 21.
Del Rey’s “Henry, Come On” landed in second place in the poll with 12% of the vote. The gentle track serves as the first single from her long-awaited country album, The Right Person Will Stay.
Check out the full results of this week’s poll below and visit Billboard’s Friday Music Guide for more must-hear releases.
