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Attendees at this weeks’ Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2025 runway show got an unexpected treat when LV men’s creative director Pharrell Williams debuted his new collaboration with K-pop superstars SEVENTEEN during Tuesday’s (Jan. 21) show. The mid-tempo track with a low-pitched, bassy bottom, “Bad Influence,” features group members S. Coups, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The8, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino singing about having a good time while worrying about the consequences.
On the woozy chorus, Seungkwan, Hoshi, Coups and DK cronning: “Bad influence, you had to do it/ Oh every time yeah, enough of you/ Bad influence you had to do it/ You wanna have a good good night.”
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“We are happy and honored to collaborate with Pharrell Williams, whom we have deeply admired for a long time,” said the members of the 13-person group who worked on the track in a statement; members Mingyu, Joshua, Jun and Woozi are not listed as participants on the song. “We truly enjoyed the creative process which showcases a new side of ourselves. We hope to connect with more listeners worldwide through this collaboration.”
The track was written and composed by Williams for the Paris LV show — which also featured bits of Don Toliver and BTS member J-Hope’s new single, “LV Bag,” and Playboi Carti’s “Timeless” — and represents the group’s latest team-up with an A-list collaborator. It follows on the heels of their collabs with Charli XCX (“Beg For You”), Pink Sweat$ (“17”), New Kids on the Block (“Dirty Dancing”), DJ Khaled (“Love, Money, Fame”), Marshmello (“SOS”) and Anne-Marie (“World”), among others.
SEVENTEEN released their 21-track greatest hits collection, 17 Is Right Here, in 2024, spotlighting such beloved hits as “Maestro,” “Rock With You,” “HOT” and “Super.” They wound-down the year with the Spill the Feels EP, which included the Khaled track, which they performed at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
Watch video from the song’s premiere below.
Taylor Swift, Karol G and Benson Boone are the top names of 2024 in music in Spain, according to the most recent annual report from PROMUSICAE (short for Productores de Música de España).
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The report, based on an exhaustive analysis of data collected weekly throughout the year, reveals that Spanish-language music reaffirmed its dominance in the country with 94 of the 100 most popular songs performed in this language, and 46 of them belonging to Spanish artists. It takes into account figures from 90% of physical points of sale in Spain, data from digital stores and audio streaming platforms. Since 2022, it also considers views of music content on YouTube, reflecting a broader picture of current music consumption in the country.
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Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” (Universal Music) led the Top 100 Canciones (songs) chart, followed by Feid and ATL Jacob’s “Luna” (Universal) and “La Bachata” by Manuel Turizo (Sony Music). Other top tracks included Myke Towers’ “La Falda” (One World Music) and “Santa” by Rvssian, Rauw Alejandro and Ayra Starr (Sony Music). In addition, for 27 weeks of 2024, Spanish artists topped the charts with albums such as El Último de la Fila’s Desbarajuste Piramidal (Warner Music Spain), Chanel’s ¡Agua! (Sony Music) and David Bisbal’s Todo es Posible en Navidad (Universal Music Spain), which closed the year.
Swift dominated the Spanish charts with her album The Tortured Poets Department (Universal Music), the bestselling album of 2024 and leader of the Top 100 Vinilos (vinyl) chart. The album spent 36 weeks on the Top 100 Álbumes (albums) chart and went Platinum. Meanwhile, Boone became the undisputed star of Spanish radio with his ballad “Beautiful Things” (Warner Music), being the most played song of the year on the radio.
The report also underscores the weight of Latin artists in the Top 100 Álbumes, with several names dominating the charts week after week. Karol G cemented her global impact with two albums in the top spots — Mañana Será Bonito reached No. 2 and Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) reached No. 10 — highlighting her leadership in Latin music during 2024. Bad Bunny secured No. 5 with Un Verano Sin Ti and No. 6 with Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana. Quevedo ranked No. 3 with Donde Quiero Estar, followed by Saiko’s Sakura (Saikoneta) at No. 4.
Other artists who ranked No. 1 in individual weeks include Duki, Rauw Alejandro, Jhayco, Omar Courtz, Dei V and Eladio Carrion. Shakira closed the year with Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran at No. 14, while Dei V’s Quién Es Dei V? reached No. 16.
For the president of PROMUSICAE, Antonio Guisasola, these figures “confirm the robust health of recorded music and the public’s ongoing interest in it, supported by the increasing number of paid streaming subscriptions as well as the continued purchase of physical formats like vinyl, which shows the public’s commitment to engaging with their favorite artists’ work,” he said in a press release.
2024 was a record year for digital music consumption in Spain. Streaming platforms registered 98.5 billion plays, 13% more than the previous year. In addition, more than 1,180 artists surpassed 10 million listens, and 70 of them exceeded 100 million. For the first time, weeks 49 and 51 reached 2 billion streams in a single week, a historic achievement driven by the Christmas campaign.
Another noteworthy fact is that amid the digital boom, vinyl maintained its relevance with a 9% growth in sales during 2024. More than 50% of the records in Top 100 Vinilos were by Spanish artists. Among them, Arde Bogotá’s Cowboys de la A3 (Sony Music) reached No. 2 on the annual list, after spending five weeks in the top spot. Dani Martín’s El Último Día de Nuestras Vidas (Sony Music) took fourth position with just four weeks of sales, while Rosalía’s Motomami (Sony Music), a hit since 2022, closed the year in sixth place.
Gracie Abrams and Demi Lovato are calling out Instagram parent company Meta for seemingly hindering their efforts to unfollow President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the app after Inauguration Day.
Sharing a close-up selfie on her Story Tuesday (Jan. 21) — one day after the politicians were sworn into office — the “That’s So True” singer wrote that she “had to unfollow @vp and @potus three (3) separate times today because @meta kept automatically refollowing the accounts.”
“How curious!” she continued. “Had to block them in order to make sure I am nowhere near that. Sharing in case this is happening to your account as well.”
The Camp Rock alum also spoke out Tuesday. Posting a screenshot of Vance’s profile onto her own Story, Lovato wrote, “I have unfollowed this guy twice today.”
“Shady f–king business meta,” they added.
In a statement posted by Meta’s Andy Stone on Threads Wednesday and shared with Billboard, the company denied that anyone was “made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady.”
“Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes,” the communications director explained. “This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”
Trump and Vance’s administration assumed control over Instagram’s @potus and @vp handles following their swearing-in ceremony Monday (Jan. 20), which marked the start of the twice-impeached billionaire’s second White House term. For the past four years, the accounts were run by the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, which Abrams and Lovato both openly supported.
The two singers had also endorsed Harris‘ 2024 presidential bid, with the former Eras Tour opener performing at one of the former prosecutor’s October rallies in Madison, Wis. After Harris lost the election to Trump on Nov. 5, Lovato shared a message of hope on X, writing, “This was OUR election and WE WON TOGETHER. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but today we will celebrate each other.”
Nearly two months later, Trump is about 48 hours into his second presidency – and he’s hit the ground running. Following a weekend of inauguration festivities – featuring technical-difficulty-ridden performances from Carrie Underwood and Billy Ray Cyrus – the politician has already signed multiple executive actions targeting immigration, delaying the national TikTok ban and pardoning people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. He’s also reversed dozens of Biden-era orders protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Trump – who was previously banned from Meta’s platforms for two years following the Jan. 6 insurrection – and his team have also been putting his reclaimed @potus account to use. He’s posted on Instagram eight times in the past two days and on Tuesday shared a video of himself signing orders in the Oval Office captioned, “Who’s ready for Day Two? The momentum is unstoppable!”
Get ready to go back to the woods. Paramount+ and Showtime dropped the spooky trailer for the upcoming third season of acclaimed, Emmy-nominated series Yellowjackets on Wednesday morning (Jan. 22). The first peek at the nail-biting show about a group of talented high school soccer players who survive a plane crash in the wilderness will return for a two-episode premiere on Feb. 14 on streaming and on demand for Paramount+ subscribers with the Paramount+ with Showtime plan; the on-air debut will take place on Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. ET.
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The two-minute trailer is cued to hard rock band Drowning Pool’s signature 2001 hit, “Bodies,” as, like the show, it toggles between footage of the young women fighting for their survival in the deep woods and their still-shellshocked adult selves. “Once upon a time, a bunch of teenage girls go stranded in the wilderness,” says a voiceover, as another, ominous voice, whispers the chorus to the Drowning Pool song: “let the bodies hit the floor.”
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“And they hunted their friends… feasted on their flesh and they went completely nuts,” she says as the tempo ramps up and we see the girls howling, running through the woods in pelts while wielding sharp implements and shouting “buzz, buzz, buzz” as they jump around in unison.
With allusions to the cannibalistic behavior, the grown-up versions of the players worry that the desperate lengths they went to to survive will follow them for the rest of their lives as some mysterious force appears to be stalking them in the present.
The show is led by a strong ensemble cast featuring the young players portrayed by Liv Hewson, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Courtney Eaton, Sophie Thatcher and Samantha Hanratty, while the adult versions are played by Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell.
A description of the upcoming season promises that, “as summer arrives, the Yellowjackets face a fragile victory — the brutal winter that nearly claimed them is finally behind them, but distrust in leadership and tension within the team jeopardize their chances of being rescued. In the present, long-buried secrets from their pasts begin to surface. As the women fight to keep their lives from unraveling, they must confront a chilling question: who are they really, and what dark truths are they hiding from each other and themselves?”
Joining the cast this year will be Oscar-winner Hilary Swank and comedian/actor Joel McHale, with Elijah Wood returning in his recurring guest role.
The first two seasons of the show featured a driving title track and score composed by That Dog./Shudder to Think veterans Anna Waronker and Craig Wedren, which was later covered and released as a single by Alanis Morissette. The show also featured a barrage of classic 1980s-1990s alt rock songs, including classics from Morissette, Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair, Hole, Wilson Phillips, Portishead, Belly, Wreckx-N-Effect, Ace of Base, Enya, as well as Nirvana, the Cranberries, Pulp, Veruca Salt, Papa Roach, Elliott Smith, Garbage, Tori Amos, 4 Non Blondes, Madonna, N.W.A. and many more.
Watch the Yellowjackets season 3 trailer below.
Post Malone revealed his latest superstar collaboration on Wednesday (Jan. 22) – only it’s not with another artist. Instead, Posty has teamed up with Oreo for his own special and limited edition creation.
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“Who wouldn’t want to make their own Oreo cookie?” he says. “I’ve been a big fan of these cookies my whole life so when the opportunity came up I couldn’t believe it.”
Naturally, Post believes he dreamed up “the best Oreo ever,” which features a first for the cookie: a twisted creme center, combining salted caramel and shortbread flavors. The filling is sandwiched between a chocolate and golden cookie for, as Oreo says in a release, “a delicious duet of flavors in every bite.”
As Post tells Billboard, “I really wanted to create a flavor that shows off my different sides – that was important to me.”
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“We tried like 50 different combinations,” he continues. “I’ve been really into salted caramel lately, so I knew that had to be part of it. The shortbread balanced out the flavor and made the perfect twist. The twist is by far my favorite part. It’s the first time Oreo has ever done this. When I couldn’t decide between classic chocolate and the golden cookie, we said, ‘Why not do both?’ That was a fun day of work.”
Each cookie will feature a special embossment – out of nine options – that Posty picked himself, including everything from a sunflower (inspired by his hit of the same name with Swae Lee) to a pick up truck inspired by the album art for Austin and F-1 Trillion. Post says deciding on the embossments “took forever, but in the end we went with some of the most memorable imagery from the past 10 years. Every single detail was designed with the fans in mind.”
Inspired by Post, Oreo is now inviting fans to create their own twisted flavors with its Taste Twist Digital Experience, part of an ongoing sweepstakes that runs from early February through March 31. After entering favorite musical preferences, Oreo’s algorithm will reveal an individualized flavor combo. Those who participate could win a package of their own creation, a signed Post Malone poster and more.
Post’s limited edition Oreo will be available for presale on Jan. 27 and available to purchase on Feb. 3.
After more than a yearlong hiatus, season four of the Rock & Roll High School With Pete Ganbarg podcast launches Thursday (Jan. 23) with an interview with Chaka Khan.
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This season’s other guests include Tony Orlando, Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Randy Bachman, Al Stewart, Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith, Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian and America’s Gerry Beckley. New episodes will debut every other Thursday and are available on all major streaming outlets and the podcast’s website.
Pete Ganbarg started Rock & Roll High School, named after the beloved Ramones’ punk classic, several years ago as president of A&R at Atlantic Records when he realized that a number of the younger A&R staffers at Atlantic were unaware of the roots of popular music. At first it was an in-person lecture series, and he then began bringing in guests, including Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice and iconic record executives such as Clive Davis and Seymour Stein.
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When the pandemic hit and everything shut down, at the request of Warner Music Group, Ganbarg went virtual with the series and expanded attendance to anyone working at the company. Then in April 2021, the series launched as a full-fledged podcast available on all streaming platforms.
Chaka Khan
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Two-time Grammy winner Ganbarg left Atlantic last fall and now has 100% ownership of the podcast.
“We started this podcast a few years ago with the goal of having the history of contemporary music told first-hand — in their own words — by the people who helped create it,” Ganbarg said in a statement. “This new season is our biggest yet with close to 20 new episodes already recorded. We’re honored to be joined by an incredible, diverse array of singers, writers and producers — all of whom have helped to build the foundation of so many songs that have been the soundtrack of our lives and all of whom have fantastic stories to tell.”
Ganbarg patterned the podcast after James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio and Off the Record, a series of interviews the late Capitol Records president Joe Smith conducted with many music luminaries to create an oral history of popular music. Guests can come from any facet to the music world but must have played a role in creating music from 1955 on.
In addition to the podcast, Ganbarg, whose 35-year tenure in the music industry includes working with such artists as Santana, Twenty One Pilots, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Donna Summer and dozens more, is president of Pure Tone Music, whose signings include Forest Blakk and Joe Jordan. He also runs operates Songs With A Pure Tone and Margetts Road Music, joint ventures with Warner Chappell Music. He is nominated for two Grammys this year for his work on the cast albums for Suffs and The Notebook.
After delaying the announcement of their planned 2025 tour due to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, Nine Inch Nails revealed the dates for the Peel It Back Tour 2025 on Wednesday morning (Jan. 21). The band’s first live run since 2022 is slated to kick off at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland on June 15 and criss-cross Europe through mid-July before jumping to the U.S. beginning August 3 for a show at Oakland Arena in Oakland, CA.
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The Live Nation-produced tour — whose title is inspired by a line from the 1994 song “March of the Pigs” — will also feature stops at a number of European festivals, including Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium, Open’er in Gdynia, Poland, and Mad Cool in Madrid, Spain, among others. The North American dates will including shows in Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, Nashville, Tampa, Houston and Phoenix before winding down on Sept. 18 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Tickets for the tour will go on sale on Jan. 29 beginning at noon local time here.
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Earlier this month, the Trent Reznor-fronted group confirmed rumors of a planned world tour before pulling back in light of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires that have killed 27 and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other buildings so far. “Since some dates and information about our world tour have leaked we are confirming that yes we will be touring and will provide more details soon,” they wrote at the time. “We are all watching the devastation that is unfolding in California and have paused our announcement while people try to deal with all that is happening.”
Check out the dates for the 2025 Peel It Back world tour below:
June 15 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
June 17 – Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live
June 18 – London, UK @ The O2
June 20 – Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
June 21 – Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting^
June 24 – Milan, Italy @ Parco della Musica Novegro
Thu Jun 26 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion
June 27 – Vienna, Austria @ Wiener Stadthalle
June 29 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
July 1 – Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
July 3 – Gdynia, Poland @ Open’er^
July 7 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena
July 10 – Madrid, Spain @ Mad Cool^
July 12 – Oeiras, Portugal @ NOS Alive^
August 6 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
August 8 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center
August 10 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
August 12 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
August 14 – West Valley City, UT @ Maverik Center
August 15 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
August 17 – Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
August 19 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
August 22 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
August 23 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
August 26 – Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
August 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
August 29 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
August 31 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Sept. 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
Sept. 5 – Raleigh, NC @ Lenovo Center
Sept. 6 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 9 – Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
Sept. 10 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
Sept. 12 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
Sept. 13 – Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
Sept. 16 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
Sept. 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
^Festival Date
Phish announced a run of spring 2025 west coast tour dates this week, which will include a three-night stint at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. To mark their return to the venue that was briefly endangered by one of the wildfires that have destroyed more than 12,000 homes and structures and killed 27 over the past […]
A new documentary chronicling a crucial 18-month period in the lives of late Beatle John Lennon and wife/Plastic Ono Band co-leader Yoko Ono, One to One: John & Yoko, will be released exclusively in IMAX on April 11. The film directed by Kevin Macdonald will then make it’s streaming debut later this year on Max, according to Deadline.
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A description of the film says that it is a, “moving look at the couple’s life upon their entry into a transformative 1970’s New York, exploring their musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world. Set in 1972 against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history.” The core of the film will focus on the couple’s One to One Concerts, a two-show charity event for children with special needs that took place at Madison Square Garden in August 1972, the only full-length performances by Lennon following the Beatles’ split two years earlier. The benefit shows also featured performances form Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na and Roberta Flack, among others.
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The concert audio was remixed and produced by the couple’s only child, musician Sean Ono Lennon, who said in a statement that, “Kevin’s documentary brings completely fresh insight into my parents’ lives during their Bank Street and early New York years, showing first hand their unwavering dedication to promoting peace and non-violence during a turbulent era of unrest, corruption and unnecessary war.”
The film will also feature newly transferred and restored footage from that era alongside previously unseen and unheard items from the couple’s personal archives, including phone calls and home movies recorded and filmed by Lennon and Ono during the 18 months the couple lived in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment in the early 1970s.
A high-energy one-minute trailer for the doc set in 1972 features home movie footage of the couple on the Staten Island Ferry, hanging with Andy Warhol and visiting the Statue of Liberty, where they both famously gave a power fist salute to the quintessential symbol of freedom and opportunity. The montage is cued to their song “New York City,” a chronicle of their love affair with the city Lennon called home until his murder in December 1980.
“I wanted to make a film that surprises and delights even the most dedicated Lennon and Ono fans by focusing on one transformative period in their lives and telling the tale through their own words, images and music,” said director Macdonald (One Day, Touching the Void). “Built around the beautiful 16mm film footage of the only full-length concert John gave after leaving the Beatles, I hope the film will introduce the audience to a more intimate version of John & Yoko – while also reflecting their politically radical and experimental sides.”
The movie made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year and will be featured this week at the Sundance Film Festival.
Check out the trailer for the One to One film below.
Grimes had no comment on what many have described as a Nazi-like salute given by her ex, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, during one of Donald Trump’s inaugural events on Monday. The tech titan who has reportedly been given an office in the White House for his newly created Department of Government Efficiency made two rapid, straight-armed hand gestures during the celebration of Trump’s second swearing-in, motions that instantly drew comparisons to the signature “Sieg Heil” salute made by reviled Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
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Seemingly taken aback by the news of the incident involving the father of her three children, Grimes reacted to a fan’s distress over the incident by writing on X, “it is unhealthy that people are this upset when I have not even been online yet today and am only just learning about this controversy now. I don’t know what happened and I will not make a rash statement – I am not a citizen of this country.”
Initially Grimes said she was going to bed and vowed to do her research, but declined to “say something that will create an international scandal,” in response to the fascist-like salute that quickly became just that.
Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler also took to Musk’s X to lament, “I never imagined we would see the day when what appears to be a Heil Hitler salute would be made behind the Presidential seal,” about the widely circulated video of Musk’s grunting, straight-arm salutes during a speech at D.C.’s Capitol One Arena after Trump’s swearing in. “This abhorrent gesture has no place in our society and belongs in the darkest chapters of human history. I urge all of my colleagues to unite in condemning this hateful gesture for what it is: antisemitism.”
In her post, Grimes pushed back at those who she said appeared willing to cancel her for the seemingly fascist gesture made by her ex, “before [I] even heard it happened.” That said, Grimes made it clear: “I am not him. I will not make a statement every time he does something. I can only send love back into a world that is hurting.”
She added that she appreciated the fans’ concern, but, “in a world stimulated by scandal, I feel a moral imperative to only add to the mess when something positive can be done. Otherwise I’m just adding tot he desensitization. To be clear i could go talk s–t and be on a bunch of magazine covers and be a feminist hero and get clout – but it would serve no purpose. I choose my children’s wellbeing. I promise you it doesn’t feel good to be hated all the time for things I don’t even know about, cannot predict and cannot control. But I also chose this path, I accept it. I make the best of it, and I simply wish happiness and health to all.”
Grimes appeared to quickly have a change of heart, posting a short time later, “I’m happy to denounce Nazi-ism – and the far alt right. Would that help clear things up? I’ve just gotten out of breakfast and have to catch a flight, and am still debating how to approach things diplomatically because I feel in over my head. But if there’s concern about that, I am happy to set the record strait in a meaningful way.”
My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero had a sharper, more succinct response to the two quick chest-thump, straight right arm with palm down movements the ADL describes as a gesture meant to pay homage to Hitler and which since WWII has been used by “neo-Nazis and other white supremacists… making it the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world.”
Iero shared a screenshot of the salute on Instagram and wrote, “F–k this guy and every single person supporting this s–t or wasting any kind of breath attempting to defend it. Your true colors are shining through. #SmashHate.”
Musk re-posted the video, including the Nazi-like salute, on his X feed and after the tide of criticism appeared to react, writing, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler‘ attack is sooo tired [sleeping emoji].” He did not formally denounce Nazism or deny making the gesture associated with Hitler, though he did agree with another tweet that asked, “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing? It didn’t work during the election, it’s not working now, it’s tired, boring, and old material, you’ve burned out its effect, people don’t feel shocked by it anymore, the wolf has been cried too many times.”
In response, Musk wrote, “Yeah exactly [yawning emoji].”
Though Musk, 53, appeared bored with the call-out about what many saw as a white supremacist dog whistle, a number of neo-Nazi leaders shared the clip, according to AFP. The head of an Australian neo-Nazi group reportedly wrote on Telegram, “Donald Trump White Power movement.” In addition, on the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, another user is said to have posted an image of Musk’s salute along with the phrase “Heil Hitler.”
One of the chapters of the far right Proud Boys militia — whose leader and several members were among the 1,600 people unconditionally pardoned by Trump on Monday for their part in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 after Trump lost his second bid for the White House — wrote simply, “Hail Trump!”
The co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism told the AFP that, “there is no question among white supremacists that Musk was making a Nazi salute.”
The world’s richest man, who has become a regular presence alongside Trump since donating $277 million to President’s third campaign, was denounced in 2023 when he endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”
At the time, Musk shared the original hate post promoting the theory — as well as referencing another antisemitic conspiracy theory about the “hordes of minorities” that are moving to Western countries — and then re-shared it with the comment “you have said the actual truth.” Weeks later, Musk apologized for what he described as his “dumbest” social media post ever before bashing advertisers who had begun leaving X in 2023 because of the rising tide of antisemitism on the platform that Musk bought in 2022.
See Grimes and Iero’s posts below.
While I deeply respect your concern- it is unhealthy that people are this upset when I have not even been online yet today and am only just learning about this controversy now. I don’t know what happened and I will not make a rash statement – I am not a citizen of this country.…— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2025
I’m happy to denounce Nazi-ism – and the far alt right. Would that help clear things up? I’ve just gotten out of breakfast and have to catch a flight, and am still debating how to approach things diplomatically because I feel in over my head. But if there’s concern about that,…— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2025
