Music

18 Feb 2024

BTS’ J-Hope Sets ‘Hope on the Street’ Album and Docuseries Release Date

BTS member J-Hope is releasing a new album, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, BigHit Music announced to press and to ARMY on Sunday (Feb. 18).

Hope on the Street Vol. 1 is described in the announcement as “a special album” containing six tracks.

The new music collection is set to arrive alongside a six-part docuseries, Hope on the Street, which will “trail J-Hope’s dance journey” as he explores and meets street dancers throughout the cities of Osaka, Paris, New York, Seoul and Gwangju.

Both will “dive into the theme of dance,” a press release says, “the core of J-Hope’s artistic roots and identity.”

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J-Hope previously mentioned the project this past July, during an appearance on fellow BTS member Suga‘s SUCHWITA show.

The first episode of the J-Hope’s docuseries will be released on Prime Video on March 27, with new episodes coming every Thursday and Friday.

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The Hope on the Street Vol. 1 album will be available on March 29 at 1 p.m. KST. Fans should mark their calendars for a preorder that is scheduled for Feb. 19.

The project follows J-Hope’s 2022 solo album, Jack in the Box, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. A newly expanded HOPE Edition of the album was released in August 2023. It features the original album tracks, along with three live recordings from J-Hope’s history-making performance at Lollapalooza in 2022 in Chicago, plus two instrumental tracks.

J-Hope is currently completing his mandatory 18-month military service, which began in April 2023.

18 Feb 2024

Taylor Swift Issues PSA About Getting ‘Creative’ With Surprise Songs, Delivers ‘Come Back… Be Here’ & ‘Daylight’ Mashup

Guessing which surprise songs Taylor Swift will play during her acoustic section on The Eras Tour just got a little trickier. She’s now serving some unexpected mashups.

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Swift previously told fans she’s given herself permission to repeat songs she’s already played this tour for the trek’s international leg, which she’s currently on. But she’s still set on bringing some element of chaos to her nightly song choices.

“That was to challenge me to really get to all the ones that I just don’t naturally gravitate towards, and I feel really proud about having done that,” Swift said at her Melbourne, Australia, show on Feb. 18, referring to her original plan to avoid surprise song repeats throughout the tour.

“But this is sort of a public service announcement to everyone who might be anywhere else on the tour, or whatever, or watching this — we have a lot of people, we’re very lucky to have a lot of people watch this on the internet and care about these shows if they’re not here,” she continued. “I’ve just been kind of rethinking, and I’ve been thinking I want to be as creative as possible with the acoustic set moving forward.”

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Swift tried to explain further: “I don’t want to limit anything, and I don’t want to just say like, ‘Oh, if I played a song before, I can’t play it again.’”

“I don’t want to take any paint colors out of the paintbox of colors,” the pop star said. “I don’t want to take any tools out of the toolbox. What’s the metaphor I’m looking for? I want to be able to play songs more than once if I feel like it, and I want to be able to make changes to songs.”

In other words, continue to expect the unexpected during the acoustic section of Swift’s shows.

Swift combined “Come Back… Be Here” from her Red era with Lover closing track “Daylight” at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 18, a day after performing a mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door.”

Swift has wrapped her Melbourne shows and heads to Sydney for four Eras tour dates at Accor Stadium, starting on Feb. 23.

Watch her “Come Back… Be Here” and “Daylight” mashup below. At the concert, Swift’s second surprise song was her debut-era “Teardrops on My Guitar,” played on piano.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pha4Ak9DD_E&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&start=17&wmode=transparent

18 Feb 2024

‘Oppenheimer’ Wins Big at 2024 BAFTA Film Awards (Full Winners List)

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was the big winner at the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards. The ceremony took place on Sunday (Feb. 18) at London’s Royal Festival Hall. David Tennant, star of Doctor Who, served as host.

Oppenheimer won seven awards, including best picture, best director (Christopher Nolan), best actor and supporting actor (Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.) and best original score (Ludwig Göransson).

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things won five awards, including best actress (Emma Stone). Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest collected three. Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers took two.

Two individuals were double winners on the night — Nolan (best director and best picture, as a producer) and Glazer for The Zone of Interest (best British film and best film not in the English language).

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Most of the top BAFTA winners are expected to also win at the Oscars on March 10. Among them: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won best supporting actress for The Holdovers.One acting race remains too close to call at the Oscars. Despite his BAFTA loss, Paul Giamatti is still very much in the Oscar race for best actor for The Holdovers.

Göransson’s win for best original score marks his first BAFTA Award. The BAFTA winner for original score has gone on to win the Oscar in that category in nine of the least 10 years. If Göransson does take the Oscar, it will be his second win in that category. He won five years ago for Black Panther.

Killers of the Flower Moon was shut out, despite nine nominations. Other films with five or more nods that were blanked were Maestro (seven nods), All of Us Strangers (six) and Barbie and Saltburn (five each). (The BAFTAs don’t have a category for best original song, a category in which Barbie probably would have prevailed — just as it expected to at the Oscars.)

Sandra Hüller was nominated for both lead actress (Anatomy of a Fall) and supporting actress (The Zone of Interest), but lost both awards.

20 Days in Mariupol won best documentary, besting a pair of music docs — American Symphony, about Jon Batiste, and Wham!, about the 1980s chart-topping pop duo.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed “Murder on the Dancefloor,” her 2001 song which soundtracked a racy scene in Saltburn.

Here’s the full list of nominations for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, with winners marked.

Best film

Anatomy of a Fall — Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion

The Holdovers — Mark Johnson

Killers of the Flower Moon — Dan Friedkin, Daniel Lupi, Martin Scorsese, Bradley Thomas

WINNER: Oppenheimer — Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas

Poor Things — Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone

Leading actress 

Fantasia Barrino, The Color Purple 

Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall 

Carey Mulligan, Maestro 

Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane

Margot Robbie, Barbie

WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things

Leading actor

Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Colman Domingo, Rustin

Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Barry Keoghan, Saltburn

WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Teo Yoo, Past Lives

Supporting actress

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer

Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers

Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest

Rosamund Pike, Saltburn

WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Supporting actor

Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer 

Jacob Elordi, Saltburn

Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers

Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

Director                                                                              

All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh

Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet

The Holdovers, Alexander Payne

Maestro, Bradley Cooper

WINNER: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan

The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Original screenplay

WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet, Arthur Harari

Barbie — Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach

The Holdovers — David Hemingson

Maestro — Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer

Past Lives — Celine Song

Adapted screenplay

All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh

WINNER: American Fiction, Cord Jefferson

Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan

Poor Things, Tony McNamara

The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Original score

Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson

WINNER: Oppenheimer, Ludwig Göransson

Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix

Saltburn, Anthony Willis

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Daniel Pemberton

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

Blue Bag Life — Lisa Selby (Director), Rebecca Lloyd-Evans (Director, Producer), Alex Fry (Producer)

Bobi Wine: The People’s President — Christopher Sharp (Director) [also directed Moses Bwayo]

WINNER: Earth Mama — Savanah Leaf (Writer, Director, Producer), Shirley O’Connor (Producer), Medb Riordan (Producer)

How to Have Sex — Molly Manning Walker (Writer, Director)

Is There Anybody Out There? — Ella Glendining (Director)

Film not in the English language

20 Days in Mariupol — Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson Rath

Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet, Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion

Past Lives — Celine Song, David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

Society of the Snow — J.A. Bayona, Belen Atienza

WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Jonathan Glazer

Animated film

WINNER: The Boy and the Heron — Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget — Sam Fell, Leyla Hobart, Steve Pegram

Elemental — Peter Sohn, Denise Ream

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Avi Arad, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, Christina Steinberg

Outstanding British film

All of Us Strangers — Andrew Haigh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

How to Have Sex — Molly Manning Walker, Emily Leo, Ivana MacKinnon, Konstantinos Kontovrakis

Napoleon — Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Kevin J. Walsh, David Scarpa

The Old Oak — Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty

Poor Things — Yorgos Lanthimos, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Stone, Tony McNamara

Rye Lane — Raine Allen-Miller, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, Damian Jones, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia

Saltburn — Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara, Margot Robbie

Scrapper — Charlotte Regan, Theo Barrowclough

Wonka — Paul King, Alexandra Derbyshire, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby

WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Ewa Puszczyńska

Documentary

WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol — Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson Rath

American Symphony — Matthew Heineman, Lauren Domino, Joedan Okun

Beyond Utopia — Madeleine Gavin, Rachel Cohen, Jana Edelbaum

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie — Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan King, Annetta Marion

Wham! — Chris Smith

Casting

All of Us Strangers — Kahleen Crawford

Anatomy of a Fall — Cynthia Arra

WINNER: The Holdovers — Susan Shopmaker

How to Have Sex — Isabella Odoffin

Killers of the Flower Moon — Ellen Lewis, Rene Haynes

Cinematography

Killers of the Flower Moon, Rodrigo Prieto

Maestro, Matthew Libatique

WINNER: Oppenheimer, Hoyte van Hoytema

Poor Things, Robbie Ryan

The Zone of Interest, Łukasz Żal

Editing

Anatomy of a Fall, Laurent Sénéchal

Killers of the Flower Moon, Thelma Schoonmaker

WINNER: Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lame

Poor Things, Yorgos Mavropsaridis

The Zone of Interest, Paul Watts

Costume design

Barbie, Jacqueline Durran

Killers of the Flower Moon, Jacqueline West

Napoleon, Dave Crossman, Janty Yates

Oppenheimer, Ellen Mirojnick

WINNER: Poor Things, Holly Waddington

Makeup & hair

Killers of the Flower Moon — Kay Georgiou, Thomas Nellen

Maestro — Sian Grigg, Kay Georgiou, Kazu Hiro, Lori McCoy-Bell

Napoleon — Jana Carboni, Francesco Pegoretti, Satinder Chumber, Julia Vernon

Oppenheimer — Luisa Abel, Jaime Leigh McIntosh, Jason Hamer, Ahou Mofid

WINNER: Poor Things — Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, Josh Weston

Production design

Barbie — Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Killers of the Flower Moon — Jack Fisk, Adam Willis

Oppenheimer — Ruth De Jong, Claire Kaufman

WINNER: Poor Things — Shona Heath, James Price, Zsuzsa Mihalek

The Zone of Interest — Chris Oddy, Joanna Maria Kuś, Katarzyna Sikora

Sound

Ferrari — Angelo Bonanni, Tony Lamberti, Andy Nelson, Lee Orloff, Bernard Weiser

Maestro — Richard King, Steve Morrow, Tom Ozanich, Jason Ruder, Dean Zupancic

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — Chris Burdon, James H. Mather, Chris Munro, Mark Taylor

Oppenheimer — Willie Burton, Richard King, Kevin O’Connell, Gary A. Rizzo

WINNER: The Zone of Interest — Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers

Special visual effects

The Creator — Jonathan Bullock, Charmaine Chan, Ian Comley, Jay Cooper

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — Theo Bialek, Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — Neil Corbould, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland, Alex Wuttke

Napoleon — Henry Badgett, Neil Corbould, Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet

WINNER: Poor Things — Simon Hughes

British short animation

WINNER: Crab Day — Ross Stringer, Bartosz Stanislawek, Aleksandra Sykulak

Visible Mending — Samantha Moore, Tilley Bancroft

Wild Summon — Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Jay Woolley

British short film

Festival of Slaps — Abdou Cissé, Cheri Darbon, George Telfer

Gorka — Joe Weiland, Alex Jefferson

WINNER: Jellyfish and Lobster — Yasmin Afifi, Elizabeth Rufai

Such a Lovely Day — Simon Woods, Polly Stokes, Emma Norton, Kate Phibbs

Yellow — Elham Ehsas, Dina Mousawi, Azeem Bhati, Yiannis Manolopoulos

EE rising star award (public-voted)

Phoebe Dynevor

Ayo Edebiri

Jacob Elordi

WINNER: Mia McKenna-Bruce

Sophie Wilde

18 Feb 2024

Fans Choose Ariana Grande & Mariah Carey’s ‘Yes, And?’ Remix as This Week’s Favorite New Music

Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey‘s “Yes, And?” remix has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Feb. 16) on Billboard, choosing the superstars’ latest team-up as their favorite new music release of the past week.

The two vocal powerhouses’ “Yes, And?” remix brought in nearly 73% of the vote, beating out new music by Dua Lipa (“Training Season”), Jennifer Lopez (This Is Me… Now), Karol G with Tiësto (“Contigo”), Vampire Weekend (“Capricorn”/“Gen-X Cops”), and others.

After teasing a special announcement through her Instagram Story earlier in the week (Feb. 13), Grande confirmed Carey’s appearance on the “Yes, And?” remix with a Feb. 14 post captioned, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this dream come true and for sprinkling your brilliance and magic on my little song @mariahcarey. [It] means more to me than [I] could ever possibly articulate and [I] cannot wait for everyone to hear this! [I] love you eternally!!!!!!!”

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Grande and Carey first teamed up for a track back in 2020. Alongside EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson, they updated “Oh Santa!” — a single from Carey’s Merry Christmas II You (2010). That track, which delighted fans in its union of two artists (Carey and Grande) that have been unfairly pit against each other in the past, came complete with a glitzy music video.

In late January, “Yes, And?” debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Grande’s eighth career No. 1 single. The house-indebted bop serves as the lead single from Eternal Sunshine, her forthcoming seventh solo studio album, which serves as her first LP since 2020’s Billboard 200-topping Positions.

Trailing behind the “Yes, And?” remix on the poll is Dua Lip’s “Training Season,” which brought in 13% of the vote.

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

18 Feb 2024

Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures 1’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart

Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s joint project Vultures 1 debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Feb. 24), giving Ye his 11th leader and Ty his first. The set earned 148,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Luminate, following its release on Feb. 10.

Plus, Usher scores his highest charting album on the Billboard 200 in over a decade, as his latest studio release Coming Home bows at No. 2 with 91,000 units earned.

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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Feb. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of Vultures 1’s 148,000 units earned in the tracking week ending Feb. 15, SEA units comprise 129,000 (equaling 167.78 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 18,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000.

Vultures 1 was only initially available via streaming services and as a digital download album for purchase. The original 16-track set was available through all major streamers, and sold through leading digital retailers, as well as Ye’s own official webstore. Physical versions of the album on CD and vinyl are expected to be released at a later date, and Ye’s store is accepting pre-orders for both presently. The set’s first-week sales were boosted by aggressive sale pricing.

The album boasts appearances from collaborators Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and Chris Brown, though none are given billed artist credit on the tracklist. Ye’s 10-year-old daughter North also contributes vocals to the set’s “Talking.”

Vultures 1 is the first studio album for both Ye and Ty released outside of the major label system, and arrived on Feb. 10 via Ye’s own label YZY after a number of delays (it was originally slated for release last October). Vultures 1 is Ye’s first album since his string of hate speech and antisemitic remarks, which resulted in companies like Adidas and Def Jam Recordings distancing themselves from Ye. (Def Jam released all of Ye’s previous studio albums, including his last widely released album, 2021’s Donda.)

Vultures 1 was issued on Feb. 10 and had a bumpy first-week in the marketplace. Its initial independent distributor, FUGA, took down the project on Feb. 15. The set then found a home with another indie, Label Engine (part of Create Music Group), that same day.

Meanwhile, one of tracks initially included on the Vultures 1 — “Good (Don’t Die)” — was removed from the streaming edition of the album on Feb. 14 on Spotify, and then other streamers and digital retailers on Feb. 15. The song appears to interpolate elements of Donna Summer’s 1977 single “I Feel Love,” which Summer’s estate claimed West used without permission and alleged “copyright infringement.” On Feb. 15, with “Good” removed from the album’s tracklist, the album was no longer purchasable in digital retailers like the iTunes Store and Amazon. (It was, however, still available to buy, with “Good” intact, through Ye’s official webstore.)

Ye ties Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand with 11 No. 1s each. Ahead of them are only The Beatles (a record 19 No. 1s), Jay-Z (14), Drake and Taylor Swift (each with 13). Vultures 1 is Ye’s 11th consecutive charting album to debut at No. 1, the most of any artist. (Overall, Jay-Z has the most debuts at No. 1, with 14, but they were not consecutive.)

For Ty, Vultures 1 brings him his first leader and second top 10-charting effort. He’s logged a total of eight entries on the list, going as high as No. 4 in 2020 with Featuring Ty Dolla $ign.

Vultures 1 was preceded by the single “Vultures,” featuring Bump J, which reached No. 38 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in December.

At No. 2 on the Billboard 200, Usher achieves his highest-charting album in over a decade, as his new studio set Coming Home starts in the runner-up slot. The album was released on Feb. 9 and earned 91,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15. Of that sum, album sales comprise 53,000, SEA units comprise 34,500 (equaling 45.82 million official on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 3,500.

Coming Home’s release date was announced last September, hot on the heels of news that Usher would headline the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 11.

The 2024 Super Bowlitself was the most-watched broadcast in American TV history, with 123.4 million viewers across CBS and the game’s simulcasts across Nickelodeon, Univision, Paramount+ and other digital platforms. Usher didn’t perform any material from the new album during the halftime show, focusing instead on familiar favorites from the past, such as “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), “U Got It Bad” (with H.E.R.) “OMG” (with will.i.am) and the show-closing “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris).

Coming Home marks Usher’s ninth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 and his highest-ranking set since Looking 4 Myself debuted at No. 1 in June of 2012. He then charted with Hard II Love (No. 5 in 2016) and the collaborative set A with Zaytoven (No. 31 in 2018).

Coming Home is Usher’s first independently distributed album after a career with majors BMG and Sony (through the labels LaFace, Arista and RCA). The new project was released via mega (Usher’s own company in partnership with L.A. Reid) and Gamma (helmed by Larry Jackson), and distributed by Vydia (part of the Gamma organization).

Coming Home was available to purchase in its first week as a standard digital download, a standard CD, five different vinyl variants, two deluxe boxed sets and a deluxe digital album with a bonus track and alternative cover art. The latter was promoted as a SKIMS exclusive (alongside Usher’s new starring role in a SKIMS campaign) and sold for a limited time via SKIMS’ official store and Usher’s own webstore. Like Vultures 1, the Coming Home digital album was deeply discounted during its first week.

Coming Home was preceded by the single “Good Good,” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage. The track peaked at No. 25 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 in November, marking Usher’s first top 40 since 2017, and highest-charting track since 2015, when “I Don’t Mind,” featuring Juicy J, reached No. 11.  

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 5-3 on the Billboard 200, matching its peak rank, spurred by the release of its new deluxe edition. Stick Season surges with 85,000 equivalent album units earned (up 74% — its best week yet by units earned), following the bow of a deluxe edition of the album on Feb. 9 with nine additional tracks. That deluxe iteration is dubbed Stick Season (Forever) and added collaborations with Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves and others. The original Stick Season album debuted in 2022 with 14 tracks, was deluxed last June with an additional seven tracks (which prompted its jump from No. 100 to No. 3), and then deluxed again on Feb. 9 with nine more tracks. All versions of the album are combined for tracking and charting purposes.

The rest of the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 is comprised of former No. 1s: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time falls 2-4 (64,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%); SZA’s SOS dips 3-5 (51,000; down 4%); Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) rises 8-6 (50,000; up 3%); Swift’s Lover moves 9-7 (48,000; up 7%); Swift’s Midnights falls 5-8 (46,000; down 9%); Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits tumbles 1-9 (46,000; down 31%); and Drake’s For All the Dogs descends 6-10 (45,000; down 8%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

18 Feb 2024

Paul McCartney Reunited With His Stolen Bass Guitar 50 Years Later

Paul McCartney no longer gently weeps for his original bass guitar.

A five-year search by the manufacturer of the instrument that was aided by a husband-and-wife team of journalists helped reunite The Beatles star with the distinctive violin-shaped 1961 electric Höfner that went missing a half century ago and is estimated to be worth 10 million pounds ($12.6 million).

McCartney had asked Höfner to help find the missing instrument that helped launch Beatlemania across the universe, Scott Jones, a journalist who teamed up with Höfner executive Nick Wass to track it down, said Friday (Feb. 16).

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“Paul said to me, ‘Hey, because you’re from Höfner, couldn’t you help find my bass?’” Wass said. “And that’s what sparked this great hunt. Sitting there, seeing what the lost bass means to Paul, I was determined to solve the mystery.”

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McCartney bought the bass for about 30 pounds ($37) in 1961 when The Beatles were developing their chops during a series of residencies in Hamburg, Germany. The instrument was played on the Beatles first two records and featured on hits such as “Love Me Do,” “Twist and Shout,” and “She Loves You.”

“Because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical,” McCartney once said. “I got into that. And once I bought it, I fell in love with it.”

It was rumored to have been stolen around the time The Beatles were recording their final album, Let it Be, in 1969. But no one was sure when it went missing.

What began as a long and winding road for Wass to track down the bass picked up speed when Jones serendipitously joined the hunt after seeing McCartney headline the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. The stage lights at one point seemed to illuminate nothing but the sunburst pattern on his bass and Jones wondered if it was the same instrument McCartney had played in the early ‘60s.

When he later searched the internet he was stunned to find the original bass was missing and there was a search for it.

“I was staggered, I was amazed,” Jones said. “I think we live in a world where The Beatles could do almost anything and it would get a lot of attention.”

Jones and his wife, Naomi, both journalists and researchers, got in touch with Wass to spread the word more broadly.

After hitting a dead end following a lead about a roadie for The Who, they relaunched The Lost Bass Project in September and within 48 hours were inundated with 600 emails that contained the “little gems that led us to where we are today,” Jones said.

One of those emails came from sound engineer Ian Horne, who had worked with McCartney’s band Wings, and was the first big breakthrough in the hunt. Horne said the bass had been swiped from the back of his van one night in the Notting Hill section of London in 1972.

The researchers published the new information on their website in October, adding that Horne said McCartney told him not to worry about the theft and that he continued working for him for another six years.

“But I’ve carried the guilt all my life,” Horne said.

After publishing that update, a bigger break came when they were contacted by a person who said their father had stolen the bass. The man didn’t set out to steal McCartney’s instrument and panicked when he realized what he had, Jones said.

The thief, who was not named, ended up selling it to Ron Guest, landlord of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and some beers.

As the Joneses were starting to look for relatives of Guest, word had already reached his family. His daughter-in-law contacted McCartney’s studio.

Cathy Guest said that the old bass that had been in her attic for years looked like the one they were looking for.

It had been passed from Ron Guest to his oldest son, who died in a car wreck, and then to a younger son, Haydn Guest, who was married to Cathy and died in 2020.

The instrument was returned to McCartney in December and then it took about two months to authenticate it.

The project had planned to announce the news but were upstaged by Cathy Guest’s son, Ruaidhri Guest, a 21-year-old film student who posted photos Tuesday of the guitar on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “I inherited this item which has been returned to Paul McCartney. Share the news.” He posted a message Friday saying the family had been inundated with interview requests and would tell its story eventually.

The estimated value of the instrument is based on the fact that a Gibson acoustic guitar Kurt Cobain played on MTV Unplugged sold for $6 million (4.7 million pounds), Jones said. But it held almost no value during the past half century.

“The thief couldn’t sell it,” Jones said. “Clearly, the Guest family never tried to sell it. It’s a red alert because the minute you come forward someone’s going to go, ‘That’s Paul McCartney’s guitar.’”

It is now McCartney’s once again. His official website posted a message announcing its return, saying “Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”

18 Feb 2024

Taylor Swift Admits She Was ‘Lonely’ While Writing Her ‘Folklore’ Album During the Pandemic

Taylor Swift is opening up her emotional state during the pandemic.

Halfway through her Eras Tour stop at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday (Feb. 17), the 34-year-old pop superstar paused to reflect on being “lonely” while writing her 2020 album, Folklore, during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“[I was] imagining that, instead of being a lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair drinking my weight in white wine, I was a ghostly Victorian lady wandering through the woods with a candle in a candlestick holder,” Swift said in a fan-captured video before performing her song “Betty.”

“And I wrote only on parchment with a feathered quill,” she continued. “That was in my mind, what I thought I looked like writing Folklore.” The Grammy winner added, “So that’s all that matters — the delusion.”

While writing Folklore, Swift spent her time in quarantine with then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, 32, who helped the artist pen songs including “Exile” and “Betty. The “Cruel Summer” hitmaker reflected on how she and the British actor passed the time during the pandemic in a December 2020 interview.

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“I wasn’t expecting to make an album. Early on in quarantine, I started watching lots of films. We would watch a different movie every night,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth before. One night I’d watch that, then I’d watch L.A. Confidential, then we’d watch Rear Window, then we’d watch Jane Eyre.”

She added, “I feel like consuming other people’s art and storytelling sort of opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, ‘Well, why have I never done this before? Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines? And why haven’t I ever sort of freed myself up to do that from a narrative standpoint?’”

Swift and Alwyn split last April after six years of dating.

Swift’s three-night stand at Melbourne Cricket Ground launched Friday (Feb. 16) and wrapped Sunday (Feb. 18). Next, she’s scheduled for back-to-back concerts at Sydney’s Accor Stadium (Feb. 23-25). Other international stops include Singapore, France, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada.

18 Feb 2024

Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign Announce ‘Vultures 1’ Listening Event in Paris

Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign are bringing Vultures 1 to Paris.

On Saturday (Feb. 18), Ye and Ty announced through social media that they will present their new joint album to fans at Paris’ Accor Arena on Sunday, Feb. 25.

The duo’s newly announced “listening experience” follows previously announced events scheduled in Italy. Earlier in the week, West and Dolla $ign revealed they would play Vultures 1 for concert-goers at the Milan Forum (Feb. 22) and Bologna Unipol Arena (Feb. 24).

West and Ty delivered their anticipated Vultures 1 album last weekend and the project is vying for the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, which would mark Ye’s 11th chart-topper. The set was originally supposed to debut on Feb. 9 after a Chicago listening event, but ultimately trickled out (with a false start or two) on streaming services over Feb. 10.

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The 16-track Vultures 1 features appearances from big-name collaborators like Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and Chris Brown (though none are actually credited on the feature-less tracklist), as well as a guest vocal from Ye’s 10-year-old daughter North on “Talking.”

Vultures 1 marks the first project for West since his string of hate speech and antisemitic remarks, which resulted in companies such as Adidas and Def Jam distancing themselves from the 46-year-old rapper. It’s also his first album since the release of 2021’s Donda, which won a pair of Grammys the following year, most notably best rap song for “Jail.” As for Ye and Ty, their collaborations date back to Ty’s “Ego Death” (2020), Ye’s “Everything We Need” (2019), “Real Friends” (2016), and “Only One” (2014). 

In addition to Ye and Ty’s listening event at Chicago’s United Center on Feb. 8, the pair hosted a similar experience at New York’s UBS Arena on Feb. 9. The duo is also scheduled to headline Rolling Loud California on March 14.

See Ye’s Paris listening event announcement on X below.

17 Feb 2024

Chris Brown Claims He Was Disinvited From 2024 NBA Celebrity All-Star Game

Chris Brown says that he was invited — and then disinvited — to play at the celebrity 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

The singer posted alleged screenshots of emails on Instagram Stories early Saturday morning (Feb. 17) that apparently welcomed him to the event.

One screenshot showed an email titled “NBA All-Star 2024 Welcome x Chris Brown,” while another showed a mockup of a blue uniform he’d wear as a part of Lil Wayne’s team. “We are thrilled that you will be part of the weekend!” read the first email, which requested a press-approved headshot and bio from Brown.

“I was asked by the NBA to play in the all star game this year! Only for them to call later and say they couldn’t do IT because of their sponsors, like RUFFLES,” Brown wrote on his Instagram Stories this weekend. “At this point I’m sick of people bothering me and I’m tired of living in the f—ing past.”

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“I POSTED THE EMAILS SO YALL COULD SEE. The NBA still was tryna get me to come and sit court side… NOT F—ING HAPPENING,” Brown said.

“I ONLY GO WHERE IM APPRECIATED,” he added.

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Billboard reached out to a representative at the NBA for comment.

Ruffles released a statement on Saturday, writing, “Ruffles sponsored last night’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, however we did not have any involvement in, nor visibility to, any player decisions or celebrity invite discussions.”

All-Star Weekend, being held in Indianapolis, Indiana, started on Friday night with the All-Star Celebrity Game, the game in which Brown would have participated. On Saturday night, NBA stars play a skills challenge, three-point contest and slam dunk contest. The actual All-Star Game — the main event — happens on Sunday.

17 Feb 2024

Taylor Swift Debuts ‘Getaway Car,’ ‘August’ & ‘The Other Side of the Door’ Mashup Live in Melbourne: Watch

Welcome to the acoustic section: Taylor Swift crossed eras to play an unexpected mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door” in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 17.

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Introducing the acoustic part of her Eras Tour show at the third of four concerts in the city, Swift — who at each tour date performs two tracks that are not often heard during the show — told the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd she wanted to pick a song “that they really wanna hear, and I think I might’ve achieved it.”

“You have to let me know,” she teased the Melbourne audience. “I really just want you to be happy ’cause you’re making me really happy.”

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Lucky for them, Swift actually gave fans a three-song mashup on guitar that counted as only one of the songs during her acoustic set.

About three minutes into a performance of Reputation standout “Getaway Car,” Swift shifted into Folklore‘s “August,” singing, “I can see us lost in the memory/ August slipped away into a moment in time/ ‘Cause it was never mine/ And I can see us twisted in bedhseets/ August slipped away like a bottle of wine/ ‘Cause you were never mine.”

Swift closed the mashup with the outro of “The Other Side of the Door,” which originally appeared on the platinum edition of Fearless in 2008 and was re-recorded for 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version).

“With your face and the beautiful eyes/ And the conversation with the little white lies/ And the faded picture of a beautiful night/ You carry me from your car up the stairs/ And I broke down cryin’, was she worth this mess?/ After everything and that little black dress / After everything, I must confess I need you,” she sang to loud cheers.

The Midnights star then took to the piano to perform “This Is Me Trying,” from Folklore, as the second surprise song of the set. She’d played “Getaway Car” and “This Is Me Trying” only once before so far on this tour.

Watch Swift’s surprise mashup below. Keep up with a full list of her surprise songs on The Eras Tour here.