Music

15 Aug 2023

RM Promises That BTS Will Be ‘Back For Sure’ in 2025: ‘This Is Like a Vacation’

How can you miss them if they don’t go away? That’s essentially what BTS‘ RM said during a Weverse livestream over the weekend, during which the singer promised ARMY that the K-pop supergroup is on target to regroup right on schedule.

After reading a heartfelt letter from an ARMY member expressing how much the group has meant to their fans over the past decade, RM offered some assurance, and hope, that things will be back to normal soon.

“I hope our songs and solo projects could be another reminder to you guys of how important ARMY was, has been and will be in our lives at the same time,” he read, speaking in English after listening to the ARMY-created tribute song “Love Letters” during the chat. “I hope that it is a reminder that spring will come again. Please continue to keep BTS alive in your hearts, in this moment and perhaps throughout your entire life.”

After sharing the ARMY thoughts, RM got personal, noting that band mate Suga talked “a lot” about the feelings he had during his 28-show solo run this year and how much love he felt from ARMY, who are patiently “waiting for the reunion in 2025”; BTS’ seven members announced last year that they were taking a group break to focus on solo projects while the men prepare to take part in South Korean’s mandatory military service requirement.

“Even though we’re doing our solo activities on our own… what I’m thinking these days when I’m doing my solo projects is… this is just like a vacation,” RM said of his solo efforts, which include his recent hot trending songs No. 1 collab with Colde on “Don’t Ever Say Love Me.”

“To get back to where I was, which was BTS and ARMY. All the solo [activities] is just a journey,” he said. “But it is a very important journey for Chapter 2. But it’s a journey to get back home safe.”

And then RM uttered the words all of ARMY have been waiting to hear.

“Eventually, when we get back and reunite together in 2025… [we will] be back for sure. We’ll be joining together again. And that will be in 2025.”

During the 40-minute video chat, RM also commented on his buzz cut (“no reason” he said when someone asked why he’d shorn his locks) and busted out some dance moves, admitting that he’s “scared” he’s going to forget the group’s choreo if he doesn’t keep practicing. He also munched on a candy bar and fessed up that he doesn’t really watch soccer unless it’s the World Cup.

So far, Jin and J-Hope have entered the military and Suga is expected to go next.

Watch RM’s live chat below.

15 Aug 2023

‘Kick Out the Jams’ Collects the Best of Pivotal Music Critic Dave Marsh, With Essays on Elvis, Bono, Madonna & More

A new anthology published today (Aug. 15) titled Kick Out the Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing makes the case for Dave Marsh as one of the most influential critics of popular music in recent decades.

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One of the first editors of Creem magazine; a veteran contributor to Rolling Stone and other publications; the author of 25 books (including two best-selling biographies of Bruce Springsteen); the co-founder of the newsletter Rock & Rap Confidential and a longtime host on SiriusXM, Marsh has redefined the the limits of music writing throughout his career. His criticism has offered insights into issues of community, class, race, politics, health, the environment, the music industry and more.

“Dave Marsh has always been a tireless advocate of justice, human rights, and rock’n’roll,” writes Tom Morello, co-founder of Rage Against The Machine, in his cover quote for this collection. “His pen and voice are an important player in the history of the music we love and the struggle for a more just and decent world.”

In this collection — edited by Daniel Wolff and Danny Alexander, with a postscript by Pete Townshend — Marsh writes as a historian, a skeptic, an agitator, a sentimentalist and, above all, a fervent fan and true believer in the power of music.

“Since 1969, Dave Marsh has been writing about music like our lives depended on it,” writes educator Lauren Onkey, the former senior director of NPR Music, in her introduction to Kick Out the Jams. (She references Marsh’s decades of criticism that precedes the work covered in this collection and Marsh published an earlier anthology, Fortunate Son, in 1985).

The opening piece in Kick Out The Jams illustrates how Marsh draws connections like few other critics. In “Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Marsh writes: “Like everything else, Presleymania has a political dimension.” Observing that Elvis Presley and his family in Tupelo were “extraordinarily poor,” Marsh notes that, after moving in Memphis, the family benefited from the social safety net created by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation during the 1930s, that included income support and public housing. 

For all of Presley’s immense talent and vision, the opportunities he seized “were the result of living in a society which, by design, offered people as poor as the Presleys a chance for that breathing space,” writes Marsh in this 1982 essay — pointedly contrasting that era with the dismantling of the social safety net under by conservatives led by then President Ronald Reagan.

(This essay, by the way, is one of several here that was originally published in Musician magazine, one of the most acclaimed music publications of its time, under editor Bill Flanagan and, subsequently, Robert Doerschuk. Once owned by a former parent company of Billboard, Musician folded in 1999 and its rich content has never been archived online).

Marsh knows how to write a great lead. In 1989, Madonna courted controversy (again) by filming a video for her hit “Like a Prayer” in which, amid images of burning crosses, she caresses the statue of a Black religious icon, who comes to life to embrace her.

“The worst thing about the furor over Madonna’s Like a Prayer may be that it obscures a great album,” writes Marsh. “But that just proves that Madonna has entered the rarified ranks of those pop stars who function as lightning rods for a–holes.”

Stars at rarified heights have never escaped Marsh’s sharp pen. Bono’s Product (RED) campaign to raise awareness and funds to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, drew the writer’s criticism — which Marsh extended widely to celebrity-driven causes. He quotes Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, who “observes that she met [Bono] ‘at a party to raise money for Africans—and there were no Africans in the room except for me.’”

In this summer marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, it is worth recalling Marsh’s comments about the genre in a 1991 essay “The Death of Rock,” in which Billboard’s Paul Grein makes a cameo appearance. Grein, who then wrote the magazine’s Chart Beat column, observed in his 1990 year-end commentary that no rock bands had topped the Billboard 200 albums chart in that year. However, Marsh writes that the music industry’s segregation by genre “means that the most exciting, rebellious, hardest-rocking music of the early 1990s — rap and hip-hop — can’t be considered rock.”

Marsh often has devoted his writing to celebrating music pioneers. Included here are his essays on John Hammond, Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, among others. Just as often, he has sought to raise the profile of deserving musicians like those profiled in this collection: Ani DiFranco, Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo, China’s Cui Jian, gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates, or the late Jimmy LaFave.

In May 2017, the month that Marsh’s profile of LaFave ran in the Austin Chronicle, the folk musician died of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer — the same cancer which took the life of Kristen Ann Carr, the daughter of Marsh and his wife, Barbara Carr, in 1993. She was 21.

“I need to eulogize Kristen Ann Carr because her death means I’ll never write about music in the same way,” Marsh wrote in the newsletter Rock and Rap Confidential in March 1993, noting that a decade had passed since he co-founded the newsletter.

“Kristen… belongs here because, however you may have received these past ten years of ranting and raving, I’ve seen RRC as an espousal of life against death. After watching my own child wage that struggle in literal terms, I know there’s a way to live that message to your final breath. You do so by choosing the spirit of hope and affirmation that Kristen held so completely that she awed even her doctors.”

In Kick Out the Jams, amid all the “jibes, barbs and rallying cries,” the work of Dave Marsh pays tribute to the spirit of hope and affirmation that the best music brings into our lives.

(Editor’s note: Thom Duffy is a former contributor to Rock and Rap Confidential and is a supporter of the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which focuses on supporting research in the treatment and cure of sarcoma, and improving the lives of young adult cancer patients and their families).

15 Aug 2023

Shania Twain Sets 2024 Las Vegas Return With ‘Come On Over’ Residency: ‘The Whole Theater Is My Playroom’

Shania Twain is inviting fans to “Come On Over” when she launches her latest Las Vegas residency in May 2024 at the 7,000-seat Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

The upcoming slate of 24 shows — titled Shania Twain: COME ON OVER – The Las Vegas Residency – All The Hits! — are set for May, August, September, November and December. This marks Twain’s third career residency, following her Still the One residency (2012-14) and the more recent Let’s Go! Residency (2019-22).

“If you want to change things or you want the show to evolve, it’s as if the whole building, the whole theater is my playroom for a while,” Twain told Billboard via Zoom of why she loves residencies. “I love that I get consistency that I can build a show that I don’t have to worry about moving around. It’s a very different approach to the production when you have the luxury of things being maybe a little more fragile and if there are things you couldn’t take on the road. It’s a controlled environment, no variables you have to worry about — you can get the sound and lights the way you want it. That custom element of the production is a luxury.”

Of her Planet Hollywood venue, she adds, “The Bakkt Theater feels more intimate to me than some other theaters. It’s a real party vibe and inspires me to be close to everybody. This residency is going to be more interactive, with more fan interaction.”

The new slate of shows will take place in May (10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 23, 25 and 26), August (23, 24, 29 and 31), September (1, 4, 6 and 7), November (29 and 30) and December (4, 6, 7, 11, 13 and 14).

General on-sale begins Monday, Aug. 21, at 10 a.m. PT at Ticketmaster.com, while Citi card members will have access to presales beginning Aug. 16 at 10 a.m. PT through Aug. 20 at 10 p.m. PT, and Live Nation/Caesars Entertainment presales will happen Aug. 17-20. Twain’s fans will have access to a presale beginning Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. PT.

Shania Twain: COME ON OVER – The Las Vegas Residency – All The Hits! takes its name from Twain’s 1997 album Come On Over, which yielded massive international hits including “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “Man! I Feel like a Woman!,” “You’re Still the One,” “From This Moment On” and “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You).” On Aug. 25, Twain will release the multiple expanded U.S. and International “Diamond” editions of Come On Over, in celebration of the project’s 25th anniversary.

Twain, who was named the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year in 1999, recalls of those heady music-making and tour years, “It’s funny, because I don’t have very vivid memories of that time, because it was such a whirlwind. It was single after single, and video after video. It was as if I couldn’t keep up. And I was on tour for the first time since I had had my first radio hit. Everything bottlenecked, so it was the tour, trying to fit in choosing the next single, and what the video would be like, styling the videos, editing the videos. I was hands-on with everything, and it exhausted me. So I didn’t get to enjoy a lot of it in the moment. But I’m celebrating now.”

Twain tells Billboard that fans can expect the Come On Over residency to be filled with many of her classic hits — including, of course, songs from Come On Over — but also songs from her recently released Queen of Me album.

“On the Queen of Me Tour, I change out the set list quite often, so it’s giving me ideas [for the residency],” Twain says. “I haven’t settled in entirely to my set list for the Come On Over residency because of that exact factor, so I’m still working that out. Everyone loves ‘Giddy Up!,’ and ‘Waking Up Dreaming’ is a total bop for everyone. I have kids come up onstage and their parents would’ve grown up with Come On Over, and a few times I will ask the little kid, who might be like 5 or 6 years old. I’ll ask them what their favorite song is, and they will say ‘Queen of Me.’”

Whether on her current tour (which will launch its second leg in September in the United Kingdom) or as part of a residency, Twain’s concerts are known to be eye-popping spectacles of color, upbeat music and high fashion — something Twain says won’t change during the upcoming residency.

“I’m in a new chapter of creative expression that I’m obsessed with,” the five-time Grammy winner says. “For the Queen of Me Tour, I went through all my boxes, and deep in to all my closets and in storage, for all the fabulous garments. I hadn’t touched a lot of them in 25 years. It’s re-imagining them, and in some cases dismantling them and putting them back together in a new way. I have this new passion for how I see myself in them onstage, and that’s going to apply to the residency as well.

“I have so much experience, from touring, with performing in fashionable clothes and thinking about how they move, how they wear when I’m sweating. I’m always thinking, ‘Can I kick and run in them? How do they look in motion and in still photographs?’ I enjoy building these clothes. I’m great with the scissors. I’m not a good sewer, but I have a great team. I’m a great pinner and I’m in there literally designing the looks for every show.”

As a hands-on, creative professional, Twain says she still has more ideas she would love to incorporate into her residencies.

“I haven’t done this yet, and I don’t know if I can. I’ll have to find a way. I want to have a huge, inflated sphere that I can run around in over the audience — I should never have said that out loud,” she says with a laugh. “But I really want to do that, because I think the fans always have so much fun when balls are thrown into the audience, and I want to be in that. I’m gonna make a giant transparent beach ball and I’m gonna get in it and roll around while I’m still young enough to do it without getting hurt. I don’t know how I would do it — I always get a ‘No’ from production; they’re like, ‘That’s not even possible.’ I’m gonna figure out a way to do it at some point, so I can get out there and go everywhere in the room.”

Outside of the residency, Twain has other dreams — including one very collaborative one she has her sights set on.

“One of my dreams is to do a whole album of duets,” she says. “It’s a common dream, I think, to sing with your favorite singers, and I would get a chance at quite a few by doing a whole album of duets.”

However, she notes, one of those dream collaborations would have included the late Country Music Hall of Famer Glen Campbell, who died in 2017 after his battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. “Glen was one of my dream duet singers,” Twain says, “so that isn’t going to happen now and that’s sad. So I better get to it while everybody else on my list is still around.”

15 Aug 2023

Beyonce Slots Lizzo Back Into ‘Break My Soul’ Remix, Shouts Her Out in Atlanta: ‘I Love You, Lizzo!’

Beyoncé showed some love for Lizzo during her Renaissance gig in Atlanta on Monday night (Aug. 14). After previously appearing to leave the “About Damn Time” singer out of the lyrics to the “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)” earlier on the tour after Lizzo was hit with a lawsuit from three former dancers accusing her of creating a hostile environment and sexual harassment, Bey slotted Lizzo back in and added a shout out during the last of three gigs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“Lizzo. I love you, Lizzo!” Beyoncé shouted during the performance of the song that finds her ticking off a list of legendary female artists including Bessie Smith, her sister Solange, Erykah Badu, Janet Jackson, Lauryn Hill and many others.

Just a week after being hit with the lawsuit from the former dancers — which also included allegations that they were pressured to touch nude dancers during a live sex show — the lawyer representing the three dancers said last week that “we have received at least six inquiries from other people with similar stories since we filed the complaint.”

The original complaint covering alleged harassment that allegedly took place between 2021-2023, was filed on behalf of dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez. It accused Lizzo (born Melissa Jefferson) and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. of a wide range of legal wrongdoing, including racial and religious discrimination. They also included allegations that the captain of Lizzo’s dance team, Shirlene Quigley, forced her religious beliefs on the plaintiffs and took repeated actions that made them uncomfortable, including commenting on their virginity and simulating oral sex on a banana in front of them.

Lizzo denied the initial allegations in a statement, in which she wrote that they are “false” and “sensationalized stories,” adding, “I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days. I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”

She said that the allegations that she and her company created a hostile work environment were “unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.” Beyoncé had pointedly left Lizzo’s name out of the live performance of the “Break My Soul” remix during an Aug. 1 show in Massachusetts, repeating Badu’s name four times instead; she reportedly slotted the singer’s call-out back into the song during a show in Maryland on Aug. 7. Bey’s mother, Tina Knowles, said the apparent Lizzo leave out was not done on purpose, pointing out that the singer also left out former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland’s name that night, while fans have noted that not every name in the remix makes it into every performance.

Lizzo has kept a low profile since the lawsuit was filed and one of the only shows she had on her upcoming roster, a headlining slot at this year’s Made in America festival in Philly (Sept. 2-3), was pulled last week when organizers unexpectedly cancelled the event — which was also slated to feature SZA as a headliner — due to “severe circumstances outside of production control.”

Check out the Lizzo moment below.

15 Aug 2023

Pink Expands Record-Setting 2024 ‘Summer Carnival’ Tour of Australia

Pink’s record-breaking visit to Australia and New Zealand next year will include her first stadium concert in North Queensland.

The Philadelphia pop superstar will bring her Summer Carnival to the land Down Under in 2024, for a trek that expands to 16 Australian shows. Among the newly-announced dates are a fourth and final show at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, and a tour-closing concert March 23 at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville, a venue that typically hosts the rough and tumble of professional rugby league matches.

Pink’s one-off show in Townsville was presented at a press conference, featuring government representatives.

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“Queensland is the only state where Pink is playing three separate cities, and this is the only regional stop,” comments premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose government is gearing up for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, which will be held in the state capital, Brisbane. “Major concerts like this bring visitors who spend millions of dollars in the tourism economy and support local jobs.”

Live Nation is producing the tour, which the concerts giant insists will be the biggest-selling Australian visit ever by a female artist.

Pink’s 16 stadium concerts is one record, the 725,000 ticket sales she is “currently well beyond,” according to LN, is another.

“Pink’s Aussie shows sold out in minutes across the country,” comments Live Nation Australia president Roger Field, “making the tour extension into North Queensland an exciting next step in meeting this unprecedented demand.”

Setting records in Australia is a regular pastime for Pink. She’s considered an “honorary Aussie,” and has certainly spent enough time here to earn that tag.

On her 2009 Funhouse Tour, she criss-crossed the country for a gobsmacking 59 shows, an epic adventure that took three months and saw her sell 650,000 tickets. Not bad for a population of less than 25 million at the time.

For her Truth About Love Tour in 2013-14, Pink completed 46 dates; and for the Australasian leg of her Beautiful Trauma World Tour in 2018, she spent over two months on these shores, hitting 42 arena dates.
On the ARIA Charts, Pink has bagged seven No. 1 albums, most recently with Trustfall.

Live Nation Australia chairman Michael Coppel is Pink’s career-long promoter for ANZ, organizing six tours since 2004. On the 20th anniversary of that association, Pink will surpass 3 million tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand, he explains.

“Only fitting that we break new ground with the record to be set at her first show in Northern Queensland at Queensland Country Bank Stadium,” he adds.

Also announced this week, Tones And I will join Pink as special guest on the ANZ swing. The one-time busker, Tones (real name Toni Watson) set new benchmarks with her global hit “Dance Monkey,” which led charts in 30 countries, including 24-week run at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, a record, and 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, a record for a solo female artist.

Visit livenation.com.au for more.

Summer Carnival Australian Tour 2024
Feb. 9 — Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Feb. 10 — Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Feb. 13 — McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
Feb. 16 — Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Feb. 17 — Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Feb. 20 — Heritage Bank Stadium, Gold Coast
Feb. 23 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Feb. 24 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Feb. 27 — Adelaide Oval
March 1 — Optus Stadium, Perth
March 2 — Optus Stadium, Perth
March 12 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
March 13 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
March 16 — Accor Stadium, Sydney
March 19 — Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
March 23 — Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville
With special guest Tones And I

15 Aug 2023

Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance The Night’ Shuffles Into Lead on U.K. Midweek Chart

For the first time in two-and-a-half months, the U.K.’s singles chart is set to crown a new leader. And, right now, that crown looks like a good fit for Dua Lipa.

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The pop superstar leads the midweek chart with “Dance The Night” (via Warner Records), one of several hits from Barbie.

If it swings to the top, up 3-1, “Dance The Night” would be Lipa’s fourth U.K. leader, following “New Rules”; “One Kiss “with Calvin Harris; and “Cold Heart,” her collaboration with Elton John, remixed by PNAU.

Barbie has now passed the US$1 billion milestone at the global box office, and the hit film’s influence can been seen up and down the U.K.’s chart blast. Indeed, it’s an all-Barbie top two, as Billie Eilish’s ballad “What Was I Made For?” slots into second place, less than 1,000 chart units behind “Dance The Night,” the Official Charts Company reports. Other cuts from Barbie: The Album making a midweek mark include “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua (at No. 7); “Speed Drive” by Charli XCX (No. 14); “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling (No. 16); and Lizzo’s “Pink” (No. 34).

Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” (Geffen) completes the midweek podium, at No. 3, while the Grammy-winning pop star is poised to nab the top new entry on the national survey with “Bad Idea Right,” the latest track lifted from her forthcoming sophomore album GUTS. It’s new at No. 5 on the Official Chart Update.

Also set to make a dent on the chart is Fred Again’s “I Adore U” (Atlantic). It’s set to bow at No. 11, for what would be a career-high from the smoking hot Mercury Prize-nominated DJ and producer.

It would appear that Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” (Live Yours/Neighbourhood) has run its final race. The hit song led the national chart for 10 consecutive weeks, but is set to tumble not just from summit, but out of the top 10. Based on sales and streaming data published by the OCC, “Sprinter” will drop to No. 12.

All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published Friday, Aug. 18.

15 Aug 2023

Liam Gallagher Heading For U.K. No. 1 With ‘Knebworth 22’

Liam Gallagher is approaching higher ground, as Knebworth 22 (via Warner Records) leads the race for the U.K. chart title.

Cut during the British rocker’s two sold-out shows at Knebworth in June last year, where he played to crowds of 170,000, the live collection leads the midweek chart.

If it holds its momentum, Knebworth 22 would give Gallagher his fifth solo No. 1 album, and bragging rights over his brother Noel Gallagher, who boasts four No. 1 albums with his High Flying Birds, and missed out by a fraction on claiming a fifth when Foo Fighters won a tight chart race in June.

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Liam Gallagher is no stranger to life in the U.K. chart penthouse. As frontman with Oasis, he led the chart on eight occasions, a consecutive streak that includes all seven of the band’s studio albums, plus the 2010 compilation Time Flies.

Knebworth was, of course, the setting of Oasis’ legendary gigs, played across two nights in August 1996, a moment in time that was captured for the feature-length documentary Knebworth 1996, directed by Jake Scott, and for its companion album which peaked at No. 4 on the U.K. chart in 2021.

As a solo artist, Liam Gallagher has led the national tally with As You Were (2017), Why Me? Why Not (2019), MTV Unplugged (2020) and C’mon You Know (2022).

Dropping in at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update is the Hives’ The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons (Disques Hives), the Swedish rockers’ sixth album and first in more than a decade. Fitzsimmons is on track to become the group’s career peak and third top 10 title, including their 2002 breakthrough Your New Favourite Band, released on Alan McGee’s Poptones, and 2004 followup Tyrannosaurus Hives (Polydor), both peaking at No. 7.

Completing an all-new top three on the latest chart blast is Volcano (Caiola), from electronic act Jungle. Volcano should blast to the duo’s fourth top 10 appearance.

Finally, John Lydon’s’s post-punk outfit Public Image Ltd could snag a first-ever U.K. top 10 with End of the World (PIL Official), set to start at No. 7, while new releases from London rapper Fredo (Unfinished Business via PG Records at No. 11) and English singer-songwriter Lucy Spraggan (Balance via CTRL at No. 12) are just outside the top tier.

All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published Friday, Aug. 18.

14 Aug 2023

Zooey Deschanel Engaged to ‘Property Brothers’ Star Jonathan Scott

Zooey Deschanel is engaged to Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott, the couple announced Monday (Aug. 14).

“Forever starts now!” the couple captioned a joint Instagram post, which features a smiling photo of the pair, with the New Girl actress showing off her ring featuring pink and purple stones set in the shape of a flower.

The She & Him singer and HGTV host met and started dating in 2019 after filming an episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series together, along with Scott’s twin brother and co-host Drew Scott and Deschanel’s Bones star sister Emily Deschanel. “From the first moment she walked over to say hello, she had a bounce in her step and an energy about her that made me immediately take notice,” Scott wrote in a Drew + Jonathan Reveal magazine essay published early last year.

In that same magazine story, Scott and Deschanel also invited fans to follow the journey as they renovated the “forever home” they purchased together in May 2020 in Los Angeles.

Deschanel was previously married to Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard from 2009 to 2012 and to film producer Jacob Pechenik from 2015 to 2019. She has two children, daughter Elsie, 8, and son Charlie, 6, with Pechenik. Scott was previously married to Kelsy Ully from 2007 to 2013 and has no children.

See their engagement announcement below:

14 Aug 2023

Magoo of Timbaland & Magoo Fame Dead at 50

Magoo, who along with rapper/producer Timbaland was behind the late ‘90s hit “Up Jumps Da Boogie,” has died at age 50. News of the artist’s death was initially posted by artist Digital Black, a member of the 1990s R&B/hip-hop group Playa, on his Instagram page.

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Magoo’s cause of death has not been revealed.

Born Melvin Barcliff, Magoo and fellow Norfolk native Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley met as teenagers before joining forces as a duo. The pair’s debut album, Welcome to Our World, was released by Barry Hankerson’s Blackground Records in 1997, peaking at No. 33 on the Billboard 200 and No. 9 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The set spun off the gold-certified single “Up Jumps Da Boogie,” which sat atop the Hot Rap Songs chart for eight weeks and peaked at No. 4 and No. 12 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Boasting guest appearances by Missy Elliott, Aaliyah and Playa, among others, the platinum-certified Welcome to Our World also rolled out a second top 10 single with “Clock Strikes” (No. 8 on Hot Rap Songs).

Timbaland & Magoo released two more albums as a group, 2001’s Indecent Proposal and 2003’s Under Construction, Part II. Indecent Proposal clocked in at No. 3 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 29 on the Billboard 200. Under Construction, Part II reached No. 16 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums; No. 50 on Billboard 200. In summer 2021, Blackground Records signed a distribution deal with Empire under which albums in Blackground’s catalog would become available to streaming services for the first time. In addition to Timbaland & Magoo, that rollout included Aaliyah’s recordings.

While Timbaland gained additional fame as a solo artist, Magoo opted not to take that route. When Billboard interviewed Timbaland and Magoo in 2001 ahead of Indecent Proposal’s arrival, Magoo had this to say about whether he would put out a solo project: “I’ve never seriously thought about doing a solo album. I’ve thought about it in passing — like if Tim decided he wanted to stop rapping. It would be really difficult for me to think about doing a record without him. We’ve been together since 1990, so [being solo] would be weird. Tim and Magoo is more a friendship than it is a group.”

Among artists and collaborators paying tribute to Magoo via Instagram were Timbaland, Missy Elliott and Ginuwine.

Timbaland said in part, “This one hits different long live Melvin aka magoo!!! Tim and Magoo forever; rest easy my king.” 

In addition to posting a performance video, Timbaland also gave music fans a recommendation: “You need to hear this Pharrell verse off his 91 demo tape with Timbaland and Magoo. This is so wholesome. They went by S.B.I. (Surrounded By Idiots).”

It was Magoo who gave Elliott her “Misdemeanor” nickname, as she recalled, “We became so cool you supported me from day 1 & you said I’m going to call you Misdemeanor because it’s a crime to have that many talents. So those who don’t know Magoo gave me the name Misdemeanor When we did this song Beep Me 911 & I asked Magoo to get on it & I played this verse over and over & posting this is just heartbreaking I am so lost for words.”

Next to a photo of Magoo with the message “R.I.P. Soldier,” Ginuwine wrote, “This dude, always pushed me …I will miss you maganooo that’s what we called him ….. totally one of the best ever in my eyes always pressing forward I know we didn’t talk alot but the love was and will be always there my brotha … man oh man blessings to the family all of my condolences.”

14 Aug 2023

Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ Returns to Hot 100 for First Time in Eight Years

Taylor Swift’s former seven-week No. 1 hit “Blank Space,” from her 2014 LP 1989, re-enters the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Aug. 19), marking its first appearance on the survey since its initial 36-week chart run in 2014-15.

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“Blank Space” re-enters with 8.4 million U.S. streams (up 23%), 4.3 million radio airplay audience impressions (essentially even week-over-week) and 1,000 downloads sold (up 51%), in the Aug. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The song has been gaining in recent weeks, as Swift has been performing it on The Eras Tour, and ahead of the announcement of her re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Aug. 9. The song also jumps to No. 40 on the Billboard Global 200 chart, up 10% to 25.4 million streams worldwide (reflecting consumption in the U.S. and around 200 other countries).

1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s fourth re-recorded set from her catalog, is due Oct. 27. Her original 1989 album spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2014-15, matching Fearless as her longest-leading No. 1 album.

“Blank Space” was a monumental hit for Swift, marking her third and longest-leading No. 1 at the time. With seven weeks at the summit, it stood as Swift’s longest-leading hit until “Anti-Hero” tallied eight weeks on top last November through this January. “Blank Space” also earned Grammy Award nominations for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance.

Swift has since upped her total to nine Hot 100 No. 1s. Here’s a recap.

Taylor Swift’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s:
“Anti-Hero” (eight weeks, 2022-23)
“All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” (one, 2021)
“Willow” (one, 2020)
“Cardigan” (one, 2020)
“Look What You Made Me Do” (three, 2017)
“Bad Blood,” feat. Kendrick Lamar (one, 2015)
“Blank Space” (seven, 2014-15)
“Shake It Off” (four, 2014)
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (three, 2012)

Older songs such as “Blank Space” are eligible to re-enter the Hot 100 if they rank in the top 50 and have meaningful reasons for their resurgences. We occasionally see this phenomenon when catalog songs go viral or are newly promoted, as with Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (from 2019 and, now promoted as a single, up to No. 3 on the Hot 100), or have notable TV/film synchs that generate newfound interest, as was the case with Kate Bush’s 1985 classic “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” last year. This explains why we see holiday songs storming the Hot 100 each winter, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” returning after Halloween and, most recently, Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” back on the Hot 100 last month following Fourth of July-related gains.