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29 Jan 2025

Ringo Starr Admits He’s Never Eaten Pizza in His Life

Famed Beatles drummer and one-time Pizza Hut spokesperson Ringo Starr has admitted he’s never eaten pizza before.

The veteran musician made the somewhat surprising confession while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his 21st studio album, Look Up. As part of his chat, Kimmel asked Starr to set some rumors about himself straight. First on the list was the claim that Starr had never eaten pizza.

“I’ve never had a pizza,” Starr confirmed, as the audience expressed their shock at the news. “Or a curry.”

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“I’m allergic to several items,” Starr continued. “With pizza, you don’t know what you’re putting in it half the time. Or the curry. So I’m strict with myself since it makes me ill immediately.”

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“I used to think you had the greatest life, and now I realize mine is better,” Kimmel joked in response. Added Starr: “Yours is better because you’ve had a pizza.”

Starr’s need to abstain from pizza also goes hand-in-hand with his longtime vegetarianism, but is made all the more surprising given his role as a one-time spokesperson for noted restaurant chain Pizza Hut.

Appearing in a 1995 ad campaign for the chain, Starr promoted Pizza Hut’s newly-introduced stuffed crust as part of a 30-second spot which saw him teasing a reunion from The Beatles. The ad’s punchline sees Starr joined by members of The Monkees instead (“Wrong lads,” he quips), with all four musicians appearing to bite a piece of pizza crust-first. We now know, however, that Starr doesn’t actually follow suit.

The former Beatle’s latest record arrived on Jan. 10 as his first full-length release since 2019’s What’s My Name. Bolstered by guest appearances from Alison Krauss, Molly Tuttle, Lucius, Larkin Poe, and Billy Strings, the country record has so far been a commercial success. Look Up debuted on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales chart at No. 7, charted in the top ten of Indie Store Album Sales (No. 2) and Top Rock Albums (No. 7), and also gave Starr a career-best peak of No. 27 on the Top Country Albums.

“I did love country music before I was in (The Beatles),” Starr recently told Billboard. “We got plenty of it in Liverpool, because the lads who were in the merchant navy would bring not only rock and roll over, but country — and when country bands went on tour in England, they always played Liverpool.”

29 Jan 2025

Liam Gallagher Responds to Bring Me the Horizon’s Cover of ‘Wonderwall’

Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher has offered up his thoughts on an unexpected cover of “Wonderwall” from British heavy outfit Bring Me the Horizon.

The U.K. quartet unveiled their cover of the song on Wednesday (Jan. 29) as part of the Spotify Singles series. Accompanied by a remix of their 2024 track “Youtopia”, their cover sees the Britpop anthem’s acoustic guitars swapped for electrics, with pounding drums reinterpreting the breezy percussion of Alan White. 

Furthermore, the artwork for the single also sees the band recreating Oasis’ appearance in the accompanying music video, while its announcement on social media featured the band referencing the song’s viral fame and ubiquity by simply writing, “Anyway, here’s ‘Wonderwall’”.

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While the cover has already received acclaim from Bring Me the Horizon’s fanbase, social media discourse soon turned to Gallagher, whose somewhat unpredictable and outspoken behavior has seen him share harsh opinions on anything he doesn’t care for. This time, however, the subversive Gallagher has once again surprised his fans with a positive reaction to the track.

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“I fucking LOVE it,” Gallagher wrote in response to one post about the song. Another fan suggested that “Liam will be so pissed off over this”, only for the vocalist to respond my replying “I’m not it’s absolutely incredible made my day I’m of out on my skateboard fuck y’all”.

Originally released in 1995 as the fourth single from Oasis’ second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, “Wonderwall” swiftly became the signature song for the group. Peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 as their highest-charting song to date, it was also nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Rock Song at the 1997 Grammy Awards.

Oasis once again returned to the public consciousness in 2024 when they announced a highly-anticipated reunion tour for 2024. Launching in Wales on July 4, the tour will travel to the U.S. in August and September, with dates scheduled in Chicago, IL; East Rutherford, NJ; and Los Angeles, CA.

While the tour has received widespread attention for the now-repaired relationship between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, it also made headlines thanks to controversy regarding the use of dynamic pricing in the ticketing process. Earlier this month, it was announced that the U.K. government will launch a probe into the secondary ticket market in response to public outrage.

Recently, Bring Me the Horizon were announced as one of the headliners for the U.K.’s Reading & Leeds Festival in August, with Tracis Scott, Chappell Roan, and Hozier also set to headline the event.

29 Jan 2025

Nick Cave Wants Kanye West’s Music Played At His Funeral

Nick Cave has already sorted the soundtrack for his funeral, with Kanye West apparently set to accompany the somber scene.

Cave’s musical request was made via his Red Hand Files website in which he responds to letters from fans. One letter, from Helen in the U.K., reflected on Cave’s choices for his recent appearance on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs segment, in which listeners choose the songs to accompany them on a desert island. Cave’s eight songs included cuts from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, T. Rex, Nina Simone, John Lee Hooker, Karen Dalton, Tim Rose, Kanye West, and The Saints.

Helen’s letter went on to ask Cave about how he deals with hypothetical questions related to loss and guilt, while another inquiry from Damian in the U.S. asked about the song he would like to be played at his funeral.

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Following a lengthy rumination on his own experiences with grief, Cave closed his response by answering Damian’s question with a track from 2013’s Yeezus album: “Please, ‘I Am A God’ by Kanye West”.

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It’s not the first time that Cave had professed his love of West, with another Red Hand Files response from January 2020 seeing West described as “our greatest artist” by the Australian musician.

“Making art is a form of madness – we slip deep within our own singular vision and become lost to it,” Cave wrote at the time. “There is no musician on Earth that is as committed to their own derangement as Kanye, and in this respect, at this point in time, he is our greatest artist.”

Months after that praise, a fan named Vassilis inquired via Cave’s site about whether West’s 2021 album Donda had been “delayed because you both took the last-minute decision to include a track you have been working on together”. Cave’s response was much shorter and succinct than his typical responses: “Dear Vassilis, No. Love, Nick.”

29 Jan 2025

‘Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown’ Makes Sweet Billboard Chart Debut

Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to the 1975 animated TV special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, debuts across an array of Billboard album charts (dated Feb. 1), including top 10 arrivals on Jazz Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. It also takes a bow on the Kid Albums and Top Album Sales charts.

This is the first time the complete soundtrack to the special has been released, as only select tracks from the program have been released previously.

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Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown marked the 13th animated Peanuts special, and premiered on CBS-TV on Jan. 28, 1975. It garnered an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding children’s special.

The soundtrack was issued nearly 50 years to the day after the program’s debut – as the album arrived on Jan. 17, 2025. The 30-track album was released via streaming services, as well as to purchase as a digital download, CD and across three vinyl variants (a standard black vinyl, plus a red-colored edition and pink-colored edition).

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown enters at No. 7 on Traditional Jazz Albums, No. 9 on the overall Jazz Albums ranking, No. 9 on Indie Store Album Sales, No. 18 on Kid Albums and No. 48 on Top Album Sales. The set earned a little over 2,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 23, according to Luminate, with nearly all of that sum driven by traditional album sales.

Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is the latest in a series of from-the-vaults Peanuts soundtrack releases Lee Mendelson Film Productions, the company that produced more than 50 Peanuts animated specials. In recent years, the studio has released Guaraldi’s companion albums to You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown; It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

The first Peanuts animated special, 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, launched the evergreen soundtrack album of the same name from Vince Guaraldi Trio. That set has spent more than 100 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Kid Albums chart and has visited the top 40 of the all-genre Billboard 200 in every holiday season for the last 10 years.

29 Jan 2025

Amazon Music Unlimited Prices Increase in U.S., U.K. and Canada

Amazon informed customers on Wednesday (Jan. 29) that the prices for Amazon Music Unlimited, the company’s on-demand music streaming service, are increasing in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

In the U.S., the individual plan will rise to $11.99 per month from $10.99 per month, according to a company spokesperson. For Prime members, the monthly cost will jump to $10.99 from $9.99. Similarly, the monthly family plan price is increasing to $19.99 from $16.99 while the annual price will climb to $199 from $169.

The U.S. price increases put Amazon Music Unlimited’s prices for non-Prime members in equal territory to Spotify, which has cost $11.99 per month for individuals and $19.99 per month for the family plan since June 2023. YouTube Music costs $10.99 per month in the U.S. for an individual plan, although its family plan costs just $16.99 per month. Similarly, Apple Music and Tidal also charge $10.99 for individual plans and $16.99 for family plans.

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Amazon was among the earliest music streaming companies to raise its prices. It started by raising fees for Prime members to $8.99 in May 2022, then hiking the price for non-Prime members to $10.99 in January 2023 and eventually changing Prime members’ price to $9.99 in August 2023. That year, Amazon justified the higher prices by saying they would allow the company “[to] bring even more content and features.” Last year, Amazon Music followed also Spotify’s lead into audiobooks by offering Audible’s audiobook content for subscribers. At the time, Steve Boom, vp of audio, Twitch and games at Amazon, said the company’s strategy was “to add new things to the product” that add value and later “figure out what the right pricing strategy is in the long term.”

In addition to its Amazon Music Unlimited on-demand service, Amazon also offers a free, ad-supported music streaming service, Amazon Music Free, and a service free to Prime members called Amazon Music Prime that provides podcast and shuffle music listening.

29 Jan 2025

Kelly Clarkson Soars With Cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather’

Kelly Clarkson and Billie Eilish are musical “Birds of a Feather.”

On her latest Kellyoke installment, Clarkson performed Eilish’s standout Hit Me Hard and Soft track, “Birds of a Feather.” Dressed in a berry-toned jumpsuit, the American Idol winner started off slow in the verses before she effortlessly belted the chorus. “Birds of a feather, we should stick together, I know
I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone/ Can’t change the weather, might not be forever/ But if it’s forever, it’s even better,” she sings on the track.

The track reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the LP debuted at the penultimate spot on the Billboard 200. In September, Eilish dropped a paranormal music video for “Birds of a Feather” directed by Aidan Zamiri, and in October, she performed the song on Saturday Night Live.

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Earlier this year, the track was named Spotify‘s most-streamed song of 2024, and it’s up for three awards at the 2025 Grammys: song of the year, record of the year and best pop solo performance. Overall, Eilish is nominated for seven awards, with Hit Me Hard and Soft up for album of the year. The “Over Now Extended Edit” of “L’Amour De Ma Vie” is nominated for best dance pop recording, while her Charli XCX “Guess” collaboration received a nod for best pop duo/group performance.

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Watch Kelly Clarkson perform Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” below.

29 Jan 2025

Jelly Roll Sets Rose Bowl Benefit Concert to Support L.A. Wildfire First Responders

Jelly Roll will play a headlining benefit show to support first responders who have bravely faced the wildfires that ravaged parts of greater Los Angeles earlier this month.

The “I Am Not Okay” hitmaker will lead the benefit concert on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and is inviting only first responders and their families/guests to attend.

TMZ first reported the benefit show, and Billboard has independently confirmed the event.

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The show, which is set to begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, is said to possibly include some unnamed “friends” of Jelly Roll who will also take part. According to TMZ, tickets for the show are free, and Los Angeles first responders were offered up to four tickets for themselves, family and friends.

This isn’t the only benefit concert Jelly Roll is performing at connected to supporting those impacted by the wildfires. The six-time Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hitmaker will also take part in the massive FireAid benefit concert, which will take place at Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum on Thursday (Jan. 30) and also features Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga and more.

Antioch, Tennessee, native Jelly Roll has been steadily piling up accolades over the past few years, including seeing his current album Beautifully Broken debut atop the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. Along the way, he’s also secured a CMA Award win for new artist of the year and earned four Grammy nominations, as well as a nomination for the CMA’s coveted entertainer of the year honor.

But Jelly Roll has been keen on blending music and mission from the beginning, working to help others and shining a light on those who are struggling with various trials, whether that be depression, addiction or incarceration. On tour, he regularly visits jails in the cities where his tour stops. His most recent No. 1 party, for his song “I Am Not Okay,” was held at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where he performed for inmates and offered them encouragement.

29 Jan 2025

Taylor Swift Gushes to Travis Kelce After Kansas City Chiefs’ AFC Championship Win: ‘This Is Not a Real Life Situation’

Taylor Swift is Travis Kelce’s biggest fan.

After Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs claimed their victory over the Buffalo Bills to head to next month’s Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 in New Orleans, the tight end celebrated on the field after winning the AFC Championship alongside Swift and his mother, Donna Kelce.

In a new video shared by the NFL via X on Wednesday (Jan. 29), the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” is seen with her arms around her athlete boyfriend, with Donna smiling next to them as confetti poured onto the field. “I loved the way you blocked for Patrick [Mahomes] in the end zone,” Donna told her smiling son, and Swift agreed. “That was amazing,” she said.

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“I’m trying to win a third one, Mom. I’m doing anything I possibly can,” Travis replied, looking at his mother. If the Chiefs win Super Bowl LIX, they will become the first NFL team to ever win three championships in a row.

“This is so insane,” Swift tells Travis, urging him to look at the crowd in Arrowhead Stadium. “This is not a real life situation.”

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Travis then added, “It wasn’t like this in Baltimore,” where the Chiefs won the 2024 AFC Championship.

“This is so crazy. I can’t believe this is really happening. I’m in shock,” Swift continued. The superstar will likely be in New Orleans for Super Bowl Sunday, where the Chiefs will try to beat the Philadelphia Eagles for the second time in three years. Kendrick Lamar will serve as the halftime performer at the game where he’ll be joined by SZA.

Watch the full moment between Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and Donna Kelce below.

29 Jan 2025

Chris Stapleton & Morgane Stapleton’s Outlaw State of Kind Organization Donates $1 Million to L.A. Wildfire Relief

Chris Stapleton and Morgane Stapleton are coming to the aid of those impacted by the wildfires that have ravaged parts of the greater Los Angeles area of California earlier this month.

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The couple’s charitable fund Outlaw State of Kind donated $1 million to aid organizations, both local and national, to support those who have impacted by the wildfires.

“Outlaw State of Kind has donated $1 million to support national and local organizations providing wildfire relief in Los Angeles. Join us in supporting however you can,” read a message on the organization’s Instagram page.

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The organization’s website also listed several organizations where it is donating funds, including the American Red Cross, California Fire Relief, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, MusiCares and the Pasadena Humane Society.

The Outlaw State of Kind charitable fund was founded in 2016 and is administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, supporting a variety of causes that Chris and Morgane Stapleton champion.

At the upcoming Grammy Awards, slated for Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Stapleton is nominated in categories including best country solo performance (for “It Takes a Woman”) and best country album (for Higher). While many other Grammy Week festivities have been canceled, the Grammys telecast has pivoted and will be used to raise additional funds for wildfire relief efforts.

After the wildfires that have ravaged parts of Los Angeles County this month, several music industry companies have stepped up to give aid and support. The wildfires erupted on Jan. 7 and quickly spread throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Deaths from the Los Angeles-area wildfires have risen to 29 people. The wildfires also ravaged entire communities, destroying and damaging thousands of structures, and engulfing numerous homes.

29 Jan 2025

Check Out Lady Gaga’s New Wax Figure at Madame Tussauds London

A star has been born at Madame Tussauds London, where a new Lady Gaga wax figure will be available for fans to see starting next month.

The figure’s look is inspired by Gaga’s outfit at the 2022 Grammy Awards, paying homage to this year’s ceremony, where her Hot 100 chart-topping Bruno Mars collaboration, “Die With a Smile,” is nominated for two awards. The superstar’s figure is blowing a kiss while wearing a replica of the classic black-and-white Armani Privé gown that she wore to the ceremony, complete with earrings and a statement necklace.

Lady Gaga’s figure will be feature in Madame Tussauds London’s Awards Party zone, joining the star-studded line up of figures including Timothée Chalamet, Harry Styles, Zendaya, Dwayne Johnson, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Lil Nas X.

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“Lady Gaga has owned the spotlight for decades across music, fashion and most recently, film, so we wanted to create a show-stopping look to reflect her iconic status and flair for reinvention,” said Steve Blackburn, general manager at Madame Tussauds London, in a press statement. “Inspired by her ability to reimagine herself, we reimagined this brand-new figure fifteen years after we launched her first. In time for this year’s awards season, we wanted the multi-talented superstar to accompany our host of other celebrities in the Awards Party zone. It is here where Little Monsters and other fans across the world can now become ‘Paparazzi’ themselves and join our brand-new Lady Gaga figure on the red carpet.”  

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The new figure, Gaga’s second at Madame Tussauds London, will be available for fans to see starting on Feb 3., just a day after the 67th annual Grammy Awards.