News

Taylor Lautner reacts to the news that Taylor Swift is releasing the re-recording of ‘Speak Now,’ BLACKPINK’s Jennie and BTS’ V were reportedly spotted out together, and Billie Eilish and Jesse Rutherford have split. The first weekend in June is set to be a party at OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride with major performances. Labrinth talks about his new album ‘Ends & Begins’ and his experience performing with Billie Eilish and Zendaya at Coachella during an exclusive interview with Billboard News!

TETRIS KELLY:
We’ve got updates on the love lives of Billy Eilish and BLACKPINK’s Jennie. We’re running down what to expect at WeHo Pride. Labrinth tells us about his epic Coachella sets with Billie and Zendaya. And we learned Colombian slang from Goyo.

I’m Tetris Kelly and this is Billboard News. It’s Thursday, May 18th. We’ve got some romance rumors, breakups, and friendly exes to talk about. Billie, V and Jennie, Tay and Tay, and Halle and her prince — so much relationship tea to around up. Let’s dive in! The star of ‘The Little Mermaid’ was asked by People if her real-life boyfriend, DDG, was also a Prince Charming, to which she responded, “People love to talk about this. Yeah, I would say that.” And Taylor Lautner is saying John Mayer better watch out as his ex Taylor Swift prepares to release “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” Both his and John’s relationships with the pop star will resurface. He posted #PrayforJohn. And it’s the K-pop power couple everyone’s talking about. Alleged video of BTS’ V and BLACKPINK’s Jennie holding hands and being cozy in Paris have surfaced sending fans into a frenzy with most asking to respect them, their decisions, and privacy. And lastly, Billie Eilish and her boyfriend Jesse Rutherford have split after seven months of dating. The two were last spotted together at Coachella as Eilish showed up to the Met Gala alone. Now we wait to see if Jesse’s new music will address it all.

Pride Month is almost upon us and here in Los Angeles, we celebrate in part with music, and OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride is bringing the party this year. With headliners like Carly Rae Jepsen, Grace Jones, Idina Menzel and Jessie Ware, OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride is about to be a banger. More acts for the first weekend in June include Tinashe, Orville Peck and ‘Drag Race’ winner Kylie Sonique Love.

Kylie released a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” as a message of support to the trans and drag communities who are under attack through hundreds of bills being passed around the United States. Tickets are still available for OUTLOUD at WeHo Pride and we’ll be there to talk to all your favorite performers.

Let’s move on to our interview with Labrinth. He told Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz that he worked on his latest album ‘Ends & Begins’ for a full year, but it was Coachella that helped him finally release it.

LABRINTH:
I started putting the show together. And I was like, ‘If I’m going to do a show, I just want it to be the sickest thing that I think I’ve ever seen or haven’t seen.’ And so I just started kind of composing what my set would be. Me and Billie ended up doing the record ‘Never Felt So Alone.’ And I was like, “Do you want to maybe come to Coachella and perform it with me?” And she was like, “Yeah.” and I was like, “Really?” She’s like, “Okay.” That’s wild. And you know, me and Billie really loved the record that we did together. And it kind of felt like a natural progression into us performing it. And like actually ground-testing this record and seeing how the fans really enjoyed it. And it was wild. I was like, “[Zendaya], I’m going to perform at Coachella, I would love to do our songs together.” And she was like, “I would love to but I don’t have the time.” I didn’t think she could make it. And then I think last minute something happened that made her have to pass through. And she was like, “Lab, I want to do the show.” And I was like, “Really?” As soon as she said she wanted to do it. I was like, this is a moment. Like, I just knew it straight away. But then when we actually performed it, it was like, “Oh… right!” It was more than I thought it was going to be, like it was insane. We couldn’t hear ourselves. That’s how loud it was in there.

I share this quite often because I know there are a lot of people that have this experience or have had this experience where, like, I have ADHD, and I didn’t know I had it. Even for season one, I didn’t know I had ADHD. And before discovering that it made it very difficult for me to finish anything. Even though I did a lot for the show. It was very intense and very, like grueling. I think I’ve learned the process of taking care of my brain and my mind and mental health so that I can make sure I can deliver the things I want to deliver and also know my capacity as well, you know. So I think that’s been the process is kind of going okay, how do you achieve the thing you want to achieve? But also how do you make sure you don’t become a vegetable by the end of it? You know?

TETRIS KELLY:
For the full interview head to Billboard.com!

CARLY PEARCE:
Hey, Billboard, it’s Carly Pearce, and I’m so excited to see all of you on June 7th for the Women of Country Panel. Get your tickets now. See you then!

TETRIS KELLY:
Before you go, we learned some new slang from Goyo at Billboard’s Latin Women in Music.

GOYO:
¿Mi frases favoritas de mi países por ejemplo? Mi nombre es Goyo, soy de Colombia. Cuando hablo con slang, mi gusta mucho decir “clean”m porque estar clean es estar como con el outfit, con la pinta. Otra palabra qué me encanta mucho es “chévere”, porque es una palabra que mucha gente conoce que no solamente se conoce en Colombia, sino en diferentes lados de Latinoamérica, y suena… “¡chévere!” Otra palabra la verdad uso mucho, “chimba”. Yo soy del Chocó y en Medellín es donde más se usa, pero yo la uso todo el tiempo. “¡Esto es una chimba!”, cuando digo que algo está así como hard, lo máximo, una chimba. Estas fueron mis palabras o frases favoritas desde Colombia.

TETRIS KELLY:
That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for our Friday Music Guide and we’ll see how well Saweetie and Baby Tate know each other.