State Champ Radio olympics
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“I was determined to make a living doing music,” says Ryan Tedder of his early start writing music for commercials, movies and TV series. And while, for a time, he thought that would be the extent of his music career, that experience is what made him the perfect choice to write and produce the official Paris Olympics song in partnership with the Coca-Cola Company.
“It was the perfect combination of fun and challenging,” he says of crafting the song titled “Hello World” and performed by Gwen Stefani and Anderson .Paak. “It definitely tested my Rolodex. There’s a list of desired artists [from the International Olympic Committee and Coca-Cola], then they have to find where those artists commingle.”
Tedder, who grew up watching the Olympics, says he never misses gymnastics, track and field or swimming. And he’s already thinking ahead to the 2028 games, which will take place in Los Angeles. He says, “I definitely would like to do the song for 2028, I’ve already made that abundantly clear with the IOC and Coke. Sonically, I would want to encapsulate the essence of California. Some combination of West Coast hip-hop, but then I also think Beach Boys.”
It’s surprising Tedder has much time to watch the Olympics at all, considering his schedule not only writing and producing for others, but also his own band OneRepublic. The band released its sixth album this July, titled Artificial Paradise. The project includes the previous Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “I Ain’t Worried” from Top Gun: Maverick as well as “Hurt” and “Runaway.”
“The weirdest thing about this album — and the next album will be different because we’re always trying to switch it up — but this represents, more or less, the end of our album cycle,” he says, noting the lead single “West Coast” arrived about two years ago. “I Ain’t Worried” came next, which he says “strangled” “West Coast” to become the album’s best-known track.
He has plenty more on the horizon as well, teasing he and Tate McRae (for whom he executive produced her second album Think Later) are talking “every day” about what is next. “I was texting her this morning,” he says with a laugh, before adding he is keeping his lips sealed about what’s to come. “When it comes to work ethic, she’s Olympic-level focused.” He’s also eager to work with Rosalía and Sabrina Carpenter (he’s more “Espresso” than “Please Please Please,” he says) and has been working a bit more with rappers lately too.
He says those sessions have made him think about remixing one of OneRepublic’s biggest hits, “Apologize,” saying it would “go crazy right now. “It’s been 17 years, it’s time,” he adds. “I want to figure out who the right rapper is. … I’ve dropped some hints to Jack [Harlow]. I did a record with 21 Savage last year and I asked his crew, like, ‘Does he like “Apologize”?’”
And when it comes to re-recording your own hits, he acknowledges the tireless work that Taylor Swift has done in that department. “Somebody yesterday was like, ‘When’s she running for president?’ It would be the biggest sweep of all time — but don’t do that to yourself,” he says with a laugh. “She’s got plenty more songs to write. She’s the most prolific… I’ve said in countless interviews who the most talented people [I’ve worked with are]: [Paul] McCartney blew my mind and then Taylor.”
Watch the full interview — in which Tedder also discusses his publishing company Runner and which OneRepublic era is his favorite — above.
Flavor Flav is once again stepping up to support female athletes at the 2024 Olympics, this time covering rent for 24-year-old discus thrower Veronica Fraley.
The Public Enemy rapper’s act of goodwill came directly in response to a tweet from the track and field competitor, who attends Vanderbilt University. “I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent 😒,” she wrote Thursday (Aug. 1). “my school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players (who haven’t won anything 😂) enough to buy new cars and houses 👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾”
Within a few hours, Flav saw her post and offered to help. “I gotchu,,, DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW,” he replied. “and imma be rooting for ya tomorrow LETZ GO,!!!”
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Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian — who is married to Olympic champion Serena Williams — then offered to “split it with Flav.” He then posted a screenshot of his Venmo transaction of $7,760 sent to Fraley under the subject line, “‘MURICA.”
The hip-hop star confirmed in a comment to a fan that his donation covered Fraley’s rent this month, while Ohanian’s paid off her costs for the rest of the year. “Man of my word,!!!” he added in another post. “This is what I been saying and promoting with water polo,,, I can’t fix everything on my own,,, but right now I am.”
Fraley is just the latest Olympic athlete the “Harder Than You Think” musician has assisted this year. Flav is currently in Paris cheering on the women’s water polo team, whom he started sponsoring in May after coach Maggie Steffens called for support on social media. So far, he’s gifted each team member $1,000 and a Virgin Voyage cruise.
Flav also represented the team at a press conference on the first day of the 2024 Games July 26. The next day, he personally greeted Dr. Jill Biden at Team USA’s water polo match against Greece, telling the first lady, “These girls are my girls, they work hard … They got three back-to-back gold medals. I’m just trying to cheer them on to get that No. 4.”
See Flav and Fraley’s exchange play out below.
I gotchu,,, DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW,,, and imma be rooting for ya tomorrow LETZ GO,!!!— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 1, 2024
This the power of community,,, my girl @vmfraley had 7000 people see her tweet,, only 41 people “liked” it,, only 5 people commented,, only 1 tagged me and @alexisohanian. Now that tweet been seen by 10 MILLION people,, her rent paid off for the year,, and people gots her back!— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 1, 2024
Man of my word,!!! This is what I been saying and promoting with water polo,,, I can’t fix everything on my own,,, but right now I am https://t.co/T8zZ3usMbu— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 1, 2024
If there are two people on this planet who know anything and everything about getting to the top — and staying there — it’s Beyoncé and Simone Biles. Ahead of the Stateside airing of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics women’s gymnastics all-around finals (Aug. 1), NBC has released a new commercial honoring Biles, narrated by Queen Bey herself.
“Let’s talk about power. Because, really, that’s what this story’s about,” Beyoncé begins. “Physical power: its beauty, its wonder. The way it never stops amazing you. Then there’s spiritual power, the kind that really matters. The power you can’t see, only sense. The power you need in those moments when life goes a little sideways on you. And, of course, lasting power. Only a select few know what it feels like to get to the top and stay there. And, somehow, keep getting better.”
The emotional commercial traces Biles’ legendary career, from home footage of her practicing back flips to past Olympic victories. Beyoncé’s narration praises not just Biles talent and athleticism, but also her resilience. When the 32-time Grammy winner mentions life going “a little sideways on you,” she’s alluding to the infamous “twisties” — a temporary loss of air awareness while performing twisting elements — that tragically caused Biles to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Biles’ perseverance carried her from that shocking hiatus to a historic showing at this summer’s Games.
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In Paris, Biles represented the United States alongside teammates Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, becoming the fourth American female artistic gymnast to compete at three Olympic Games. Ahead of their individual events, Biles led Team USA to the gold medal for the team event.
With this new commercial, Beyoncé marks her second appearance during this year’s Olympics. The pop icon introduced Team USA during the Opening Ceremony with a reworked version of “Ya Ya,” a song from her Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter LP that peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Another Cowboy Carter track soundtracks the Biles commercial: the Willie Jones-assisted “Just for Fun,” which reached No. 59 on the Hot 100. Given that Biles is a fellow Black woman from Texas, it’s no surprise that Beyoncé lent her voice to uplifting the only U.S. gymnast to win six Olympic gold medals.
“Simone Biles inspires me and I’m pretty sure she inspires you too,” Beyoncé continued. “Such confidence in her strength, such beauty in her power, such a great lesson in her story. Brilliance, it doesn’t come easy. Gold can be a hell of a journey. And the greatest of all time is willing to put that title on the line every time she walks out there. Take your best shot, world. She’s ready for you.”
Although NBC and Peacock will air the women’s gymnastics all-around finals tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the event has already taken place in Paris. Biles took home the gold in the all-arounds, becoming the first U.S. Olympic gymnast in history to win two all-around gold medals (2016 and 2024). Lee — who won the gold medal in 2020 — took home the bronze medal, making her and Biles the first U.S. Olympic gymnasts to earn multiple all-around medals.
Watch the new Beyoncé-narrated Simone Biles commercial below.
Take your best shot, world. Simone Biles is ready for you.Beyonce sets the stage for Simone in the women’s all-around tonight at 8/7c on NBC and Peacock. pic.twitter.com/S2xHwxORwd— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 1, 2024
Flavor Flav might be busy in Paris hyping up the women’s water polo team at the 2024 Olympics, but he’s not letting that distract him from his other role as Taylor Swift‘s biggest fan.
On Thursday (Aug. 1), the Public Enemy rapper celebrated the first day of August by quoting the pop star’s fan-favorite Folklore track of the same name, which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 and has been known to receive a boost in streams during the eighth month of the year.
“It’s august here in Paris,,, and these Olympians be livin for the hope of it all,” he wrote, paraphrasing the “August” lyric “For me it was enough to live for the hope of it all.”
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Flav is currently in the French capital to cheer on the Team USA water polo athletes, having recently signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the squad. He’s been backing the women’s team financially since coach Maggie Steffens called for support on social media in May, leading him to gift each player $1,000 and a Virgin Voyage cruise. On the first official day of the Olympics on July 26, he represented the team at a press conference.
The following day, he personally greeted Dr. Jill Biden at Team USA’s match against Greece, telling the first lady, “These girls are my girls, they work hard … They got three back-to-back gold medals. I’m just trying to cheer them on to get that No. 4.”
Days before the Olympics kicked off, Flav swung by Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Hamburg, Germany. While there, he showed off a custom “King Swiftie” nameplate he received from a fan in a video and got an onstage shout-out from the “Karma” singer herself.
The hip-hop star is one of many Swifties celebrating the return of “August” season, something Swift also subtly commemorated in a recent Instagram post about her latest Eras shows in Munich. “I’m feeling really grateful for the unexpected memories this tour has created,” she wrote earlier this week. “We have 11 shows left on the European leg of the tour, kicking off *August* with 3 shows in Warsaw!”
See Flav’s tweet quoting “August” below.
It’s august here in Paris,,, and these Olympians be livin for the hope of it all— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 1, 2024
Winning looked real good on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team when they took home the team gold in Paris on Tuesday (July 30). It sounded good too, as team members Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera spent much of the day luxuriating in the golden glow of the champion’s circle […]
The 2024 Summer Olympics only kicked off on Friday, and already we’ve seen huge moments from Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Beyoncé and more music A-listers. It all started with the Opening Ceremony, which included all-French performances from Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, set in scenic landmarks across Paris, as well as a Team USA introduction […]
Team USA came, saw and conquered the women’s gymnastics final at the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday (July 30), winning gold with a nearly 6-point lead ahead of second-place team Italy.
Of course, the effort was led by certified G.O.A.T. Simone Biles, who becomes the most-decorated female American gymnast in history. The 171.296-point victory wouldn’t have been possible, however, without Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera, who showed their strength across the uneven bars, vault, floor and balance beam events in Paris.
The five women now have an entire nation celebrating their triumph, including some of the United States’ biggest musicians. Keith Urban, who attended the event with wife Nicole Kidman, took to X to shout out each of the team members, writing on X, “What a phenomenal night at the Olympics here in Paris ! Team USA Gymnastics: G O L D.”
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Lil Wayne also sang their praises, tweeting, “USA!!! USA!!! … I fkn luv it!!!! Historical! Kongrats to both the male and female teams in the Olympics !”
Plus, Jennifer Hudson simply posted on the platform, “SIMONE !!!!!!,” while Megan Thee Stallion shared a video of Biles dancing along to her song “Where Them Girls At?” after their win, adding three heart-eyes emojis.
Lady Gaga — who performed at the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday — is also likely celebrating the news right about now. The pop star was in attendance at the women’s qualification two days prior to the final and posted a video of Biles doing her vault routine, captioned, “What an honor to be so close!”
Snoop Dogg, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and more stars have shown up in person this week to cheer the women’s team on as well.
See how stars are celebrating Team USA’s gold-medal victory at the 2024 Olympics below.
USA!!! USA!!! 💪🏾💪🏾 I fkn luv it!!!! Historical! Kongrats to both the male and female teams in the Olympics !— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) July 30, 2024
Snoop Dogg brought a little bit of silliness to the otherwise no-nonsense Olympic Games over the weekend, starting an impromptu dance party with the Team USA gymnasts right in the middle of competition. In a newly shared video from the women’s gymnastics qualification Sunday (July 28), Simone Biles points at a mystery person in the […]
Even without a gold medal, Snoop Dogg has been a star of the show at the 2024 Paris Olympics with his wall-to-wall coverage of the games. Snoop caught up with Michael Phelps to pick up some lessons in the pool from the American swimming icon and 23-time gold medalist in a video shared by NBC […]
When it comes to overheated claims that their explosive 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony set on Friday was somehow in league with Beelzebub, French metal band Gojira could take a page from Vice President Kamala Harris’ playbook. Just as the potential democratic presidential candidate and her supporters keep describing Republican rivals Donald Trump and his veep pick JD Vance as “weird,” lead singer Joe Duplantier told Rolling Stone that suggestions their eye-popping set was “satanic” is just, well, weird.
“It’s none of that. It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine, and blood all over the place — it’s romantic, it’s normal,” Duplantier said of the unexpected explosion of double kick drums, growling vocals, pyro-mania and raining blood-like streamers that accompanied the group’s performance of the 19th century French anthem “Ah! Ça Ira” from the windows of Paris’ Conciedrgerie palace during a four-hour opening spectacle.
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“There’s nothing satanic [laughs]. France is a country that made a separation between the state and religion during the revolution,” Duplantier added. “And it’s something very important, very dear to the foundation of republican France. We call it laïcité. It’s when the state is not religious anymore, so therefore it’s free in terms of expression and symbolism. It’s all about history and facts. We don’t look too close closely at symbolism in terms of religion.”
In addition to the sight of a dozen decapitated Mario Antoinettes singing along as columns of fire shot up all around them, Gojira were joined by mezzo-soprano Marina Voitti, who floated by on the prow of a ship. With a few days to let it all soak in, Duplantier told RS that things are still feeling a bit “unreal.” He described getting a call from Olympic committee and opening ceremony composer Victor le Masne months ago and thinking it was a long shot that they would end up in the final cut because the whole thing sounded “completely unreal.”
“The amount of people that would see us live kind of eclipsed the moment. I wasn’t thinking about what it was going to be because it was just too mind-bending to think about,” he said, noting that the Olympic Committee could have picked a more well-known global hard rock act such as Metallica or AC/DC for the honor. “So the reality of the moment was absolutely mind-blowing from where we were, up there at the Conciergerie and the view we had of the scenery and all the Olympic teams, passing by on boats. It was pretty surreal… We never considered ourselves the biggest band in the world that would be worthy to play the Olympics or anything like that. It’s so weird.“
Not only didn’t Gojira pick the song they performed, but Duplantier said they were totally in the dark in terms of how they would fit into the full ceremony along the Seine River, including the fact that Celine Dion and Lady Gaga would also be performing that night. “We didn’t know what was going to happen at all,” Duplantier said, adding that they never got a chance to rehearse on site beforehand. “We just went back and forth with the composer of the Olympic ceremony, Victor le Masne. He threw us a tempo and a guideline. And then we did our thing.” The only time Duplantier even got a feel for the historic building was when he climbed up on the balcony he performed from for 10 minutes three days before to try out his harness, without his guitar.
Determined to represent and honor the metal scene, the singer said they didn’t want to “play a few notes to shock people,” but rather go all-in with the double-kick drums, growling vocals and a tempo breakdown at the end to really “show what metal is all about.”
While brushing off comments from such social media trolls as Andrew Tate and some talking heads on Fox News that the performance was inspired by the devil, Duplantier also had to shrug at similar pearl-clutching on the American right from Donald Trump Jr. and House Speaker Mike Johnson that the ceremony’s recreation of the “Last Supper” featuring drag queens was an insult to Christians. “I haven’t seen it, as surprising as it seems,” the singer said. “I have a family. I have children. So right after all that work and concentration on the Olympics, I was totally in the dark. I didn’t get to sit and watch the whole thing properly.”
Watch Gojira’s performance again below.
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