Pop
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SZA is loving Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. The “Kill Bill” singer took to X on Monday (June 3) to gush over Eilish’s third studio album, which arrived on May 17. “Billie went f—ing crazy. This album is gorgeous,” SZA wrote. Billie went fucking crazy . This album is gorgeous — SZA (@sza) […]
Following weeks of fan speculation that Ariana Grande is gearing up to release a music video for her Eternal Sunshine track, “The Boy Is Mine,” with Penn Badgley as the star — the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer seemed to confirm the suspicion with a cryptic social media post. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts […]
Sabrina Carpenter is pouring up another shot of “Espresso” into 2024, when she revealed on Monday (June 3) that her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, will be arriving on August 23. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “This project is quite special to me and i […]
Miley Cyrus was a ride-or-die pal of Beyoncé‘s long before their “II Most Wanted” collaboration dropped on the latter’s Cowboy Carter earlier this year.
And in her new W Magazine cover story published Monday (June 3), the “Flowers” singer opened up about how her yearslong friendship with Queen Bey indirectly inspired their decision to team up on the country-Western duet. “I wrote that song, like, two and a half years ago,” she said of “II Most Wanted,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April. “When Beyoncé reached out to me about music, I thought of it right away because it really encompasses our relationship.”
“I told her, ‘We don’t have to get country; we are country. We’ve been country,’” she continued. “Getting to write a song, not just sing, for Beyoncé was a dream come true.”
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Cyrus added that she’s been tight with the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer since they both participated in a 2008 performance for Stand Up to Cancer alongside Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and more female stars. “I was sandwiched between Beyoncé and Rihanna,” she recalled, noting that she was just 14 at the time. “They were protective of me.”
The Hannah Montana alum added that she often chats with Bey over text, sometimes discussing the similarities between their moms. “I think it’s a really cute part of our relationship, because over the past couple of years, I’ve really locked down on my privacy and on what I share with the public,” Cyrus told the publication. “She’s the same way. Part of our relationship is the safety between us.”
Both women were present at the 2024 Grammys in February, where Cyrus won awards for the first time, thanks to “Flowers” nabbing both best pop solo performance and record of the year. In the interview, the “Wrecking Ball” musician was candid about the milestone, revealing that she feels as though the recognition was long overdue.
“No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys,” she said. “I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f–k was I? And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f–k was I? This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.”
See Cyrus’ W cover, plus photos from the shoot, below.
Miley Cyrus Covers W Magazine’s Volume 3, The Pop Issue
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
For Halsey‘s next trick, the artist is making their last era disappear. The pop star has announced that her fifth studio album is finally complete, and its first taste will arrive in the form of a new single coming in less than 24 hours.
On Monday (June 3), the star shared what appears to be cover artwork and wrote on social. media, “I’m releasing the first song off my 5th album tomorrow 6/04 at 9am pt / 12 et. Before the first single comes, I wanted to share this. It means a lot to me and I love it.”
They added, “Let’s try something different this time and start at ‘The End.’”
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The announcement comes after fans noticed last week that Halsey had unveiled a cryptic new website titled “ForMyLastTrick.com.” The page boasts several illustrated badges, some of them leading to what appear to be clues about the new album.
One shaped like a vinyl record, for instance, leads to a Spotify playlist full of iconic songs from the late ’60s and early ’70s, while a drawing of a doctor X-raying a patient’s heart plays an ominous droning sound upon being clicked. The most telling badge, however, is a ticket stub labeled “The End,” which now prompts a letter from Halsey to pop up onscreen.
“As you may have guessed, I have written a new album,” their letter, dated a mysterious “6/?/71,” reads. “But I needed some time to figure out how to say what I needed to say. You see, I’ve been holding [REDACTED] and I need to let it out.”
“There’s so much I am going to reveal on this record, but you need to know some of the story first,” the letter continues. “So before the chaos and confetti of big singles and album releases I just need to tell you, my friend, why it all matters this time. I’m releasing a new song on June 4. It’s just for us.”
The “Closer” singer added in her note, “Let’s start at THE END.”
Halsey’s new record will follow 2021’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The About-Face Beauty founder has only dropped a few sparse singles in the three years since, including 2023’s “Die 4 Me” and 2022’s “So Good,” both of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
In September, Halsey teased that their next album would be on the emotional side. “splitting myself in two everyday so that I can give you my deepest wounds (and a handful of perfect joys) for the 5th time in 10 years,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
See Halsey’s announcement below.
I’m releasing the first song off my 5th album tomorrow 6/04 at 9am pt / 12 et. Before the first single comes, I wanted to share this. It means a lot to me and I love it. Let’s try something different this time and start at “The End”. pic.twitter.com/kPUHCVkuEK— h (@halsey) June 3, 2024
SZA scores her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart as “Saturn” rockets to the top spot on the survey dated June 8. SZA previously led the list with “Kill Bill” for a week in April 2023 and as featured on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” for one frame in July 2021. The Pop […]
Cher really believes her boyfriend’s strong enough. The iconic singer gave her stamp of approval to her boo Alexander “A.E.” Edwards’ fight in Cannes with Travis Scott, after footage emerged last week.
The “Believe” artist took to X over the weekend, more than a week after the Cannes afterparty altercation that included A.E., Scott and producer Southside, among other team members who got involved.
Cher explained that she was “proud” of Edwards — with whom she has been romantically linked since late 2022, after meeting at Paris Fashion Week — and said he didn’t start the brawl, but was the one to end it.
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“I’m Proud of Alexander,” she gushed on X Saturday (June 1). “He Didn’t Start The fight Against 2 Men,… He finished it, Gotta Love Him.”
I’m Proud of Alexander.He Didn’t Start The fightAgainst 2 Men,… He finished it, Gotta Love Him— Cher (@cher) June 1, 2024
Fans hopped into Cher’s replies, happy to see her support A.E. and that everything was all right in wake of the incident.
“Bless him, isn’t it crap all the rubbish that gets published, sad that you’ve had to comment on this. Hope AE is ok and you are too xxxx,” one person responded to the 78-year-old.
The altercation went down at Richie Akiva’s Cannes Film Festival afterparty on May 23 behind the DJ booth when Scott and A.E. began to argue, but it’s unclear what exactly sparked the disagreement.
Sources close to the situation told Billboard that La Flame returned with producer Southside, and that’s when things got physical. Following the brief tussle with punches exchanged, security diffused the fight.
TMZ caught up with A.E. last week to get Cher’s thoughts about the altercation, and he quoted lyrics from Future and Metro Boomin’s “GTA”: “Like Future say, ‘Whatever I’m with, my b—h with it, too.’ My woman, but the lyrics are the lyrics.”
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Cyndi Lauper is saying goodbye to the road.
On Monday (June 3), the veteran pop star announced her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, a 23-city North American trek that marks the singer’s first major run in more than a decade.
The Live Nation-produced jaunt is scheduled to launch Oct. 18 at the Bell Centre in Montreal and wrap Dec. 5 at the United Center in Chicago. The tour will also visit major such major cities as New York, Boston, Nashville, Atlanta and Houston. See the full list of dates below.
Special guests on the trek will be revealed at a later date.
A ticket presale begins on Tuesday (June 4) and the general onsale starts Friday (June 7) at livenation.com.
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Lauper’s farewell tour announcement arrives alongside the release of her upcoming biopic, Let the Canary Sing, which debuts June 4 on Paramount+. The feature-length film, directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Alison Ellwood (Laurel Canyon), premiered at last year’s Tribeca Festival in New York.
Legacy Recordings will release a career-spanning companion album that takes listeners from the singer’s early days in the group Blue Angel (“I’m Gonna Be Strong”) through the global breakout success of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and other iconic hits such as “True Colors,” “I Drove All Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” “She Bop,” “All Through the Night” and more.
See the dates to Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour below.
Oct. 18: Montreal (Bell Centre)Oct. 20: Toronto (Scotiabank Arena)Oct. 24: Detroit (Fox Theatre)Oct. 26: Boston (MGM Music Hall at Fenway)Oct. 27: Washington, D.C. (Capital One Arena)Oct. 30: New York (Madison Square Garden)Nov. 1: Nashville (Bridgestone Arena)Nov. 3: Columbus, Ohio (Schottenstein Center)Nov. 6: Tampa, Fla. (Amalie Arena)Nov. 8: Hollywood, Fla. (Hard Rock Hollywood)Nov. 10: Atlanta (State Farm Arena)Nov. 12: Dallas (American Airlines Center)Nov. 14: Austin, Texas (Moody Center)Nov. 16: Houston (Toyota Center)Nov. 19: Phoenix (Footprint Center)Nov. 20: San Diego (Viejas Arena)Nov. 23: Los Angeles (Intuit Dome)Nov. 24: Palm Desert, Calif. (Acrisure Arena)Nov. 26: San Francisco (Chase Center)Nov. 30: Portland, Ore. (Moda Center)Dec. 1: Seattle (Climate Pledge Arena)Dec. 4: Minneapolis (Target Center)Dec. 5: Chicago (United Center)
Taylor Swift had a bit of a laugh with the crowd in Lyon, France, when she sang a lyric about how she’s destined to do “greater things” than date a football player, from her song “Fifteen.” The track was written when she was still a teen and originally released back in 2008.
Swift played a piano mashup of the classic Fearless track with the more recent “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” from 2022’s Midnights, during the acoustic section of her concert Sunday night (June 2). This is the part of the show where Swift changes up the set list at each date.
On Sunday, when Swift reached the part of “Fifteen” where she looks back at her high school years from the perspective of someone who’s been through it, fans noticeably reacted to her choice to sing “in your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team” right now — since the pop star has been in a high-profile relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Swift took the reaction in stride with a quick grin and laugh on Sunday.
She found humor in the “boy on the football team” moment after the night’s surprise guitar performance, during which “The Prophecy” had its live debut. The song — found on The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology — is an emotionally heavy one that took an interesting turn with the perspective from Evermore‘s “Long Story Short,” with Swift swirling her writing together in a medley of the two works.
“Some nights like tonight I try out playing a song that I’ve never played live before,” the Tortured Poets singer-songwriter announced ahead of “The Prophecy.” (Swift holds steady at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with Poets, so far spending six consecutive weeks in the top spot.)
“I looked to the sky and said, please/ I’ve been on my knees/ Change the prophecy/ Don’t want money/ Just someone who wants my company/ Let it once be me/ Who do I have to speak to/ About if they can redo/ The prophecy?” Swift sings in the chorus of “The Prophecy.”
In “Long Story Short,” she tells herself, “Past me, I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things/ Your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing/ And he’s passing by, rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky/ And he feels like home/ If the shoe fits, walk in it everywhere you go.”
Watch clips of Sunday night’s surprise song performances below. Catch up with the complete list of songs played during the acoustic section of The Eras Tour here.
📹 | FULL video of Taylor performing ‘The Prophecy’ x ‘long story short’‼️ Insane mashup!!!! pic.twitter.com/R3NDm0ueWo— The Eras Tour Singapore (@TSTheErasTourSG) June 2, 2024
Happy Pride from Katy Perry! As Pride Month begins, the pop star marked the occasion with a message of encouragement in the form of a heavily reworked take on the controversial — to say it lightly — grad speech given by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker at Benedictine College.
In a 20-minute speech on May 11, the football player condemned LGBTQ rights and attacked what he called “dangerous gender ideologies.” He spoke against abortion, birth control, IVF and surrogacy. He told female college graduates, whom he claims have been told “diabolical lies,” to embrace being a “homemaker.”
“I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” he said, directing his words to the women who were there for their college graduation.
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“fixed this for my girls, my graduates, and my gays — you can do anything, congratulations and happy pride,” Perry captioned a post on Instagram on Saturday (June 1). She shared a Perry-approved version of Butker’s speech.
Here is a transcript of the edit of Butker’s commencement speech posted by Perry: “For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your career? I would venture to guess the women here today are going to lead successful careers in the world. I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand: how much happier someone can be supporting women, and not saying that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. The road ahead is bright. Things are changing. Society is shifting and people young and old are embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. With that said, I want to say Happy Pride to all of you, and congratulations class of 2024.”
In a puzzling move, Butker’s speech had also quoted a lyric from Taylor Swift (“my teammate’s girlfriend,” he said, instead of naming names), apparently forgetting Swift’s decades-long dedication to her career; this week Swift, still on her historic international Eras Tour, holds onto No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the sixth week in a row with her latest studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the “teammate” in reference, weighed in on the speech on his New Heights podcast after his teammate’s words went viral. Kelce said in the seven years he’s known Butker, he’s viewed him as a “great person and great teammate.” “When it comes down to his views and what he said … those are his,” said Kelce. “I can’t say I agree with the majority of it, or just about any of it outside of him loving his family and his kids. I don’t think I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life. That’s just not who I am.”
Watch Perry’s version of the much-talked-about commencement speech below. The star just finished her run on American Idol and has been teasing that new music is on the horizon.