Pop
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While there are certainly far worse people to be compared to than Rihanna, Tyla wants to make it clear: She’s only interested in charting her own path.
In her Cosmopolitan cover story published Tuesday (April 30), the South African star shared her thoughts on recent comparisons between her and the Barbadian singer-turned-Fenty billionaire — which, while flattering, aren’t indicative of her full story.
“Rihanna is Rihanna. It’s a compliment,” she told the publication. “But at the same time, I’m my own artist. I’m Tyla. And I know as people get to know me and my music, they will see me as just Tyla. So I’m fine with it now.”
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“People want to tie me to something familiar to them, cool,” added the musician. “But at the end of the day, we’re doing something no one’s done before, and it can’t really be compared to anyone.”
The 22-year-old singer is fresh off the release of her self-titled debut album, which dropped March 22 and features collaborations with Tems, Travis Scott and more. The set debuted at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 and has spent five weeks on the chart so far, led by mega-viral hit “Water,” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January.
Speaking of “Water,” Tyla also looked back on the slightly awkward process of getting her parents on board with the track — specifically, its NSFW lyrics. On the steamy, popiano track, which inspired a wildfire TikTok booty-shaking dance trend last year, she sings, “Make me sweat, make me hotter/ Make me lose my breath, make me water.”
“My mom was the person that saved me because my father was like, ‘What are you singing about?’” she recalled of the song, which won the Grammys’ first-ever African music performance award in March. “I was like, ‘Nah, it’s nothing bad, Dad. It’s just carefree fun.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, okay.’ And my mother was the person being like, ‘Relax, relax. Relax.’”
For a moment, Katy Perry fans thought that the pop star’s long, wavy hairstyle had become the one that got away. But as it turned out, she’d been pranking them all along.
It all started when Perry posted a self-filmed video via X on Monday showing off what appeared to be a choppy new bob as her hairstylist touched up the ends with a pair of scissors. “What are you doing?” she asked the stylist, who replied matter-of-factly, “Cutting your hair.”
“thoughts, comments, concerns?” she captioned the clip.
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Apparently, KatyCats had all of the above. Many of them did not hold back in the comments, expressing their dislike for the makeover and comparing it to when Perry chopped her hair into a pixie cut in 2017.
“GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING,” one person wrote, while another fan commented, “I THOUGHT WE LEARNED OUR LESSON.”
By the end of the day, however, Perry had returned to socials with another video message — this time, dedicated to “all you KatyRats.” “You guys had a lot of strong feelings about my haircut,” she addressed followers in a video on Instagram, sitting on a staircase while sipping Coca-Cola nonchalantly from a straw. “Let’s save that energy for KP6, because this is just a wig.”
For good measure, the “Roar” singer also trolled fans during Monday’s episode of American Idol, as captured in a fan video. “Big shoutout to all of my KatyCat fans who think I got a haircut. They’re traitors,” she said on the show, earning chuckles from co-judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.
Aside from putting her fans through the ringer, Perry is currently working on finishing her final season as a judge on Idol. And, as she hinted in her Instagram video, she’s also finishing up her highly anticipated sixth studio album, which will follow 2020’s Smile.
“I just have yet to make a record from a place of feeling really happy and whole and full of love,” she said of the pending LP in a recent interview with Access Hollywood. “Sometimes artists are like, ‘Oh, that’s boring, you want to make music from kind of like a tougher place,’ but actually it’s very bright and joyful, like pure joy and fun and playful and celebratory and a party.”
See Perry’s haircut prank play out below.
Hours before SEVENTEEN dropped their new greatest hits album, 17 Is Right Here, on April 29, the K-pop sensations seized the moment by holding two electrifying concerts at the Seoul World Cup Stadium to preview the record and celebrate nearly a decade of hits together.Against the backdrop of the stadium, SEVENTEEN leader S.Coups noted the sentimental moment, telling the crowd, “Standing here, I feel like I’ve been running towards this very moment up until now,” a testament to the journey they’ve undertaken alongside their devoted fanbase known as CARATs. Seungkwan added, “Our goal today is to present all CARATs here with the best day they ever had.”
With a five-piece live band noticeably elevating the SEVENTEEN musical experience to new heights from opening tracks “Super” and “Don Quixote,” the SVT crew delved into a slightly adjusted setlist for the closing shows of their ‘FOLLOW’ AGAIN tour that previously hit Osaka and Kanagawa in Japan, as well as Incheon, South Korea. Offering fans a glimpse into their upcoming album, the live premiere of four new songs — including their maximalstic, break-beat single “MAESTRO” — made the tour finale all the more montemous. Mingyu reflected that they “were both nervous and excited to showcase the first performance of ‘MAESTRO’ here,” with Hoshi noting, “We wanted to show our ‘best’ selves for the CARATs. We really put our best efforts into this performance.”
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As the concert drew to a close and each of the 13 members shared parting words with the crowd, Woozi encapsulated a collective sentiment, saying: “The ‘Best [Of]’ album will be released the day after tomorrow. It’s an album dear to me, embodying SEVENTEEN’s beliefs. Today’s show was also like that in some sense. Performing today, I was strongly reminded of all the memories tied to each and every song. Today may have been an ordinary day for some, but for everyone here and us, it was a day of 10 years, making it so much more valuable. This moment is so special to us, so we always try to capture and remember everyone with our eyes as much as possible.”
Read on for more from SEVENTEEN’s Seoul shows, and see exclusive photos of S.Coups, Woozi, Hoshi, Seungkwan, Mingyu, Jeonghan, The8, Joshua, DK, Wonwoo, Jun, Vernon and Dino below:
“MAESTRO”
Image Credit: PLEDIS Entertainment
SEVENTEEN’s latest single, “MAESTRO,” was revealed at the ‘FOLLOW’ AGAIN to Seoul concert, where thousands in attendance saw all aspects of its intense breakbeat production and orchestra-inspired performance.
The8 commented how the track “has one of the fastest beats-rhythms with a house dance break. I hope it feels fresh and new.”
“Cheers to Youth”
Image Credit: PLEDIS Entertainment
Alongside the premiere of “MAESTRO,” each of SEVENTEEN’s three teams premiered the new tracks they recorded for 17 Is Right Here. The Vocal Unit (consisting of Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK and Seungkwan) shared their harmonious and euphoric vocals with “Cheers to Youth.”
“‘Cheers to youth’ is a song that I really like and we wanted to perform,” Woozi shared. “I pictured how the CARATs would react and it was exactly right.” Later in the concert, Hoshi explained the inspiration for the song.
“During the tour, I mistakenly said something and it was brought up when we all got together to talk afterward,” the leader of the Dance Unit shared. “[The members said] it was wrong to make such a comment, and I said, ‘Sorry, it’s my first time living today [this day.]’ Woozi heard this and took inspiration for this specific song.”
“Spell”
Image Credit: PLEDIS Entertainment
The Performance Unit of SEVENTEEN (Hoshi, Jun, The8 and Dino) shared their new Afrobeat-inspired song “Spell” alongside a slinky performance that allowed the foursome to showcase their incredible physicality.
“The time really flew today,” Dino later remarked. “I had so much fun — I feel that what’s really important during a concert is what sort of feelings and emotions we feel and share. Today was filled with joy and excitement, and it’s all thanks to you. We thank you sincerely.”
“LALALI”
Image Credit: PLEDIS Entertainment
The final new song revealed at ‘FOLLOW’ AGAIN to Seoul was the Hip-Hop Unit’s “LALALI.” Decked out in Adidas gear, S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon shook Seoul World Cup Stadium with the bombastic rap track that’s quickly becoming a SEVENTEEN fan favorite with its anthemic shout-outs and cheeky lyrics.
Closing Message
Image Credit: PLEDIS Entertainment
“We began the show by promising you the best day, and I hope we kept that promise,” Seungkwan told the crowd at the closing of ‘FOLLOW’ AGAIN to Seoul.
“It’s still hard to believe that I’m standing here with this joyous view in front of me … I’m grateful to be part of this nine-year-old band with all the members. Another thing I wanted to mention was this: I believe it’s up to us SEVENTEEN as an artist to make it easier for supportive, caring fans to show their love and support for us without any discomfort or inconvenience. We’ll continue to do our best. Thank you and we love you so much.”
ADD:
“Fortnight”
“The Tortured Poets Department”
“Down Bad”
“So Long, London”
“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
Mashup: “Teardrops on My Guitar” x “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”
“But Daddy I Love Him”
Note: As Swift’s newest album, Tortured Poets deserves to be the finale. And while, upon first listen, the record may not seem like it has enough stadium-ready bops to close out the show, the above songs 100% have the potential to be converted into the high-energy moments the Eras Tour commands. Just imagine the theatrical potential of “Who’s Afraid,” the meta-ness of a real-life crowd chanting “More!” during “Broken Heart,” and confetti falling from the sky during the final chorus of “But Daddy…” We picture gothic visuals, writing desks, typewriter props, period costumes and lightning strikes during this section.
Now, about that mashup. It’s absurd that Swift has never included any songs from her 2006 self-titled debut album — aka her first-ever era — on the main Eras Tour setlist. But it’s not too late to rectify that.
Picture this: The lights go down after Swift performs “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” Costumes change, a tiger cage and other circus-themed set pieces are wheeled away. Then, the songwriter — her silhouette barely visible under the dim glow of an aquamarine spotlight — sings a cappella the final chorus of the first song about faking smiles in the face of heartbreak she ever released: “Teardrops on My Guitar.” Emphasis on the lyric, “the only one who’s got enough of me to break my heart.”
After she trails off on the last line — “Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won’t see” — the stadium comes to life once more as the crowd’s multi-color light-up bracelets go haywire, an explosion of sound filling the space. “I can read your mind,” Swift jumps in, surrounded by dancers as the lights suddenly go up, revealing one last fabulous costume. “‘She’s having the time of her life…’”
Once that’s done, she’ll move on to the finale, flipping off the haters, embracing her truest fans and proudly proclaiming her love for the man of her dreams in one fell swoop with “But Daddy I Love Him,” disappearing offstage before concertgoers have even finished singing along. Fin.
FKA Twigs is slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property on Tuesday afternoon (April 30) to warn members of Congress about the dangers of the unsanctioned use of artificial intelligence to mimic an artist’s unique style and delivery.
The singer/dancer will also reveal that she has been developing a deepfake of herself over the past year in a bid to explore using AI to help with marketing and streamlining the creative process, as well as to head off anyone else beating her to the AI punch.
“As a future-facing artist, new technologies are an exciting tool that can be used to expressdeeper emotions, create fantasy worlds, and touch the hearts of many people,” she will tell the committee, which will also hear from Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl. Her appearance in D.C. is in support of the Senate’s bipartisan Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (“NO FAKES Act”) draft proposal, aimed at protecting Americans from nonconsensual AI-generated deepfakes and creating federal-level rules to protect an individual’s voice and image from being used in harmful AI-generated content.
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Her testimony — provided to Billboard ahead of her appearance — will open with the 36-year-old artist describing a life spent immersed in the arts, including the ballet, singing and acting lessons her dancer mother and stepdad dance company director sacrificed to provide for her. “From the age of 16, I began to explore both dance and music as a career, and that interest in multiple disciplines has defined my life for the past two decades both personally and professionally,” she will tell the committee.
The Grammy-nominated singer and recent soloist with the acclaimed Martha Graham Dance Company — and co-star in an upcoming adaptation of The Crow — will tell the committee that she wanted to testify because “my music, my dancing, my acting, the way that my body moves in front of a camera and the way that my voice resonates through a microphone is not by chance; they are essential reflections of who I am. My art is the canvas on which I paint my identity and the sustaining foundation of my livelihood. It is the essence of my being.”
All of that, however, is under threat, she testifies, noting that while AI can’t replicate the depth of her journey, “those who control it hold the power to mimic the likeness of my art, to replicate it and falsely claim my identity and intellectual property. This prospect threatens to rewrite and unravel the fabric of my very existence. We must enact regulation now to safeguard our authenticity and protect against misappropriation of our inalienable rights.”
At a time when bootleg AI songs claiming to feature the voices of major stars such as The Weeknd are proliferating — including the Drake AI freestyle diss track “Taylor Made” with computer-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur that was removed after a lawsuit threat from Shakur’s estate — Twigs says that the progenitors of the internet could not have predicted three decades ago how integral, and sometimes dangerous, it would become to our lives.
“AI is the biggest leap in technological advancement since the internet. You know the saying ‘Fool me once, shame on you… Fool me twice, shame on me,’” she says. “If we make the same mistakes with the emergence of AI, it will be ‘shame on us.’”
Having gleefully embraced technology throughout her career, Twigs will describe her bespoke deepfake, which she trained in the quirks of her personality and tuned to the exact tone of her voice to speak in several languages. “I will be engaging my AI twigs later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio,” she says.
“These and similar emerging technologies are highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist,” she tells the committee. “What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.”
Noting that history is littered with the stories of artists being the first ones to be exploited during moments of great technological advance, Twigs will warn that the “general and more vulnerable public” are often next. “By protecting artists with legislation at such a momentous moment in our history we are protecting a five-year-old child in the future from having their voice, likeness and identity taken and used as a commodity without prior consent, attribution or compensation,” she says.
Her testimony includes a plea to the committee to help protect artists and their work from the dangers of AI exploitation, speaking on behalf of fellow creators whose careers depend on the ability to create with the knowledge that they can maintain “tight control” over their “art, image, voice and identity.”
“Our careers and livelihoods are in jeopardy, and so potentially are the wider image-related rights of others in society,” she says. “You have the power to change this and safeguard the future. As artists and, more importantly, human beings, we are a facet of our given, learned, and developed identity. Our creativity is the product of this lived experience overlaid with years of dedication to qualification, training, hard work and, dare I say it, significant financial investment and sacrifice. That the very essence of our being at its most human level can be violated by the unscrupulous use of AI to create a digital facsimile that purports to be us, and our work, is inherently wrong.”
The testimony will end with an urgent plea, as well as a dire warning: “We must get this right … you must get this right,” she says. “Now… before it is too late.”
In January, a bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers announced a bill aimed at regulating the use of AI for cloning voices and likenesses, the No AI FRAUD Act, which could establish a federal framework for protecting one’s voice and likeness while laying out First Amendment protections.
In 2022, Anne Hathaway bested Kelly Clarkson in a hilarious, mega-viral clip from The Kelly Clarkson Show, with the actress belting out “Since U Been Gone” before the singer could even recognize her own song in a game of “Name That Tune.” Two years later, it’s happening all over again.
While stopping by the talk show Tuesday (April 30) to promote the upcoming Prime Video film The Idea of You — in which she costars alongside Nick Galitzine — Hathaway once again went head to head with Clarkson, this time for a round of “Pop Pop Quiz.” But a new clip from the episode begins with the stressed Academy Award-winner saying, “Oh no, it’s happening again!” as the inaugural American Idol champ jokes, “Anne Hathaway is never invited back!”
“I’m just kidding, this is actually becoming a shtick for our show,” Clarkson adds as Hathaway laughs.
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The two women were then shown an incomplete snippet of lyrics from the three-time Grammy winner’s 2011 smash “Stronger,” which Clarkson beat the Princess Diaries star to filling in the blanks — before completely mis-identifying the track, not realizing that it was one of her own songs. “That’s Christina Aguilera,” she said, not realizing her error until after a break in the show.
The clip then cuts to Clarkson sitting alone, addressing the camera. “You’ll notice, America, if you know my catalog at all — ’cause I don’t — I thought I was singing a Christina Aguilera song, ‘Fighter,’” she tells viewers. “It’s one of those days. Anne Hathaway is my kryptonite, it’s fine.”
At another point in the episode, Hathaway opened up about becoming friends with Galitzine on set of The Idea of You, which becomes available for streaming Thursday (May 2). Knowing that her costar was “about to become really, really big,” she told Clarkson that she made up a rap to help new fans remember how to pronounce his name.
“Nick Galitzine, Nick Galitzine, he’s got a face for a magazine,” she demonstrated. “But he’s more than just a beauty queen, can’t wait to hear everybody scream for Nick Galitzine.”
Watch Anne Hathaway best Kelly Clarkson for the second time above, and check out her rap for Nick Galitzine below.
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Check your local TV listings to see when The Kelly Clarkson Show airs in your area.
Taylor Swift breaks a pair of records on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart dated May 4 with music from new album The Tortured Poets Department.
She becomes the first act to occupy the entire top 15 of the Streaming Songs list, and she also appears on the ranking with 31 different songs – the most in one week by any act. (Streaming Songs’ inaugural chart was published in 2013.)
She leads the survey with “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone. The song bows at No. 1 with 76.2 million official U.S. streams accrued April 19-25, according to Luminate.
It’s Swift’s ninth No. 1 and first since “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault],” which crowned the tally for two weeks last November. She first reigned with “Shake It Off” in 2014.
With nine No. 1s, Swift puts some distance between herself and Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber for the second-most rulers in the chart’s history.
Most No. 1s, Streaming Songs
20, Drake
9, Taylor Swift
6, Ariana Grande
6, Justin Bieber
5, Travis Scott
As for featured artist Post Malone, it’s his third Streaming Songs leader and first since 2019, following “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” with Swae Lee.
“Fortnight” is followed by “Down Bad,” which ranks at No. 2 with 50.1 million streams. Swift occupies the entire top 15, down to “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” via 28.1 million streams.
Grabbing the top 15 breaks a record previously held by Drake, who snagged the top 14 of the Sept. 18, 2021, ranking via songs from his album Certified Lover Boy.
The entirety of The Tortured Poets Department – 31 songs in all – also makes the chart, down to “Robin,” which debuts at No. 44 with 12.5 million streams. That’s also a record; the mark for most songs on a single Streaming Songs survey had previously gone to Morgan Wallen, who occupied 30 of the 50 positions on the March 18, 2023, list with music from the set One Thing at a Time.
Concurrently, as previously reported, “Fortnight” debuts at No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, taking the top 14 in the process. The Tortured Poets Department also debuts atop the Billboard 200.
The 22nd season of American Idol is steaming toward its May 19th finale, but before this year’s winner is crowned the show has a few more tricks up its sleeve. During Monday night’s (April 29) Judge’s Song Contest episode that pared the pack of hopefuls down to the top 7, the lineup for Sunday’s (May […]
It’s been a decade, so you might have forgotten, but when Meghan Trainor released her 100% certified bop debut single “All About That Bass” back in 2014, it was a smash. The doo-wop-adjacent song not only hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it stayed there for eight consecutive weeks.
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Trainor celebrated the 10th anniversary of her break-out smash on Monday (April 29) by dropping in to see Kelly Clarkson on her daytime talk show, where, not for nothing, the host noted that the song was the “best-selling song by a female artist of the previous decade. That’s insane! I feel like you need an Olympic medal for that!”
What better way to fête the firestarter than teaming up with Clarkson for a duet, during which the two singers smiled and bopped their way through the lyrics about having all the right junk in all the right places?
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“I see the magazines workin’ that Photoshop/ We know that it ain’t real/ Come on now, make it stop/ If you got beauty, just raise ’em up/ ‘Cause every inch of you is perfect/ From the bottom to the top,” Trainor sang as Clarkson added spot-on ad-libs and the two women fell into perfect harmony on the body positive pre-chorus.
“Yeah, my mama she told me don’t worry about your size/ She says, boys like a little more booty to hold at night/ And no I won’t be no stick-figure, silicone Barbie doll/ So, if that’s what’s you’re into/ Then go ahead and move along,” they harmonized before Clarkson took center stage on the next verse and assured her studio audience that “every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.”
Trainor stuck around to chat as well, with the singer gushing about how in the years since the song has become an anthem for so many fans that she now considers it her “super power.” She also talked about her first tour in seven years and the logistics of traveling with her two young kids, with Clarkson warning that touring with children (and dogs) is going to be a challenge. “Can I give you a tip?,” Clarkson said about the guilt she noted many female musicians have about being on the road with families.
“You feel like you have to wake up with them… don’t do that!” fellow mother of two Clarkson counseled. “Cuz your voice will hate you.”
Trainor recently announced that her sixth studio album, Timeless, is due out on June 14 from Epic Records and dropped the T-Pain-featuring single “Been Like This,” as well as announcing the dates for her Timeless tour, slated to kick off in Cincinnati in September.
Watch Trainor and Clarkson sing “All About That Bass” below.
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Benny Blanco is boyfriend of the year! The producer took to Instagram on Monday (April 29) to document an adorable romantic gesture for his girlfriend, Selena Gomez — making her a full-blown steak dinner. “I woke up early this morning and I was like, ‘I want to do something nice for my girlfriend.’ I was […]