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Charli XCX loves to keep her fans on their toes and in a new Instagram post over the weekend the singer hinted that she might have another hard pivot just around the corner. After headlining the second weekend of Australia’s Laneway Festival — where she shared the bill with Remi Wolf, Beabadoobee and Clairo, among others — the Grammy-winning “Von Dutch” singer said she’s considering swerving into yet another new musical lane.
“I really had fun doing it and it got me thinking, what if we made a record with guitars or strings… or both? Lou Reed era maybe, I dunno just saying,” Charli said in a video re-posted by a fan in which she said the Clairo track “Sofia” is one of her favorite songs. “I heard it before it came out, like, a few years ago, and I always loved it,” she said of the tune the pair collaborated on at Laneway on Friday (Feb. 14) in Melbourne.
Charli adding that she texted Clairo before the show and asked if she wanted to team-up on a live version of the tune that was released as the third single from Clairo’s 2019 debut studio album, Immunity.
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It wouldn’t be out of the question for the singers to team-up, as Clairo was featured on “February 2017” from Charli’s 2019 album, Charli.
One of the co-producers of Charli’s career-defining 2024 Brat album, Finn Keane, recently told Grammy.com that the 32-year-old singer is itching to “do the complete opposite thing again” on her next LP. “Some of the conversations we’re having and music we’ve been playing around with the last couple of months have been completely the opposite [of Brat]. I love that spirit. It’s the iconoclastic impulse to rebuild something completely different, to show that you actually could do this other thing,” said Keane, who noted that a big turn from the club aesthetic of Brat is “very in keeping with her ethos.”
Keane doubled-down, saying that all the musical discussions they’ve had since XCX released her Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat remix album last year have been kind of “anti-Brat. I doubt that’ll stick, but that’s been a really interesting thing to observe and makes me very optimistic and excited about [what’s next],” he said.
Charli ‘s Brat world tour will ramp up again in April with a show in Mexico City at Axe Ceremonia on April 5, followed by headlining sets at the Coachella festival in mid-April and the kick off of her U.S. arena tour on April 22.
Chappell Roan is teasing her single “The Giver” again. After surprising fans in November by playing the country-spiked song during her Saturday Night Live debut, over the weekend Chappell was at it again, though this time she made them work a bit to hear it.
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The tune was hidden in a dial-up stunt Roan posted on her Instagram Story (check out a repost of it here), reachable by dialing the number (629) 468-8646 (aka “Hot To Go”), at which point a voice menu offered a series of options to reach a dentist, attorney, plumber or construction services.
Hitting the options took you to a trio of low-fi snippets of the song, on which she confidently notes her ability to “get the job done” and satisfy a female partner better than any man ever could. During a spoken word portion of the fiddle-flecked tune on SNL, Roan noted, “All you country boys think you know how to treat a woman right. Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right. She gets the job done.”
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The song, which has not yet been officially released, is Roan’s first new music since the release of the singer’s Grammy-winning 2023 debut LP, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. In a New York Times interview last fall, Roan producer Dan Nigo teased that the twangy tune would be a “fun, uptempo country song” featuring some fiddle that would show a new side of the singer.
At the time, Nigro said he and Roan were already five songs into recording her sophomore effort, which he said would also include a “couple of ballads” and a “mid-tempo rock song.” Without saying too much, Nigro said that the untitled second LP would spotlight “a new version of Chappell.”
After Roan’s best new artist acceptance speech at last month’s Grammy Awards, a number of powerful figures in the music business have stepped forward to help heed the singer’s call to support up-and-coming artist’s need for health care. Among those who’ve donated to the cause so far are labelmate Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Noah Kahan, with Live Nation, AEG Global Touring, Wasserman Foundation and Hinterland Music Festival also joining the We Got You campaign.
Madonna seems to be in a nostalgic mood lately. Look no further than a post on Monday (Feb. 17) in which the singer hinted that she is gearing up to re-visit one of her most underrated eras. The one-minute video cued to the title track of the title track from her 1994 album Bedtime Stories, […]
Pete Davidson is in the midst of a major make-over. The Saturday Night Live veteran and star of the new box office-topping animated flick DogMan has been showing off the results of hours of painful laser sessions to burn of the more than 200 tattoos that once riddled his torso while making the rounds to promote this weekend’s SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration special.
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He’s also talking, a bit, about his string of high-profile romances and how his tabloid-target dating life while on the show turned into a huge distraction, including his whirlwind romance, engagement and break-up with Ariana Grande. “It was pretty humiliating and upsetting, honestly,” he told Page Six of the attention and noise that his personal life got during his eight seasons (2014-2022) on the show. “Everyone is dating everyone and it’s Hollywood. Look at Paul Mescal, Timmy [Chalamet], Barry Keough,” he said. “But because I’m ugly, they wrote about me. I was harassed for like five years and it made my life a living hell.”
Davidson, 31, said the focus on his off-screen romances with Kim Kardashian, Kaia Gerber, Kate Beckinsdale and Cazzie David became “embarrassing,” because he wanted people to focus on his comedy and sketch work on SNL as one of the youngest, some might say rawest, performers to ever take the stage at Studio 8H. “All that got pushed to the side because of who I was dating,” said Davidson, who auditioned for the show when he was 20.
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In one of his rare public comments about the blink-and-you-missed-it 2018 romance with Grande that began in the spring, led to an engagement in June and a break-up that October — during which he got four tattoos dedicated to Grande and she wrote a song for him, “Pete Davidison,” for her Sweetener album — Davidson said things are good these days.
“When we see each other, which is few and far between, because we’re not in the same circles, it’s all love,” Davidson said of the singer/actress, who is nominated for her first Oscar for best supporting actress in Wicked. “I hope she wins the Oscar, I hope she takes the gold,” he added. “I’ve had some pretty adult relationships with some pretty amazing women, and when it’s ended it’s been cool.”
As for that phrase that has followed him around since that time in reference to his Grande-confirmed endowment with “BDE” (aka big d–k energy), Davidson said that, too, is a bit much. “I’m a very sensitive person and it’s humiliating to see a picture of yourself eating a sandwich in a pink T-shirt with the headline ‘This is what BDE is,’” Davidson said.
Davidson is showing off his newly blank skin canvas in revealing ads for women’s clothing company Reformation and he told Page Six that after breaking up with Outer Banks actress Madelyn Cline last summer he hasn’t been dating anyone. “I’m starting to turn my life around,” said the comedian who has been open about his longtime struggle with substance use and mental health issues.
Clean and sober and out of the glare at the moment, Davidson said he feels for other stars who get descended on by the paparazzi, specifically calling out the attention focused on Justin Bieber and wife Hailey Bieber. “I look at other celebrities and I’m less judgy. They’re dogging Bieber now — leave the kid alone, he’s clearly exhausted and just trying to be a father to his kid,” said Davidson, who added that he dreams of one day having a life like his friend comedian and former SNL writer John Mulaney, who has two children with actress Olivia Munn.
“I hope that happens for me,” Davidson said.
SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration will air live on NBC at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday (Feb. 16) and then stream on Peacock.
For the record, Selena Gomez liked Benny Blanco first. The singer reveals that crucial piece of their relationship puzzle in the couple’s first joint interview in Interview magazine, in which they talk for the first time about Blanco’s elaborate proposal, their just-announced, upcoming joint album, I Said I Love You First (March 21), and how a chance meeting more than 15 years ago eventually resulted in true love.
“We got in the studio to work on a song and we just talked; that’s how easy it was for me. I liked him before he liked me,” Gomez, 32, said of working closely with the producer/songwriter she first met in 2013 when she was a teenager signed to Disney Records and her mom set up a songwriting meeting between them to see if they would click.
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“When she started putting out music, I was so into it. I feel like she was the original sad girl,” Blanco said of Gomez, noting that he had “no idea” she liked him when they re-connected to work on music years later. “I feel like you could be friends with someone forever but not know until you have that one night,” Gomez said. Blanco, admittedly oblivious at the time, said he told Gomez he could introduce her to some of his friends and maybe “hook you up with some dates,” not realizing Gomez liked-liked him.
“And then we were texting afterwards and we decided to get dinner the next day. I guess she thought it was a date and I had no idea it was a date,” said Blanco. “The second time we hung out, our second date, I was like, ‘Wait, does she like me?’ I was clueless. From then on, it was easy. You know when you think you met the right person, you’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ But it feels so different. The second we started hanging out, I was like, ‘This is my wife.’ I was telling my mom, ‘This is the girl I’m going to marry.’”
And indeed, they are now engaged and at one point Gomez showed off her pointy marquise-cut diamond ring, telling the writer that ever since the days of “Good For You” — the lead single from the singer’s 2015 sophomore album, Revival — “that’s the diamond I’ve always dreamed of.” Ever self-deprecating, Blanco breathed a sigh of relief and noted of his ring choice, “I just tried not to f–k up. That’s all I did.” It’s worth adding that Blanco co-produced two poignantly titled songs off Revival, “Kill ‘Em With Kindness” and “Same Old Love.”
And while Gomez suggested that she was not “anal” about the choice of ring, Blanco playfully added that his fiancé did show him some designs and would “always throw little hints” around. Blanco said he responded with, “‘Yeah, but if I ever made one, would you want it like this?’” to test her preferences. “And then she changed her mind halfway through,” he said, revealing that the original design had “huge baguettes on the side” before Gomez realized she wanted something a bit less ostentatious. (Not to worry, Benny assured the writer that they now have “extra baguettes” that are going to be turned into earrings.)
Blanco didn’t spill the beans about the details of his proposal either, but called his elaborate set-up “the sickest surprise,” though he said the necessary lying to keep his plans secret was beginning to cause problems. “At the end, she was starting to get upset because she was like, ‘Why aren’t you coming home tonight?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just at my friends.’ I almost did it early. But I nailed it, I think,” Blanco said.
For further proof of how smitten the two are with each other — as if any was needed after Thursday’s (Feb. 13) drop of their draped-all-over-each-other video for the upcoming album’s first single, “Scared of Loving You” — Blanco, 36, said his ebullient, extroverted nature is a balance to Selena’s serene, introverted vibe.
“It’s so good because I get her out, and she calms me down when I need it. She’s the first person that I’ve been with where I’m like, ‘I don’t even give a f–k what’s going on. I could sit in this bed with you for 72 hours and feel like I didn’t miss anything,’” he said of the singer he began dating in June 2023 before getting engaged last month. “She’s like my f–king heroin and Xanax combined. Whenever I’m feeling anything but perfect, she knows the exact thing to say. I’m so pissed that it took this long. It’s like, ‘How did we not figure this out sooner?’”
Blanco said he’s learned to “worship the ground she walks on,” a feeling that’s mutual, sharing that there is “no ego between us. She’s praying for me to win and I’m praying for her to win.”
Knowing that Hollywood and music history are littered with the burnt-out husks of projects born of love that ended in heartache, Blanco said that when they began working on the album in secret at home they agreed that if it ever got weird, “‘we can cancel it immediately.’” How chill were the sessions? Gomez revealed that at some points she was lying down in bed, or at least sitting on it, while recording vocals.
Gomez told the magazine that she’s not working on any new pop songs after hinting in December that she was “too old” to do the pop thing anymore, mostly because she’s still doing the rounds promoting her big screen role in the Oscar-nominated drug kingpin musical Emilia Peréz. “This is probably the most exciting time for me in my career and personal life, like genuinely,” she said of the buzz around the film nominated for 13 Oscars.
Gomez hasn’t released a full-length album since her third studio project, 2020’s Rare, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and spawned her first-ever No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Lose You to Love Me.” In 2021, she dropped a Spanish-language EP, Revelación.
As for his next big project, after working with so many A-listers (Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Katy Perry), Blanco said he was feeling stuck until he began working on the couple’s album. “This was such a cathartic experience and a way to get back into it,” he said. “I never put stuff out just to put stuff out. I wait until the perfect thing happens and I’ve been blessed to work with so many f–king good artists, including you. I feel like all my dreams came true. I feel like this was one of the last dreams, finding the perfect person to spend the rest of my life with. I know it sounds so corny and cheesy.”
Lane Moore + It Was Romance are back! It’s been a full decade since the band – fronted by comedian, actress, writer and musician Lane Moore – released its self-titled debut and now its back with Final Girl, via Mint 400 Records.
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The four-track EP, produced by Moore and Grammy Award-winning Bryan Russell (Coldplay, Paul Simon) is a return to form with pop-rock jams that Moore lovingly calls “happy songs for sad people.” Lead single and opening track “Playing Records” kicks things off with an ode to cautious optimism, and brings the listener into a playful sound that also tackles big themes, like mental health.
Inspired by Moore’s favorite acts — including Paramore, Depeche Mode, Robyn and Lights (the Canadian musician she named her dog after) — Final Girl will take fans back to the It Was Romance of a decade ago, with a touch more synthesizer and a heavier lean into pop.
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“I love playing around with textures and sounds,” Moore tells Billboard. “I call this record happy songs for sad people because that’s my favorite genre of music – really dancey songs that you go, ‘Oh, wait. What is this about?’ That’s just my favorite genre – something dancey with something real behind it. I think a lot of people feel that way, where it’s like, ‘This hits so hard, but it also has so much emotion.’”
While the wait has been long for fans, Moore says that the new music – made alongside her full band, which includes Angel Lozada (drums), Ryan Ross (bass) and Lisa Bianco (lead guitar) – has been ready to go since 2020, but remained unreleased because of the pandemic. When the label recommended the new music be released on Valentine’s Day, Moore felt it was fate.
Valentine’s Day “is perfect for so many reasons. So much of what I do really talks about love and connection,” says Moore. “With the band name It Was Romance, there was a lot screaming that this is when this should happen.”
Prior to the band’s East Coast tour dates (which go on sale today), Moore sat down with Billboard to discuss the band’s return and how she created happy songs for sad people.
The songs on this EP are five years old. Do they feel outdated to release now?
So much of the album is about struggling with connections, struggling to have faith that the world is going to get better, that your life is going to get better. It’s wanting so much to be hopeful, but everything around you is kind of a nightmare. It feels a lot like destiny that this record is coming out now, when that is so pervasive — even more than when I first wrote these songs. It is divine timing, even though it was hard to have to wait.
“Playing Records” feels like the perfect song for a Valentine’s Day release.
I wrote that song when I was so depressed, and it is the happiest song. I met someone, and I was like, “You know what, I’m gonna choose to be excited that this could be good even though maybe it won’t be.” It is celebrating those moments, when for a second, something good is happening. It is so easy to blow past those moments.
It’s a daily practice for me to linger on joy, to linger on hope and the things that are really nice in your life. Our brains are so wired to linger on this person who says something really shitty. Our brains have this negativity bias and I love a song that instantly infuses your brain with happy chemicals. One of the greatest things that music can do is change your mood.
“Final Girl” has a similar theme.
That song specifically was about the fear of when something good happens. When you start dating someone, you meet somebody new and they seem great. We don’t talk enough about how terrifying that is. For a lot of us, myself included, it’s so much easier to meet somebody who’s mediocre and kind of sucks. Your brain knows what to do with it. You meet who seems really great and it’s “I don’t have the neural pathways for that.” That’s its own horror movie in my mind, which is why I gave it that title.
Why did you go with Final Girl for the entire EP title?
I wanted to call it Final Girl, because so much of it is about survival, and surviving all of these things that feel like they’re impossible to survive. And I’m also a really big horror movie fan, and I was thinking about the idea of a final girl, and it can mean so many things, and I relate to final girls more than pretty much any other character archetype. I probably know what that says about me. You feel like you keep getting knocked down but then you get back up again and somehow you don’t die. You get another shot, another shot at joy and survival.
“TBA” is the most energetic song on the EP, and feels like the perfect example of happy songs for sad people.
I wrote that song at a time when I didn’t really have my people around me, like friends or people to call if I need something. So that song was about so many of us realizing I have to be my own best friend. I have to take care of myself, even when I actually need back up. I also wanted to write about how much I hate when people say, “If you need anything, call me.” I hate that freaking phase. People were saying it to me all the time, and I was thinking — even if it is well meaning – what an empty phrase if somebody’s struggling.
I wanted to talk about something that I noticed a lot, which is how we view mental health versus physical health issues. There was somebody that I was playing music with at the time — he got into a minor car accident and everyone was like, “Oh my god. We’ve got to help him.” He was totally fine, but when there is a physical thing, people know what to do. But if you’re struggling with mental health stuff, a lot of people were like, “We don’t know what to do with you. Let me know if you need, I don’t know, a soda. Bye.” It was the loneliest feeling, and I wanted to write about that.
Should fans expect more music soon?
Absolutely. I’ve got to get this out into the world and then hopefully go back into the studio this year. I have so many songs that I have written that it’s been kind of a I Love Lucy conveyor belt of chocolates. This is a completely new chapter of an entirely new book, with a lot more music.
The Jonas Brothers are going back to their early mall-rocking days to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The sibling trio announced on Friday (Feb. 14) that they will be hosting a one-day blowout event dubbed JONASCON at the sprawling American Dream mall in their native New Jersey on March 23.
According to a statement announcing the gathering that is a tip of the hat to Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas’ mall barnstorming gigs from two decades ago, next month’s event will feature live performances, DJ sets, Q&A panels, fan activations, pop-up surprises, retail takeovers, a Jonas trading post, trivia, games, immersive experiences, an interactive art installation, keynote event, karaoke, a Camp Rock bar, special guests, mini golf and exclusive merch. “From their early beginnings to global pop icons, JONASCON will honor the band’s incredible journey while also showing their appreciation to the fans who have been with them from the beginning,” the statement promised.
Fans can register for free tickets to JONASCON now here. “A nod to their early days of mall performances, a first-of-its-kind music fan event, JONASCON promises to give fans the chance to engage in unique experiences, at one of the largest indoor retail and entertainment centers in the world,” the statement said of the American Dream complex, the three million square foot behemoth in East Rutherford, N.J. in the Meadowlands Sports Complex that is second only to Minnesota’s Mall of America in size and footprint.
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In addition to a massive tree sculpture, 450 shops and 100 places to eat, American Dream has an NHL-sized ice rink, a Nickelodeon-themed indoor theme park, as well as a water park, indoor ski slope, two mini golf courses, aquarium, mirror maze and a trampoline park, among other attractions.
Anyone who registers for JONASCON will also gain first access to additional Jonas Brothers-themed events happening throughout the weekend of March 22-23 in both New York city and at American Dream; additional details on these exclusive, ticketed events will be shared with registered attendees in the upcoming days.
At press time the group had not announced the capacity for the JONASCON event.
The JoBros sparked fear in Jonas Nation earlier this week when they shared a lengthy post on their socials that made some think they were looking back in order to announce a potential split; the siblings broke up in 2013 after eight years together before reuniting in 2019.
“To our incredible fans, as a family, we have been reflecting a lot lately,” the post began. “It’s been 20 years since we started this journey together. To us, it feels like just yesterday we were loading up our family mini-van with a couple of guitars and copies of It’s About Time CDs, en route to an afternoon performance at a local to play for anyone who would listen. We were chasing our dream to play music and connect with others in a deep way that only music can provide. We were teenagers then.. actually, Nick wasn’t even old enough to get into a PG-13 movie.”
Further reading, however, revealed that the brothers were simply feeling nostalgic about how much their fans have meant to them and what that fandom has allowed the trio to do over the past two decades. “We treasure our connection with you as much today as we did when we played our first show. We are celebrating this wild 20-year journey by doing what we love, and we can’t wait to share it with you,” they promised, teasing a “year of music,” which will include new tunes from the Brothers, as well as a live album, soundtrack and solo music.
Check out the JONASCON poster below.
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Drake and PND flip the script, Sabrina Carpenter makes Short a little longer, and JISOO arrives as a solo star. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U
Drake wants you to forget about the Kendrick Lamar chatter, and remember that it’s Valentine’s Day. With $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, a new project with his pal PARTYNEXTDOOR that functions like the R&B version of Her Loss as a full-length collaboration, Drizzy focuses on personal opulence and romantic entanglements while occasionally nodding toward current events: “F–k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit,” he sneers on “Gimme a Hug.”
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Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet (Deluxe)
Although Sabrina Carpenter’s commercial breakthrough Short n’ Sweet was released less than six months ago, the pop star has been on such a hot streak that she added five new tracks to the short, sweet full-length: this deluxe edition not only boasts a Dolly Parton-assisted version of the No. 1 hit “Please Please Please,” but a new synth-pop confection, “Busy Woman,” that sounds like it could be Carpenter’s next innuendo-heavy smash.
JISOO, Amortgage
As her BLACKPINK group mates ROSÉ, LISA and JENNIE have all made their solo bids in recent months, JISOO has dropped a head-turning project of her own: Amortgage is miles beyond her 2023 double-single ME as far as sonic identity and vocal confidence, as tracks like the kinetic single “Earthquake” and snappy dance track “Hugs & Kisses” recall delicious turn-of-the-century bubblegum, streamlined for a new generation.
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco, “Scared of Loving You”
The newly engaged Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco have also teamed up for a collaborative album, I Said I Love You First, that arrives in March, and while “Scared of Loving You” launches that project with muted vulnerability, the track also represents the welcome return of Gomez as one of our most thoughtful pop stars, five years removed from her last solo album.
Addison Rae, “High Fashion”
Fans of Addison Rae’s smoky delivery and sensual lyricism on last year’s “Diet Pepsi” have received a worthy sequel with “High Fashion,” as the former social media star and rising pop siren sounds increasingly confident while delivering lines like “I don’t need your drugs / I’d rather get, rather get high fashion.”
The Lumineers, Automatic
Rustic folk-rock has certainly made its way back into the mainstream thanks in part to troubadours like Noah Kahan and Hozier, although the Lumineers, who planted their flag in that area over a decade ago, aren’t interested in trend-chasing on new album Automatic, which finds the veteran band tossing out racing anthems rather than getting lost in banjo side quests.
Sam Smith, “Love is a Stillness”
A press release describes Sam Smith’s latest single as “a Valentine’s gift to their fans,” and if you’re a longtime supporter of Smith’s honey-voiced piano balladry, “Love is a Stillness” harkens back to their career beginnings, swerving away from pop experimentation to remind listeners how sturdy that classic vocal power remains.
Editor’s Pick: Bon Iver, “Everything is Peaceful Love”
“Everything is Peaceful Love,” the latest taste of Bon Iver’s long-awaited fifth album, has softer features than classics like “Skinny Love” and even “Holocene,” but has the same sort of immediate accessibility: Justin Vernon weaves his falsetto into multi-part harmonies and vibes out to the soft-rock synthesizers, creating another blissful anthem for patio listening in the summertime.
Sabrina Carpenter and Dolly Parton are a couple of smiling fugitives with a dark secret in the back of the truck in the charmingly felonious video for their collaboration on Sab’s 2024 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Please Please Please.”
In the new black and white video co-directed by Carpenter, 25, and Sean Price Williams that dropped on Friday morning (Feb. 14) as part of the expanded version of the pop singer’s Short n’ Sweet album, the women team up for a Thelma & Louise-style caper that involves kidnapping, at the very least.
The visual for the revamp of the song that adds some country twang and fiddle to the airy pop original that was Carpenter’s first Hot 100 chart-topper opens with the two women cruising down the road in a truck as Dolly, 79, reads the paper and Sabrina serves as her wheel woman. A flash of headlines hints at something sinister amid the grinning, cutting to banners announcing the killing of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in blaze of bullets, as well as breaking news about outlaws Frank and Jesse James, fictional women-on-the-fun Thelma and Louise, French pop royalty Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg and 1950s serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.
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Bolstered by banjos, acoustic guitars and brushed drums, the two women are in perfect harmony on the soaring chorus, though you knew Dolly wouldn’t go for the original NSFW refrain, replacing the “motherf–er” with the line, “I beg you don’t embarrass me/ Like the others.”
The two appear to be having a blast, blithely rolling down a dirt road as they sing to each other without a care as the camera pans out to reveal a truck bed filled with seemingly purloined cash and the writhing body of a man in a dirty white tank top and jeans with a burlap sack over his head.
Eagle-eyed fans noted that the new video appears to be a call-back to the original “Please Please Please” clip that starred Carpenter’s then-boyfriend Saltburn actor Barry Keoghan. In that one, the couple strike up a friendship after getting sprung from jail, before Keoghan goes back to his felonious ways and gets arrested again. Carpenter takes things into her own hands and handcuffs Keoghan — who is, ahem, wearing a white tank top and black jeans — to a chair at the end of that one, taping his mouth shut as he squirms.
By the end of the new video, Carpenter pulls over and shakes her head as the mystery man screams and bangs around in the back of the truck with police lights flashing in the distance. In an Instagram post promoting the new video, Carpenter gushed, “Dolly and me singing in a pickup truck!!!!!! I am so honored to have one of my biggest idols on a song that means so much to me.” Parton returned the sweet favor in a behind-the-scenes video featuring the two women joking about the “dirty words” in the original and how similar their voices sound, with Parton writing, “Turns out, two things can be short and sweet 😉”
The expanded version of Carpenter’s album features the new version of “Please Please Please,” as well as the bonus tracks “15 Minutes,” “Couldn’t Make It Any Harder,” “Busy Woman” and “Bad Reviews.”
Check out the “Please Please Please” video below.
Ed Sheeran has seemingly just revealed the name of his upcoming LP in a social media comment. The Suffolk-based pop star has been teasing his return for 2025 and shared a few hints about what the record may sound like.
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Now, in a comment on an Instagram post, Sheeran appeared to reveal that the record would be called Play.
The “Shape of You” singer was responding to a post on the page of @memezar, which noted that Sheeran had changed his profile picture in anticipation of the return. “Ed Sheeran recently changed his profile picture guys! What math is he gonna do next?” a fan wrote. This referred to the Sheeran’s Mathematics album series, which included five studio records: + (2011), x (2014), ÷ (2017), = (2021) and – (2023).
In response, Sheeran wrote: “Irony is if you ask me anything maths related I would fail the question, I never finished high school.” He then signed off by appearing to reveal the title of his next LP. “Play coming soon though,” he added.
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In another comment to a fan who wrote theorised that the next series of records would be called “Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Skip,” Sheeran responded: “might skip Skip tbf.”
It’s not the first time he’s referred to the title. In 2023, Sheeran posted: “See you sometime next year when we press Play again on pop, and have a good holiday season x.” In 2022, he confirmed that he would be making “10 symbol records,” but said that “the next five won’t be maths.” Billboard U.K. has reached out to Sheeran’s representatives for comment.
His upcoming record would be Sheeran’s eighth studio LP, and would follow 2023’s Autumn Variations. In December, Sheeran teased that his new album would be a return to bigger sounds. “It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” he told Variety. “It’s quite exciting.”
Earlier this week an impromptu performance by Sheeran was shut down by police in Bengaluru, India due to an alleged lack of permissions. In footage of the incident police can be seen interrupting Sheeran’s performance of “Shape of You” and unplugging his instruments. “We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down,” Sheeran can be heard telling the crowd. “See you later!”
Sheeran is in the midst of his Mathematics tour and will perform on Saturday (Feb. 15) in Delhi before a run of dates in China.