Pop
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Miley Cyrus is gearing up to release yet another banger — this time with Pharrell. The pop star took to Instagram on Tuesday (Feb. 27) to share the cover art for the duo’s upcoming collaboration, “Doctor (Work It Out).” The photo features the 31-year-old star looking into the camera, with big hair and a fluffy […]
David Spade was characteristically off the cuff during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday night (Feb. 26), and one of the subjects he broached is something that’s on many people’s minds — Taylor Swift‘s romance with Travis Kelce.
More specifically, the comedian pointed out how much pressure the “Anti-Hero” singer was under every time she attended one of the Kansas City Chiefs’ games to cheer on her pro athlete boyfriend. “Poor Taylor Swift, you know, those cameras are like snipers on her,” joked Spade.
“She gets up to get a chalupa and they’re like, ‘Where’s Taylor? Why isn’t she watching?’” he continued. “She’s like, ‘I’m just having one bite!’ They’re like, ‘Oh no, they’re breaking up, she wasn’t watching!’”
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In the months Swift and Kelce went public with their relationship in September, fans and critics alike scrutinized the amount of screen time the pop star gets every time she shows up to an NFL game. In October, however, the league issued a statement defending its coverage of the couple, and Swift herself spoke out about the complaints in her December Person of the Year Time cover story.
“I’m just there to support Travis,” she said at the time. “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”
On Kimmel, Spade added, “She really has to be there the whole time, ’cause everyone’s watching her watch the game … That’s stressful.”
Noting that he met the 14-time Grammy winner back in 2015 at the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special, Spade continued, “I like her, I think she’s a great performer — she does a great job.”
“It’s just tough,” added the Joe Dirt actor before diving into an improvised skit about Kelce’s recent visit to Sydney, where the athlete attended his third Eras Tour show. “[Swift is] here, then she goes to Australia, then he’s like, ‘Do you want me to come down there, babe?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, “You doing some new stuff? Same five-hour show?’”
Watch David Spade on Jimmy Kimmel Live above.
Ariana Grande has a lot she could say about the public scrutiny she faced in 2023 regarding rumors about her relationship with Wicked costar Ethan Slater — but for now, she’s letting the songs she wrote about the situation on Eternal Sunshine speak for themselves. For the most part.
During her Monday (Feb. 26) interview on The Zach Sang Show, the 30-year-old pop star touched a bit on her experiences with the press after gossip about her personal life reached a fever pitch last year. In short, just days after Grande’s split from estranged husband Dalton Gomez went public in July, reports that the “Positions” musician was dating Slater emerged.
Soon afterward, the SpongeBob SquarePants Broadway star’s estranged wife, Lilly Jay — with whom he shares a young son — told Page Six that Grande was “the story” behind her breakup from Slater, adding that the pop star is “not a girl’s girl.” And even though both TMZ and People reported from the jump that Slater and Grande’s romance began after both of their previous relationships were over, a narrative that the Grammy winner had acted as a so-called home-wrecker took on a life of its own.
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But Grande has a different take. “We know this about the tabloids, and about the media — am I crazy? Don’t we know this?” questioned the star in the new interview. “We selectively remember that this is what the tabloids do to people, especially women, based upon if we like the person. We selectively leave space for humanness, for nuance.”
When asked whether there was anything she wishes people knew about her after the events of last year, she replied, “Plenty.”
“We don’t have enough time,” Grande continued. “We don’t need to go into any specifics, but of course there’s an insatiable frustration, an inexplicable hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love, and you.”
The Victorious alum also shared that her new album Eternal Sunshine, which arrives March 8, “says everything and nothing at the same time” about the situation. “It’s very vague and very specific, all at once,” she continued. “It was definitely the most emotional writing process, for sure.”
“When I was writing, it was with no intention for the world to hear it,” the singer added. “When I was done, I remembered that people will hear it, and how people can sometimes sensationalize things and assign meaning to certain things. I combed through just to make sure that it was what I intended. I had some sessions where I was definitely writing more emotionally and more reactively.”
Watch Ariana Grande on The Zach Sang Show below.
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The Kid Laroi gets vulnerable in his upcoming Prime Video documentary Kids Are Growing Up: A Story About A Kid Named Laroi, and in a new clip shared exclusively with Billboard, the 20-year-old Australian star opens up about his current mental health state as he navigates the beginning of adulthood. “Maybe I’m just feeling lost. Maybe […]
Madonna has removed an image of R&B legend Luther Vandross from a memorial segment of her Celebration tour at the request of the late singer’s estate. A spokesperson for Madonna confirmed to Billboard on Tuesday morning (Feb. 27) that the picture was removed from a bit in the show in which the singer pays tribute […]
Ariana Grande isn’t switching positions on how she feels about music leaks. During the first episode of her multi-part interview on The Zach Sang Show Monday (Feb. 26), the 30-year-old pop star addressed the matter of her unreleased songs finding their way to social media without her permission last year — one of which, she hinted, found a much more kosher home on her upcoming Eternal Sunshine album.
“The few studio sessions I did, which are all over TikTok, thank you so much,” she began, sporting a head-to-toe red outfit — save for her black stilettos — and matching lipstick. “I’ll see you in jail, literally,” the singer added.
“Thieves! Pirates! Crooks!” she said, laughing but still serious. “Illegal. I’ll pay you more to put it away, like, to get it back.”
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Grande went on to give context for her catchy ’90s-inspired track “Fantasize,” which was never supposed to see the light of day, but still found its way to TikTok virality last year. “That wasn’t my song, it wasn’t for me,” she explained, noting that she’d written it for an unnamed TV show. “It was like a parody of this girl group vibe.”
Even so, the “POV” singer took note of her fans’ love for “Fantasize” and decided to incorporate it into her new record, which arrives March 8. “I kind of gave them Ariana’s version of that on the album,” she said. “They’re completely different now. So although you’ve heard them — because you stole them — they’re very different now.”
The second part of Grande’s interview with Sang arrives the day of Eternal Sunshine‘s release, and will find the pair talking about each individual song on the 13-track album. So far, the only single she’s dropped ahead of the LP’s release is the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Yes, And?”
While opening up about having her music stolen, the Victorious alum also shared her thoughts on the similarly viral artificial intelligence recreations of her voice — and let’s just say, she might hate that even more than the leaks. “What are we doing? Why?” she said, seemingly at a loss for words.
“I hate it,” she added. “It’s terrifying.”
Watch Grande on The Zach Sang Show above.
Kevin Bacon and wife actress Kyra Sedgwick got their boots dirty this week for a barnyard cover of Beyoncé‘s smash country hit “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The couple took to the pen to mingle with their pigs and ponies for one of their beloved cover song videos, in which Bacon — rocking a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, […]
As BTS member J-Hope rounds the corner on the final eight months of his mandatory 18-month South Korean military service, the K-pop superstar is giving Army a soundtrack to his final stint in uniform. The singer announced the details of a new mini-album on Tuesday morning (Feb. 27), Hope on the Street Vol. 1, which […]
Pres. Joe Biden gets it. The commander-in-chief stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday night (Feb. 26) to help the show’s host celebrate his show’s 10th anniversary, and to keep stoking the fires of right-wingnut conspiracy theories about his alleged devious plot to secure the most important endorsement in this year’s presidential campaign.
“Can you confirm or deny that there is an active conspiracy between you and Miss Swift?,” Meyers asked Biden about the allegations from conservatives that the President is working behind the scenes with Taylor Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce to boost his campaign against expected challenger Donald Trump by locking in the power couple’s endorsement.
“Where are you getting this information? It’s classified. That’s classified information,” Biden said with a smile in a rare late night appearance. “But I will tell you, she did endorse me in 2020.”
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Meyers was as relentless as a White House pool reporter in his questioning, wondering if the Swift thumbs up might “come around again.” Biden still wouldn’t bite, joking, “I told you it’s classified.”
Before this month’s Super Bowl, conservatives got spun up about a made-up theory that Swift and Kelce had cooked up a plot with the White House to have the pair officially endorse Biden after Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII. The visit by Biden — his first as a sitting president — marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of Late Night. Biden, then Vice President, and the night’s other guest, Amy Poehler, were the inaugural guests on Meyers’ first broadcast on Feb. 24, 2014.
Biden, 81, also had jokes, noting that Trump, 77, is “about as old as I am but he can’t even remember his wife’s name,” in response to a question about concerns related to his age; Biden is the oldest sitting president and would be the oldest president to ever serve if he wins a second term. “It’s about how old your ideas are,” he added about Trump, the twice-indicted, one-term president who is facing 91 felony counts in four different cases as he mounts his third run for the White House. “This about a guy who wants to take us back, he wants to take us back on Roe V. Wade, he wants to take us back on a whole range of issues that for 50-60 years they have been solid American positions.”
The president — who was sporting a flag pin on his lapel featuring the American and Ukrainian flags in the midst of a fight in Congress over further funding for the war in Ukraine — also sat on the couch with Poehler to reminisce about his guest spot on Parks and Recreation. Meyers asked Biden about his seemingly playful adoption of the “Dark Brandon” right-wing meme, to which Biden responded, “no, I resent the hell out of it,” as he slipped on DB’s signature dark aviator shades to wild applause from the studio audience.
Check out Biden on Late Night below.
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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are currently living out a grown-up, real-life version of Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez’s love story in High School Musical, and Zac Efron is officially here for it. In a recent interview published Monday (Feb. 26), the Iron Claw star was asked for his take on fan comparisons between Tayvis […]