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A wide-ranging group of more than 400 musicians, actors, agents and managers and studio executives signed an open letter to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest rejecting attempts by some participating countries to bar Israel from participating in this year’s event. Among those lending their names to the letter from the non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community for Peace were: Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, KISS’ Gene Simmons, Scooter Braun, Boy George, Sharon Osbourne, Emmy Rossum, Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing, Diane Warren and Selma Blair, among many others.

The letter supports the European Broadcasting Union’s commitment to including Israel in this year’s contest amid calls last month from Swedish and Finnish artists demanding Israel’s exclusion from the contest over their belief that including the country “undermines” the spirit of the competition. The letters cited Israel’s ongoing response to the deadly Oct. 7 surprise assault on the nation from Hamas militants in which more than 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians — were murdered, sexually assaulted and attacked and more than 250 were taken hostage.

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“We have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the Contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” the letter reads. “Under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into civilian populations, Hamas murdered and kidnapped innocent men, women, and children.”

Artist manager Braun added, “Music is a place for unity not division. It is a language that should always bring us together. Artists should never be discriminated against for who they are, who they love, or where they’re born. These boycott efforts do nothing but distract from the uplifting and unifying power of music – something we need now more than ever.”

KISS’ Simmons, who was born in Israel to a Holocaust survivor mother, wrote, “Music unites people from all backgrounds. It’s the one language that everyone can understand. It’s a beautiful thing and a great way to bring people together. Those advocating to exclude an Israeli singer from Eurovision don’t move the needle towards peace, but only further divide the world.”

Last month’s letter from a group of more than 1,000 Swedish artists — this year’s Eurovision will be held in the the Swedish city of Malmö from May 7-11 — requested that Israel be barred from participating over it’s “brutal” response to the Hamas attack, citing the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.

“We who sign this are 1,000 artists who believe in music as a unifying force. The Eurovision song contest began as a peace project with the ambition to unite countries and citizens through music,” read the Swedish letter, whose signers included Robyn, First Aid Kit and Fever Ray. “Allowing Israel’s participation undermines not only the spirit of the competition but the entire public service mission. It also sends the signal that governments can commit war crimes without consequences. Therefore, we appeal to the EBU: Exclude Israel from the Eurovision song contest 2024.”

To date, the 130-day war has reportedly led to the deaths of more than 28,000 Palestinians, the destruction of much of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and the displacement of more than one million Gazans. The Swedish letter joined earlier, similar requests to exclude Israel from more than 1,400 artists in Finland and Iceland.

The open letter from Creative Community for Peace — the first public call of its kind from the entertainment industry voicing unequivocal support of Israel’s inclusion in the contest — highlights Eurovision’s ability to unify people from diverse backgrounds and music’s power to effect positive change in the world.

Other signatories to the open letter include: Julianna Marguiles, Ginnifer Goodwin, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Skylar Astin, Atlantic Records Group CEO Julie Greenwald, Universal Music Publishing Group CEO Jody Gerson, Warner Records CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck, Patricia Heaton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Disturbed’s David Draiman, Tom Arnold, Columbia Pictures chairman Tom Rothman and MRC co-founder/co-CEO Modi Wiczyk.

The letter notes that Israel has a long and storied Eurovision history — including hosting in 1979, 1999 and 2019 and winning in 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018 — while offering up a diverse group of contestants representing the Palestinian, Ethiopian and LGBTQIA+ communities. “Furthermore, we believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music,” it reads.

“The annual Eurovision Song Contest embodies this unifying spirit. Every year, millions of people across Europe and around the world join in a massive display of cultural exchange and celebration of music. Those who are calling for Israel’s exclusion are subverting the spirit of the Contest and turning it from a celebration of unity into a tool of politics.” Click here to see the full letter.

Kim Petras has the perfect soundtrack for you Valentine’s Day. The Grammy-winning singer dropped a 12-track sex positive lust bomb EP on Wednesday (Feb. 14) entitled Slut Pop Miami, a sequel her 2002 seven-track Slut Pop EP.
The collection that a press release explains was “inspired by hedonistic trips to Miami” pulls no punches from jump on “Slut Pop Reprise,” on which Petras promises “these b–ches can’t suck like me/ Walk in, I’m the sucking queen” over an insistent disco beat and a robotic voice announcing “this is slut pop.”

The pleasure-seeking party doesn’t stop there, with X-rated jams including “Gag On It,” “F–in’ This F–kin’ That,” “Get F–ked,” “Rim Job,” “C–kblocker,” “B-tt Slut,” “Whale C-ck” and the EDM banger “Banana Boat,” on which Petras coos “So ripe, so sweet, big and juicy/ Can’t wait to put ya in my smoothie/ I wanna ride, ride, ride your banana boat.”

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Petras has been hyping the collection on her Instagram for the past two weeks, showing off a custom Corvette with the album’s title, a teaser for the album’s title track in which Petras poses on the beach in a barely there silver bikini hiding, over inflated, exploding breast implants. After that clip was posted, Petras’ “Unholy” collaborator, Sam Smith, commented “UNBELIEVABLE.”

In the day leading up the EPs release, Petras released two more NSFW teaser videos that, well, see for yourself.

Petras is currently on the European leg of her Feed the Beast world tour in support of her 2023 albums Feed the Beast and Problématique.

Listen to Slut Pop Miami below.

It may be Valentine’s Day, but if you are really in the mood for love it might make sense to pass up those chocolates and long-stemmed roses today and save your romantic gesture for a late summer date to the inaugural swoon-worthy Fool in Love festival.
The packed lineup for the August 31 gig at Sofi Stadium-adjacent Hollywood Park in Los Angeles will be headlined by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, with a stacked roster of classic R&B and soul stars including Al Green, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, the Isley Brothers, Charlie Wilson, the O’Jays, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, the Stylistics, the Chi-Lites, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Zapp, Kool & the Gang, Rose Royce and Morris Day & the Time, among many others.

Fans can signs up now for an access code to a presale that begins on Friday (Feb. 16) at 1 p.m. ET here; a public onsale will follow at 5 p.m. ET if any tickets remain. GA, GA+, VIP and Platinum tickets will be available with layaway payment plans starting at $19.99 down.

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Also slated to perform at the show are: Santana, Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Jacksons, War, the Spinners, the Whispers, Durand Jones & the Indications, Barbara Mason, Mayer Hawthorne, Durand Jones, the Delfonics, the Stylistics, Los Lobos, Stevie B, Heatwave, the Bar Kays feat. Larry Dodson, Cameo, Shalamar, S.O.S. Band, Dazz Band, the Legendary Blue Notes, Bloodstone, Frankie J, Con Funk Shun, the Pointer Sisters, the Mary Jane Girls and many more.

Check out the full lineup below.

Jennifer Lopez is a romantic, sure, but she’s not hopeless with it. And definitely not a sex addict. A love addict? Now we’re talking.
That’s the word according to Lopez. The pop veteran stopped by Carrie & Tommy’s drive-time Australian radio station drive show on the Hit Network, for an exploration of her two-part This Is Me…Now project — an album and an Amazon original film, This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, both set for release this Friday, Feb. 16.

Directed by Dave Meyers (Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift), This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is said to showcase “her journey to love through her own eyes.” For her Australian radio spot, Lopez was asked about the moment in the official trailer, when her pals stage an intervention, telling the “If You Had My Love” singer that she just might be a sex addict.

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“No, no,” she says with a laugh. “People can think all kinds of things when they’re seeing you from the outside, thinking they know what your life is, and you’re like ‘well that’s actually the opposite of the truth’, but it was nice to toy around with all of those ideas.”

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If anything, she would characterize herself “more of a love addict or a workaholic than everything else.”

Lopez co-wrote the film, described in a statement as a “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing.”

A decade has passed since Lopez’s last studio album, 2014’s A.K.A., which peaked at No. 8, one of her eight top 10s on the Billboard 200 chart.

Time away from creating music has been restorative. “I feel like this is the best album that I’ve ever made,” she tells Carrie & Tommy. “The most honest and true – it took a long time for me as a musical artist to get there. I’m really happy and proud of this in a way that I don’t think I ever have been before.”

Her ninth studio album, This Is Me…Now completes a concept, an “examination of that journey” from the release of This Is Me.. Then back in 2002 when she was dating Ben Affleck, to her subsequent marriage to the Batman star, and “wanting to share it with the world” through the lens of the project, she continues. “They’ve followed me on that journey and watched me make mistakes and go in and out of relationships and wondered what was going on.”

Lopez and Affleck split in 2004, reunited in 2021 and finally tied the knot in a surprise Las Vegas wedding in July 2022 – 20 years after that album release. The rest has been like, well, a romantic film.

“I got to the point in my life where I felt like I have some answers about this, and actually, true love does exist, and some things are forever,” she enthuses. “Don’t give up hope.”

The new album features a sequel to a track from the first This Is Me album, “Dear Ben Pt. II,” plus the previously released, dance-y single “Can’t Get Enough.”

Stream the interview here.

When Usher was announced as the headliner back in September, we all knew the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show was going to be epic. What we couldn’t have possibly predicted is all the other epic music moments to go down on Sunday. From Beyoncé starring in a Verizon Super Bowl commercial and then surprise-dropping two […]

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s already iconic post-Super Bowl kiss has been analyzed from all angles — but now, thanks to the NFL, fans are getting to hear exactly what the couple said to each other minutes after the Kansas City Chiefs triumphed over the San Francsico 49ers Sunday (Feb. 11). In an emotional TikTok […]

Are Beyoncé and Lady Gaga reuniting? Fans seem to think so. During the Super Bowl festivities on Sunday (Feb. 11), Beyoncé formally ended long-rumored speculation about the second act of her Renaissance trilogy by posting a teaser labeled “act ii” on Instagram, adding the project’s release date: March 29. She also released two songs, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” In the […]

Justin Bieber sent a heartfelt congrats to his longtime pal and early supporter Usher after the singer brought down the house during his electrifying Super Bowl LVIII halftime show on Sunday. The all-caps Instagram post featured an iconic image of Usher in his blue and black glittery stage attire at the end of the performance […]

Forget all the pre-game fretting about whether Taylor Swift would be able to jet across the ocean from her Eras Tour shows in Japan to make it to Las Vegas in time for Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII. The real headline from the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the San Francisco 49ers was that Taylor and […]

The all-star cast of season 3 of The White Lotus has added some musical heft in the form of BLACKPINK‘s Lisa. According to Variety, the K-pop star will be credited on the show under her real name, Lalisa Manobal, when production is slated to begin this month in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand.
At press time a spokesperson for BLACKPINK did not return Billboard‘s request for confirmation on the casting and HBO has not officially confirmed the addition to the show’s ensemble or any production details; a spokesperson for HBO had also not returned a request for comment at press time.

As with the previous two seasons, the upcoming White Lotus series is expected to follow a new group of guests staying at a resort property, with another wide-ranging cast that will include: Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Tayme Thapthimthong, Christian Friedel, Julian Kostov, Morgana O’Reilly, Lek Patravadi, Shalini Peiris, Carrie Coon, Scott Glenn, Francesca Corney, Nicholas Duvernay, Arnas Fedaravičius, Natasha Rothwell, Walton Goggins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aimee Lou Wood, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sam Nivola.

The White Lotus booking represents Lisa’s first official acting gig, following on the heels of bandmate Jennie — credited as Jennie Ruby Jane — stealing scenes in her acting debut on the critically panned HBO music drama from The Weeknd, The Idol, last summer.

Back in December, the members of BLACKPINK, Jennie, Jisoo and Rosé, split with YG Entertainment for all solo endeavors, while signing an extension of their contract with the management group for their group activities. In September, Lisa’s solo single “Money” broke a Guinness World Record after it hit 1 billion Spotify streams, making it the first K-pop solo track to hit that peak.