Pop

Taylor Swift has some family ties to Singapore, the pop star said at her concert at the Singapore National Stadium on Saturday (March 2).

“My mom actually spent a lot of her childhood with her mom and dad and her sister growing up in Singapore,” Swift, seated at her Evermore piano, shared with the crowd of Andrea Swift’s upbringing.

Swift had just finishing singing “Marjorie,” the emotional song she wrote about her grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, and was taking a moment to speak to her fans at the first of six Eras Tour shows at the stadium.

“A lot of the time when we would come here on tour, my mom would take me and drive me past her old house, and where she used to go to school,” she said from the stage. “I’ve been hearing about Singapore my whole life.”

Swift added, “To get to come here and play a show this big with so many beautiful, generous people who were just essentially honoring my family with what you just did with that song [“Marjorie”], it means the world.”

The musician mentioned her mother’s history with Singapore several years ago, in a 2016 interview for Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times. Swift told a reporter that her grandfather, who worked for an engineering company, had to move there for work, so her mom “grew up in Singapore. Her parents were traveling around for my grandfather’s job.”

On Sunday, Swift made an announcement about her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, unveiling a fourth and final variant of the project that features a bonus track titled “The Black Dog.” Each of the other three Tortured Poets versions include a different bonus song: “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter” and “The Albatross.” The album arrives on April 19.

Check out Swift’s speech about her mom growing up in Singapore below. Her remaining concert dates at the venue are March 4, 7, 8 and 9.

Miley Cyrus and Pharrell Williams‘ “Doctor (Work It Out)” has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (March 1) on Billboard, choosing the team-up between the pop star and producer as their favorite new music release of the past week.

“Doctor (Work It Out)” brought in nearly 59% of the vote, beating out new music by Cardi B (“Like What (Freestyle)”); Charli XCX (“Von Dutch”); Galantis, David Guetta and 5 Seconds of Summer (“Lighter”); ScHoolboy Q (Blue Lips); and others.

Cyrus’ long-awaited collaboration with Pharrell marks the singer’s first release since her 2023 single “Used to Be Young.” The collaboration has been in the works for over a decade, with “Doctor (Work It Out)” originally intended to appear on but apparently scrapped from Cyrus’ 2013 album, Bangerz. In January, Pharrell teased the single at the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2024 Collection presentation in Paris.

“We just believe so much in timing and in everything happening when it’s supposed to,” Cyrus said in a recent interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe. “Around the Grammys, Pharrell and I were talking about putting the song out, and it just felt like it was so serendipitous, and there were so many alignments and so many moments that made me know that now was the perfect time.”

“And then sometimes things in our past make more sense in our present than they ever did then,” she continued. “And so this song, I think the nature, the celebration, the feeling, especially with the video, the joy, the dancing, the letting go, it’s what this song really always needed. I don’t think I could have delivered that at that time [in 2013] … It completely embodies my spirit and my essence at this exact moment.”

“Doctor (Work It Out)” follows the same thread of unrepentant desire as the duo’s past hit “Come Get It Bae,” with a little more disco swagger and medical double entendres in the mix; the song could evaporate tomorrow or become a durable hit, but either way, Cyrus sounds like she’s having a great time with it.

Trailing behind “Doctor (Work It Out)” on the poll is Cardi B’s “Like What (Freestyle),” which brought in 13% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.

Rihanna made her return to the stage at a pre-wedding gig for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar, India, on Friday (March 1).

The singer and Fenty mogul performed at a lavish party that was part of a multi-day celebration for the soon-to-be newlyweds, who will officially tie the knot July 12 in Mumbai. The nearly 1,200-person guest list included Rihanna as well as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sunder Picha, Ivanka Trump and Bollywood celebrity Shah Rukh Khan, the AP reports.

Ambani is the son of multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, and Nita Ambani, founder of the Reliance Foundation. Merchant is the daughter of Viren Merchant, CEO of Encore Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., and entrepreneur Shaila Merchant.

“The show was the best,” Rihanna was seen saying on camera post-concert, while being approached by paparazzi. “I haven’t done a real show in eight years.”

Although Rihanna performed for the Super Bowl halftime show and at the Oscars last year, she hasn’t put on a full concert since her Anti World Tour in 2016. There were reportedly 19 songs on Friday night’s set list.

The Ambani dynasty is well-known for extravagant wedding festivities. When Mukesh’s daughter Isha got married in 2018, Beyoncé performed at the ceremony, and when the business titan’s oldest son Akash tied the knot in 2019, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and the Chainsmokers were hired.

See clips of Rihanna in India below, including videos of her performing “Bitch Better Have My Money,” “Work,” “Umbrella,” “Stay,” “All of the Lights,” “We Found Love,” “Diamonds” and more.