Pop

Ariana Grande’s Fans Are ‘Not Okay’ After Her New Album Announcement: See the Reactions

If anyone has cause to celebrate this week, it’s Arianators. After waiting a long four years for a new album from their idol, Ariana Grande has at last announced that her new album, Eternal Sunshine, is arriving in less than two months.

The news came in a Wednesday morning (Jan. 17) Instagram post from Grande, who shared the project’s release date, March 8, as well as some of its cover artwork. The photos feature the Grammy winner posing with red lips — which are already a hallmark of her new musical era — in a babydoll top and sheer tulle gloves.

“eternal sunshine ? ☼ ⋆。˚⋆ฺ 3.8,” she captioned the post.

The announcement came days after the pop star dropped the album’s lead single “Yes, And?,” Grande’s first proper solo material since her 2020 album Positions. Between the two LPs, the Victorious alum had purposefully stepped away from music to focus on her R.E.M. Beauty business and her role as Glinda in the upcoming live action Wicked films.

Needless to say, her fanbase is stoked after Wednesday’s notice. “WE ARE GETTING A BRAND NEW ARIANA GRANDE ALBUM IN LESS THAN 2 MONTHS OH MY GOD,” tweeted one Arianator, sharing a clip of a woman shrieking with disbelief in an old episode of Maury Povich’s eponymous talk show.

“ariana grande coming this march to save the music industry oh yall are NOT ready,” wrote another fan, while a third simply stated, “ariana grande just announced an album. i am not okay.”

See some of the best reactions to Grande’s Eternal Sunshine announcement below:

Ariana Grande Announces Seventh Album ‘Eternal Sunshine’: Here’s When It Arrives

The wait is finally over, Arianators. Just days after releasing its lead single “Yes, And?,” Ariana Grande finally announced her seventh album Eternal Sunshine Wednesday (Jan. 17), sharing the highly anticipated project’s release date and cover artwork on Instagram.

“eternal sunshine ? ☼ ⋆。˚⋆ฺ,” she simply captioned her post, adding that the record’s arrival is less than two months away: “3.8”

The 30-year-old pop star also included three images in her announcement, the first of which fans have already seen — a close-up photo of Grande’s face and red lips, which doubles as the the “Yes, And?” artwork. The following photos appear to be alternate covers — Grande previously confirmed that Eternal Sunshine would have multiple — both of them featuring the Grammy winner posing in a white babydoll top and red tulle gloves.

March 8 will mark the end of a yearslong wait for a new album from Grande, who hasn’t released an LP since 2020’s Positions. Aside from a few collaborations and a 10th anniversary re-release of her debut record Yours Truly, the vocalist has spent the past few years focusing on her role in the upcoming Wicked films and her R.E.M. Beauty business.

Grande’s Eternal Sunshine announcement comes on the heels of her new single “Yes, And?,” a dance-inducing ’80s time capsule released Jan. 12 via Republic Records. She also dropped a music video filled with upbeat group choreography and jabs at the general public’s fixation with her personal life, something she also addresses in the song’s lyrics: “Your business is yours and mine is mine/ why do you care so much whose d–k i ride?”

See Grande’s announcement for Eternal Sunshine below:

Might As Well Face It, Jennifer Lopez Is Addicted to Love in Epic ‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story’ Film Trailer

Jennifer Lopez suffers from some serious love overload in the first trailer for her upcoming Amazon original film This is Me… Now: A Love Story. The two-minute clip that dropped on Wednesday morning (Jan. 17) gives a peek at what looks like an epic tale of Lopez’s eternal search for love, complete with an all-star supporting cast that includes Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sadhguru, Derek Hough and more.

“I know what they say about me… about hopeless romantics,” Lopez says in voiceover amid a swell of dramatic strings and a shot of the singer/actress first sharing a passionate kiss on the ground and then on having her veil lifted on her wedding day. The she adds, “…that we’re weak. And I’m not weak.”

A quick-cut of Lopez walking solemnly in a steamy subway, staring blankly into a firepit and racing across a lake on a motorcycle before crashing out ends with the ominous warning: “Not all love stories have a happy ending.”

Longtime pal rapper Fat Joe then pops into frame as Lopez’s cozy sweater-wearing therapist before a roomful of her pals stage an intervention, telling Jen that they fear the “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” singer might be a sex addict. The preview features footage from the just-released movie musical-style video for the earworm single “Can’t Get Enough” — the first taste of JLo’s upcoming This Is Me… Now album — as part of a film a release describes as a, “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing.”

The “genre-bending” original project promises to showcase “her journey to love through her own eyes. With fantastical costumes, breathtaking choreography, and star-studded cameos, this panorama is an introspective retrospective of Jennifer’s resilient heart.” The trailer also finds Lopez in a support group describing her childhood sharing a room with her sister, lying awake at night wondering how anyone can get shut-eye “when your heart never goes to sleep.”

The narrative-driven short film from Amazon MGM Studios was directed by Dave Meyers (Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift) and written by Lopez and Matt Walton based on a story by the singer, Meyers and Chris Shafer; it is due out on Prime Video globally on the same day as the album, Feb. 16.

In keeping with Meyers’ legendarily over-the-top, effects-laden clips for artists including Harry Styles (“Adore You”), Grande (“No Tears Left to Cry”) and Swift (“Me!”), the This Is Me film preview features futuristic landscapes, elaborate, Gene Kelly-esque dance sequences and a parade of famous faces throughout.

The cast also includes husband Ben Affleck, as well as Trevor Jackson, Paul Raci, Bella Gagliano, Brandon Delsid, Ashley Versher, Malcolm Kelner, Alix Angelis, Danielle Larracuente and Matthew Law.

In an Instagram post featuring the trailer, Lopez wrote, “I have not been this nervous, excited, scared and thrilled to share something with you in years!! The story of the journey from This Is Me…Then to This Is Me…Now is the most personal thing I’ve ever done.”

Check out the This Is Me… Now: A Love Story trailer below.

Director Matthew Vaughn’s Daughter Is Convinced Taylor Swift Secretly Wrote the Spy-Novel-Turned-Movie ‘Argylle’

Taylor Swift‘s Easter eggs are legion. And Swifties are legendary for scouring the planet to uncover every hidden clue, regardless of how improbable their theories might be. And the latest one is a twisted yarn for the ages.

Perhaps you’ve seen the trailer for Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn’s latest action flick, Argylle?The movie starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa and Samuel L. Jackson hits theaters on Feb. 2 and follows the adventures of a spy novelist who carts around an adorable Scottish fold cat in an argyle-print backpack with a peekaboo bubble that allows the kittie to observe the world on her owner’s real-life adventures.

The movie is based on a novel called Argylle written pseudonymously by an author known as Ellie (or in the movie, Elly) Conway that hit shelves on Jan. 9. So naturally Swifties think the singer — who over the past year has been setting records with her career-spanning Eras Tour, releasing re-recordings of her Speak Now and 1989 albums and criss-crossed the country to watch NFL boyfriend Travis Kelce crush the competition with the Kansas City Chiefs — wrote the book.

Some of the parallels do feel like Swift eggs, including the fact that TayTay loves wearing argyle sweaters, sometimes ghostwrites songs using pen names — even hawking a “Red (Taylor’s Version) Argyle Sweater” — and famously has two Scottish Folds, Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson. And, not for nothing, she carried Olivia Benson in a catpack similar to the one in the movie in her Miss Americana doc from 2020. Add in the fact that Swift directed the VMA-winning 14-minute All Too Well: The Short Film and is working on her feature directorial debut for Searchlight Films, for which she wrote the original script, and it all seems… plausible?

As Rolling Stone reported, because even the most dogged Swiftie could not find any internet history of author Conway anywhere, as well as all of the above, naturally they put two and six together and are convinced Swift is behind the book.

“I’m not a big internet guy, and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — this is the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, ‘You never told me Taylor wrote the book!’” Vaughn told the magazine. “And I’m looking at her going, ‘What are you talking about Taylor Swift wrote the book? She didn’t write the book!’ And I was laughing because I was like, ‘It’s not true! She didn’t write the book!’ But my daughter was convinced of it.”

Vaughn could not stress enough that this one project Swift was not involved with. He told RS, “There is a real book … and it’s a really good book. And there is an Elly Conway who wrote the book, but it’s not Taylor Swift. And I say that because I imagine Taylor Swift has a load of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right, and center, and I don’t want to be a part of that club. I did read the conspiracies and I was like, wow, they don’t leave a stone unturned! But it’s not Taylor Swift. She definitely didn’t write the book.”

It gets better, though. Swift did play a small part in the movie according to the director, who said his daughters with supermodel Claudia Schiffer convinced the couple to buy them a Scottish Fold for Christmas after watching Miss Americana. And that cat, of course, is the one featured in the film.

“Ironically, what she is responsible for is the Scottish Fold,” Vaughn said. “I got home one day, it was Christmas, and I was like, ‘What the f–k is that noise?’ And I’m running around the house and I hear a noise, and the kids had seen a Taylor Swift documentary [Miss Americana] and there was a Scottish Fold in that, and they’d persuaded my wife, Claudia [Schiffer], to get them the kitten for Christmas. It was bought without my permission and hidden from me.”

Watch the Argylle trailer below.



Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat & Tyler, the Creator to Headline Coachella 2024

The 2024 Coachella lineup officially arrived on Tuesday (Jan. 16), with Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat and Lana Del Rey leading the pack as this year’s headliners.

Del Rey will take the stage on Friday (April 12 and 19), with Peso Pluma, Lil Uzi Vert, Justice, Bizarrap, Deftones, ATEEZ, Everything Always, Peggy Gou, Young Miko, Sabrina Carpenter and more also set to perform. Tyler, the Creator will then headline on Saturday (April 13 and 20), with Blur, Ice Spice, Gesaffelstein, Sublime, Jungle, Dom Dolla, Bleachers, Grimes, Jon Batiste, LE SSERAFIM and more also on the bill. Doja will round out the weekend on Sunday (April 14 and 21), alongside J Balvin, Jhené Aiko, Khruangbin, Carin León, John Summit, Lil Yachty, DJ Snake, LUDMILLA, the Rose and more.

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No Doubt is also on this year’s lineup, marking the Gwen Stefani-led group’s reunion for the first time in nine years.

Last year, Bad BunnyBLACKPINK and Frank Ocean headlined the festival, with Ocean pulling out for weekend two and Blink-182 taking over. 2024 festival passes will be available at Coachella.com starting on Friday (Jan. 19) at 11 a.m. PT. Click here to check out tickets for either weekend. Passes are divided into three tiers and priced at $499-$549 for general admission and $1,609 for VIP. Camping passes start at $149.

A limited number of passes are available on Vivid Seats and a few other ticket sites. Enter code: BB2024 to save $20 off purchases of $200 or more at Vivid Seats.

See the full Coachella lineup via the festival’s Instagram post below.

Miley Cyrus Unreleased ‘Doctor’ Track Previewed at Louis Vuitton Fashion Show

The Louis Vuitton Men’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection made its runway show debut on Tuesday (Jan. 16) at Paris Fashion Week, and beyond showing off the new looks, the show also previewed some new music.

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While the models walked down the runway, an unreleased track by Miley Cyrus played over the speakers, which fans quickly recognized as the rumored Bangerz leak, “Doctor.” “I could be your doctor / I could be your nurse / I think I see the problem / It’s only gon’ get worse,” Cyrus sings in the upbeat song in a clip circulating X (formerly known as Twitter) from the show.

Pharrell Williams, who succeeded the late Virgil Abloh as Men’s Creative Director at Louis Vuitton, contributed writing or production to four songs on Cyrus’ 2013 album Bangerz. Williams also previewed a new Mumford & Sons collaboration at the show, called “Good People.”

“Good people / been down / for so long / and now / it’s like / the sun is rising,” frontman Marcus Mumford sings in the hopeful, joyous chorus. Pharrell also provides backing vocals on the song alongside the Native Vocalists, according to NME.

If Cyrus were to release “Doctor,” it would follow her introspective single, “Used to Be Young,” released back in August. The 31-year-old star released her eighth studio album, Endless Summer Vacation, in March. The LP was led by Cyrus’ empowering lead single and Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, “Flowers.”

Ariana Grande & Lil Nas X Kick Off the Year in Pop With a Pair of Buzzy Bops

The year in pop has officially kicked into high gear.

On Friday, pop fans got a pair of new songs and videos from two Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers: Ariana Grande and Lil Nas X. Grande released the ’90s-pop-inspired “Yes, And?” alongside a music video that paid tribute to Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted,” while Nas dropped the melodic rap song “J CHRIST” alongside an expectedly controversial video loaded with Christian imagery and celebrity look-alikes.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are chatting about the pair of high-profile bops and whether either has a chance to debut atop next week’s Hot 100.

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Teddy Swims gets his first top 10 on the Hot 100 as “Lose Control” jumps 12-8 while Jack Harlow’s “Lovin’ on Me” nets a third week atop the chart. Plus: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 17th nonconsecutive week, and its first week at No. 1 in three months.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

Michael Bublé Was Almost Attacked by a Polar Bear While Drunk on the Beach

Michael Bublé had a very Canadian near-death experience.

The “Haven’t Met You Yet” singer was a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Tuesday (Jan. 16), where he shared a story in which he almost came face-to-face with “aggressive” polar bears in Manitoba, Canada, after attending a film wrap party with actor Berry Pepper.

“I think, in the moment, we’re like, ‘You know what we should do? We should like race down the beach,’” Bublé recalled, noting that the duo were a bit tipsy at this point. “And so me and him and another guy came running down this beach, and a guy that lived there just started swearing.”

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He continued that the man was “literally swearing at us and just screaming — I mean screaming bloody murder.”

Turns out, the man was warning them about polar bears living on the beach. “We didn’t realize, we were running to our certain death,” he said. “Because there were polar bears all down the beach. And yes, they’re the most aggressive — but God they’re so cuddly.”

He concluded with a laugh, “Sometimes I wonder about that, how close I was to being like a little polar bear lunch.”

Thankfully, Bublé survived the situation. The singer has notched eleven hits on the Hot 100, and his 2011 album Christmas recently returned to No. 1 in the UK (and finished at No. 58 on the Canadian year-end album chart).

Watch Bublé recount the full story below.



Dua Lipa Calls for ‘Humanitarian Cease-Fire’ in Gaza

Since the escalation of the Israel-Hamas war in the fall, Dua Lipa has been a fervent political advocate, and in her new Rolling Stone cover story, the “Levitating” singer opened up more about her stance.

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“My existence is kind of political, the fact that I lived in London because my parents left from the war,” she explained, in reference to her Albanian parents. “I feel for people who have to leave their home. From my experience of being in Kosovo and understanding what war does, no one really wants to leave their home. They do it for protection, to save their family, to look after the people around them, that kind of thing, for a better life. So I feel close to it.”

She continued, “My feelings on displaced people [are] very real and raw, and it is a difficult subject to speak about because it’s so divisive.”

The conflict between Israel and Palestine escalated after the horrific Oct. 7 terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im by Hamas militants. The assault by air and land by the militant arm of the terrorist organization that governs the more than two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip included the killing of more than 260 revelers and many more kidnapped at the Paralello Universo Supernova Sukkot Gathering electronic dance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah.

That same month, Lipa joined a number of other celebrities to sign an open letter urging President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. “At the moment, what we have to look at is how many lives have been lost in Gaza, and the innocent civilians, and the lives that are just being lost. There are just not enough world leaders that are taking a stand and speaking up about the humanitarian crisis that’s happening, the humanitarian cease-fire that has to happen,” Lipa told Rolling Stone. 

Elton John ‘On Cloud Nine’ After 2024 Emmys Win Secures His EGOT: ‘So Deeply Grateful’

Elton John celebrated his newly minted EGOT status in a sentimental post on Monday night (Jan. 15) after an Emmys win for his Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodgers Stadium put the pop legend into rarified air.

“We won an Emmy and I am on cloud nine!! Receiving this recognition is a testament to the passion and dedication of everyone involved, and I am so deeply grateful,” John wrote in an Instagram post featuring the special’s poster and an image from his wild, piano-jumping 1970s heyday as an explanation for why he could not be there in person.

“Whilst I am gutted that I couldn’t be there to accept this award in person– I recently underwent a knee operation, a gentle reminder, perhaps, of a lifetime spent jumping off pianos (see pic 2!) – my heartfelt thanks go out to the @televisionacad and all those who took the time to vote. This award reflects the collective effort and creativity of an amazing team,” John added. One of the special’s executive producers, Gabe Turner, accepted the award on John’s behalf at the ceremony, noting that the 76-year-old singer had recently undergone a knee operation.

The Dodger Stadium special won the Primetime Emmy for outstanding variety special (live), making John the 19th performer to do a clean-sweep of the top entertainment awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). Sir Elton is 76 years and nine months old, making him the second-oldest performer to complete the EGOT; English actor Sir John Gielgud was 87 years and four months when he completed the sweep in 1991. 

John’s statement went on to thank streamer Disney+, as well as his partner and one of the special’s executive producers, David Furnish and others involved in the event. “A special acknowledgment goes to the exceptional band and the entire crew of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Your commitment and talent have always been the driving force that keeps our incredible fans entertained night after night,” John wrote, also thanking the show’s special guests: Dua Lipa, Brandi Carlile and Kiki Dee, as well as his publicity-shy longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, who joined him on stage that night.

“Thank you to all the fans, friends, and collaborators who have supported me throughout the years,” he concluded. “Honoured to have joined the hallowed ranks of EGOT winners, here’s to the joy of music and the magic it brings to our lives!” John’s post included a shower of congratulations from friends and fellow musicians, including well-wishes from fashion icon Donatella Versace, Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, Maren Morris and Carlile.

See John’s post below.