Pop

07 Nov 2023

Mariah Carey Says New Music Is ‘On the Horizon’

This is the time of year when Mariah Carey is all about bringing joy and happiness to the masses. The Queen of Christmas is about to hit the road for her Merry Christmas One and All tour, and gear up for the endless loop of her modern holiday classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

But in a chat with Good Morning America on Monday (Nov. 6), the singer revealed that she’s cooking up some new modern classics as well. Carey said that fresh tracks are “on the horizon.” She revealed that she’s been in the studio working and “just writing new songs.” In fact, the day before she said she and her team were, “in the studio working on something with a choir, working on a new song. So it’s exciting.”

At press time there was no information on the album and a spokesperson for Carey could not be reached for additional comment on her next project. Carey’s released her 15th studio album, Caution, in 2018.

Carey’s most extensive holiday tour to date is slated to kick off on Nov. 15 at the Yaamava’ Resort and Casino in Highland, CA and keep her on the road through a Dec. 17 gig at Madison Square Garden in New York after hitting just Toronto and New York on last year’s tour.

She will be joined on the road by her 12-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe, with Carey noting that daughter Monroe — who did a duet with her mom on last year’s outing — is “rehearsing more than me, so I think she might have it together a little bit more than I do.” In fact, Carey joked that the tween “kind of” has a handle on her mother’s legendary whistle note, but “just has to play with it” to get it dialed-in.

Watch Carey on GMA below.

07 Nov 2023

Please Don’t Destroy Members Still Can’t Believe Taylor Swift Agreed to ‘Three Sad Virgins’ Bit Either

Over the past three seasons the men of Please Don’t Destroy have capably picked up the digital short mantle left to them by the previous Saturday Night Live viral video trio The Lonely Island. That includes roping major stars into appearing in their bits, including 2021’s hilarious “Three Sad Virgins” sketch featuring then cast member Pete Davidson and that night’s musical guest, Taylor Swift.

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On Monday night (Nov. 6) the three — John Higgins, Martin Herlihy and Ben Marshall — visited The Tonight Show to talk about their breakout success on SNL, and, of course, reveal how they got the biggest pop star in the world to do a hilarious pop-in for their video. “We didn’t think that she would do it,” said Higgins, son of SNL writer/producer and Tonight Show announcer/sidekick Steve Higgins.

“[SNL writer] Dan Bulla, who wrote it with us, said, ‘We should have Taylor Swift do it’… and we were like, ‘yeah, obviously!’” So, they pitched it to her — including mentioning the name of the bit and how it would consist of her and Davidson roasting them — and she was immediately like, “‘Yes!’ and was like, ‘I get that about you guys,’” Higgins lamented.

In fact, Marshall said, Swift actually pitched even more jokes making fun of them and now, Higgins admitted, every time they walk down the street people yell out, “‘Hey, sad virgin!’” Which is a bummer, he said, because it’s not even true. “We’re not sad.”

In case you missed the original, in it Davidson pitches the trio on doing a video in which they are all pals who hang out. He then slow raps about his crazy tabloid fame and the cool and famous friends he has… except for those “three sad virgins.” The guys stop the shoot to ask if the parody song is actually about them, and after assuring them it’s just a joke, Davidson raps their names and some unflattering characteristics (not smart, breath smells like a fart) to their mortification.

After they ask for some changes, Davidson continues the humiliation, only agreeing to stop after they hit the song’s bridge. Cue Swift, who comes in to croon more cruel, but accurate, insults, including “Ben is like a sad Ron Weasley/ He looks like if Big Bird lost all his feathers/ And Martin has the charm and the sex appeal of a scarecrow/ John has a big-ass bowling ball head/ How does he stay upright with that big, fat melon?”

Swift is the leading finalist with nods in 20 categories at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. You can watch the BBMAs here, and via Billboard and the BBMA’s social media channels on Nov. 19.

Watch Please Don’t Destroy on The Tonight Show and check out the “Three Sad Virgins” sketch below.



07 Nov 2023

New Full-Time Gannett Taylor Swift Reporter: ‘No Different Than Being a Sports Journalist Who’s a Fan of the Home Team’

When Gannett posted a job listing in September for a full-time Taylor Swift reporter you could practically hear the digital snap of resumés flying through the ether as aspiring writers tripped over themselves for the potential gig of a lifetime. Now that the glitter has settled, Variety reported on Monday (Nov. 6) that the nation’s largest newspaper chain has hired 35-year-old avowed Swiftie Bryan West for the coveted gig.

The Arizona writer who recently moved to Nashville for the job said despite the hand-wringing and scoffing from some quarters about the journalistic sense of having a dedicated Swift scribe, he doesn’t see how his new gig differs from any other reporting beat.

“I would say this position’s no different than being a sports journalist who’s a fan of the home team,” he said. “I just came from Phoenix, and all of the anchors there were wearing Diamondbacks gear; they want the Diamondbacks to win. I’m just a fan of Taylor and I have followed her her whole career, but I also have that journalistic background: going to Northwestern, winning awards, working in newsrooms across the nation. I think that’s the fun of this job is that, yeah, you can talk Easter eggs, but it really is more of the seriousness, like the impact that she has on society and business and music.”

West set out to prove his bona fides by rattling off some deep-dive Swift knowledge and opinions, including his thoughts on the Vault songs from the singer’s new 1989 (Taylor’s Version) re-release — which debuted atop Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart — “Now That We Don’t Talk” and “Say Don’t Go,” the latter of which he professed to be a “huge fan” of.

“When you listen to it, she screams a harmony of ‘I said “I love you”‘ [in a bridge near the end of the track], and that’s why I really like it: It’s the harmony she screams that’s muted,” he said of his favorite moment in the extra track.

West said his background being a “one-man-band” reporter who often shoots the video of his interviews for the digital versions of Gannett’s dailies helped him gain an advantage in the race to hire a reporter the chain likely hopes will attract young readers to titles from the chain that has drastically reduced staff positions over the past 20 years.

And while the posting seemed like a stunt to many, Michael Anastasi, the Tennessean‘s editor — West will work out of their offices — said the chain was “very pleased” with the caliber of respondents. “I think if we ended up hiring five more people, we would have highly qualified candidates” for all the positions, he said. “It ran the gamut from veteran hard-news reporters, including at least one very established White House reporter, to Swifties who have blogs and are influencers … and of course there were a number of fans who just were following their dreams and hoping to win the lottery. But what we ended up with was someone who I think has the great balance between being a veteran journalist who has serious news chops and someone who understands everything about Taylor’s world and the universe that he’s stepping into.”

The job, as laid out by the paper’s news director, is not a dusty, traditional “three print stories a week” grind, but rather one that will involve video, social media, interaction with Swifties, hitting shows, red carpets, the CMAs and “wherever people are enjoying or reflecting on who Taylor Swift is.”

In fact, West — who met Swift once backstage on the opening night of her 2018 Reputation tour — confirmed that he will be at CMA-related events all this week during his first week on the job, wasting no time jumping into the fray. And, it was actually that pic, along with a short list of serious story ideas that expanded into a two-page PDF over the course of the interview process, that secured the job.

Aware that Swifties can be judge, jury and executioner to writers who offer up even the mildest rebukes of her art, West told Variety that he addressed his objectivity in his video submission for the job by citing three of the singer’s tracks he cannot stomach: “Stay Stay Stay,” “False God” and “It’s Nice to Have a Friend.”

Swift is the leading finalist with nods in 20 categories at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. You can watch the BBMAs here, and via Billboard and the BBMA’s social media channels on Nov. 19.

07 Nov 2023

BTS’s Jung Kook Talks ‘Golden’ And Touring’: ‘I Want to do a World Tour as a Solo Artist’

While BTS simmers, Jung Kook is red hot.

After the hard work, the K-pop star can now watch the numbers trickle in following the release of Golden, his debut solo album. Based on midweek data, it’s set to debut at No. 3 in the U.K., for what would be the highest charting solo release from a BTS member. The album includes “Seven” with Latto, which last month set a new record for the fastest entry into Spotify’s one billion streams club, at 108 days. As at Monday, Nov. 6, the single is platinum certified by RIAA.

Expect a whole lot more to come.

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Jung Kook stopped by NBC‘s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday for a chat, a dance, a slice of pizza, and a glimpse at the road ahead.

“Of course I want to do a world tour as a solo artist, but I don’t think I have enough songs for that,” he tells the late-night host. “So I want to complement them more and make more songs. And maybe when I’m ready, I can do the tour in full swing.”

That mission statement should get ARMY buzzing. Golden is here, now, and it’s got something for everyone, he assures Fallon. Indeed, it tops this week’s new music poll on Billboard, with 88% of the vote.

“I wanted to have this universal emotion, love. Everyone can relate to it,” he says of the album. “I wanted to show the change of this emotion. And also in terms of the versatility. I wanted to become a solo artist who can pull off a lot of genres and that’s what I try to do here.”

During his guest spot, the pop star discussed the origin of the name “Golden” (he’s the “golden youngest” in BTS, a nickname coined by RM), his proudest achievements (ARMY and BTS. “If it weren’t for them I would not be what I am today”), and the response from his fellow bandmates when he first played them the LP (“They just said, ‘It’s great.’”).

Yung Kook also joked about the surprise hit that was the Weverse video of him sleeping, a clip that captured some six-million sets of eyeballs. Those folks who tuned in, it was “something a little unexpected,” he explains in English, before switching to his native tongue: “actually its’ a little embarrassing”.

The 26-year-old artist also stuck around to perform album track “Standing Next to You,” a song that “could best show my vocals and performance as an artist. Of course it had to be the main track for my album,” he reckons.

Watch the interview and performance below.



06 Nov 2023

Katy Perry & Orlando Bloom’s Daughter Daisy Dove Makes Public Debut at Vegas Residency Finale

Sure, Prince Harry and Céline Dion both showed up to the final performance of Katy Perry‘s Play Las Vegas residency, but the most adorable high-profile appearance had to be from Perry and Orlando Bloom‘s daughter Daisy Dove.

The 3-year-old made her public debut at her mom’s grand finale — and got to hear how she inspired the multimillion-dollar-grossing show — on Sunday night. Fan-captured footage from the elaborate performance shows the “Roar” singer shouting out her baby girl. “Daisy! I love you so much,” Perry exclaimed. “You’re my best friend. I’m so glad you’re here.”

Daisy — who sported a precious red-and-white polka-dot dress and sat alongside her father — was born three years ago, just two days before the release of Perry’s fifth album Smile. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and housed the Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit “Never Really Over.”

The “Witness” singer’s set featured a plethora of heartwarming moments for her family. During a spirited rendition of “Hot N Cold,” Perry quipped, “Mommy was a little bit wild back then!” The lighthearted vibes continued as Bloom and his daughter showed off their moves as Perry performed “Chained to the Rhythm.”

In accordance with this being the final Play show, Perry delivered an emotional speech detailing the show’s inspiration. “I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove,” she said while fighting tears. “When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. She made me whole and she healed me, and she showed me how to play again. So this show is for everyone’s inner-child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. ‘Cause never forget love is and will always be the key.”

Perry has sent three albums to the top of the Billboard 200 and earned nine chart-toppers on the Hot 100, including “Teenage Dream,” “Dark Horse” (with Juicy J) and “Firework.”

Check out some fan-captured footage of the final Play show:

06 Nov 2023

Sheryl Crow Gave Olivia Rodrigo This Simple But Important Piece of Life Advice

Sheryl Crow is all about supporting young artists, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee opened up about working with 20-year-old Olivia Rodrigo, who performed with Crow during the ceremony and participated in presenting her with the honor.

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“It’s really cool,” Crow told ET of working with Rodrigo. “I mean, you know, I got to sort of lift her up a little bit, because she’s got a new record [out]… I know how hard the second record is, the sophomore. You’re competing with the success of your first record, and she nailed it.”

She also revealed the piece of advice she gave the “Vampire” singer. “I said, you know, ‘If you can, just write down one sentence every day, of what happened during that day, because you will someday look back [at] this, and try to remember all the things.’”

“The other thing [I told her] is to just stay in the work and stay out of the chatter,” she continued. “That’s a major thing.”

After performing “If It Makes You Happy” with Crow at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, Rodrigo appeared in a video montage about Crow’s career that featured Stevie Nicks and Maren Morris. In the clip, the “Get Him Back!” singer praised Crow’s lyricism, and especially the line “scrape the mold off the bread and serve you French toast again” from “If It Makes You Happy.”

“Nobody could say that besides Sheryl. She says things I would have never thought of in the most beautiful way,” Rodrigo said. The love is mutual, with Crow naming Rodrigo “the real deal” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the night before.

After her onstage moment with Crow, Rodrigo described the experience in a statement to Billboard. “It was an honor to join Sheryl on stage and I am so excited for her to be inducted into the RRHOF! I am a massive fan of hers and her incredible songwriting. She’s equally as kind as she is talented and I feel so lucky that I was able to be part of celebrating such a legend.”

06 Nov 2023

Taylor Swift’s First-Week Sales on Every ‘Taylor’s Version’ Re-Record (And How They Compare to The Originals)

Few artists will ever reach the sales numbers that Taylor Swift has racked up over the course of her career — and even fewer will ever do it two times over.

What started as a passion project to reclaim her master recordings is now a cultural phenomenon. Supported symbiotically by her blockbuster Eras Tour — which reportedly made the pop star a billionaire in October 2023 — the “Taylor’s Version” re-recording project both caters to the nostalgia of O.G. Swifties while roping in new ones, breathing a second commercial life into albums that were already wildly successful upon their original releases between 2006 and 2017.

Kicking off in April 2021 with the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s years-long project has raked in millions in sales and billions in streams, while also affecting the value out of the original editions of her first six albums. The undertaking has been so successful, in fact, that major labels are actively working to avoid becoming the next “Big Machine,” with Billboard reporting that outlets like Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have started overhauling contracts for new signees and demanding that artists wait an unprecedented 10, 15 or even 30 years to re-record releases after departing their record companies.

Part of Swift’s secret formula for scoring so big with each Taylor’s Version is her inclusion of “From The Vault” tracks, or songs that she initially wrote for each album but ultimately left off of their final track lists. These previously unreleased time-capsule songs have given the superstar a second chance at topping the charts, as well as more opportunities to collaborate with other artists, be it Phoebe Bridgers on Red (Taylor’s Version)‘s “Nothing New,” Paramore’s Hayley Williams on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)‘s “Castles Crumbling” or a litany of country stars on Fearless.

Keep reading to see the first-week traditional album sales of every “Taylor’s Version” re-record (so far), plus how they compare to their original counterparts below:

06 Nov 2023

Tate McRae Announces Sophomore Album ‘Think Later’ & 2024 World Tour Dates

Don’t get “Greedy,” but fans are about to see a lot more of Tate McRae. The 20-year-old pop star announced on Monday (Nov. 6) that her sophomore album Think Later will be arriving on Dec. 6 via RCA Records.

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“We’re here guys. My sophomore album. This album means sooo much to me and I can’t believe it’s so close to coming out,” she wrote on Instagram alongside the album artwork, which features McRae standing against a black background with the album name written across her hockey leg pads. “Writing this whole thing was one of the most stressful, exciting, nerve racking, and fun things I’ve ever gone through. For the first time in my life I lived this year a little less with my head and a little more with my intuition – and I rlly hope u guys can feel that through the music. Through the biggest highs of my life to the lowest of lows – I feel so happy that it is now gonna be yours <3 Here>

See the full post here.

The album, co-executive produced with Ryan Tedder, will feature McRae’s previously released hit song, “Greedy,” which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

In addition to the Think Later announcement, McRae also revealed that she’ll be embarking on a 53-date 2024 tour in support of the album. The tour kicks off on April 17 in Dublin, Ireland, and will span across continents with shows in London, Amsterdam, Prague, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Sydney, Melbourne and more before wrapping up in Wellington, New Zealand, on November 21. See the full list of dates here.

Tickets to the North American leg of the tour will be available starting with the American Express presale for card members on Tuesday Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. local time, before general on sale begins on Friday (Nov. 10) at 10 a.m. local time on McRae’s official website here.

06 Nov 2023

Dolly Parton & Hayley Williams Bond Over Love for Miley Cyrus: People Don’t ‘Even Know How Talented She Is’

In a recent sit-down conversation ahead of Dolly Parton‘s new album Rockstar, she and Hayley Williams discovered they have something in common other than their home base in Nashville: Their love for Miley Cyrus.

Arriving Nov. 17, Rockstar is a 30-track compilation of both new songs and covers of classic rock songs, featuring a long list of collaborators spanning Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Elton John and more. Also included on the project’s guest list is Cyrus, Parton’s real-life goddaughter; last month, the pair shared a duet version of the 30-year-old pop star’s 2013 hit “Wrecking Ball,” which will appear on the album.

“Yours and Miley’s voices are perfect together,” Williams told Parton of the collaboration in their interview, published by Consequence Monday (Nov. 6). “You on this song, it feels like a song that you could have written.”

“Well, I wish I had written that song,” replied the “9 to 5” singer. “Miley, I’m crazy about. I don’t think people even know how talented she is.”

“I think what, unfortunately, people do is really underestimate based on presentation or based on the fact that she came from Disney,” agreed the Paramore frontwoman. “And she’s already proven that she’s got the chops: She’s a great singer, a writer.”

“Her comedic timing I think is unbelievable,” Parton added. “She’s a great writer and that voice… I think she’s the new, modern day rock chick. That thing that’s got the grit and the soul and the sex appeal. She’s got that voice when she can go down in that bourbon and cigarette voice, but she can also sing a song so delicate. I mean, she’s just got everything she needs.”

The pair also spoke about politics, songwriting, philanthropy, shifting genres and the event that inspired Parton to make Rockstar in the first place: Her 2022 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which she was initially hesitant to accept as a country artist. “I still didn’t feel like I’d earned it,” she explained to Williams. “And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I’m also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I’m ever gonna do it, I’m doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.”

Another star known for pivoting away from country music — albeit much more permanently than Parton — is Taylor Swift, who recently opened up about why she admires the “Jolene” musician. “She’s never stopped challenging herself to clear new hurdles and explore new territory artistically, and I think that speaks to her great curiosity about the human condition,” Swift told the Hollywood Reporter last week. “She’s a legendary empath and the storyteller for the ages. She’s also having the most fun doing it.”

06 Nov 2023

ENHYPEN Unveils ‘Orange Blood’ Tracklist

ENHYPEN‘s album rollout for its forthcoming album, Orange Blood, continues. The K-pop stars added one more piece to the puzzle of its release on Sunday (Nov. 5), sharing the album’s tracklist on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The set will contain a total of five original tracks — “Mortal,” “Sweet Venom,” “Still Monster,” “Far” and “Orange Flower (You Complete Me).” The release will also include an English version of “Sweet Venom” and a digital only remix of “Sweet Venom” featuring Bella Poarch (“Build a B—h”).

In addition to the tracklist’s release, track mood samplers with members Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon and Ni-ki were shared to YouTube Monday. The videos feature instrumentals of the songs on Orange Blood and the guys posing amid hazy bright lighting and in matching white outfits.

ENGENEs will have plenty more to look forward to leading up to Orange Blood‘s arrival. The album preview and music video teasers will roll out between Nov. 11-16, concluding with the video and album release on Nov. 17 and a special showcase, EN-CONNECT Night, on Nov. 18.

Orange Blood serves as the follow up to ENHYPEN’s May release, Dark Blood. The previous mini album earned the K-pop stars its highest charting release to date, peaking at No. 4 and spending a total of 10 cumulative weeks on the Billboard 200 in June.

See the tracklist and track mood teasers for Orange Blood below.