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Though they were separated by more than five decades, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett shared a special magic. The “Million Reasons” singer paid loving tribute to her good friend and collaborator on Sunday night (July 30), 10 days after Bennett’s death at age 96.
“I will miss my friend forever. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together,” Gaga wrote alongside a photo of Bennett giving her a warm hug. “With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasnt an act. Our relationship was very real.”
Gaga added that, yes, of course Bennett taught her about music, and showbiz life, but she said he also showed her how to “keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. ‘Straight ahead,’ he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude…Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world. I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye.”
Bennett died on July 21 in his hometown of New York City of undisclosed causes after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016; his family first shared the diagnosis publicly in 2021.
Despite the more than half-century that separated them, Gaga, 37, said Bennett was her confidant, age difference be damned.
“He was my friend. My real true friend,” she wrote. “Our age difference didn’t matter– in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely — inspired. Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful. An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a persons life. There’s such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life.”
She added, “But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could — being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply. I’ll never forget this experience. I’ll never forget Tony Bennett. If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change. Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it.”
Gaga was there beside her friend at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in August 2021 when the pals headlined a pair of “One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga” shows a decade after her dreams of collaborating with her childhood musical hero came true on their first duet on “The Lady Is a Tramp” from Bennett’s Duets II album; Bennett’s son/manager Danny Bennett, announced that his dad wold retire from touring after the Radio City gigs . Gaga and Bennett also recorded two full-length jazz standards albums together, 2014’s Cheek to Cheek and 2021’s Love for Sale.
If she could impart any knowledge, Gaga concluded, it’s to take care of your elders, and if you do, she promised, you will surely learn something special from them.
“Maybe even magical,” she said. “And pay attention to silence — some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all.”
Check out Gaga’s tribute below.
Madonna was thankful for the kindness of her loved ones when she was hospitalized and recovering from a bacterial infection last month. The 64-year-old pop icon’s infection was “serious,” according to manager Guy Oseary, and landed her in the ICU for a few days. “Love from family and friends is the best Medicine. One month […]
Haim had some tricks up their sleeves for their second weekend on Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour. Este, Danielle and Alana arrived on stage wearing dresses like their “Bejeweled” video gowns when they joined Swift on “No Body, No Crime” in Santa Clara, California, on Friday (July 28). Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]
Selena Gomez must be having an incredible summer, based on new photos and video clips of the singer/actress out at sea, looking completely radiant and carefree in a pink swimsuit. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Gomez, pictured in a pretty bikini and denim overalls — and […]
Troye Sivan would like to set the record straight — well, not straight per se — about some rumors that have pervaded the internet for the last few years.
On a recent episode of Emily Ratajkowski’s High Low podcast, Sivan declared once and for all that he is not a bottom. “This is actually something I want to clear up,” he told the model-actress. “I wrote this one song called ‘Bloom,’ right? It’s about bottoming. And the lyric is ‘I bloom just for you.’ And people took that and ran.”
Continuing, the Australian pop star said that the queer community online thinks that he is “some crazy power bottom,” when that is simply not true. When asked by EmRata if it was “annoying to have to clarify that,” Sivan said it was not. “I think sometimes people are just surprised, maybe if they go on a date with me, and I’m like, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m not a bottom,’” he said.
Fans expressed their varying levels of shock in the comments section of a TikTok clip, with one saying “I did NOT have ‘Troye Sivan is a strict top’ on my 2023 bingo card.” Some fans, though, felt that Sivan had been pretty clear through his lyrics. “I’ve always understood that. Like he’s saying ‘I bloom JUST for YOU,’” one commenter wrote.
The new clip comes during a big week for Sivan — his latest single “Rush” recently debuted across 12 different Billboard charts, including a No. 77 debut on the Billboard Hot 100, marking his first entry on the chart since 2021’s “You” with Regard and Tate McRae, and his highest debut on the chart to date.
In an interview with Billboard shortly after the song was released, Sivan said that he was already thrown off by the extremely warm reception it received. “I know that I’m really super happy about it, and I also think I am a little bit intimidated,” he said. “It’s a good intimidation, because it just makes me think, ‘Damn, we’ve got to make a great video for the second single.’”
Check out the clip of Sivan on EmRata’s High Low below:
Taylor Swift rewrites the record for the most No. 1s in the history of Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, as “Cruel Summer” climbs to the top of the list dated Aug. 5. The song becomes her 12th leader on the list, surpassing the 11 each for Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Rihanna. Swift claims the mark […]
Flashback to her mistakes, her rebounds, her earthquakes. In another case of life imitating art (this time, the art being lyrics to Taylor Swift‘s 2017 Reputation track “Dress”), Swifties at the Eras Tour in Seattle last weekend danced so hard, they generated enough seismic activity to rival a low-grade earthquake. The discovery was found by Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, who measured the “Swift-quake” at Lumen Field to be equivalent to a 2.3 on the magnitude scale.
“For Taylor Swift, I collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior,” Caplan-Auerbach explained to CNN Thursday (July 27). “The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
The findings called back to another incident at Lumen Field in 2011, when fans watching a Seattle Seahawks game went wild over an impressive touchdown by running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch. The rumblings from the game showed up on the same local seismometer as the activity from the Eras show, according to Caplan-Auerbach.
“The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake,’” she added. “It absolutely doubled it.”
Comparing activity from the Saturday (July 22) show with the Sunday (July 23) show, Caplan-Auerbach shared that there wasn’t one crowd of Swifties that was discernibly more raucous than the other. Both groups danced equally enthusiastically, the only main difference being that the second show started about half an hour later than the first due to delays.
It wasn’t just scientists who noticed the record-breaking movement at the stadium, by the way. Even Swift was impressed by all the energy she greeted with, afterward writing on Instagram, “Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs.”
The conclusion of the Seattle shows means that Swift has just one more state to visit on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, which she’ll wrap up with two performances at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., followed by six concerts at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. From there, she’ll embark on months of international shows, traveling through Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia with support from Sabrina Carpenter and Paramore.
And even regardless of seismic activity, fans at the rest of those Eras Tour venues have a lot to live up to following Seattle. While onstage Sunday night, Swift doubled down on a diary entry she recalled writing during 2018’s Reputation Tour: “Seattle, Washington is the best crowd I have ever played for.”
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week (July 28), Travis Scott takes listeners to Utopia, Post Malone introduces his fans to Austin, and Offset and Cardi B brush off the haters (with a movie star’s help). Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Travis Scott, Utopia
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No pyramids, no problem: Even with its much-hyped premiere event in Egypt delayed until a date TBD, Travis Scott still dropped his long-awaited Utopia — five years after his 2018 blockbuster Astroworld — this Friday at midnight. Like Astroworld, the album is a winding journey through Scott’s sonic universe, with such A-list guests as The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Future and of course his old “Sick Mode” collaborator Drake — though you’ll have to actually listen to know that they’re on there, as the streaming tracklist is once again feature spoiler-free. The most exciting cameo this time around: fellow H-Town native Beyoncé, detouring from the Renaissance Tour to Utopia, with her first-ever appearance on a Travis Scott album.
Post Malone, Austin
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Guitar Posty was promised, and Guitar Posty was (mostly) delivered. Which is not to say that Austin finally features Post Malone living out his Kurt Cobain fantasies in full — you probably wouldn’t even quite call it a rock album, more just a pop album with a power ballad or two, a disco jam (!!) and a good amount of six string over all of it. Some are fun, some are despairing, some somewhere in between, but all clearly more by the man behind “Circles,” than the one behind “Rockstar” or “Congratulations.” It’s an enjoyable listen — and an interesting career move for Post, who experienced a bit of a commercial downturn with last year’s wrenchingly personal Twelve Carat Toothache, and who has yet to really recapture the chart dominance of his late 2010s this decade.
Offset feat. Cardi B, “Jealousy”
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Cardi B’s absurd run of scene-stealing features continues with an overdue solo collaborator — her own husband, Offset. “Jealousy” doesn’t have much of a chorus or hook to speak of — it would just get in the way of the couple’s bars, as Offset insists “I’m Michael, I’m not no Jermaine” and Cardi attests, “B–ches don’t wanna go Birkin for Birkin/ B–ches ain’t got enough hits for a Verzuz/ B–ches be actin’ so different in person.” The song is helped by a sample of Three 6 Mafia’s “Jealous Ass B–ch” and a music video that sees the duo paying tribute to the 2001 John Singleton classic Baby Boy, with original star Taraji P. Henson even making a cameo.
Mitski, “Bug Like an Angel”
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After 2022’s top five-debuting Billboard 200 hit album Laurel Hell, critics’ darling turned viral indie sensation Mitski is already scheduled for the follow-up LP, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, out in September. This week, we get the first taste: “Bug Like an Angel,” a Cowboy Junkies-like acoustic ballad with occasional jarring choral punctuations, and the kind of poetic lyrical exhaustion fans have come to expect from her the past half decade: “When I’m bent over wishin’ it was over/ Makin’ all variety of vows I’ll never keep/ I Try to remember the wrath of the devil/ Was also given him by God.” A year and a half since the last album? Already way too long a wait.
Gucci Mane, “Woppenheimer”
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Never let it be said that Gucci Mane doesn’t give the people what they want. A meme nostalgic for Guwop’s peak mixtape run went viral last weekend, theorizing that if we were still 2009, we’d have gotten a Woppenheimer project pegged to the Christopher Nolan-directed box office smash. Today, La Flare says “fair enough” and does indeed release a “Woppenheimer” — with the fan’s proposed cover art and anything — though only a single rather than a full mixtape. The narcotic trap banger indeed could have appeared on an Obama-era Gucci release, as he raps on the hook, “Broke people like bringin’ up the past, I’m talkin’ recently/ I know what I did for you, but what you did for me?” The ball is indeed back in their court.
Carly Rae Jepsen, The Loveliest Time
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In 2022, she was having The Loneliest Time — but those days are over, and the Canadian pop favorite is back this week and apparently having a much nicer go of it. From the jazzy friskiness of “Anything to Be With You” to the neon synth drama of “Kamikaze” to the Midnight Star-interpolating electro-pop of “Shy Boy,” Carly Rae Jepsen does indeed seem to be feeling loose and carefree, hopscotching from one sound to another and generally keeping the vibe consistent throughout. Fans can only wonder what set might be completing the trilogy in 2024: The Luckiest Time? The Looniest Time? The Languorousest Time?
Kylie Minogue is headed to Las Vegas. The “Padam Padam” singer announced on Thursday (July 27) that she has scheduled her first-ever residency at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas’ Voltaire this fall. “VEGAS BABY! [star emoji],” she tweeted in a video set to her latest global dance smash. “So excited to headline the all-new @VoltaireLV at starting this fall. See you there! #MoreThanJustAResidency.”
The gigs for the first headliner run at the 1,000-seat cabaret-style space at the Venetian are slated to kick off on Nov. 4, with tickets going on sale on August 9. The space was described in a press release announcing the shows as “blurring the line between an intimate club, concert, and non-stop entertainment venue.”
“Today is the day where it all becomes, beautifully real,” Minogue said at the Los Angeles event announcing her residency according to EW. The singer said she and the resort have been “living with” their plans for the residency for nearly three years. “So to finally be able to say, yes, I am doing a show in Vegas and to be at Voltaire at the Venetian Resort, it’s just, it’s such a good match. And, yeah, I couldn’t be more excited.”
Minogue is prepping her 16th studio album, Tension (Sept. 22), which has been set up by the global hit “Padam Padam.” The Australian singer hinted at her plans to join Adele, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and other current Vegas residency artists earlier this month during an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in which the host asked if she had any plans to do a “tour or Vegas residency.” Squinting her eyes mischievously, Minogue teased, “very possibly.”
“The spirit of Voltaire is one of pure, authentic fun. It’s one I resonate with as a pop artist. My new album Tension is all about the space where the intimate and universal come together and Voltaire represents just that,” Minogue said in a statement announcing the residency on Friday morning (July 28). “The creative team has designed an environment where people can get up and dance at their tables and revel in the night – that’s what my music is for.”
Producer Michael Gruber described his vision for Voltaire as an “interactive night out with some of the world’s biggest superstars” in an intimate setting where “anything can happen and no two evenings are the same.”
With a theme of “Belle de Nuit” (Beauty of the Night), Voltaire aims to capture a spirit “evocative of veils and mystery, of come-to-play and dress-to-express,” with table service that will include everything from champagne and caviar to cookies. “The creative team has designed an environment where people can get up and dance at their tables and revel in the night,” said Minogue. “That’s what Voltaire is and I can’t wait to perform in this intimate and exciting setting.”
Venetian president/CEO Patrick Nichols said that, “Voltaire will lead a revival in high-caliber nightlife giving guests an unexpected night out, but also the opportunity to see some of their favorite artists in an intimate way.” Gruber added, “Everything about Kylie reflects the essence of Voltaire. Her music is fun. Her spirit is absolutely infectious. And she’s at the top of her game, which makes this a truly special moment for fans to connect in such an intimate environment.”
Minogue will wear custom high-fashion costumes for the residency created by a designer who has worked with her before, as well as with Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, for what is described as a “heavy couture influence [that] lends the entire evening an unforgettably glamorous lens.” Emmy- and Tony-winning production designer Derek McLane (Moulin Rouge, MJ on Broadway) conjured the “immersive key-hole themed room design, centered around modern-day art deco fantasy.”
“I really wanted it to feel like an escape from the environment of the casino floor. Something that felt like a completely different world. An intimate, exciting, and inviting world,” said McLane. Information on tickets, tables and packages for the opening show and residency run is available here.
Watch the residency announcement below.
Madonna had a lot to celebrate this week as the pop icon continued recuperating from her recent hospitalization for a bacterial infection. In an Instagram video posted on Thursday (July 27), the singer promoted the 40th anniversary celebration of her 1983 debut album and the song that helped boost her to global stardom, “Lucky Star.” […]
