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Jonas Brothers dropped their soaring new single “Wings” on Friday (Feb. 24) via Republic Records.
Taking a cue from the Bee Gees, the pop-rock siblings float over a funky bass line as they deliver chill-inducing harmonies, singing, “You gave me a reason, you got me believin’/ You’re making me say/ You are the wings I need to fly away/ You are the wings I need to fly away/ It was you/ It was you, it was you from the very start/ Oh, always knew/ Always knew, you know, you gave me a reason/ You’ve got me belivin’/ You’re makin’ me say.”
Clocking in at less than two full minutes, “Wings” serves as the first taste of the JoBros forthcoming studio album The Album. In a recent interview with Billboard News, Joe Jonas called the swoon-worthy jam “a good entryway into what you’re gonna hear for the rest of the body of work.”
On Wednesday (Feb. 22), the trio announced they’d be unveiling the complete tracklist for the follow-up to 2019’s Happiness Begins throughout the week to fans who’ve already pre-saved The Album on streaming. Previously confirmed songs on the record include “Montana Sky,” “Vacation Eyes” and “Waffle House.”
The Album was originally slated for a May 5 release date, but the Jonas Brothers updated fans on their official social media accounts late Wednesday night (Feb. 22) that the LP will now arrive one week later than planned on May 12 in order to give it a vinyl release as well.
Stream the Jonas Brothers’ “Wings” below.
The Weeknd and Ariana Grande are back and better than ever on the remix of the former’s 2016 smash “Die For You,” which was released Friday (Feb. 24).
“Die For You” has been experiencing a recent resurgence on the charts, with the song remaining in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the last seven weeks (and counting), with a peak position at No. 6. The original “Die For You” comes from The Weeknd’s Billboard 200-topping album Starboy, released in 2016. But now, he’s capitalizing on the seven-year-old song’s momentum with the help of the “Thank U, Next” superstar.
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Grande posted a TikTok video earlier this week of her working on her section of the song. “Wrote and recorded a verse for my friend after a 14 hour day on set. This certain exception had to be made….” she captioned the clip, where she’s seen laying down harmonies and cutting vocal takes. The “Creepin’” singer posted her video on his Instagram account with a tearing up emoji.
But their fans can surely save their tears for another day, because the “Die For You” remix has finally arrived!
This marks the fourth time the pop dynamic duo have collaborated together. In 2021, The Weeknd recruited Grande for the Hot 100-topping remix of After Hours‘ “Save Your Tears.” He’s also featured on “Love Me Harder” from Grande’s 2014 sophomore album, My Everything, and “Off the Table” from her most recent album, 2020’s Positions.
Listen to the “Die For You” remix below.
Despite an ongoing battle with her former record label since splitting from her girl group, former LOONA member Chuu continues her career with a new duet alongside a trusted collaborator.
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Delivering a breezy, bossa nova-tinged duet suited for spring weather, Chuu brings her signature sweet vocals to “Let’s Love” alongside Kim Yo Han, a singer-rapper in boy band WEi and former member of X1.
The delightful duet lets the two K-pop stars effortlessly harmonize and synchronize their voices throughout the verses and chorus, with Yo Han also spitting a rap in the second verse.
This K-pop duo previously teamed up in 2021 with R&B star Eric Bellinger on “World Is One,” which acted as a campaign theme song in Korea to aid children marginalized by COVID-19.
“Let’s Love” marks Chuu’s latest musical move after exiting her girl group amid her ongoing battle with former record label BlockBerryCreative, which has extended to more LOONA members.
Since Chuu was expelled and withdrawn from the Billboard 200–charting act after BlockBerryCreative cited “violent language and misuse of power” in November 2022, which Chuu denied, the remaining 11 members of LOONA have all filed lawsuits attempting to cut ties with BlockBerryCreative. After reports of BlockBerryCreative attempting to prohibit Chuu from working in Korea’s entertainment scene, citing contract violations, the 23-year-old made a short statement on Feb. 1 via Instagram regarding “slanderous” claims and expressed her distress over the label’s actions towards her and the LOONA members.
At press time, a representative for the label did not have a statement for Billboard other than official word from BlockBerryCreative will be shared in the future.
With the release of “Let’s Love,” it appears Chuu is still moving forward with her career.
Meanwhile, the other 11 LOONA members have not been very active in K-pop, but several have hopped onto social media. While the last personalized communication on LOONA’s official Twitter and Instagram accounts came from member ViVi on Dec. 9, 2022, members JinSoul, Kim Lip, Hyunjin, Choerry and ViVi have all since opened personal Instagram accounts.
On Dec. 22, 2022, BlockBerryCreative announced it had decided to indefinitely postpone a new EP from LOONA scheduled for Jan. 3, 2023.
Stream “Let’s Love” here and watch Chuu and Kim Yo Han perform the track live below:
Here to get him through it all. Lewis Capaldi got a powerful assist from his fans at a concert in Germany on Tuesday (Feb. 21) after his Tourette’s syndrome appeared to start affecting him mid-song.
The moment occurred as the Scottish singer was performing his No. 1 hit “Someone You Loved” for the packed crowd at his tour stop in Frankfurt. In fan-captured footage from the show, Capaldi seems to be struggling with tics as he sings, “And I tend to close my eyes when it hurts sometimes/ I fall into your arms/ I’ll be safe in your sound till I come back around.”
From there, the fans pick up the song’s chorus, singing, “For now, the day bleeds into nightfall/ And you’re not here to get me through it all/ I let my guard down and then you pulled the rug/ I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved” back at him en masse.
“We support you!! @LewisCapaldi,” the fan captioned the video on TikTok, and the clip proved to be quite a humanizing moment for people on the social platform. “Humans humaning can be so healing to watch sometimes,” one follower wrote in the comments, while another added, “Everyone singing is a blessing to this world…Thank you.”
Capaldi originally opened up about his Tourette’s syndrome last fall on Instagram Live, telling his fans, “The worst thing about it is when I’m excited, I get it; when I’m stressed, I get it; when I’m happy, I get it. It happens all the time. Some days it’s more painful than others and some days it’s less painful. It looks a lot worse than it is. Sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable … but it comes and goes.”
Watch the special moment from Capaldi’s concert in Germany below.
Chvrches has never been prone to releasing one-off singles that aren’t tethered to either a larger project or is a collaboration with another artist. Yet the long-running Scottish trio is kicking off their 2023 with “Over,” a behemoth of a synth-pop track due out on Friday (Feb. 24) that represents a new chapter for Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty — who celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album this year, and are using the new single to launch their recent major-label deal.
“Something that’s come up recently, that I thought was a nice way to frame this, is that we signed new record deals, and there’s kind of a new lease on life for the band,” Doherty tells Billboard. “It’s a chance for us to work within a new paradigm.”
“Over” dates back to 2017, a product of a few nights in which Doherty and producer-songwriter Oscar Holter would hang out and write a few demos together. “That was before he went on the craziest run ever,” Doherty says, referencing Holter’s work on smashes like The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears” and Coldplay & BTS’s “My Universe” in the years that followed. “We were working on some stuff just for fun.”
The demo floated in the ether for a few years: the band knew “Over” could be a big song for them, but it didn’t fit on a project like 2021’s Screen Violence, which the trio wanted to write and produce completely on their own. At the end of 2022, the band reconnected with Holter, who wanted to revisit “Over” and help flesh it out into a proper Chvrches song.
The trio and Holter punched up the track and “got it to a point where everyone was happy with it,” explains Doherty, “and where it felt like somewhere that Chvrches could be going, potentially — that isn’t to say that’s where we’re going, but something that felt 2023, and not like something that’s been kicking around for a few years.”
In its newly finished form, “Over” is gargantuan, a more muscular version of Chvrches’ synth-rock sound with a classic Mayberry hook designed for expansive festival crowds. As Mayberry’s voice pleads for understanding and romantic comfort, the synth chords are smashed, lonely guitar riffs wander around and the percussion recalls a classic Jam & Lewis beat; the song has a gusto like it were made without album-track expectation or any of its limitations.
“There’s something incredibly freeing and no-strings about thinking outside of a long-form narrative, for the first time in 10 years,” says Doherty. “It’s quite liberating, and quite fun.”
After rising to fame and releasing their first four studio albums with Glassnote Records, Chvrches signed a new deal with Island Records in North American and EMI in the U.K. last year. Mayberry says that the label jump was the product of an amicable split at a time when the prospect of a new direction was appealing. “We’ve always been really lucky to have great partners with what we were doing,” she says. “Making some of the changes was quite emotional … But we’re really excited by what Island and EMI were bringing to the table.
“I don’t know if we’ve necessarily benefited from the kind of old-school approach — getting songs on the radio, et cetera,” Mayberry continues. “I don’t think that blueprint works for us. And a lot of that is based on — alternative radio in America is all f—king men! It’s all men! And there was a time, at the beginning of the band especially, where there was a narrative of, ‘Oh, we’ve just playlisted [another] band with a female vocalist,’ even if they sounded completely different than us. So it was really exciting to talk to people who viewed it more holistically, like, ‘Where are Chvrches fans, and how can we get things to them?’”
After touring behind Screen Violence over the past two years, Chvrches will head to Brazil in March for a string of dates supporting Coldplay on their global stadium tour, and Mayberry cryptically adds that “there’s another batch of shows that are coming, at some point.” When asked how much writing and recording they expect to get done this year, Mayberry admits that the band isn’t sure.
“Whatever we make next, we have to take the time on it,” she says. “It has to move the conversation forward in some way.”
“It’s an incredibly rare and privileged position after such a long period of time,” adds Cook, nodding to the decade-long run of the band since their 2013 debut, The Bones of What You Believe. “We don’t really have any kind of ceiling on things, or know this is how long this is gonna go on for. We’re just taking things as they come in, and as long as we’re enjoying it, we’ll keep doing it.”
Paris Hilton is glowing in motherhood, and the star took to Instagram on Thursday (Feb. 23) to share a first look at her and husband Carter Reum’s son, Phoenix Barron.
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In the sweet photos, the couple is seen cuddling their first child as he sweetly sleeps on his mother’s shoulder. In the second snap, Hilton is seen kissing her newborn bundle of joy. “Baby Phoenix. Our whole entire world,” she captioned the post, which you can see here.
Hilton revealed last month that she and Reum welcomed a baby boy together via surrogate. The 41-year-old “Stars Are Blind” singer broke the news on social media by posting a photo to Instagram, a close-up of her son’s tiny hand holding on to her thumb. “You are already loved beyond words,” she captioned the post.
Earlier this week on her This Is Paris podcast, Hilton shared that various life experiences over the past few years helped prepare her for motherhood, including filming her 2020 YouTube documentary This Is Paris, advocating for legislative change to the troubled-teen industry and writing her upcoming autobiography Paris: The Memoir.
She also revealed the inspiration behind her son’s name. “Phoenix has a few good pop culture reference points,” the heiress explained. “But more important, it’s the bird that flames out and then rises from the ashes to fly again. I want my son to grow up knowing that disaster and triumph go around and come around throughout our lives. And that this should give us great hope for the future…So there you go. My beautiful baby boy’s name is Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum.”
Moulin Rouge! has found a new Satine. On Thursday (Feb. 23), the Broadway musical announced that “Get Out (Leave)” singer JoJo will be joining the cast starting this spring. JoJo’s appearance in Moulin Rouge! will serve as her Broadway debut.
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“I can’t believe I’m finally able to say this… I’m making my Broadway debut in MOULIN ROUGE!!!” JoJo excitedly shared with followers on Instagram. “When I first saw this musical I fell instantly head over heels in love. I watched from the edge of my seat, hanging onto every word of every song. This show is a full on feast for the senses and the opportunity to play Satine feels like the culmination of so many dreams. I cannot believe I get to join this phenomenal cast and company!!!! You guys blow me away!!!”
She continued, “Special love & respect to @ashleyloren who currently SLAYS as Satine: theee most incredible badass singer actress artist i’m lucky to call friend and experience her sisterhood and generosity of spirit. * Thank you to the amazing producers and directorial staff for believing in me like you do. Performing on Broadway and living in NYC?! This is all a dream come true. I know this show means so much to so many and I promise to put all I have into every single night as Satine.”
JoJo will take the stage at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre starting on Tuesday, April 11. The limited engagement will last for 14 weeks, and concludes on July 16. Derek Klena will return to Moulin Rouge! as Christian. Ashley Loren, the production’s current Satine, and Aaron Tveit (Christian) will deliver their final performances on April 9.
See JoJo’s Instagram post below.
Keri Russell stopped by The Kelly Clarkson Show on Thursday (Feb. 23) to look back on her time on The All New Mickey Mouse Club.
After revealing that the actress learned how to drive while living in Florida and filming the Disney variety show — which aired from 1989 to 1994 — Clarkson jumped in to clarify that Russell, in fact, starred on the series alongside the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.
“That’s a lot of massively talented people all in one place,” the host marveled, to which The Americans star gamely replied, “They were all very talented. Like, Christina and Britney and Ryan Gosling and Justin, all those kids were 12 when I was 17. So I was a little older. I mean, I could drive, I was cool. But they were wildly talented.”
Of course, half a decade after she left The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993, Russell went on to land her breakout role as the titular protagonist on Felicity. And just months after the college drama premiered on The WB, Spears released her now-classic debut album …Baby One More Time in January 1999 followed by Aguilera’s self-titled debut the next August.
Meanwhile, Timberlake and fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum JC Chasez formed *NSYNC with their bandmates in 1995 and released their smash debut studio effort two years later, spawning hits such as “I Want U Back,” “Tearin’ Up My Heart” and “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You.”
Watch Russell reminisce over her Disney days with Clarkson below.
P!nk opened up about her decades-long connection with Britney Spears in a new interview on Wednesday (Feb. 22).
Speaking to People as the magazine’s latest cover star, the “So What” singer dispelled any notion of bad blood between herself and her fellow pop star. “People think I was picking on Britney on ‘Don’t Let Me Get Me,’ but I’ve always felt like a big sister to her,” she said. (Memorably, P!nk sang, “Tired of being compared to/ Damn Britney Spears/ She’s so pretty/ That just ain’t me” on the self-loathing second single off her 2001 album Misundaztood.)
“I’m very protective of her, and she’s the sweetest person in the world,” P!nk continued, though later added she’s not currently in touch with the Princess of Pop. “I wish her well. I cover her in light all day long.”
Famously, the two teamed up with Beyoncé for Pepsi’s 2004 Super Bowl commercial, during which they appeared as gladiators ready to lead a caffeinated uprising against Roman emperor Enrique Iglesias set to a cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
“What a weird deal that was. What the hell? Like, ‘What are we doing?’” P!nk reflected during the interview about the iconic ad. “Also, you’re Pepsi. You’re flying us to Rome to shoot in a fake coliseum down the street from the real Coliseum. Why are we here? We could have gone to Canada. I don’t understand. That’s Pepsi money. For a while, everything I saw that was really fancy, I was like, ‘That’s Pepsi money.’ It was bizarre.”
Earlier this month, P!nk released her ninth studio album, TRUSTFALL, via RCA Records and revealed her plans for a fall arena tour in support of the LP. Read her full People cover story here.
Selena Gomez has got her bestie’s back. After a video resurfaced of Hailey Bieber pretending to gag at the mention of Taylor Swift, the Only Murders in the Building star clapped back in her best friend’s defense — this shortly after Hailey and Kylie Jenner were accused of making fun of the “Lose You to Love Me” singer on Instagram.
It happened on Thursday (Feb. 23), when Gomez left a comment under a TikTok calling Hailey a “mean girl” and showing a clip from what looks to be Drop the Mic, the model’s former rap battle show with Method Man.
In the video, Method Man describes a rap battle as having “some of the meanest lyrics about a celebrity since Taylor Swift’s last album.” In response, Hailey points a finger at her mouth and pretends to gag, before shrugging as the audience laughs.
“So sorry, my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game,” Gomez commented on the video.
This response comes hours after Hailey and Kylie Jenner were accused on social media of making fun of Selena’s eyebrows on Instagram. The lip kit mogul addressed the accusations by commenting on a TikTok, which explained the alleged insult, that the drama allegations were “silly,” writing, “No shade towards selena ever.”
The Golden Globe-nominated star then did her part to shut down the gossip, replying to Kylie’s comment with, “Agreed @kyliejenner It’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie!”
Everything seemed fine between the three ladies at that point … until the singer-actress started leaving comments under other TikToks that seemed to suggest otherwise. Before commenting in defense of Taylor, she wrote “I love you” in response to a video calling Kylie and Hailey “nepo babies” who were acting like “mean girls.”
See the TikTok Selena commented on in defense of Taylor below:
