Pop

Robbie Williams is a Swiftie!
The English singer-songwriter stopped by SiriusXM Hits 1 this week to promote his recently released, CGI monkey-led musical biopic Better Man. During his conversation with host Ben Harlum, Williams opened up about his love for Taylor Swift, with whom he performed “Angels” in 2018 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

“I love Taylor Swift. Who doesn’t and who can’t?” he said. “There are levels to this stuff, and she is achieving levels that have been unreached, unmatched. When I was in my pocket of omnipresence, I couldn’t help but go, ‘Hey, the crazy’s showing itself. Hey, this is what crazy looks like. This is making me crazy.’ And people went, ‘Oh, he’s being crazy.’ ‘Yes, I am. I’m insane right now, and I’m having a nervous breakdown.’ The poise that she has and the way that she is navigating very, very unfair things leveled at her — she’s just a girl singing some songs, trying to entertain people. Obviously, with great love comes great hate too. With omnipresence, comes the crazy and she’s navigating it all so well, it would seem from the outside.”

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Elsewhere, in an interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM, Williams opened up about his love for Madonna after Cohen called him out for previously “slagging” her for her age. “That’s not nice of me,” Williams said. “Here’s the thing, too, is I absolutely adore her and love her.”

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He continued, “The thing is about being a 90s British person, it was wrestling and you did this thing in the press where — which made me me and made us us — but you fill a space and in the 90s and the tail end of that, you filled a space sometimes by being mean, but funny.”

However, despite at times being “unkind” to Madonna, Williams added, “I adore her, respect her, love her music, love everything about her, everything that she’s managed to do in her career. I’ve been a d—. I can be a d—.”

Watch below.

It’s been more than two years since Justin Bieber released new music, but a video the singer posted on Instagram Story on Wednesday (Jan. 15) got fans excited for the new dad’s next musical era.
The clip was preceded by a brief infrared video of the singer bobbing his head to an ominous-sounding, chopped-and-screwed track, which funneled into footage of Bieber — shown from behind in a hoodie that initially obscures his face — nodding along to what sounded like a rough demo. The on-screen graphics read “2:57:04,” and were accompanied by video camera and hand writing emoji just below.

In a 24-second snippet, a raspy-voiced Bieber sings lines that sound like, “B–ch I’m takin’ bait/ I’m takin’ it/ You takin’ bait/ I’m shakin’ it/ You’re shakin’ it/ Shakin’ off the hate/ Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay/ I’m shakin’ off the hate, okay (undecipherable)/ Go out the country and I’m not feelin’ nice/ Got the sun on my skin/ Okay, okay, okay, okay/ I bought my Birkin for my b–ch/ You lookin’ good for a Tuesday.” By the end of the preview, the camera zooms in on the rear-view mirror, confirming that the man shaking his head is a a shades-wearing Justin, smiling and mouthing the lyrics to the song that features only spare acoustic guitar accompaniment.

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Given Bieber’s boatload of finely-crafted big pop hits, the untitled song sounds more like a rough iPhone Notes sketch at this point, with scratchy, sometimes mumbled vocals, no drums or the singer’s signature sky-high falsetto vocals. The clip ends at the 3:26 mark, suggesting that the track will land somewhere around the pop radio single sweet spot.

At press time no other information was available on the song.

The rest of the reel featured Bieber vibing to other artist’s tracks, including Gunna’s “Got Damn” in a snowy snap of JB’s shadow flipping the middle finger in a winter wonderland; he later included a close-up of his face nodding along to the track as the camera zoomed in on a diamond-studded hoop earring. Elsewhere, he communed with an impressively antlered buck to Sleepy Hallow’s “Call Me,” while another clip that looked like footage from his recent holiday get-away in Aspen, CO with wife Hailey and their infant son, Jack Blues, with Bieber swinging the camera around to the strains of Playboi Carti’s “Cancun.”

The reel ended with a pull-out image of Bieber in full winter regalia — black snow pants, boots, a purple hoodie, black vest, knee-length striped scarf and pink wool hat — talking on his phone while listening to NAV, Cash Cobain and Bay Swag’s “6AM Thoughts.” A final slide was a re-post of a viral video of a salty young man on a bus raising his eyebrows to the strains of 1990s R&B crooner Tevin Campbell’s 1993 slow jam classic “Can We Talk.”

Bieber’s most recent album was 2021’s Justice and to date he has not announced an official release date for his next project. The singer launched a tour in support of that album in February 2022, revealing that June that he’d been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused “full paralysis” on one side of his face. His struggle with the symptoms of that ailment led to the postponement of some dates, before Bieber cancelled the entire rest of the world tour to focus on his health.

He has been mostly off the music radar since, with the exception of a surprise appearance in October on stage with Don Toliver at L.A.’s Crypto.com arena, where he jumped out during “Private Landing,” the pair’s 2023 track that also featured Future. Bieber didn’t sing at that gig, but showed up to seemingly act as hype man.

Bieber did, however, play his first gig in more than a year last February, when performed a short, surprise set of classics and recent hits at Drake’s Toronto club History during NHL All-Star weekend. A few days earlier, he’d posted a series of snaps from what looked like studio sessions, in which he seemed to be laying down vocals alongside a drummer and vibing out in a recording session.

He’s continued to tease his next era with more pics in October from a studio session in which he was seen at the keyboard and microphone, again, presumably working on new music.

Just a few weeks before that, singer/producer Mk.gee told the New York Times that he’s been in the studio with Bieber, revealing, “He’s searching. Anything that comes out of his mouth: That’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”

Bieber’s most recent single was 2022’s one-off, “Honest,” which featured Toliver.

Justin Bieber and wife model Hailey Bieber have been judicious about the glimpses they’ve posted of their four-month-old baby Jack Blues. And the trend continued on Wednesday (Jan. 15) when Justin dumped a roll of pics from his recent family vacation in Aspen, CO.
The roll opened with an image of a dark shadow in the foreground and the snowy, tree-dotted mountains in the background. The second slide appeared to zoom in on a blurry pic of the couple’s first child dressed in a warm winter snowsuit with a hood, with little Jack’s face obscured.

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In other snaps, Justin and Hailey are seen chilling in a chalet while looking at their phones, Justin sitting outside in his snow gear, various pics of their dogs, a moon shot and a snap of the singer in just his boots, boxer shorts and a hat hopping out of an ice-caked river post-polar plunge.

In one of the sweetest imagwa, Bieber appears to be snuggling Jack, his eyes closed as he presses his lips to the back of the baby’s head. That one also doesn’t show Jack’s face, but it’s clear from the wispy hair that Justin is spending some quality time with the little one.

An earlier photo dump from the trip opened with the couple throwing up double middle fingers, with more images of Justin in the cold wilderness, rocking some Kurt Cobain-like oversized yellow shades and a furry hunting cap while sticking his tongue out and ghost riding his SUV.

In what appeared to be an update on his next music project, Bieber posted a video on his Instagram Story on Wednesday in which it he played what fans think is a new song. In a 24-second clip, a raspy-voiced Bieber can be heard lines that sound like, “You’re takin’ bait/ I’m shakin’ it/ You’re shakin’ it/ Shakin’ off the hate/ Okay, okay, okay,” over spare acoustic guitar in what sounds like a rough demo. In the clip Justin and Hailey appear to be holding hands in the car while listening to the snippet as he bobs his head.

At press time no other information was available on the song.

Bieber’s most recent album was 2021’s Justice and to date he has not announced an official release date for his next project. The singer launched a tour in support of that album in February 2022, though in June of that year he revealed that he’d been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused “full paralysis” on one side of his face, leading to the postponement of some dates. He ended up cancelling the rest of the tour to focus on his health and has been mostly off the music radar since.

In October, Bieber made a surprise appearance on stage with Don Toliver at L.A.’s Crypto.com arena, jumping out during “Private Landing,” the pair’s 2023 track that also featured Future; he didn’t sing, but showed up to act as hype man. Earlier, he surprised fans with pics from what appeared to be studio sessions in which he was seen at the keyboard and microphone, presumably working on new music.

Just before that, Mk.gee told the New York Times that he’s been in the studio with Bieber, revealing, “He’s searching. Anything that comes out of his mouth: That’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”