Music News Podcast Archives

Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande will be performing their smash “Rain on Me” at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

They’ll get together at an undisclosed location to perform the seven-time-nominated song. This will be Ariana’s first VMA performance in two years — when she performed her hit “God Is a Woman.”

The women will be joining an already jam-packed guest list that includes Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, and more. MTV will air this year’s VMAs on August 30th from various outdoor locations around New York City. (Variety)

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Entertainment Tonight says Brad Pitt and Harry Styles are not going to star in a new movie together called “Faster, Cheaper, Better”. The movie is about changes in the trucking industry. Brad’s representative says the tabloid story is false

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Life & Style Weekly Magazine says Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn are not stressing over becoming first time parents. A source tells the magazine, “Ed and Cherry aren’t stressing over becoming first-time parents during a pandemic. They’re both very easy going and are taking it all in their stride. Ed’s taken some time off to spend time with Cherry and the baby. He doesn’t want to miss out on any of the milestones and will definitely be a hands-on dad.”

Heat magazine says Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn are allegedly discussing having a Zoom wedding. A source tells the magazine, “They’d planned to hold something in the UK, but with the travel ban in place, they’ve moved to plan B. They’re looking at the possibility of holding a Zoom wedding, or throwing something intimate and low-key in Nashville [where they’re currently isolating] with just a few guests and a quick ceremony, if that. It will be understated and classy.”

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ABC says Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga will perform ”Rain on Me’’ at the MTV Video Music Awards On August 30th 

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TMZ says Britney Spears’ attorney has filed new court documents that call for others, in addition to her father, to run her conservatorship. She no longer wants him to be the only one making decisions about her life.

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Kelly Clarkson really jazzed up one of Billie Eilish‘s older tunes in the latest edition of Kelly-Oke, a feature on her daytime talk show in which she sings other people’s songs and makes them her own. She turned “I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore” into an old-school torch song.

Kel put her vocal spin on the track, and added some subtle stand-up bass, brushed drums and a vintage-sounding organ in the place of the original bedroom instrumentation:

We know a little about what Katy Perry‘s new Smile album sounds like — and she’s just clued us in about what it smells like.

A fan texted Katy during her #SmileSundays livestream and asked her to describe the scent of the music, and the star didn’t hesitate. She quickly ad-libbed, “It would smell maybe like fresh laundry, like the beginning of the day. Fresh laundry. Like newness, like clearness, like what you smell when you go outside and you’re on your way to school and it’s just clean for a second, until all hell breaks loose.”

To prove that, Katy also previewed another Smile track titled “Tucked.” Smile‘s set to drop on August 28th.

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The Blast claims Madonna recently celebrated her 62nd birthday in Jamaica with her 26 year-old boy toy Allahmalik Williams. The couple reportedly spent the night smoking marijuana as a band played music on a beach.

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Just Jared says Camila Cabello is heading to London to restart filming on the Cinderella movie. Production was shut down in March due to the coronavirus.

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The NY Post says two men have been arrested in the killing of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay. The rapper and DJ was killed in 2002 over drugs. The paper claims Jay collected $30,000 to buy cocaine. He took the narcotics and kept the money before he was executed in a recording studio.

You’d think social media trolls would know better than to come at Kelly Clarkson, but one who ignored that rule got a hard smackdown on Twitter late last week.

The hater, who set her account to private after getting a response from Kelly, slammed Kel for putting her career before her family by stepping in for the laid-up Simon Cowell on America’s Got Talent. She wrote, “No wonder her marriage didn’t work… Surprise she has time for her kids… Not the good old country girl we fell in love with… It’s all about Kelly being on TV… And no one else… No tears for her… But for her kids.”

Kelly came back with a retort that quickly racked up the likes — “Shaming a woman who has a great work ethic, is a great mom, and who steps up and fills in when a friends asks for a favor because that’s actually what “good old country girls” do… This can’t be who you are deep down. I have more faith in your heart. Aim higher please!”

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The Daily Mirror claims a copy of Ed Sheeran’s first demo album is going to be auctioned off and is expected to sell for $15,000. He recorded “Spinning Man” in 2004 when he was 13. Ed owns 19 of the 20 copies available.

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The Daily Mail newspaper says John Legend and Billie Eilish are going to perform remotely during this week’s Democratic National Convention.

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Adele was recently on Instagram when a fan asked, ”Adele where’s the album?” She replied, ”I honestly have no idea.”

Sia, Tove Lo and Portugal the Man head up the cast of At Home With the Kids, an album of child-friendly tunes that will raise cash for Save the Children.

The 23-track set, which drops on August 28th, mixes traditional kids’ tunes like Christina Perri‘s version of “It’s a Small World” with originals like “Riding on My Bike,” which Sia first recorded two years ago. (Billboard)

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The Weeknd is doing his part to help folks affected by the recent explosion in Beirut.

The Canadian singer ponied up $300,000 to provide relief for those who were displaced by the massive blast. Abel’s manager and his wife have been raising money for the charity effort and plan to cut checks to World Food Program, the Lebanese Red Cross and the Lebanese Children’s Center. (TMZ)

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Lewis Capaldi is pretty good at taking himself down a peg or two, and we just learned that he’s OK with smackdowns from others.

The Scottish star hit his social media for a late-night style reading of “mean tweets” he’s come across in recent days — most of which focus on his new single, “Before You Go.”

Lewis is seen laughing as he holds up a smartphone to say “‘Before You Go’ is number-11 in America and as always, as always, it’s the fans that keep me going… If it wasn’t for 10 songs, I would be number-one..”

Demi Lovato is staying busy and staying honest, judging by a new song snippet that seems to address her substance abuse relapse.

Demi hit her Instagram Stories on Tuesday to offer up video showing her listening to a few seconds of the tune, featuring the lyrics “I know I made it hard for you/ And I owe my part, I’ll tell the truth/ You said that it’d be over/ If I didn’t get sober/ Sober.”

She captioned the video with the hashtag #D7, leading followers to believe an album is on the way.

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The Irish Mirror newspaper says Ed Sheeran is planning to get a special tattoo to mark his baby’s birth. A source tells the newspaper,  “Ed comes from a large Catholic family and he wants to have a house full of kids. He has had five intertwined circles put on his back that look a bit like the Olympic rings. He wants to put a tattoo of a palm print into each circle.”

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Seems the R. Kelly case has come back to haunt all of us. The Chicago Sun-Times says three men have been arrested for allegedly bribing R. Kelly’s victims to remain quiet. Each suspect is accused of a separate scheme to bribe, intimidate, and harass Kelly’s alleged victims. One of the men reportedly offered $500,000 to a victim to keep her from cooperating with the government. Another suspect is accused of setting an SUV on fire outside of the home where one of the victims was staying. The Blast claims R. Kelly lied about being broke. Court documents show that the singer received $1.2 million in payments last year. Kelly previously accused prosecutors of going on a “harassing fishing expedition” by sending subpoenas to his bank. The prosecution claims Kelly paid bribes to multiple accusers over a 20-year period to lie about his alleged abuse. Bank records show that he allegedly paid $125,000 for the recovery of videotapes that depicted him abusing a minor.

This week, Taylor Swift joined rare company. Only 11 music acts have at least six albums top the Billboard charts multiple weeks. Swift has released eight albums. Folklore became the sixth to be number-one for a second week.

Barbra Streisand is the only woman besides Taylor Swift to have at least six albums top the Billboard charts more than once. More recently, Jay Z and Eminem have reached the milestone.

The other acts are from another era entirely: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen and Garth Brooks.

This feat requires career longevity and the increasingly difficult achievement of more than one week topping the charts. For example, country singer Kenny Chesney has only one of his nine chart-toppers to remain there multiple weeks. The hip-hop artist Future has seven number-one album but none of them stayed on top for two weeks. (Billboard)

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Ed Sheeran is actively preparing for fatherhood. A child with wife Cherry Seaborn is reportedly due in a matter of weeks.

They kept the pregnancy secret during quarantine. Only this week did a friend leak that Cherry is in the third trimester and due “later this summer.” The source said the lockdown in spring became a “perfect excuse not to be seen out and about.” Cherry is obviously showing, so now they’ve told more friends. Their days are spent prepping the nursery room.

At the end of last year, Ed Sheeran announced on social media how he planned to take an extended break. In hindsight, they must have gotten the results of a home pregnancy test. Ed knew that their first child was on the way. (The Sun, UK)