Pop

Chlöe Has Fans ‘In Pieces’ After Announcing Her Anticipated Debut Solo Album With A Fiery Photoshoot

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Chlöe has finally unveiled the title and release date for her long-awaited debut solo album (one of the year’s most anticipated R&B projects). Her new record, In Pieces, has fans feeling that exact way with this announcement.

She dropped a new video on social media today (January 24) that finds her donning a powerful red dress and posing with some scaled weights.

“When did it all get so heavy,” she asks in the audio snippet.

Given she also changed her Twitter layout to seemingly fit the album’s energy, it appears this is going to be a fiery era. Before the official announcement, Chlöe had dropped a handful of solo singles, including “Treat Me” and “Surprise,” that had fans hooked.

“I am just so eager for the fans to hear the songs and the music, and I hope they love it when it finally comes out into the world,” she told Uproxx in a cover story last summer. “I’m a brand new artist and I haven’t had a body of work out [yet], so it’ll be the first thing people hear from me, really. So I think that’ll be surprising in itself.”

Continue scrolling for some fan reactions to Chlöe’s debut solo album announcement.

In Pieces is out in March via Parkwood. Pre-save it here.

Willie Nelson’s Birthday Bash Will Feature Performances By Snoop Dogg, Neil Young, Chris Stapleton, And So Many More

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King of country music and well-documented cannabis connoisseur Willie Nelson is using his concert organizing skills to coordinate an epic birthday for himself. To commemorate the musician’s 90th birthday, the guitarist will bring his Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90, A Star-Studded Concert to the Hollywood Bowl in California.

Willie Nelson’s birthday concert is set to take place across two days, April 29th and 30th. Although Nelson is known for his signature country sound, the lineup will feature performances by a range of other musical artists, including Kacey Musgraves, The Chicks, Neil Young, and Snoop Dogg.

Other rumored guests for the concert include Allison Russell, Beck, Billy Strings, Bobby Weir, Charley Crockett, Chris Stapleton, Edie Brickell, Leon Bridges, Lukas Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Margo Price, Miranda Lambert, Nathaniel Rateliff, Norah Jones, Orville Peck, Particle Kid, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Sturgill Simpson, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Tom Jones, Tyler Childers, Warren Haynes, and Ziggy Marley.

General admission tickets go on sale beginning Saturday, January 28 at 1 p.m. ET. However, Capital One, Visa, and Mastercard holders will have access to a pre-sale on Wednesday, January 25 at 1 pm ET. To purchase tickets, click here. For more information about the event, weekend bundles, and more, click here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rihanna And Lady Gaga Got Nominations For Best Original Song At The 2023 Oscars

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Today (January 24), the nominees for the 95th Annual Academy Awards were unveiled live, and there were a ton of surprises. For the category of Best Original Song, there were five total nominations.

Most notably, Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned Rihanna her first ever nod for an Oscar. The music was done by her, Tems, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Goransson.

“It’s her experience with loss in there, and her being a mother. She’s a new person now,” Coogler revealed to Collider about Rihanna’s impact on the song. “I hear it in her voice. It’s her, but it’s a new her.”

Lady Gaga also was a big-name nominee, as her “Hold My Hand” collaboration with Bloodpop from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack earned the Academy’s attention.

Rounding out the category, Diane Warren’s “Applause” from Tell It Like A Woman; M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose’s “Naatu Naatu” from RRR; and Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mitski’s “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once were nominated, too.

Just a few weeks ago, “Naatu Naatu” won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, making it the possible frontrunner for the Oscars race as well. Fans in the Academy’s replies also seem intensely happy that the song got a nod.

The Oscars ceremony will be held on March 12 at 8 p.m. ET, where the winners — including for this category — are revealed live.

Continue scrolling for some fan reactions to the 2023 Best Original Song Oscar nominees.

Beyoncé Hasn’t Announced A ‘Renaissance’ Tour Yet But Is Apparently Planning One, Her Dad Says

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Beyoncé hasn’t been much of a live performer in recent years, but she recently took the stage for the first time in a few years for a private performance in Dubai (for which she was reportedly paid $24 million). Naturally, this has fans in other parts of the world wondering if and when they’ll get to see Beyoncé perform in their neighborhood. Well, it looks like a tour in support of Beyoncé’s 2022 album Renaissance is indeed happening.

According to a report from TMZ, Beyoncé’s father Mathew Knowles said his daughter is currently planning a Renaissance tour and it will be announced when the time is right.

He also addressed the backlash Beyoncé has received for the performance, due to United Arab Emirates’ anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Knowles spoke about his daughter’s power to bring people together and that the show had a diverse crowd. He added she wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt anybody, and that there was a mutual respect between her and the country.

Lizzo didn’t make it to the Dubai performance, but the noted Beyhive member did catch a livestream of the performance, which was her 11th time seeing Beyoncé live.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Miffed Swifties Can Tune Into The Ticketmaster Senate Hearing Via Livestream This Week

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The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing regarding Ticketmaster and its presumed monopoly on live entertainment ticketing has been set for Tuesday, January 24, 2023, and will live stream at 10:00 am ET.

Ticketmaster has come under scrutiny within the past several months as the comeback of several marquee artists at once highlighted the ticketing platform’s frustrating policies. With Bruce Springsteen tickets reselling for upwards of $5,000 in July and Taylor Swift fans practically crashing the site in November, authorities now have plenty of questions for Ticketmaster’s leadership.

The situation with Swift’s tickets got so bad, Ticketmaster was forced to cancel the general sale of her The Eras Tour tickets, prompting the singer’s fury and sparking a general outcry against it from the likes of Springsteen, Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, and country star Zach Bryan.

In response, Swifties filed not just one but two class action lawsuits alleging misleading business practices, arguing the company “intentionally and purposefully misled millions of fans into believing it would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in the presales,” but instead allowed “14 million unverified Ticketmaster users and a ‘staggering’ number of bots to participate in the presales.”

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster was fined in Mexico for allegedly ruining a Bad Bunny concert by overselling the venue, although Ticketmaster claimed the problem was fake tickets, not its practices.

You can watch the live stream here.

Spotify Is The Latest Big Company To Announce Significant Layoffs And Some Executives Are Getting Shuffled Around, Too

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The feel-good of “Spotify Wrapped” was left in 2022. Spotify announced today, January 23, that it is “reducing our employee base by about 6% across the company” through an open letter from CEO Daniel Ek posted here. It’s brutal, but at least Spotify didn’t compound the salt in the layoff wound by hosting a private Sting performance like Microsoft reportedly did.

The lengthy note from Ek additionally announced that Chief Content & Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff “has decided to depart Spotify,” while Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström and Chief Freemium Business Officer Alex Norström will be leading their respective teams “as co-presidents, effectively helping me run the company day-to-day.”

“In the near term, Dawn will assume the role of senior advisor to help facilitate this transition,” Ek wrote. “Alex will take on the responsibility for the content, advertising and licensing work going forward and you’ll hear more from him on that.”

Ek explained that the approximately six percent cut in workforce is due to him being “too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth” and because he had “hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us.”

Beyond Spotify and Microsoft, big companies like Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, and Salesforce have also recently announced layoffs.

See some of the reactions to the news below.

Noted Beyhiver Lizzo Revealed She’s Seen Beyoncé Perform 11 times, And In Some Surprising Places

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Though Lizzo may not have been present at Beyoncé‘s lavish performance in Dubai, Lizzo made sure she was tuned in. Though Bey had previously stated that no phones would be allowed during the performance, some fans sneakily streamed portions of the performance.

Lizzo revealed she tuned into one of those live streams, noting on Twitter that this was her 11th time watching her perform live, albeit not in person.

“I have seen Beyoncé perform live 10 times in my lifetime,” she said. “and today the 11th time was on a IG live across a body of water of a hotel and I’m not ashamed.”

In a follow-up tweet, she revealed the previous times she had seen Bey live. As a superfan, she revealed that she has seen the Renaissance artist throughout nearly all of her eras, and in some rather unexpected venues.

“1- the dunvale Walmart parking lot in Houston (destiny’s child)

2- the Houston rodeo

3- the Beyoncé experience

4- I am tour (I went alone)

5- mrs carter

6- on the run

7- 2016 VMAS

8 Beychella

9- Formation MIA (opening night)

10- Formation LA (yes i saw it twice),” she said.

Last year, Lizzo revealed that the first time she saw Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child, she was a teenager and had skipped school to do so.

“Growing up in Houston, the impact that Destiny’s Child had on me making a decision to become an artist was incredible, mostly because I felt like we were so close to it,” she said in an interview with Elle UK. Everyone had their, ‘I saw Beyoncé when…’ or, ‘I saw Destiny’s Child at this party…’ stories. And that made it seem more accessible. Like, ‘Oh, maybe I can do this too, if I worked hard enough and had the right people around me.‘ They had an album-signing event at a Wal-Mart and I skipped school to go see them. I listened to them sing their gospel medley.”

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sega Bodega And Shygirl Give Bjork’s ‘Ovule’ A Hypnotic Update

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Bjork has shared a new version of one of the standout tracks from her latest album Fossora. “Ovule” had fans abuzz upon the release of Fossora last September. Now, she has given the song a trippy, hypnotic update, with a new beat by Sega Bodega and additional vocals from Shygirl.

In a statement, Bodega described updating the song “as kind of a full circle moment here, for me at least. The three of us had an evening of all listening to music we loved at Shy’s place last year and after absorbing that the remix came together pretty quickly – we like things fast.”

“it has been so nourishing sharing music with shy and sega,” added Bjork in a statement. “soooo honoured to be in their hands !! and in this remix admiring sega exploring chill-bassdrum-gabba and a thrill seeing shy diving into my lyrics and taking it to a new place.”

Shygirl’s vocals give the song a more silky, echoing feel, as she slides on the beat with pure ease, singing of the complexities and nuances of love and the human condition.

“What I’d pay to give you a minute of this / All I feel is bliss when I think of you / What I’d pay to givе you a minute of this / All I feel is bliss when I think of you,” sings Shygirl on one of her verses.

Check out “Ovule (Sega Bodega Remix)” above.

Madonna Tongued Jack Black, Re-Created An NSFW Photo With Lil Wayne, And More In A Wild New Tour Promo Video

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Today, Madonna announced The Celebration Tour, a trek that will see Madonna playing hits from across her four-decade career. Madonna, ever the shock-friendly performer, unveiled the news with a wild new video featuring Jack Black, Lil Wayne, Diplo, Judd Apatow, Eric Andre, Amy Schumer, Bob The Drag Queen, Kate Berlant, Larry Owens, and Meg Stalter.

The five-minute clip features a truth-or-dare game between the celebrities as they sit around a table. Madonna kicks things off by daring Schumer to simulate how she would lick her husband’s butt, which she does by not doing it. Andre then dared Diplo to dip his balls in his margarita and drink it, and he obliged. Diplo then turned the tables back on Madonna, who he instructed to “tongue-kiss” Black, and indeed, she did just that.

There are some more shenanigans from there — including Madonna, Wayne, and Black posing for a racy photo — but the whole thing ends with one final dare, from Schumer to Madonna: to go on a world tour. Of course, given the purpose of the video, Madonna accepted.

In a statement, Madonna said of the upcoming trek, “I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for.”

Check out the video above and find the tour dates here.

Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.