Despite a TikTok troll’s attempt to make the songwriter feel guilty about her recently purchased California mansion, Lizzo refused to let that stop her from being proud of the accomplishment. In a preview clip of her upcoming appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, the singer shared just how important the title homeowner is to her.
As correspondent Tracy Smith joins Lizzo in her festively decorated living room, Smith says, “Just ten years ago, you were sleeping in your car.”
While reflecting on what Smith said, Lizzo emotionally responds, “Yeah, yeah. And, like,” she deeply exhales, “Staying in, like, people’s rooms and sleeping on their couches. And now, on this past tour, which I was blessed to, you know, stay in really nice places, but I was like, ‘I miss my house. Like, I can’t wait to come back to my own home and to my bed.’ And I was like, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever said this.’”
Purchasing a home, let alone your first home is a big deal for anyone but as Lizzo put it, “It’s a milestone for me,” as the Grammy winner spent a decade battling homelessness.
The full interview will be broadcast on Christmas Day (Sunday, December 25) on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. In the meantime, watch the preview clip above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
You may know Portland’s Daniel Seavey from the cult boy band, Why Don’t We, responsible for hits “What Am I” and “I Don’t Belong in This Club,” featuring Macklemore. The uber-successful group he formed with Jack Avery, Jonah Marais, Zach Herron, and Corbyn Besson announced their indefinite hiatus in July, signaling a new chapter for Seavey. If you’re still not fully familiar with the burgeoning pop singer, get to know today’s UPROXX Sessions talent who first tiptoed into his solo career after the release of his unofficial track “Bleed on Me” over the summer.
Following that release Daniel dropped his debut single, “Can We Pretend That We’re Good?” with a powerfully vulnerable visual commenting on his religious upbringing, purity culture, and more. He joins UPROXX Sessions for a poignant performance of the track, begging his romantic partner for another chance.
Watch Daniel Seavey perform “Can We Pretend That We’re Good?” for UPROXX Sessions above.
UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
Lizzo, TikTok’s top artist in 2022, posted a delightful 15-second snippet of her and Butler singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” The caption teased, “If we show up as Christmas carolers at your house wyd?”
Special is nominated for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album — while “About Damn Time” is up for Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best Remixed Recording — at the 2023 Grammys. In January, we’ll find out if Butler nets his first Oscar nomination like most are expecting.
Lizzo has achieved a lot of professional success in recent years, and as tends to happen when a celebrity reaches that level of prosperity, people start spreading rumors and even resenting them for enjoying the opportunities their talents have afforded them. That’s been happening on TikTok recently and Lizzo shared her thoughts.
Today (December 22), Lizzo stitched a video from real estate-focused TikTok account @mansiontok, which claims that Lizzo lives in a 4,300 square-foot home in Palm Springs that, based on the included photo, is so opulent that it includes a helipad. The video claims Lizzo is “supposedly” renting the four-bedroom, five-bathroom home for $5,000 per night.
Lizzo’s post only included a small portion of the original video before she interrupted, “We need to talk about the epidemic of people believing absolutely anything they see on social media.”
She continued, “Not only did you watch this video and believe it, but you were so enraged by the content of this video that you chose to step outside yourself and comment on the video and talk sh*t about me, a person you don’t know, a person who you don’t know where I live, and even if I did choose to live in a helicopter-ass pad in Palm Springs, that’s my prerogative! What does where I live got to do with you? People be so passionate about absolutely nothing. Now I know why people say ‘touch grass,’ because clearly all you doing is touching this computer screen, chronically online.”
Lizzo concluded, “Somebody was like, ‘She hasn’t had a hit since 2019, she’s only had two hit songs: How can she afford to live there?’ If that’s not the most broke b*tch mentality comment I’ve ever heard… keep that energy away from me.”
Check out the video above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
One can’t swing a dead rat on the sinking ship of making money in the music industry without hearing about how TikTok has become this incredible tool for music discovery. And sure, it’s true — a new generation has learned to vibe with Fleetwood Mac, Gayle, and Kate Bush. Wait, hold up, that last one, while a TikTok banger, was on the Netflix to TikTok pipeline in 2022. While TV shows aren’t using music as prolifically as they once did or introducing us to as much new music (there are a lot of great shows leaning heavily on catalog songs and fewer shows like the recently completed tastemaker Insecure), it’s still a fantastic music discovery tool.
As is the case every year, this year a myriad of shows wowed us with clever placements — although more and more of them are catalog songs. The Dropout made fine use of reintroducing Wolf Parade’s excellent “I’ll Believe In Anything,” an underappreciated track in its own time that caused a bit of furor among aging indie rock fans since it was released in 2005 and soundtracked a moment set in 2002. Author and showrunner Jenny Han turned in a pitch-perfect soundtrack with The Summer I Turned Pretty, packed with familiar hits from artists modern (Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, and Kim Petras all made the first episode) and classic (Electric Light Orchestra, Edith Piaf, and the Pussycat Dolls appear throughout the season). Season 2 of Euphoria dug deeper than most and made us all fall in love with Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 not totally forgotten hit “Right Down The Line” and Sinead O’Connor’s 1987 deep cut “Drink Before The War” by embedding them into pivotal lives of the characters. Derry Girls took us back to the late ‘90s with an emotional Fatboy Slim-soundtracked episode. The Bear and Station Eleven provided fantastic music moments for dad rock. Stranger Things gave us justice for Kate Bush.
TV in 2022 dealt a lot of wins to the well-known artists of the current generation and the forgotten hits of the near and not-so-near past — no doubt Rafferty and O’Connor had to scramble to get official versions of those songs up on YouTube to cash in, just as Spotify had to scramble to get them featured on some playlists. And a lot of songs that hit the sweet spot after a TV placement go on to viral success elsewhere — the number of TikToks suddenly throwing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on a video about the best places to eat in a random city or relationship advice was through the roof, and more than a little weird. It feels like, for the past several years now, TV has been running to the catalog instead of trying to break new artists. The Sex Lives Of College Girls and She-Hulk may have done the most to feature new artists, with soundtracks heavily focused on the hottest and newest from Gen Z and contemporary women in hip-hop, respectively. Although neither has quite had the cultural capital to create a breakthrough moment for a new artist. If, as The Guardian suggested earlier this year, “syncs (industry terminology for music used in shows) are becoming a bigger part of the music industry than ever,” aren’t we missing a massive opportunity for syncs to break artists?
It would seem that another amazing outlet for syncs for newer, emerging musicians would be reality TV. The genre has garnered quite a lot of buzz in the past year for its soundtracks, especially on the splashy Netflix shows. When Selling Sunset dropped, all we wanted to know was where all this comically bad “girlboss” music came from — and the show leaned all the way into that genre in season 2, which dropped in two parts this year. One of the songwriters told Buzzfeed, “It’s been very funny to watch Twitter, and I feel like so many people have been talking about the music. They don’t understand that we know this is garbage.” And as another artist who creates a lot of reality TV music told Mashable, “This music is so hilarious, so funny to create, but at the same time, yes, it’s so dumb some of the time.”
It’s the same story in the universe of Real Housewives, The Kardashians, the cooking competition genre on the Food Network, and the full constellation of Netflix reality shows. Why is so much of this music trash?
In short, most reality shows are set up to use music libraries rather than license actual music. The Hollywood Reporter gracefully broke down how that process works in an interview with former Laguna Beach and The Hills showrunner Adam DiVello, the current showrunner for Selling Sunset. Twenty-ish years ago, when he was working on the MTV shows, the network had it in their licensing agreements with labels that it was allowed to use any song a video was submitted for in the soundtrack of their shows for a minimal fee. As major label groups renegotiated, and indie labels objected because they were getting a lot more money from The OC and Grey’s Anatomy, it became more than the budget of a reality show could bear to license real music. So, the network began creating a music library. And it set the tone for the whole industry: now using libraries that license what’s known as bed music. And as time has gone on, it’s become more and more common for these unknown library artists to get prime placements and long needle drops (industry speak for when a song plays) in reality shows.
Those extended placements have bands and labels hungry again. Polygon noted that Coldplay got in on the Love Is Blind season 3 action this year, licensing their song “Biutyful” partly because the show does such long needle drops. The Kardashians will license a track from the Billboard Hot 100 from time to time, which has been the blueprint of their reality history from nearly the beginning. But otherwise, we’re getting a bunch of music that’s cheesy on purpose to soundtrack TV that executives like and continue to green light because the production budget is so low.
Musicians lose on all fronts in this scenario. Those library artists who create tracks earn a flat fee for licensing their music, and it can be as low as hundreds of dollars for a use — or even one dollar. If the show airs on cable or network TV, they can collect money from the performing rights organization (PRO) that represents them, with fees in the low thousands, depending on when and on what network it aired and for what duration. But that’s not enough — it’s nowhere near the tens or hundreds of thousands that music licensed through a label or agency would cost. And we have yet to see a career launched from a reality TV show placement. If it’s not creating social cache and delivering anything to the discourse — and we all think it’s kind of dumb — what is the point?
This model is also not doing any favors for working-class musicians. And is it just happening because production companies are being cheap? It’s time to ratchet up the budget, take a chance on some up-and-coming artists, and make some careers.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After teasing the featured guest stars for her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC Special while appearing on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon earlier this month, the full lineup for Miley Cyrus’ second annual NYE bash has now been officially announced.
For starters, Cyrus has ditched Pete Davidson as a co-host, and instead, her godmother Dolly Parton will be co-hosting the bash alongside her. The star-studded lineup of musical acts has been confirmed to feature pop singers Sia and Fletcher, rappers Latto and Rae Sremmurd, as well as LA rock band Liily. It will be recorded live from Miami and broadcast on NBC.
Executive produced by Cyrus and Lorne Michaels, Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will also feature appearances from Saturday Night Live cast members Chloe Fineman and Sarah Sherman, as well as the comedy trio known as Please Don’t Destroy of comedians Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy.
This official announcement comes after a series of mysterious “New Year, New Miley” posters popped up in Los Angeles and Copenhagen last week “The lineup is very me,” Cyrus told Fallon. “It is curated in a way that makes no sense but makes total sense.”
Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will air live on Saturday, December 31 on NBC from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET. The special will also stream live on Peacock.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its shortlists for a bunch of categories — an annual tradition — and the category for Best Original Song features some familiar names including Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd. Remember, these aren’t the official nominees, just the field that Academy voters will narrow down to make up the five-option field ahead of the actual awards voting.
Among the shortlisted songs are a number of the signature singles from some of the year’s biggest franchise sequels, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar 2: The Way Of Water, and Top Gun: Maverick. According to Billboard, 81 songs were eligible in this category, with 15 making the shortlist. That number will be whittled own to five official nominees. The 15 shortlisted songs are:
“Time” — By Drake, Giveon Evans, Jahaan Akil Sweet, Daniel Pemberton
From Amsterdam, 20th Century Studios
“Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” — By The Weeknd, Steve Angello Josefsson, Sebastian Ingrosso, Axel Hedfords, Simon Franglen
From Avatar: The Way of Water, 20th Century Studios
“Lift Me Up” — By Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson, Rhianna, Tems
From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel Studios
“This Is a Life” — By David Byrne, Ryan Lott, Mitski
From Everything Everywhere All at Once, A24
“Ciao Papa” — By Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo del Toro
From Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Netflix
“Til You’re Home” — By Rita Wilson
From A Man Called Otto, Sony Pictures
“Naatu Naatu” — By Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj
From RRR, Variance Films
“My Mind & Me” — By Amy Allen, Jonathan Bellion, Selena Gomez, Jordan K Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Michael Pollack
From Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, Apple Original Films
“Good Afternoon” — By Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
From Spirited, Apple Originals
“Applause” — By Diane Warren
From Tell It Like a Woman, Samuel Goldwyn Films
“Stand Up” — By Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, Jazmine Sullivan
From Till, Orion/United Artists Releasing
“Hold My Hand” — By BloodPop (Michael Tucker), Lady Gaga
From Top Gun: Maverick, Paramount Pictures
“Dust & Ash” — By J. Ralph
From The Voice of Dust and Ash, Matilda Productions
“Carolina” — By Taylor Swift
From Where the Crawdads Sing, Sony Pictures
“New Body Rhumba” — By Pat Mahoney, James Murphy, Nancy Whang
In recent days, “nepo baby” has been a major buzzword (or “buzz term,” more accurately) online. Essentially, it refers to celebrities with famous relatives and implies the opportunities for success that they have received are primarily thanks to the fame of their families. (The “nepo” is short for “nepotism.”) Vulture recently ran a thorough, in-depth feature that cataloged most of the nepo babies in American pop culture, but what about music specifically? There’s a pretty sizable list in that industry, too.
(For the purposes of this list, “nepo baby” is not a judgement term and simply refers to musicians whose parent or parents worked in the entertainment industry or were otherwise noteworthy/affluent.)
Indeed, there are some famous nepo babies in the music world. A few that immediately come to mind are Miley Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus), Jaden and Willow Smith (children of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith), Norah Jones (daughter of Ravi Shankar), Robin Thicke (son of Alan Thicke), and Nancy Sinatra (daughter of Frank Sinatra). There are plenty beyond that, though, including some you may not have realized had at least one famous relative. Let’s take a look:
Coi Leray
Father: Benzino (rapper, producer, co-founder of The Source)
Leray has been one of the promising rappers of the past few years, plain and simple. In 2021, XXL put her on their esteemed “Freshman” list and she dropped her defining single “No More Parties,” which was her first song to place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and be certified platinum by the RIAA. She also made some noise this year with Trendsetter, her debut album that included features from Nicki Minaj, HER, Lil Durk, and others. She also appeared on a 2022 cover story for Uproxx. NBD.
Clairo
Father: Geoff Cottrill (Chief Marketing Officer at Top Golf, previously of P&G, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks)
Through accusations of being an “industry plant,” Clairo has proven that she really does have the musical goods and that she deserves all the acclaim she’s received. Her two albums, 2019’s Immunityand 2021’s Sling, both earned spots on numerous year-end lists, while the former got her on the Hot 100 chart for the first time and the latter was her first top-20 album in the US.
Gracie Abrams
Father: J.J. Abrams (filmmaker)
In recent years, Abrams has become your favorite artist’s favorite artist. She’s joining Taylor Swift on tour in 2023 and she’s previously supported Olivia Rodrigo and The National. This is thanks in part to the strength of her 2021 project This Is What It Feels Like, which features some Aaron Dessner production and was well-received.
Maya Hawke
Parents: Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke (actors)
Hawke is best known for her breakout role in Stranger Things, but before the show, she was already working on a music career for herself. That’s been going well, too: Her two albums, 2020’s Blush and 2022’s Moss earned some critical praise, which, along with her acting chops, helped establish Hawke as a skilled multi-hyphenate.
King Combs
Father: Diddy/Sean Combs (rapper, businessman)
Combs has been grinding away at a music career for a few years now and it has really paid off. One of his freestyles previously caught 50 Cent’s attention and just this November, his single “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” topped Mediabase’s Urban Radio chart, actually passing his father Diddy’s Bryson Tiller collaboration “Gotta Move On” to claim the title.
King Princess
Relatives: father Oliver H. Straus Jr. (recording engineer) and great-grandfather Isidor Straus (US congressman and co-owner of Macy’s)
Nepo baby or not, King Princess has been one of the more notable breakout music stars of the past few years. Her debut single, 2018’s “1950,” has been certified platinum and she’s generally become a critical favorite. She’s even managed to transcend music by appearing as a guest judge on Is It Cake? earlier this year.
Samia
Parents: Kathy Najimy and Dan Finnerty (actors + Dan Band leader)
Samia built a strong foundation for herself with her 2020 debut album The Baby: It was one of the year’s best-received projects and it set the table for her upcoming second LP, Honey. Coincidentally, by the way, Samia’s video for The Baby lead single “Is There Something In The Movies” actually featured Maya Hawke.
Frankie Cosmos
Parents: Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates (actors)
Cosmos (whose real name is Greta Kline) is an established veteran stemming from the 2010s indie scene, having cemented herself as a mainstay figure through many Bandcamp releases and later a string of proper studio albums. Last year, she continued her string of beloved albums with Inner World Peace.
Buzzy Lee
Parents: Steven Spielberg (director/writer/producer) and Kate Capshaw (actress)
For years now, Lee has been plugging away and really making a name for herself in the music scene with various releases over the past decade. She’s earned herself some big opportunities, too, like working with Nicolas Jaar as Just Friends, collaborating on multiple occasions with Jpegmafia, and opening for Haim on their 2022 tour.
Elijah Hewson
Father: Bono (U2 singer)
While they haven’t broken out in the US quite yet, Inhaler, the band led by Hewson, is a phenomenon overseas: Their debut album, 2021’s It Won’t Always Be Like This, topped the charts in the UK and Ireland. It’s also easy to hear the genealogy in Hewson’s voice and sounding like a young Bono certainly hasn’t hurt, especially with the band’s rock sound that also bears some stylistic similarities to ’80s U2.
