Pop
Prince’s Custom Guitar From the 1980s Brings Big Dollars at Auction
NEWS 6/20/2020 by Associated Press A custom guitar played by Prince at the height of his stardom in the 1980s and 1990s has sold for a staggering $563,500 at auction. The “Blue Angel” Cloud 2 electric guitar skyrocketed beyond the estimate of $100,000 to $200,000 it was expected to fetch at the Music Icons sale run by Julien’s Auctions on Friday (June 19) and Saturday in Beverly Hills. Prince played the blindingly blue guitar with the artist’s “love” symbol on its neck beginning on the 1984 Purple Rain Tour, on the classic albums Lovesexy and Sign O’ The Times. He used it into the early 1990s. Archivists going through Prince’s possessions at his Paisley Park home and musical headquarters in Minnesota recently found the guitar that was thought to be lost during the four years since his deat...
How P!nk Got Through Coronavirus Panic Attacks Over ‘Wondering If I Was Gonna Die’
P!nk addressed her family’s struggle with coronavirus once more in a candid live chat about mental health with Vanessa Inn. The pop star — who previously said she and her 3-year-old son, Jameson, had tested positive and recovered from COVID-19 — welcomed Inn, who she said has been “guiding me for 20 years,” to an Instagram Live session Friday (June 19). “The idea came to me sort of when quarantine started, when this whole COVID-19 thing started, because mental health is always on my radar,” P!nk explained while waiting for Inn to join in. “You can’t run from yourself in quarantine,” she pointed out. “You can’t run from your family.” In their discussion, P!nk recalled how she and her son “got really sic...
Selena Gomez Shows Gratitude to Black Leaders Who Took Over Her Instagram
Selena Gomez is showing gratitude to the numerous Black leaders who took over her Instagram page over the past two weeks. The 27-year-old pop star returned to Instagram Thursday (June 18) to share a heartfelt message of thanks to the 12 “inspiring” activists and authors for educating her 180 million followers. The singer also encouraged her fans to continue educating themselves and to enact change through voting. “I want to thank all of the amazing people that took the time to speak to us directly,” Gomez began her note, which included photos of the dozen individuals. “I am blown away with your knowledge, eagerness to teach and commitment to ensuring Black voices are not silenced. Educating ourselves is the first step if we hope to make any progress in bringin...
The 10 Best Moments From John Legend and Alicia Keys’ Juneteenth Verzuz Showdown
In a time of civil unrest throughout the country, Alicia Keys and John Legend’s Verzuz event was a healing balm. For more than two hours the pair played their biggest hits (20 each), including their solo songs and features. At times Keys sat at a fuschia piano as Legend took a seat behind a black piano. Other times, the pair got up and danced along to their hit songs, singing over the recordings. In addition to playing their biggest hits, Legend and Keys also performed their newest singles. More than 150,000 tuned into the event on Instagram Live at its peak. The Juneteenth-themed event — the latest in the Verzuz series created by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, Keys’ husband — was also the the first in the series to be streamed on Apple TV. The Instagram Live events, which sta...
Alec Benjamin on the Influence of Leonard Cohen
Kyle Meredith With… Alec Benjamin Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public Alec Benjamin speaks with Kyle Meredith about his first full-length album, These Two Windows. The Phoenix singer-songwriter discusses how there’s enough leftover songs to make a second album and how being bilingual may lead to writing in Mandarin in the future. He also shares his appreciation for Leonard Cohen and explains how he’s been co-writing and collaborating on songs amidst quarantine. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs deep into the artist’s work to find out how the music is made and whe...
Pharrell, Fantasia, Lionel Richie & More Celebrate Juneteenth
NEWS 6/19/2020 by Gil Kaufman In the midst of a national reckoning about systemic racism and the continued killing of Black and brown men and women at the hands of police, the country paused to celebrate Juneteenth on Friday (June 19). The holiday recalls the end of slavery in the U.S., marking the day (June 19, 1865) when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved people were free; the news came two-and-a-half years after Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. Though the holiday is 155-years-old and has been celebrated for more than a century by African-Americans, the focus on racial injustice spurred by the protests in every state over the killing of George Floyd has put a spotlight on the celebra...
Adele Is Binge-Watching This New British TV Series
Adele has found a new obsession. She’s stanning I May Destroy You. Like the rest of us, the “Hello” singer has been killing time in lockdown by binge-watching TV. With HBO’s new series, she’s discovered a total gem. It’s “the best thing I’ve seen on British TV for yeaaaarssss!!,” the superstar singer enthuses about I May Destroy You. “Go watch it on iplayer right now. It’s wholesome, uncomfortable, hilarious but terribly sad and then awkward…and then it makes you cough a bit for no reason and also makes you go put the kettle on, for no reason.” Directed by and starring Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You spans 12 half-hour episodes. According to its blurb on the IMDB, the series explores the question of sexual consent in contemporary life and how, “in the new landsc...
Liam Payne Celebrates His Decade-Long Career With Shaggy-Haired Throwback Pic: See the Sweet Post
Liam Payne remembered the first time he hit the X Factor stage and started his pop star journey 10 years ago for a tribute post he shared on social media yesterday (June 14). “It’s been 10 years today since my X factor audition and I just read that my first album just hit over 2 billion streams… that scared young man didn’t think that was gunna happen,” Payne wrote on Instagram. “Seriously thank you everyone who’s made this decade of my life possible and to everyone who’s listening thank you for enjoying my music and my bands too p.s. thanks also, for putting up with some awful haircuts like the one above.” Payne debuted as part of the British boy band One Direction in 2010 alongside Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik ...
Billie Eilish Urges Everyone to Speak Out on Rayshard Brooks’ Death
Billie Eilish is enraged over the death of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old black man who was shot in the back and killed by white police at a Wendy’s drive-through in Atlanta. “man F—. watching this video made me so f—ing angry. F— THIS SHIT. JUSTICE FOR RAYSHARD BROOKS. F— THIS SHIIIIIIIIT. #justiceforrayshard !!!! WHY ISNT EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS??” Eilish wrote Sunday (June 14) on Instagram, where she posted footage of Brooks. Minutes later, her brother Finneas also posted on social media: “Justice for Rayshard. This is so f—ed up man. And such a good example of EXACTLY what’s so f—ed up about the police in America. Asleep in his car in a parking lot. Shot to death. Don’t let yourself be numb to this. Don’t let t...
Camila Cabello Celebrates Pride Month, Urges Fans to Fight for Transgender Rights
Camila Cabello is using her platform on social media to show her support for the LGBTQ+ community. On Sunday (June 14), the singer posted a “Happy Pride Month” message on Instagram. “This month is pride month !!!!!!! i have so much admiration and respect for the LGBTQ+ community, this community includes some of the bravest, kindest, strongest people I know- you teach me by example what it means to be true to yourself and your heart, what it means to be brave, what it means to be fierce and kind every step of the way and living YOUR truth no matter how hard and scary that may be, loving whoever you want to love. happy pride month,” Cabello wrote. She then added: “In the middle of one of the worst epidemics of violence against Black transgender people, Trump dec...
Beyoncé Demands Justice for Breonna Taylor in Open Letter to Kentucky’s Attorney General
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has joined a growing chorus of outraged citizens calling for justice for Breonna Taylor. In an open letter to Kentucky’s Attorney General, the pop icon demanded that the police officers responsible “be held accountable for their actions.” In the early hours of March 13th, sergeant Jonathan Mattingly and officers Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison used a battering ram to force their way into Breonna Taylor’s Louisville home. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was asleep with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker. After the police broke down the door, Walker grabbed his gun and attempted to defend himself from the intruders. In the ensuing gunfire, the trio of Mattingly, Cosgrove, and Hankison shot Taylor at least eight times, killing her. The Louisville Metro Poli...
Lauren Jauregui Closes Out Billboard’s Pride Prom With ‘50ft.’ Performance
Every prom has to come to an end, and Lauren Jauregui has just the song to tie things up. On Saturday (June 13), the former Fifth Harmony star closed out Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter’s first-ever Pride Prom with a stunning performance to her R&B slow-jam “50ft.” Performing in her home and dressed in a glittering mesh top, the singer let her voice shine through on the smooth breakup song as she casually flipped back and forth between English and Spanish. “Naturally inclined to love/ But when the love ain’t flowing back/ I pull away and reassess/ Gotta protect me,” she sings. Jauregui released “50ft.” back in April, and explained in a statement that she wanted to capture the actual feeling of distance. ̶...
