Suki Benjamin

Billie Eilish postpones a number of US tour dates

Billie Eilish has announced that she’s had to postpone a couple of dates on the US leg of her upcoming ‘Happier Than Ever’ world tour. READ MORE: Billie Eilish – ‘Happier Than Ever’ review: an artist secures her status as a generational great The tour is set to kick off in New Orleans on February 3 and includes two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden on February 18-19, and will wrap up with three nights at LA’s Forum on April 6, 8 and 9 before heading to the UK and Europe. Tonight (January 25), Eilish’s team took to Twitter to inform fans that “due to local guidelines and an abundance of caution” her February 15 and 16 shows in Montreal and Toronto have been postponed. Advertisement “Details on rescheduled dates to be announced, and all tickets will be honoured for the new dates,” the tweet shared on Eilish’s official account added. “Thank you for understanding and please stay safe.” It was also announced that Eilish has had to reschedule her show in Phoenix on April 3 due to a scheduling conflict, after this year’s Grammys were moved from late January to the date in question. “Billie’s second show in Phoenix… Read More →

25JANNews

John Lennon and The Beatles memorabilia to be sold as NFTs

John Lennon‘s eldest son Julian is set to sell a range of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring digitised pieces of Lennon and Beatles memorabilia from his person collection. The online auction will take place on Julien’s Auctions on February 7, with Julian Lennon offering music fans the chance to “own a piece of music history”. READ MORE: WTF is an NFT? Kings Of Leon’s weird non-fungible token thing – explained! While Julian will keep the physical items from his collection, bidders will have the chance to buy NFT versions of the memorabilia in the auction. Each item, which will be presented as an audio-visual collectible, will include narration by Lennon’s son and imagery of the item in question. Advertisement The NFT collection includes handwritten notes by Paul McCartney from the writing of ‘Hey Jude’, which was originally written for Julian to comfort him during the time of John and Cynthia Lennon’s divorce. The bidding for this NFT starts at $30,000 (£22,258). Other items include the Afghan coat worn by John Lennon in the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour, a Gibson Les Paul guitar gifted by the late artist to his son and the black cape worn by Lennon in the film… Read More →

25JANNews

Jay Park assures fans he has “not retired yet”, teases new albums

Korean-American singer-rapper Jay Park has personally responded to rumours about his alleged retirement from the entertainment industry. READ MORE: Moonbyul – ‘6equence’ review: a riveting story with a dissatisfactory ending Today (January 25), Park took to Twitter to respond to the rumours, which have been swirling since the musician announced his decision to step down as the CEO of South Korean labels AOMG and H1GHR MUSIC at the end of December. Around the time of that announcement, the singer-rapper had posted cryptic tweet which seemed to allude to his potential retirement. “If i ever retire or disappear make sure to miss me,” he wrote on December 30. Advertisement However, the musician has since reassured fans that he will remain active in the entertainment industry for the foreseeable future. “Not retiring yet,” Park explained. “I owe myself and my fans at least 1-2 more good albums. I’m just [too] much of a man of the [people] sometimes I put my own career on hold.” not retiring yet. in the last two years I think I did like 80 fts but only put out like 7 songs under my name lol. I owe myself and my fans at least 1-2 more good albums…. Read More →

24JANNews

Charlie Puth says he made the majority of his new album on TikTok

Charlie Puth has revealed that he created most of his new album on TikTok. READ MORE: Charlie Puth – ‘Voicenotes’ Review The singer said in a new interview that his self-titled follow-up to 2018’s ‘Voicenotes‘ is finished. He said TikTok enabled him to create the majority of its songs. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Puth said: “I’m going to call the album, ‘Charlie’. It’s done. I’ve made most of it on TikTok. My goal for this album is for everybody to know every song title before it comes out. I love the fact that ‘Light Switch’ has been teased for months, and people are making bootlegs of it. Advertisement “Some producers have even taken, run it through Isotope, and taken the acapella’s, and made their own versions of ‘Light Switch’. I love that. I think music should be twisted and pulled in many different directions. That was just the goal for this album, and I’m really excited for people to hear it.” Charlie Puth Puth went on to explain that he scrapped original songs for the album because he didn’t like any of the music that he was writing in 2019. He discovered TikTok during the COVID… Read More →

24JANNews

Måneskin postpone UK/European tour due to venue capacity issues amid COVID pandemic

Måneskin have been forced to postpone their upcoming European tour dates due to venue capacity issues amid the ongoing COVID pandemic. READ MORE: Måneskin live in London – embrace the Eurovision winners’ rock’n’roll circus The Italian rockers, who were due to kick off the tour at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on February 6, said they are “extremely sorry” to cancel the shows, promising to announce rescheduled shows by March 1. All of the band’s outdoor gigs including festival appearances and shows at the Circo Massimo, Arena di Verona and Lignano Sabbiadoro venues in Italy are still going ahead. The “ArenasTour” in Italy, however, has been postponed with the other European dates. Advertisement “We are extremely sorry,” the band wrote in an Instagram post alongside a video announcing the news. “We worked a lot for this tour and everything was set and ready to go but unfortunately in the last few days we had some bad news about the capacity of the venues. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Måneskin (@maneskinofficial) “We cannot guarantee all the gigs because every country has its own rules, and we have to stick to that, of course, because we have to do… Read More →

24JANNews

Lil Nas X reportedly facing lawsuit over his ‘Montero’ ‘Gives Birth’ video

Lil Nas X is reportedly facing a lawsuit over his ‘Montero’ ‘Gives Birth’ video. READ MORE: Lil Nas X – ‘Montero’ review: ‘Old Town Road’ prankster makes his case as a Serious Artist According to The Blast, rap metal artist Dana Dentata claims that Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ video has been heavily influenced by her own ‘Pantychrist’ album and artwork. Court documents seen by The Blast state that Dentata has reportedly issued a cease and desist letter to Lil Nas’ management team, claiming that he used “copyrighted material” that was “essentially identical to the ‘Pantychrist’ music video and clearly used the work as its basis”. Advertisement The court document reportedly reads: “I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the works, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of her rights in the future. “It is inconceivable that you would wish to jeopardise your artist’s public image, and reputation by your client falsely claiming he created this copyrighted content.” NME has contacted representatives of Lil… Read More →

24JANNews

Several members of iKON and WINNER test positive for COVID-19

Members of boybands iKON and WINNER have been diagnosed with COVID-19. READ MORE: The 25 best K-pop songs of 2021 On January 23, YG Entertainment shared that iKON members Jinhwan, Yunhyeong and Donghyuk had tested positive for the coronavirus after experiencing cold symptoms. It also informed that the group’s remaining members – Bobby, Junhoe and Chanwoo – tested negative for the virus. “We will fully cooperate with the health authorities’ investigation and take all measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the company said in a statement, per Yonhap News Agency. “We will provide all necessary support to protect the health and safety of our artists.” Advertisement The following day, the entertainment agency announced that WINNER member Lee Seung-hoon had also been diagnosed with COVID-19 after conducting a routine test prior to an event in his schedule. YG noted that the idol was fully vaccinated, and had been asymptomatic at the time he tested positive. The agency also shared that WINNER’s remaining members, Kang Seung-yoon, Kim Jin-woo and Song Min-ho have since tested negative for the virus. The boyband had also suspended all their upcoming activities. ”We will spare no support for Lee’s rapid recovery, as well as the health… Read More →

23JANNews

Kevin Parker reacts to The Wiggles’ chart-topping Tame Impala cover

Kevin Parker has reacted to the news that The Wiggles have topped the triple j Hottest 100 chart in Australia with a Tame Impala cover. It was announced this week that the band have come out victorious on Australia’s triple j Hottest 100 of 2021 countdown with their Like A Version cover of the band’s 2012 track ‘Elephant’. The beloved children’s entertainers were the hot favourites to take out the youth broadcaster’s annual listener-voted poll by algorithmic predictor 100 Warm Tunas. It marks the first time a triple j Like A Version cover has ever landed in the top spot. Advertisement The Wiggles made their debut on the Like A Version cover series in March with the cover, which interpolated lyrics from The Wiggles’ own ‘Fruit Salad’. “If someone had told me back when we released ‘Elephant’ that, in ten years’ time, The Wiggles were gonna cover it and it would get Top 10 Hottest 100, I would’ve told you that you were out of your mind,” Parker told triple j of the news. “I would’ve told you that that’s a ridiculous idea and I wouldn’t have believed you. If a fortune teller told me that was going to happen, I… Read More →

23JANNews

Grimes’ long-awaited track ‘Shinigami Eyes’ might be released this week

Grimes has taken to Twitter to tease the release of long-awaited new song ‘Shinigami Eyes’, out later this week. READ MORE: Grimes – ‘Miss Anthropocene’ review: an iconoclast continues to march to the beat of her own drum On Thursday (January 20) Grimes shared a Tweet written in what appeared to be binary code but once translated into English, the message reads: “SHINIGAMI EYES JAN 26”. She followed it up a few hours later with a short clip of an eye that also contained a series of ones and zeros that, once translated, read: 01 26 22, or January 26, 2022. pic.twitter.com/h42LJJne3m — ?????? (⌛️,⏳) ᚷᚱᛁᛗᛖᛋ (@Grimezsz) January 20, 2022 Advertisement 01010011 01001000 01001001 01001110 01001001 01000111 01000001 01001101 01001001 00100000 01000101 01011001 01000101 01010011 00100000 01001010 01000001 01001110 00100000 00110010 00110110 — ?????? (⌛️,⏳) ᚷᚱᛁᛗᛖᛋ (@Grimezsz) January 20, 2022 The track was first teased in June last year on the singer’s Discord and in August 2021, Grimes uploaded a video called ‘Shinigami Eyes’ to YouTube, featuring 30 seconds of previously unheard music. Around the same time, she allowed fans to pre-save the track, but it was never released. Shinigami Eyes is also a browser add-on that highlights transphobic and… Read More →

23JANNews

Mary J. Blige unveils new album tracklist and shares ‘Rent Money’ with Dave East

Mary J. Blige has unveiled the tracklist for her upcoming new album, ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’ – see it below. READ MORE: Dave East on what’s missing from modern New York rap: “Nobody’s really painting pictures about their own life” The legendary R&B singer announced her 14th studio album last month, alongside the release of two new singles, the DJ Khaled-featuring ‘Amazing’ and the LP’s title track. The album – which Blige wrote with D’Mile, H.E.R., Lucky Daye, and Tiara Thomas – is made up of 13 tracks and features the likes of Anderson .Paak, Usher and Fivio Foreign. Advertisement Another collaboration sees Blige team up with Harlem rapper Dave East, who appears on the track ‘Rent Money’. Produced by D’Mile, the track hears the singer get a few things off her chest about a former lover she’s ready to walk away from. “I spent everything on ya/ Spent my energy on ya/ Put that loyalty on ya/ I ain’t got nothing left/ I’m in over my head/ Now I’m barely breathing/ You know you the reason/ Just tryna break even/ You must be used to me spending,” she sings on the track. You can listen to ‘Rent Money’ below: ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’ tracklist: 1. ‘No Idea’ 2. ‘Love Will Never’… Read More →

23JANNews

Listen to Pussy Riot’s new electropop single ‘Punish’

Pussy Riot have shared a new electropop single titled ‘Punish’, co-written with Swedish singer Tove Lo. The track arrived on Thursday (January 20), contrasting sugary pop vocals with cutting lyrics, such as the lines “I gonna tie you up / I might slit your throat” and “I’m gonna force you down / I punish you“. It was accompanied by an animated music video, courtesy of graphic and digital designer Ksti Hu. The clip features a grotesque pig-like man who drinks from a vagina fountain, before Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s digital avatar appears and stands on him with a giant heeled boot. Check it out below. Advertisement Speaking of the track in a press statement, Tolokonnikova said: “’PUNISH’ is the first audio-visual artwork from Pussy Riot’s upcoming cycle that introduces a super(s)hero character who owns magic superwoman-like qualities and uses these powers to fight sexism.” “She’s a strong dominatrix figure, and serves justice by punishing Weinsteins of the world. Talks about the vengeful shero are spreading, and now men are scared to misbehave, because they’re well aware that revenge is coming.” “Getting to enter Nadya’s world and be a part of this project is my pussy power passion project!” added Lo. “She’s an… Read More →

22JANNews

Conan Gray shares a warning on new single ‘Jigsaw’

Conan Gray has shared a new single in ‘Jigsaw’, another preview of his upcoming second album – scroll down the page to listen to it now. The track marks the pop star’s first material of the year, following several singles being released in 2021. READ MORE: Conan Gray talks NME through his ‘Firsts’ “You took every part of me, all the things you need / Then the rest you discard,” he sings on ‘Jigsaw’, backed by big rock guitars. “I look in the mirror, now I’m just a jigsaw.” Advertisement “I wrote ‘Jigsaw’ originally as a bit of a diary entry rant for myself,” he said in a press release. “I’d spent my entire life contorting myself and changing everything I used to be in order to make everybody happy. I was so used to trying to please everyone that, when it came to love, I started to do the same. I thought maybe if I dress a certain way, act a certain way, do my hair the way you’ll like, then maybe you’ll finally love me. “It didn’t work, obviously. By the end of it all, I ended up looking in the mirror and barely recognising my rearranged and twisted reflection…. Read More →

22JANNews

Adele FaceTimes fans to apologise for Las Vegas residency postponement

Adele has FaceTimed fans who went to Las Vegas to see the opening nights of her residency to apologise for postponing the shows. The singer announced on Instagram on Thursday (January 20) that the residency would no longer start the next day. “We’ve tried absolutely everything we can to put it together in time and for it to be good enough for you, but we’ve been absolutely destroyed by delivery delays and COVID,” she said. READ MORE: Adele – ‘30’ album review: dependable pop titan finally mixes things up Now, fans who were meant to attend this weekend’s concerts have shared videos of the star FaceTiming them. “I’m really sorry I’m not there,” she told one fan. “It’s the only thing I was looking forward to but not everything arrived and I’m sorry.” Advertisement Among the fans Adele spoke to was one person who went viral after sharing her experience of buying fake tickets for a previous concert by the pop star and then getting tickets for a London show in 2017 that also went on to be cancelled. “I’ll come and see you and we’ll have a photo together,” she promised the fan. The fact that @Adele is taking time to… Read More →

22JANNews

Björk says her new album will “probably come out in the summer”

Björk has said she is currently “finishing” her upcoming 10th album, revealing that it will “probably come out in the summer”. Back in October 2021, the Icelandic musician explained that the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Utopia’ was “for people who are making clubs at home in their living room” during the COVID-enforced lockdown. READ MORE: Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ live in London: an audacious, expectation-disrupting spectacular from an artist unbothered with people-pleasing Björk described the record’s sound as being like “a man who was headbanging, then sat down again and had another glass of red wine, and everyone is home by 10 o’clock, done with the dancing and everything”. Advertisement The artist also revealed that her new tracks were mostly around the 80-90 beats per minute mark because that is the speed she walks at. Speaking in a new interview with LA Weekly this week, Björk explained: “I’m finishing [the new album] now, and it should probably come out in the summer. “It’s always really hard for me to describe the album while I’m still making it. It isn’t until a few months later that I can look in the mirror and pretend there was a logic to it the whole time.” Björk performs… Read More →

21JANNews

Harassment lawsuit to be refiled against Nicki Minaj, says accuser’s lawyer

A lawsuit for harassment against pop star Nicki Minaj is to be refiled according to the accuser’s lawyer. Earlier this month, Minaj was dropped from a lawsuit originally filed against her and her husband Kenneth Petty for harassment. Jennifer Hough accused Petty of sexual assault in 1994 and filed a lawsuit last year against Petty and Minaj, accusing them of “witness intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment” and other charges. She is also suing Petty for sexual assault and battery in relation to the 1995 conviction. Hough alleged Petty raped her at knifepoint in 1994, when they were both 16 years old. Petty was charged with first-degree attempted rape the following year, and pleaded guilty to attempted rape. He spent time in prison as a result but in March 2020, was charged with failing to register as a sex offender in California after moving from New York to the West Coast in 2019. These later charges were eventually dropped but federal charges were then brought, which resulted in Petty accepting a plea deal. According to TMZ, the lawsuit filed by Hough against Minaj was voluntarily dismissed on Wednesday (January 12), though Petty remains a defendant. No reason was given for the dismissal…. Read More →

21JANHit Singles

Send us your questions for Cowboy Junkies

The next band to kindly volunteer for a gentle grilling by you, the Uncut readers, are alt.country pioneers Cowboy Junkies. Formed in Toronto in 1985 by Michael, Margo and Peter Timmins plus bassist Alan Anton, Cowboy Junkies have were ahead of the curve in rejecting ’80s studio trickery to record landmark album The Trinity Session in a church, its languid and haunting sound proving hugely influential. Since then, the band’s discography has expanded to include more than 20 albums, including the powerful recent one-two of All That Reckoning – partly inspired by William Blake and described by Uncut as resonating “on both an intimate and universal level” – and its moving follow-up Ghosts, dedicated to the Timmins siblings’ mother, who died in 2018. Last year, Cowboy Junkies contributed a terrific cover of Bob Dylan’s “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You” to Uncut’s Dylan Revisited CD: What do they have planned next? You’ll have to ask! Send your questions about anything and everything Cowboy Junkies-related to audiencewith@uncut.co.uk by this Monday (Jan 24) and Michael and Margo will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut.

21JANNews

Watch Damon Albarn perform ‘Royal Morning Blue’ with a string quartet

Damon Albarn delivered a moving rendition of ‘Royal Morning Blue’ on US TV yesterday – check out the video below. READ MORE: Damon Albarn: “I had to do something to lift me out of these storms” The Blur and Gorillaz frontman featured as the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night (January 20) in support of his 2021 solo album, ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’. Appearing live in the studio, Albarn performed the record’s ‘Royal Morning Blue’ on a piano in front of a changing, natural landscape backdrop. The musician was accompanied by a string quartet. Advertisement “At the end of the world/ Stay by my side/ At the end of the world/ Stay by my side/ Royal morning blue,” Albarn sang in the gentle outro to the song before the stage faded into darkness. You can watch the performance here: Meanwhile, Albarn is due to showcase ‘The Nearer The Fountain…’ at an intimate show in London next month. He’ll take to the stage at the Troxy on February 20 as part of the BRITs Week 2022 gig series. It comes after the singer-songwriter embarked on a stripped-back UK piano tour last month, which included dates… Read More →

21JANNews

Iconic Brazilian singer Elza Soares has died, aged 91

Elza Soares, a legendary Brazilian singer with over three dozen albums to her name, has died at the age of 91. Her passing was confirmed in a statement shared to social media last night (January 20), with a group of her family and team members noting that she died at 3:45pm Thursday in her Rio de Janeiro home. It’s reported that she died of natural causes. Writing that Soares “had an apotheotic, intense life that moved the world with her voice, her strength and her determination”, the singer’s reps celebrated her legacy by declaring: “The beloved and eternal Elza has rested, but she will forever be in the history of music and in our hearts and the thousands of fans around the world. “With Elza Soares’s wishes made, she sang until the end.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Elza Soares (@elzasoaresoficial) Born in 1930 to a factory worker and washerwoman, Soares gravitated towards music in her youth. Her father Gomes was a guitarist, and often played for Soares as she learned to sing. Her career wouldn’t start until the late 1950s, however, as at age 12, she was forced into marriage, and by 21 was a… Read More →

20JANNews

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus joins A Day To Remember on new version of ‘Re-Entry’

A Day To Remember have released a new version of their single ‘Re-Entry’ featuring Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus. READ MORE: Five things we learned from our ‘In Conversation’ video chat with A Day To Remember The release marks another major return to recording music for Hoppus since breaking the news that he was cancer-free last September. The singer and bassist had previously been diagnosed with 4-A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. On re-recording the song with Hoppus, A Day To Remember vocalist Jeremy McKinnon said: “When this song originally took shape it was without a doubt massively influenced by Blink-182, so when the idea came up to do a remix of sorts for it, Mark was immediately who we pictured. Advertisement “We sent him the track with no second verse and said to do whatever he was inspired to do and what he sent back genuinely makes the song for me. My younger self still can’t believe it exists.” You can hear the new version of ‘Re-Entry’ below: Earlier today (January 20), Avril Lavigne spoke about the “huge honour” of collaborating with Hoppus on her forthcoming new album. As announced last week, Lavigne’s seventh studio record ‘Love Sux’ – set to be released… Read More →

20JANNews

Lorde admits she “shouldn’t have gone” on Antarctica trip that inspired ‘Solar Power’

At the start of 2019, Lorde went on a five-day trip to Antartica that ended up inspiring her third album, ‘Solar Power’, however she’s now revealed that she “probably shouldn’t have gone”. READ MORE: Lorde: “I feel like I can see my world and myself a lot clearer now” Speaking to Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer on the A24 podcast, Lorde revealed that she’d been “totally obsessed” with Antartica throughout her childhood and that obsession grew as she “started to engage more with our planet”. “I felt like I needed to go there. I had this reaction, people call it ‘last chance tourism’ which is going somewhere before it’s too late and that was my first thought.” Advertisement Despite calling the trip “the best five days of my life” and saying she’d “never do anything like it again, it was so crazy from start to finish,” Lorde revealed that “going there and actually having that experience made me realise, ‘oh no, you can’t go around doing this’. This is the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. I probably shouldn’t have gone to Antartica, it was naughty to use my pop star resources and burn that jet fuel to go there.” Lorde in… Read More →

20JANNews

Avril Lavigne says it was a “huge honour” to work with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus

Avril Lavigne has spoken about the “huge honour” of collaborating with Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus on her forthcoming new album. As announced last week, Lavigne’s seventh studio record ‘Love Sux’ – released on February 25 – will contain a track called ‘All I Wanted’, which features Hoppus. READ MORE: Avril Lavigne – ‘Head Above Water’ review During a recent conversation on the bassist’s Apple Music Hits show, After School Radio, the Canadian singer-songwriter said: “I was really excited to work with you. I mean, to be honest, you’re one of my favourite artists.” Advertisement Lavigne continued: “[1997 Blink album] ‘Dude Ranch’ and ‘Enema Of The State’ [1999] … those were the records I was listening to in high school, and as a teenager and I feel like they were really impactful on me as I was coming into my own musical identity. The ‘Sk8er Boi’ artist went on to say that the pair worked on ‘All I Wanted’ together remotely “over Zoom, which was different”. “I mean, I was so excited and I was really impressed with how efficient you are in the studio,” she recalled. “You write, you record yourself, you can engineer, you sing, you’re playing. “And so having you… Read More →