Slayyyter’s “brand new chanel$” is “girl who’s going to be okay”-pop

The first image I imagined when I heard Slayyyter’s “brand new chanel$” was the credits rolling in a film about her meteoric summer. This track serves as the literal inverse of her WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA lead single, "BEAT UP CHANEL$," acting as part of a forthcoming sister project that reimagines and flips tracks from her major label breakout debut.

Whereas "BEAT UP CHANEL$" pairs a pounding, punk-ish verse with an electroclash chorus, its sister single is all lights and sparkles, at least sonically. Its lyrics are filled with melancholy as Slayyyter sings about being cheated on with straightforwardness and clarity: "Tell me why'd you ever bring her / In my home while I was so far away." Most notably, the music itself is pure millennial optimism: layers of washed-out synths, live drums, and stacked ethereal chants. There's an absolutely huge and haunting synth line in its chorus that feels almost Hans Zimmer-esque in its emotional severity.

The lyric's image of a lover taking advantage of Slayyyter's absence hits especially hard, given that this story, more or less, actually happened. In an interview with Owen Thiele, she discussed finding out about her partner's infidelity days before her massive Coachella performance.

But beyond the song's personal resonance in Slayyyter's own life, there's a bigger story lurking about the whiplash of fame more broadly. Slayyyter herself is suddenly busier than ever, with a sold out tour, a sister project in the making, and press galore. The overwhelm and isolation of such sudden and extreme fame, after a near-decade in the pop underground, is likely both thrilling and a surefire path to disassociation. The cheating of this song thus feels both literal and broadly emotionally pertinent — it's an example that proves the nagging sense that one's own small life is crumbling as the fireworks of pop stardom grow brighter.

That said, even as the song expresses real pain, it does feel ultimately deeply triumphant. Because even as the heart ache deepens, and the synths blare louder, Slayyyter lands on a line in the song that evokes the ethos of the famous "girl who's going to be okay" meme. She sings: "Know what you do / I see how you move / But I'm here standing still."

We don't know if she's devastated or furious or over it, or if she's simply everything in between. What's most important is the fact of her remaining. It feels like a sob after a stadium show, collapsing onto the bed with gratitude and overwhelm. It's going to be okay, but it's still a lot.

Tyla Announces Global ‘THE A*POP WORLD TOUR’: Dates and Ticket Details

South African sensation Tyla is officially hitting the road for a massive global tour in support of her latest studio album, A*POP. The highly anticipated THE A*POP WORLD TOUR is set to kick off in Paris on October 12, marking the beginning of a journey that will take the artist across Europe, North America, and Africa throughout the remainder of the year and into early 2026.

A*POP showcases Tyla’s evolution as an artist, as she moves fluidly between genres, masterfully blending the Amapiano sound that launched her to international stardom with elements of R&B, Dancehall, and House. The album’s distinct visual aesthetic—a mix of neon nostalgia and futuristic design—has already become a hallmark of this era, further cementing her status as a global pop force.

How to Secure Your Tickets

Fans looking to catch the tour live have several opportunities to secure seats. An exclusive artist presale is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, July 29, at 10 a.m. local time via Laylo. Interested attendees are encouraged to sign up immediately at Laylo.com/tyla/m/A-POPWORLDTOUR to receive access. Following the presale, general ticket sales will open to the public on Friday, July 31, at 10 a.m. local time through TylaWorld.com.

Tour Dates and Venues

The tour will visit major cities across three continents. Below are the confirmed dates for the upcoming run:

TYLA – THE A*POP WORLD TOUR EUROPE/UK DATES:
Mon Oct 12 — Paris, FR — Zenith Paris
Tue Oct 13 — Amsterdam, NL — AFAS Live
Thu Oct 15 — London, UK — O2 Academy Brixton
Sun Oct 18 — Glasgow, UK — O2 Academy Glasgow
Mon Oct 19 — Manchester, UK — O2 Apollo Manchester
Thu Oct 22 — Brussels, BE — Forest National
Sat Oct 24 — Dusseldorf, DE — Mitsubishi Electric HALLE
Sun Oct 25 — Frankfurt, DE — Stadthalle Offenbach
Tue Oct 27 — Berlin, DE — Uber Eats Music Hall
Thu Oct 29 — Stockholm, SE — Annexet
Fri Oct 30 — Oslo, NO — Oslo Spektrum
Sun Nov 1 — Copenhagen, DK — K.B. Hallen

TYLA – THE A*POP WORLD TOUR NORTH AMERICA DATES:
Thu Nov 12 — Wheatland, CA — Hard Rock Live
Fri Nov 13 — San Francisco, CA — Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Sun Nov 15 — Vancouver, BC — Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
Tue Nov 17 — Seattle, WA — WAMU Theater @ Lumen Field
Fri Nov 20 — Denver, CO — Fillmore Auditorium
Sun Nov 22 — Chicago, IL — Aragon Ballroom
Wed Nov 25 — Boston, MA — MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Thu Nov 26 — Toronto, ON — Coca-Cola Coliseum
Sat Nov 28 — Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Paramount
Wed Dec 2 — Washington, DC — The Anthem
Sat Dec 5 — Tampa, FL — Yuengling Center
Sun Dec 6 — Atlanta, GA — Coca-Cola Roxy
Wed Dec 9 — Irving, TX — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Thu Dec 10 — Houston, TX — 713 Music Hall
Fri Dec 11 — Austin, TX — Moody Center
Mon Dec 14 — Phoenix, AZ — Arizona Financial Theatre
Tue Dec 15 — San Diego, CA — Viejas Arena
Wed Dec 16 — Los Angeles, CA — YouTube Theater
Sat Dec 19 — Las Vegas, NV — Fontainebleau Las Vegas

TYLA – THE A*POP WORLD TOUR AFRICA DATES:
Tue Dec 22 — Lagos, Nigeria — Venue TBA
Mon Jan 4 — Cape Town, South Africa — Green Point Track
Sat Jan 9 — Johannesburg, South Africa — Expo Centre, Nasrec

Charli xcx’s “Magic Metal Montana” is the beating heart of ‘Music, Fashion, Film’

“Magic Metal Montana” joins a pantheon of highly literal, highly endearing Charli xcx songs. Whereas so much of pop music today is mired in innuendo and cleverness, Charli is often at her best when eschewing any and all cheekiness and going straight for the sweat-soaked jugular.

On “Magic,” Charli XCX writes a song about her friendship and enduring collaboration with producer A.G. Cook. She details their creative connection (“We make music, we talk that way”), as well as smaller details about his taste (“You like old things, magic, metal and Montana”) and their shared commonality as “only [children].” There is little to analyze in these straightforward words, but much to emotionally react to, as she directly recounts their friendship and co-creativity.

The entire song, though, is colored by its most striking line: “I’d cry if you died,” she sings in a scraggly vocal fry before moving into something more soaring. The line immediately brings to mind SOPHIE, whose tragic 2021 passing created an irreplaceable vacuum in contemporary pop and in Charli’s own micro-scene. With the line about SOPHIE, the song, a simple, guitar-driven ode to A.G., takes on new emotional textures, becoming both a sincere appreciation of a central confidante, and an anxious expression about impermanence.

If Brat was about the self, how it shifts and shatters when trapped in the thrall of others’ perceptions, or when the realities of the perpetual party rub up against new desires, then this new album is about the experience of existing in community. Here that community is composed of friends and collaborators, namely A.G Cook and Finn Keane who she made the record with. She paints a picture of this group by relaying the day-to-day of their art-making, and there’s a quotidian quality to the music that is, compared to Charli’s last full-length, quite quaint. But deeper more looming concerns, like death, still hover.

With that, this almost diaristic portrait of her friendship with A.G. is both a straightforward look at an enduring relationship, and a more broad mediation on friendship itself. Overall, it’s just very, very sweet.

Tyla’s Revolution of African Pop: A Deep Dive into A*POP

Back in 2017, after spending months holed up in Los Angeles, Wizkid proposed a grand revolution of Afropop with the release of his third studio album, Sounds From The Other Side. Running his Lagos-pioneered sound through pop, dancehall, and reggaeton filters, Wizkid took the first steps in the contemporary crossover of Afropop into the United States by presenting the genre as the newest shiny entrant into global pop’s architecture. His strategy would be assimilation: deftly folding distinctive African polyrhythms into recognizable Western musical sonic pathways. It’s a strategy that, ultimately, yielded results, helping Afropop gain a foothold stateside.

Photo by Catherine LoMedico

Nearly one decade later, the landscape is changing. Afropop has become a recognizable part of global music DNA, but it is still nowhere near the behemoth it promised to be. In certain parts of the continent, urgent conversations are being held about whether the music that reaches audiences across the world still carries the unique identifiers that have traditionally propelled African music.

via the artist/John Patrikas

In a time of great uncertainty, South Africa is imbuing African pop with new impetus thanks to a plethora of electronic and dance music variants that constantly reenergize the soundscape and stretch the boundaries of our collective imagination. Building on the momentum of her home country’s exciting music scene, South African star Tyla is aiming to radically broaden the scope of African pop with her sophomore album, A*POP.

Three years after her breakout hit “Water” scaled charts across the world and introduced her entrancing fusion of R&B and amapiano, Tyla has remained one of Africa’s most visible acts without losing the essence of her pithy sound. It has been made possible by a determination to never lose touch with the pulse of music back home. That cultural tethering is an important part of Tyla’s artistic composition. Going into her sophomore album, the 24-year-old has been doubling down on her identity as an African pop star, railing against the critics who question the profundity of her connection to the motherland. Where the expectation would be for an African pop star to look or sound a specific way, on A*POP, Tyla is stepping out as a new type of music star from Africa, determined to explode those antiquated presumptions to smithereens.

Tyla is stepping out as a new type of music star from Africa, determined to explode those antiquated presumptions to smithereens.

Much was made of Tyla’s self-titled debut album, which was built around pop-piano. On A*POP, she strides into the component parts of amapiano more confidently, taking up space as both collaborator and cultural emissary. On “CRAZY OF ME,” powerhouse vocalist MaWhoo dials in for a balmy duet, trying to take stock of a faltering relationship. It’s a more pointed embrace of her musical heritage than anything that Tyla has done so far in her career, placing one of amapiano’s foremost voices next to hers on an album designed for global ears.

The thing about A*POP is that it’s imagined as a reckoning of sorts that only comes to resolution in parts. Like Wizkid’s Sounds From The Other Side, it’s only an opening statement in breaking a fuller picture of African pop stardom to the Western world. As it is, Tyla is at the helm of a new generation of African stars like Ayra Starr, Joshua Baraka, Andi K, and Rema who are presenting themselves as they are to the world and positioning the music of the continent as the core of their work. By spotlighting the multiple variants of amapiano and South African house and soul in her orbit on parts of A*POP, Tyla has achieved a new high for African music.

KATSEYE’s ‘WILDHEARTS’ Documentary Film Arrives August 2026

The global sensation KATSEYE has officially announced their latest project: a documentary film titled WILDHEARTS, arriving in August 2026. The group confirmed the news on July 8, revealing that the film offers an intimate look at the creative process behind their highly anticipated third EP, WILD, which is scheduled for release on August 14.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at KATSEYE

According to the official press release, WILDHEARTS will feature a collection of fan-submitted videos, exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, and candid interviews with the members of the group. The documentary is produced by the same creative team responsible for the hit Netflix series POP STAR ACADEMY, which chronicled the rigorous training and formation of the group under the partnership of HYBE and Geffen.

Release Details and Production

The film is slated for a limited theatrical engagement beginning August 12, providing fans with a cinematic experience just two days before the arrival of their new EP. Tickets for these screenings will be available for purchase starting Wednesday, July 15.

The production of WILDHEARTS was a collaborative effort between Interscope Films and Boardwalk Pictures, in partnership with HYBE X GEFFEN. The project is directed by Nadia Hallgren, known for her work on POP STAR ACADEMY and the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming.

Addressing the Group’s Future

While the announcement has generated significant excitement, questions remain regarding the participation of member Manon Bannerman. Although the press release did not explicitly detail her role, promotional materials include imagery of Bannerman alongside her bandmates: Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, and Yoonchae Jeung.

Bannerman has been on hiatus from the group since February 2026. In a recent Vanity Fair cover story, the active members of KATSEYE addressed the situation, noting that they remain in contact with Bannerman and clarifying that her absence is unrelated to the ongoing discourse surrounding the treatment of Black artists in the music industry. As the group prepares for this new chapter, fans are encouraged to stay tuned for further updates on the release of WILDHEARTS.

Snow Patrol Surprise Fans at Crystal Palace Park with Kylie Minogue

Snow Patrol surprised fans at their giant Crystal Palace Park gig by bringing out Kylie Minogue for the debut live performance of their new collaborative single ‘These Alarms’.

The indie rock giants headlined Crystal Palace Park last night (July 3), with support coming from Nieve Ella, The Amazons, Amy MacDonald and Editors. They opened with 2008 fan-favourite ‘Take Back the City’, before launching into a setlist of their biggest hits, including ‘Run’, ‘You Could Be Happy’ and ‘The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?)’.

Later in the night, they surprised fans by welcoming Minogue to the stage for the live debut of their brand new single with the star, ‘These Alarms’, which was released earlier this week. After they performed their collab, frontman Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody dedicated their 2006 classic ‘Chasing Cars’ to Minogue, with her joining in for a duet.

Kylie performed with Snow Patrol tonight at Crystal Palace 😍#KylieMinogue pic.twitter.com/TV4BVwcGaU

— Press Play (@PlugPressPlay) July 3, 2026

Brand new 💎 pic.twitter.com/pVBltyyojp

— Jonas Santos (@JonasSa72985224) July 3, 2026

One thing I didn’t expect to see tonight was KYLIE coming on stage with Snow Patrol at Crystal Palace. pic.twitter.com/HhFL4LMpQj

— Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) July 3, 2026

The collaboration with Minogue marks their first time teaming up with the pop icon, having initially recorded the song without her in 2024 and putting it on hold until they could secure a collaboration. The track, led by pulsating synths and haunting vocal melodies, features both Minogue and Lightbody’s entwined voices. The song was first written by Lightbody two years ago under the working title ‘Kylie’ and was set to be released on the band’s chart-topping album ‘The Forest Is The Path’ before they decided to wait for the duet.

Following the Crystal Palace Park show, Snow Patrol are set to play a run of UK live shows this summer, including sets at Ludlow Castle on July 16, Edinburgh Castle on July 18, and Splendour Festival in Nottingham on July 19.

La Roux Returns with Anthemic New Single ‘Babyline’

La Roux has shared her new single ‘Babyline’ from her upcoming album ‘Old Flames’ — listen to it below.

Unlike her comeback single, the R&B-tinged ‘Cabin Fever’, this anthemic synth-driven track treads more familiar territory and wouldn’t sound out of place on her 2009 self-titled debut.

“’Babyline’ is about finding your way out of the woods and back to yourself. ‘Cabin Fever’ was very much the start of my story and ‘Babyline’ is where I ended up and where I continue to be. Happier, lighter, braver,” the singer said.

A press release added: “It’s a sun-soaked masterclass in pop music, drawing on references which included All Saints, Mariah Carey and summertime rain — and underlines exactly why La Roux has continued to inspire, surprise and evolve.”

Across ‘Old Flames’, the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Supervision’, Elly Jackson faces the collapse of a 17-year relationship head-on, and also tackles themes of forbidden love, loneliness “that comes with addiction, and the struggle to reconcile sexuality and identity when in the public eye”.

As for the rest of the album, which lands on November 6, the lyrics see the British synth-pop star reference everything from David Lynch to Donnie Darko while “capturing a sound that is both immersive and nostalgic, while also forward-facing”.

“This record says things how they are: how I am and who I am. It’s been a process of admitting what I got wrong through telling these tales and coming to terms with where I am now,” she previously said. “’Old Flames’ is essentially me processing why I’ve behaved the way that I have and saying goodbye to it. It’s a farewell to that way of behaving in love and life. And in music too.”

Justin Bieber’s Coachella Performance: Encore Broadcast Details

Bieberchella part 3? Today, Justin Bieber, Universal Music, and YouTube have announced the re-broadcast of Justin Bieber's iconic 2026 Coachella performance. The event is scheduled for today, June 26, 2026.

Bieber's performance at Coachella broke records as the most-viewed set in the festival's history, accruing 147 million global views on YouTube. The set immediately dominated the global conversation, particularly during the "karaoke" segment where Bieber performed early hits like "Beauty and a Beat" while singing along to his own laptop playback. While Coachella streams typically become inaccessible once the official broadcast concludes, fans now have a second chance to experience the spectacle.

When and Where to Watch

YouTube will host an exclusive repeat broadcast of the official Coachella weekend 1 livestream today, June 26, 2026, at 4 p.m. PST / 7 p.m. EST. The performance will be available to stream via the video player below.

Robyn and CMAT Deliver Surprise Performance in Dublin

Swedish pop icon Robyn invited CMAT to the stage to perform ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ during her show in Dublin last night (Wednesday June 24). The surprise collaboration served as a highlight of the evening, with the Irish artist later describing the experience as the most fun she has ever had.

The performance took place at the 3Arena, marking the opening night of Robyn’s 2026 ‘Sexistential’ headline tour. The setlist spanned 19 songs, blending tracks from her latest album of the same name with beloved classics and fan favourites.

“That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” said the Irish artist

After beginning the encore with ‘Missing U’ from her 2018 album ‘Honey’, Robyn brought out CMAT to assist her on the 2010 hit ‘Call Your Girlfriend’. Fan-shot footage of the collaboration has since circulated widely online, with CMAT sharing highlights via her Instagram Stories.

Robyn concluded the tour opener with her signature anthem ‘Dancing On My Own’. The ‘Sexistential’ tour continues tomorrow (Friday June 26) in Glasgow, followed by dates at Manchester’s Co-op Live and London’s O2. Following the UK and Ireland leg, the artist will tour across Europe, North America, and Australia later this year.

CMAT, who recently released her acclaimed album ‘Euro-Country’, continues to build momentum following a series of major festival appearances and headline shows.

Carly Rae Jepsen Announces Ambitious Double Album ‘Day and Night’

Carly Rae Jepsen is officially making her return to the spotlight with her first full-length project since 2022’s The Loneliest Time. After a week of cryptic social media teases involving mysterious artifacts and lyrical snippets, the pop star has confirmed the arrival of her new era: a sprawling 24-track double album titled Day and Night.

The project is conceptually divided into two distinct halves. According to the official press release, the “day” side of the record will lean into live instrumentation and 70s-inspired psychedelic pop textures. In contrast, the “night” side promises to immerse listeners in a sleek, synth-driven dance pop soundscape.

Release Details and First Single

Fans won’t have to wait long for a taste of the new material. Day and Night is scheduled for a full release on September 18, but the lead single, “On Wires,” is set to drop this Friday, June 26.

Alongside the announcement, Jepsen unveiled the album’s cover art, which features the artist in a contemplative pose, reinforcing the themes of duality and the passage of time that define the record.

Collaborators and Production

For this ambitious project, Jepsen has tapped a talented roster of collaborators. The album features contributions from longtime guitarist Tavish Crowe, as well as producers and songwriters Kyle Shearer, Nate Cyphert, and Cole M.G.N. With such a diverse team, the project is poised to be one of the most dynamic entries in Jepsen’s discography to date.

Pre-orders and pre-saves for Day and Night are currently available online.