Category: Pop Daypop

Dua Lipa and Young Thug team up with Calvin Harris for their new collaboration “Potion,” and have also released the music video for the song, directed by Emil Nava.  “Potion” is the first single from Harris’ forthcoming album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2, the follow-up to his Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 released back in 2017.  Vol. 2 is due out this summer.

Harris spoke of his upcoming LP in a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, saying: “I wanted the original essence and I want the layers and the grit and the dirt and I don’t want everything to be mixed perfectly. I want things to be too loud and I want things to be like, you know, I want things to be like Sly and the Family Stone when it’s just mixed on the fly.”

Harris previously worked with Dua Lipa on “One Kiss,” and with Young Thug on “Heatstroke.”  You can take a look at the video for “Potion” – here.

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Kelly Clarkson announced that her popular ‘Kellyoke’ segment from The Kelly Clarkson Show is being turned into a six-song EP, set for release on June 9. The Grammy-winner released a cover of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” which Clarkson originally performed on the Sept. 30, 2021, episode of her talk show.

Clarkson said in a statement: “Music is in the DNA of everything I do, so when The Kelly Clarkson Show started we knew it was the perfect way to kick off every episode. Over 500 songs later, and we’re still not running out of amazing artists to pay tribute to. Picking just six [songs] was near-impossible, but these songs have been some of my favorites. Thanks for singing along with me y’all!”

The six tracks on the EP will include “Blue Bayou” by Linda Ronstadt, “Call Out My Name” by The Weeknd, “Queen of the Night” by Whitney Houston, “Trampoline” by Shaed, “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead and “Happier Than Ever” by Eilish. The EP marks Clarkson’s first release since her holiday album When Christmas Comes Around in October.

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Justin Timberlake is the latest artist to sell his song catalogue, selling the rights to a London-based music investment company backed by private equity firm Blackstone. The terms of the deal with Hipgnosis Song Management were not disclosed, but reports reveal the deal as valued just above $100 million, not covering future releases.

The 41-year-old Timberlake will turn over full ownership and control to some 200 songs he wrote or co-wrote spanning his career as a frontman for NSYNC, as a solo artist, and for movie soundtracks. His catalogue of hits include “Bye Bye Bye” and “Girlfriend” from his NSYNC days; “Cry Me a River,” “SexyBack” and “Mirrors” from his solo career, and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from the 2016 animated film “Trolls.”

Timberlake’s deal continues a recent trend of established artists selling their songbooks to big-pocketed investors or music labels. In recent months, Sting sold his song catalog to Universal Music Group for $250 million, and David Bowie’s estate sold his music catalog for $250 million to Warner Chappell Music, the publishing arm of Warner Music Group, and Bruce Springsteen sold his iconic song and publishing catalog to Sony Music for a whopping $500 million. Last year, Bob Dylan sold his massive 600-song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for a reported $300 million to $400 million in December 2020.

Justin Timberlake Sells Entire Song Catalog for More Than $100 Million

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Coming off two special ‘One Night Only’ shows in New York and London, Harry Styles has announced five additional New York City dates to his Love On Tour in support of his new album Harry’s House.  The highly anticipated 2022 tour will allow fans to have access to multiple nights in each major city, turning iconic venues into ‘Harry’s House’ for the run of shows.

The tour now include 37 nights at many of North America’s most notable venues, kicking off on Monday, August 15th and Tuesday, August 16th at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON. Styles will perform in New York City for 15 nights at Madison Square Garden, Austin for five nights at Moody Center, and Chicago for five nights at United Center, before wrapping up at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum for 10 night run concluding on Tuesday, November 15th.

General tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster.

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Nine months since he released his fifth album = (Equals), Ed Sheeran will release a new ‘tour edition’ of = with four new songs. An announcement and video on Sheeran’s Twitter page read: “There’s new Ed music on the way! The tour edition of ‘=’ drops this Friday. Includes 9 additional tracks, 2 brand new ones, and 2 that were featured in ‘Yesterday.’”  Sheeran later revealed the full track list for the tour edition, which includes a whopping 24 songs.

Back in 2018, Sheeran played a fictional version of himself in the musical film Yesterday which featured appearances from Himesh Patel and Lily James. Two of his original tracks from the movie, “One Life” and “Penguins,” were never officially released, but will finally be shared on the tour edition of =.  The remaining two new tracks are titled: “I Will Remember You” and “Welcome to the World,” which may or may not have been inspired by one or both of Ed’s two daughters.

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Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers has earned the title of the biggest No. 1 Billboard debut of 2022 so far, making it Lamar’s fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.  Mr. Morale topped Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti with 295,500 album-equivalent units; Bad Bunny had previously topped Future’s I Never Liked You. 

Lamar revealed that he was working on new material last summer, and said that the project — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers — would be his final release for Top Dawg Entertainment.  Ahead of Mr. Morale’s release, Lamar continued his “The Heart” singles series with “The Heart Part 5.” He developed the deepfake video for the track alongside South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone, but the track doesn’t appear on the album.

Mr. Morale arrives five years after its predecessor DAMN., for which Lamar earned the distinction of being the first hip-hop artist to win a Pulitzer Prize. In between the solo albums, Lamar curated and performed on the Black Panther soundtrack, which earned him a Best Rap Performance Grammy for the track “King’s Dead” with Jay Rock.

Lamar is set to tour the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand with Baby Keem and Tanna Leone beginning in July.

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Vanessa Hudgens is set to host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards on June 5. Hudgens had previously hosted the ‘MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time’ special in 2020.

“I’m back,” Hudgens said in a video uploaded to the official MTV Movie & TV Awards Twitter account, along with the caption:  “The queen is BACK! Introducing your 2022 #MTVAwards host, @VanessaHudgens. Tune in to the biggest night to be a fan, June 5 at 8p on @MTV!”

The 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards is set to take place from the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica and will air at 8 p.m. EDT. The MTV Movie & TV Awards will also present its reality television-focused ‘Unscripted’ portion on the same night.  Spider-Man: No Way Home and Euphoria lead with seven nominations each. RuPaul’s Drag Race earned a leading four nominations in the reality television categories.

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Rina Sawayama has announced her sophomore album, Hold The Girl, which is set to be released September 2. The pop-R&B singer previewed the upcoming LP with her new single, “This Hell” (which you can listen to – here.)

According to a press release, Hold The Girl will “once again juxtapose intimate storytelling with arena-sized songs creating another ambitious and original album to excite fans and critics alike.”  Sawayama said in a statement:  “The past couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of female country singers and wanted to write a euphoric and tongue-in-cheek country-pop song. Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling, and authentic expression of the writer’s reality. I’ve been dreaming of working with Paul Epworth my entire career so I knew it was meant to be when we finished this song in a day.”

Sawayama will also be kicking-off a European tour this summer, featuring performances at major festivals such as Primavera Festival. A fall tour will follow with shows scheduled in Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Pre-order “Hold The Girl” – here.

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Diana Ross ft. Tame Impala have released the new single “Turn Up The Sunshine” from the upcoming animated feature film ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru.’  You can take a listen to the new single, produced by Jack Antonoff, at the link here.

Turn Up The Sunshine is the first single from the recently announced original motion picture soundtrack for ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru,’ and is set for release on Friday, July 1 – which coincides with the film’s global theatrical release.  Minions: The Rise of Gru is set in the 1970s, and tells the origin story of how Gru (Steve Carell), the world’s greatest supervillain, first met his iconic Minions, forged cinema’s most despicable crew and faced off against the most unstoppable criminal force ever assembled.

The soundtrack features a star-studded line-up including St. Vincent, H.E.R., Phoebe Bridgers and Bleachers. The soundtrack’s executive producer, Jack Antonoff, is lead vocalist of Bleachers.

Pre-order the soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru – here.

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Post Malone has released the music video for his brand new single, “Cooped Up”, directed by Andre Bato directed and featuring a guest appearance from Roddy Ricch.

“Cooped Up” is the second collaboration between Malon and Ricch, following their Roddy’s appearance on the 2019 remix of Post’s quintuple-platinum track “wow.” The new single comes from Post Malone’s forthcoming album, “Twelve Carat Toothache”, that is set to be released on June 3rd.

Take a look at the vide for “Cooped Up” – here.

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