Music

Charlie Puth cannot wait for his fans to listen to Charlie because its his “most personal work” to date.

The Grammy nominee chatted with Billboard about his new album and explained, “I’ve never had an entire body of work that was my personality with some melody attached to it.”

Charlie, which arrives in stores on October 7, has a unique cover that shows the singer leaning on a white cube and has all the song titles and symbols written out above his head. “The cover speaks for itself to all those little thoughts coming out of my head and notes,” Charlie expressed. 

So, what’s his favorite song on the album? Charlie revealed its a tie between “Smells Like Me” and “There’s a First Time for Everything.”

He revealed the album is designed to contain multiple favorite songs, not just one. “I want your brain to go into a million places when you read these [song] titles, and I also want people to be familiar with these songs, like they’ve heard them before,” he explained. 

He revealed he recorded an album before the pandemic hit, Voicenotes, but he wasn’t feeling it. “I didn’t feel like I wanted to perform those songs for the rest of my life,” Charlie said. When it comes to Charlie, he feels differently.

“The whole album is produced by me and I wrote it with a very, very small group of people,” Charlie said, adding he brought these new songs to life by “involving millions of people on TikTok throughout the process” of creating them.

Charlie also came clean about why he posts so many thirst traps on social media, explaining, “I spend so much money on training sessions and the gym and protein powders — what am I going to [do], just keep it all to myself?”

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Luke Bryan and Jameson Rodgers experienced a full circle moment performing onstage together. 

While recently performing at Highland Farm in Indiana as part of his Farm Tour, Luke invited opening act Jameson to join him in singing “Born Here Live Here Die Here,” a song that has significant meaning for them. 

On Instagram, Jameson shares that a few years ago, he was driving through a small town in Indiana to do a show at a county fair when his bass player said, “this is one of those towns you’re born in and die in.” 

“The next week I wrote a song called Born Here, Live Here, Die Here.. @lukebryan then recorded this song,” the Mississippi native recalls of the track that became the title of Luke’s 2020 album. “Last night I sang it with him for the first time in INDIANA. Full circle moments are the coolest.” 

Both singers shared a video of the performance that shows Luke playing acoustic guitar and providing supporting vocals as Jameson takes the lead. 

“Enjoyed sharing the stage with my good buddy @jamesonrodgers tonight singing a song he wrote for my album,” the American Idol judge adds. 

The Farm Tour continues until September 24. 

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Jennifer’s Body celebrated its 13th anniversary on Sunday, and Diablo Cody, who wrote the film, is thrilled the dark comedy horror continues to be referenced in pop culture.

One recent example comes from Olivia Rodrigo, who saluted Jennifer’s Body in her “Good 4 U” music video. Cody told ABC Audio she was completely surprised the singer referenced her film because she was not given a heads up beforehand.

“I never know when any of this stuff is going to happen! Like Halsey, Machine Gun Kelly — there have been all these artists referencing that movie in particular and it’s mind blowing,” the Oscar-winning screenwriter expressed.  

Cody is very happy the movie continues to have an influence on pop culture 13 years after its theater release. “When the movie came out, it was the greatest professional disappointment I’d ever experienced,” she explained. “The movie flopped and it was sort of savaged by the critics.”

Cody thinks the movie suffered because it “was deliberately marketed toward boys,” sexualizing star Megan Fox in commercials and neglecting the movie’s feminist plot. Cody said she “did not agree with” those decisions.

The Juno writer wishes she could go back in time to tell her younger self, “Don’t worry. This movie will find its audience, but it’s going to take time.”

Overall, Cody is thankful that artists like Olivia continue to make mention of her film. “That’s been honestly healing for me. The fact that young people are enjoying that movie and seeing themselves is like the greatest treat,” she smiled.  “It makes me very happy and it also makes me hungry because…. I want to do more.” 

Jennifer’s Body, also starring Amanda Seyfried, bowed September 18, 2009 and earned $31.6 million in the box office. The movie is now a cult classic.

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Dan Reynolds and Aja Volkman are once again splitting up.

In a tweet over the weekend, the Imagine Dragons frontman writes, “I am saddened to say that after many beautiful years together Aja and I have separated.”

“Being great parents to our children is our number one priority,” he adds. “Thank you for always supporting us with love and care for all these years.”

Reynolds and Volkman, who fronted the band Nico Vega, married in 2011. They have four children together: daughter Arrow, twins girls Gia and Coco and son Valentine.

In 2018, the couple announced that they were separating but later got back together after deciding not to finalize their divorce; Reynolds then re-proposed in 2019. Their reconciliation inspired the 2021 Imagine Dragons single “Follow You.”

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System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian has announced a new solo EP.

The five-track collection is titled Perplex Cities and will arrive October 21. It follows Tankian’s 2021 EP, Elasticity.

“This whole collection of songs within Perplex Cities is a completely different sound than what I’ve done before,” Tankian says. “More electronic, subtle and deeper in terms of its layers of presentation musically. Perplex Cities gives off an aura that is unique and unlike my previous releases.”

Along with the EP announcement, Tankian has premiered its opening track, “Pop Imperialism,” exclusively through the free augmented reality app Arloopa. Each of the songs off Perplex Cities will debut on Arloopa ahead of the EP’s release on traditional streaming platforms.

Here’s the Perplex Cities track list:

“Pop Imperialism”
“The Race”
“I Spoke Up”
“Rumi Loves His Cars”
“Forgive Me Father”

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Now we know what “news” Paramore was planning on “spreading.”

Hayley Williams and company have announced a show at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on November 13 as part of their upcoming comeback tour, which marks their first live dates in four years.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday, September 23 at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform. Registration is open now.

As previously reported, Paramore updated their website earlier this month with a calendar of events. Up until the NYC show was announced, the date for September 19 read “start spreading the news.” Now, it’s been replaced by “NYC.”

The next date listed on the calendar is next Wednesday, September 28, which is the same day Paramore’s new single “This Is Why,” their first release in five years, is set to premiere. Currently, September 28 is left blank on the calendar, perhaps suggesting the song debut will be accompanied by more news. Surely, the whole ParaFamily is crossing their fingers for an album announcement.

Paramore will launch their fall tour October 2 in Bakersfield, California.

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Ozzy Osbourne‘s Patient Number 9 debuts in the top 10 of this week’s Billboard 200.

The latest solo effort from the Prince of Darkness lands at #3 on the all-genre album chart with a total of 58,000 equivalent album units, 52,000 of which were traditional album sales. That latter figure makes Patient Number 9 the best-selling album of the week.

Patient Number 9 is, fittingly, Ozzy’s ninth top 10 release as a solo artist. He’s also notched two top 10 records with Black Sabbath, including a #1 with the metal legends’ 2013 swan song, 13.

Ozzy dropped Patient Number 9 on September 9. Like its predecessor, 2020’s Ordinary Man, PN9 features a whole host of guest contributors, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

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As part of her celebration of the 25th anniversary of her album Butterfly, Mariah Carey decided to recreate the video for one of the album’s hits with help from her kids…and Millie Bobby Brown.

On Instagram, Mariah and her twins Moroccan and Monroe teamed with the Stranger Things star and her boyfriend Jake Bongiovi — son of Jon Bon Jovi — and acted out the intro of Mariah’s video for “Honey.”  Mariah recreates her role as “Agent M,” who’s tied up in a chair and being threatened by her captors.

Millie and Jake lip-sync her captors’ threats: “You know, I been thinkin.’ I got two choices for ya: The easy way or the hard way.” Roc and Roe lip-sync to comedian Eddie Griffin‘s instructions to one of Mariah’s overweight captors: “Go eat a buffet. They’re having a chicken sale at Dirty Bird.”

Mariah captioned the video, “Reliving the splendor of the Honey video with surprise guests!”

Mariah and Brown were first seen together in 2020 when Mariah posted a photo of the two hanging out and referencing Brown’s then-upcoming Netflix movie Enola Holmes. The sequel arrives this fall.

“Honey” was a number-one hit from Butterfly. This past Friday, Mariah released an extended edit of the track as part of the bonus material included on the album’s re-release.

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Beyoncé congratulated Sheryl Lee Ralph on her recent Emmy win with a sweet gift and note — from one Deena to another.

Ralph originated the role of Deena Jones in the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, while Beyoncé played the role in the Oscar-winning 2006 movie version.  Over the weekend, Ralph posted a video of herself opening a card attached to a beautiful bouquet.  It reads, “To the original Dreamgirl, sending you a beautiful congratulations. All my love, Beyoncé.”

Ralph just won her first-ever Emmy, for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her role in ABC’s Abbott Elementary.

“We’re Your Dreamgirls,” a song from the movie’s soundtrack, plays as Ralph stands there speechless, trying to collect her thoughts. “Oh Beyoncé. Wonderful!” Ralph says in a hoarse voice. “I don’t have a voice, but it’s wonderful!” 

In the caption, Ralph wrote, “Every one has their own special dream and all your dreams can come true. Just look in the mirror and love what’s in front of you. Thank you @beyonce don’t forget to dream girls!”

Ralph also posted video of herself receiving a bouquet so massive it had to be wheeled in on a cart.  The card read, “Congratulations on the best acceptance speech of all time. I’m still celebrating you. Blessings, Oprah.”

Ralph captioned that video, “I am still basking in the glow of love and I am still smelling the flowers and I am still so thankful and grateful to all of you and Oprah too!!!”

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