Music

Add Ellie Goulding to the list of celebrities who are on Britney Spears‘ side.  After watching the Framing Britney Spears documentary, Ellie says, she couldn’t help thinking about the pressures she’s had to face in her own career.

“It really affected me,” she tells the Daily Mail‘s You magazine about the documentary. “Britney was so young, and she was thrown into this circus without any support.”

Ellie continues, “The same people who want your music and want more from you are also telling you that they want less: ‘I don’t want you to have mental health issues. I want you to be fine and perform and write perfect songs for me.'”

She recalls, “When I started out, there wasn’t much help and mental health wasn’t talked about,” while noting, “There’s more awareness now, but we’ve let a lot of people down, people who have brought us so much joy through their music.”

Ellie says, like Britney, she was sometimes forced to do things she wasn’t comfortable with. “I thought I had to look a certain way and dress a certain way,” she explains. “I thought I had to squish myself into some kind of box as a pop singer.”

She reveals, “I was repeatedly encouraged to wear the girliest, sexiest, most feminine option at any photo shoot. I was made to feel as though I wasn’t enough by myself. I began to think it was way more interesting for me to have a storyline with a man at the forefront, which triggered a wild insecurity of who I actually was without them.”

She notes, “If I just had a bit of what I have now, which is trusting and respecting myself, it would have been a different story.”

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50 Cent is bringing in the “big dogs” for his upcoming Starz series Black Mafia Family.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, 50 revealed that he had tapped fellow emcee Eminem to play White Boy Rick, the notorious Detroit teenager turned undercover FBI informant, on his new series. “I couldn’t do a show based in Detroit without incorporating the legend @eminem,” 50 wrote in part. As previously reported, BMF follows the real-life story of brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who “rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in the country.” The series premieres Sunday, September 26, at 9 p.m. ET. and stars Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., Russell Hornsby, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony and Serayah, among others.

In other news, Amazon Prime Video has announced this year’s installment of the Welcome to the Blumhouse movie series. Described as “unsettling thrillers” that center on diverse storytelling, the first set of double features includes Bingo Hell and Black as Night, which will both premiere on October 1. They will be followed by Madres and The Manor, which will debut on October 8.

Finally, Netflix has released the official trailer to the fourth and final season of Dear White People. As previously reported, the upcoming season will be a “’90s-inspired musical event” that will pick up in the “not-so-distant, post-pandemic future” where the cast will be looking back at “the most formative (and theatrical) year of their lives.” Created by Justin Simien, Dear White People stars Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell, Antoinette Robertson, DeRon Horton, John Patrick Amedori, Ashley Blaine Featherson and Marque Richardson. The final season of Dear White People premieres on Wednesday, September 22.

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New details of late R&B star Aaliyah‘s life are being revealed nearly 20 years after her death.

Author Kathy Iandoli‘s new biography, Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, out Tuesday, includes never-before-told stories about the hitmaker’s music, her relationships and the evolution of her career.

Iandoli’s book also explores Aaliyah’s long-lasting influence since her tragic death in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, at age 22.

During an interview with Good Morning America, Iandoli shared more about her reverence for the late music icon and what drew her to creating this biography.

“I wanted to create something that celebrated her because I was sick and tired of the other static that was coming in about her — the other things, the other news — and there’s only really one way to tell a story and it’s to provide this panoramic view of the artist,” she explained.

The author and music expert said Aaliyah’s death was overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks, so many fans “weren’t able to grieve.”

“What started to happen over the years was Aaliyah became an aesthetic — she became this like mythical creature, she became almost like a statue, a piece of iconography,” Iandoli said.

The book covers many points of Aaliyah’s career and her personal life, including her secret — and brief — marriage to disgraced rapper R. Kelly in 1994, when she was just 15 and Kelly was 27. The marriage was later annulled.

In the book, Iandoli also acknowledges the possibility that the late singer may have been drugged before boarding her final flight. Iandoli is clear in stating that this is just a possibility; she is not saying it happened or did not happen.

Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah is now available.

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Seether has premiered the video for “Wasteland,” a track off the band’s new album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.

The clip mixes performance footage with a narrative surrounding two characters trying to escape from the pressures of social media. The characters are played by professional snake wrangler Danielle Wall and Tom Berninger, brother of The National frontman Matt Berninger.

“We were trying to figure out how to make some kind of statement about the evils of social media and it evolved from one idea to the video it is now,” says frontman Shaun Morgan.

“After spending such a long period of time without any kind of personal contact with the other band members, the live performance element was especially important to us,” he continues. “It was good for us mentally and emotionally, but it was also important to visually show that we’ve come out the other side after such a difficult time.”

You can watch the “Wasteland” video streaming now on YouTube.

Seether released Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum last August. It includes the singles “Dangerous” and “Bruised and Bloodied.”

Last week, Seether announced a new greatest hits compilation titled Vicennial — 2 Decades of Seether. It’ll be released October 15.

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The Kid LAROI turns 18 today and he’s got a lot to celebrate.  Not only is he currently number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with his hit, “Stay,” but he’s also number one in his home country of Australia.  On top of that, he’s now besties with one of his idols, Justin Bieber.

On Twitter, the rapper, born Charlton Howard, wrote, “18 Years! WOAH. first of all, thank you to every single one of you mfs for supporting me. I LOVE YOU ALL BEYOND WORDS CAN F**KIN EXPLAIN MAN. you guys have literally changed my life and there’s nothing that I can ever do to repay you.”

LAROI then noted that, instead of gifts, he’d prefer that his fans donate to causes that mean something to him.

“I want to use this platform to continue to help others,” he explained. “This year I’m raising funds to help these amazing organizations —> https://pledge.to/the-kid-laroi-birthday u can also donate by texting LAROI to 707070.”

If you click on the pledge button, you’ll learn that LAROI is asking fans to help organizations that are working to help homeless young people in both Australia and the U.S.  “Proper housing and the kinds of supportive programs that these groups provide can make all the difference for a young person,” writes LAROI.

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Nelly is calling on a few of his country friends for an upcoming episode of CMT Crossroads. 

The Grammy-winning rapper is teaming up with frequent collaborators Florida Georgia Line, Kane Brown, Blanco Brown and Breland for CMT Crossroads: Nelly & Friends, which premieres on September 1 at 10 p.m. ET.

Nelly is making history as the first hip-hop artist to headline the long-running series that pairs a country act with an artist from another genre as they perform one another’s songs. The show will also mark Kane, Blanco and Breland’s CMT Crossroads debut. 

All three acts are featured on the rapper’s upcoming country-influenced album, Heartland, which features FGL on “Lil Bit,” Kane on “Grits & Glamour,” and both Blanco and Breland on “High Horse.” 

Nelly and FGL have been longtime collaborators, beginning with a remix of FGL’s “Cruise” that peaked inside the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013. They’re currently climbing their way up the charts with “Lil Bit,” which is at #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and in the top 20 of the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 Airplay chart.

Heartland is due out on August 27.

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If you just can’t wait for Josh Groban to return to the stage, you can watch him now on The Roku Channel.

The first season of a new game show called Eye Candy is now streaming, and Josh is the host.  The show, based on a popular Japanese program, has contestants trying to determine, “Is it real or cake?” 

Basically, contestants look at everyday objects and decide if they’re regular old inedible things — like a yoga mat or a box of crayons — or cleverly disguised delicious cakes.  If they think something’s cake, they have to take a bite out of it — with often hilarious results.

Among the celebrity guests who are competing: Rachel Dratch, Michael Ian Black, Tiki Barber, Nico Tortorella, Nina Agdal and Ana Gasteyer.

When the show was first announced, Josh was quoted as saying, “I first saw this show in Japan when it was called Sokkuri Sweets and was obsessed with how fun and silly it was. To be the ringmaster of such insanity is a dream. Bon Appetit.”

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Lorde has released a third advance song from her much-anticipated upcoming album, Solar Power.

The latest cut is titled “Mood Ring,” and is available now for digital download and via streaming. The acoustic-driven jam follows the lead single title track and the song “Stoned at the Nail Salon.”

“This is a song I am very excited about, it’s so much fun to me,” Lorde says of “Mood Ring.” “Obviously when making this album I did a deep-dive into ’60s, Flower Child culture. I wanted to understand the commune life, dropping out from society and trying to start again. That really resonated to me when writing this album.”

Fittingly, “Mood Ring” is accompanied by a video that finds Lorde in a hippie-commune setting.

“One thing that occurred to me as a major parallel between that time and our time is our wellness culture and our culture of spirituality, pseudo-spirituality, wellness, pseudo-wellness,” Lorde explains. “Things like eating a macro-biotic vegan diet or burning sage, keeping crystals, reading tarot cards or your horoscope.”

She continues, “These were all things that they were dabbling in back then, and that me and my girlfriends are dabbling in today. I was like, ‘I think there’s a pop song in here.’ So this is kind of my extremely satirical look at all of those vibes.”

Solar Power the album arrives this Friday, August 20.

In other news, Lorde will be joining The Late Late Show with James Corden for a week-long residency starting August 23.

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