After this weekend’s fireworks, get ready to celebrate another holiday: New Billie Eilish Music Day.
The “bad guy” artist has announced the release of another cut of her much-anticipated sophomore album, Happier Than Ever. The track is titled “NDA,” and will drop next Friday, July 9, along with a video.
“NDA” — which typically stands for “non-disclosure agreement,” a legal document that restricts a person from publicly sharing certain information — will be the fifth Happier Than Ever song to be released, following “Therefore I Am,” “Your Power,” “Lost Cause” and “my future.” The whole album arrives July 30.
Happier Than Ever is the follow-up to Eilish’s massive Grammy-winning 2019 debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, which spawned singles including “bad guy,” “bury a friend,” “you should see me in a crown” and “all the good girls go to hell.”
Sting’s songs have appeared on so many movie soundtracks that he’s released several compilations of them. But it turns out one particular song by Sting ended up inspiring one of the biggest movies of all time: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which marks its 30th anniversary on Saturday.
T2, released in 1991, features future human resistance leader John Connor as a teen, played by Edward Furlong, teaming up with Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Model T-800 Terminator, who’s no longer the bad guy but has been sent back in time to save John from a more advanced T-1000 model. That machine has been sent to kill Connor before he becomes the leader he’s destined to be, and who will avert a nuclear holocaust in 1997 — aka Judgment Day.
So what the heck does this have to do with Sting? In a new article on The Ringer about the making of the film, director James Cameron reveals that he got the idea for a major plot point while tripping and listening to a Sting song.
“I remember sitting there once, high on [Ecstasy], writing notes for Terminator, and I was struck by Sting’s song, that ‘I hope the Russians love their children too,’” Cameron says, referring to Sting’s 1985 single, Russians. “And I thought, ‘You know what? The idea of a nuclear war is just so antithetical to life itself.’ That’s where the kid came from.”
“Russians,” from Sting’s first solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles, was about the rising tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the ’80s, and the growing threat of nuclear war.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a massive critical and commercial success, grossing $520 million worldwide and winning several Oscars.
The month of July is off to a smooth start with unexpected music releases from IDK and Young Thug,Lil Yatchy and more. Here’s a roundup of new tracks to enjoy over the holiday weekend.
After dropping “Peloton” last month, Maryland rapper IDK returns with his new single, “Pradada Bang,” featuring Young Thug.
Thugger opens the track boasting about his money, expensive jewelry, and making “half a mil for a show.” Meanwhile, IDK’s brash bars are directly aimed at clout-chasing women who only want him for his money.
“How you want Birkins and [ish] when you ain’t even got a house / We get in one argument you gon’ live in that purse when I’m kicking you out,” he raps.
“Prada Bang” will be featured on IDK’s upcoming album, USEE4YOURSELF, arriving July 9th.
Rapper Lil Yachty takes a different direction with his alternative-hip hop single, “Love Music.” The melodic track finds the Quality Control artist reminiscing about all the “good things” he hears about a woman he loves.
Meanwhile, Toosii takes a more cold-hearted approach to women on his new single, “heart cold.”
“It’s safe to say the world getting ugly / And I could say that my heart cold, my heart cold, yeah / But that’s ’cause you put someone else above me,” Toosii raps.
And finally, G Herbo has unleashed his new album, 25, featuring appearances from Polo G, Lil Tjay,Gunna, Rowdy Rebel, 21 Savage and more. The Chicago rapper also released a music video for the song “I Don’t Wanna Die,” in which he rides the top of a school bus through his city while delivering a raw take on the violence and pain that comes with being on the streets.
Parker McCollum is officially off the market! The “Pretty Heart” star announced on social media this week that he’s engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Hallie Ray Light.
“She said yes!” Parker simply wrote in the caption of his post, along with a snapshot of the happy couple. In the photo, Hallie’s holding up her hand to show off her brand-new diamond ring.
In her Instagram stories, Hallie also shared a few slides of the memorable night, including images of the newly-engaged couple celebrating with their friends and family members.
Parker’s new fiancée has often been a source of musical inspiration to him; his 2020 Hollywood Gold EP features a track titled “Hallie Ray Light.”
Earlier this month, the singer announced his debut full-length album, Gold Chain Cowboy, which is coming out July 30. After that, he’ll hit the road with Dierks Bentley as one of the opening acts on the “Gone” star’s 2021 Beers on me Tour.
Iggy dropped the track and corresponding video on Friday that features her and a team of dancers turning the back of a semi truck into a makeshift strip club. The rig cruises down the highway at night as she dances and raps, “Don’t want your love/Don’t want your problems/Just need all of the dollars/I do the lap dance/I ride the pole up/I am the strip club.”
Iggy also embeds Easter eggs for her loyal fans by bringing back the outfit from her “Work” video as she walks down the highway. Iggy wrote the treatment for the video and co-directed it with Thom Kerr.
“I Am the Strip Club” is featured on the Australia native’s upcoming album, End of an Era.It follows her previous single, “Brazil,” and her Tyga collaboration, “Sip It.”
Additionally, Iggy posted a statement on Thursday in support of Britney Spears, with whom she collaborated on “Pretty Girls” in 2015. The statement’s in response to Britney’s testimony last week in an LA court during which she detailed the alleged abuse she’s experienced while in a conservatorship under her father, Jamie Spears.
It appears that The Weeknd and Angelina Jolie have struck up a friendship.
Tabloid magazine The Suncaptured photos of the Academy Award-winning actress and superstar singer as they headed to dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Los Angeles.
Although the nature of the meeting isn’t know, the pair share a common interest in Ethiopia: Both of The Weeknd’s parents are from the African nation, and Jolie and ex-husband Brad Pitt adopted their second child, daughter Zahara Marley,from Ethiopia in 2005.
In April, the “Blinding Lights” singer donated $1 million to the United Nations World Food Programme to provide two million meals to the country, where a conflict between the Ethiopian government and region of Tigray broke out in early 2021, leading to a humanitarian crisis that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of citizens.
“My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” The Weeknd wrote in a post announcing his donation.
Tenacious D is adding a bit more tenacity to The Beatles with a new charity single that has gotten a thumbs-up from Paul McCartney himself.
The comedy duo has released “You Never Give Me Your Money”/”The End,” an acoustic mashup of two tracks from the Fab Four’s Abbey Road medley. Being a Tenacious D performance, the cover also includes some extra four-letter words that pop up amid Jack Black‘s signature riffing vocal style.
Reacting to the cover, McCartney writes on his Facebook page, “This Tenacious D cover of our song is fantastic! It’s so imaginative and so well performed. What a great tribute to the original. Guys — I love it.”
Black and band mate Kyle Gass also have debuted an over-the-top mixed-media music video for their Beatles homage, which depicts the duo an a variety of surreal scenarios and locations, including on a mountain top, at Stonehenge, at Big Ben, in a forest, and in a jail cell. Gass dons a poorly fitting Beatles wig throughout most of the clip.
“Tenacious D are paying tribute to the greatest band in the world…not themselves…The Beatles!!!” the duo proclaims. “In the spirit of healing the world…please enjoy Tenacious D’s mashup of two classics from Abbey Road.”
You can download “You Never Give Me Your Money”/”The End,” now via digital outlets. The vinyl single version, which is available now for pre-order, will raise money for Doctors Without Borders.
Last fall, the D released a star-studded cover of the Rocky Horror Picture Show classic “Time Warp” to encourage voting.
Jim Morrison, the iconic lead singer of The Doors, died 50 years ago this Saturday, July 3, 1971, at age 27.
Morrison died unexpectedly during an extended stay in Paris while on hiatus from The Doors. He was found dead by his longtime girlfriend, Pamela Courson, in the bathtub of their rented apartment. His official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but the actual cause remains a mystery, since no autopsy was performed.
The late Doors frontman’s influence on music and popular culture has been immeasurable, thanks to his charismatic persona, his powerful vocal style, his exploration of dark themes and his talent for combining poetry with rock music.
Morrison had a fascination with pushing social boundaries that, unfortunately, coincided with a penchant for excess that included a serious alcohol dependency.
Doors drummer John Densmore recalls that he heard that Morrison had died while he was jamming with band mates Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger.
“[Jim] had been away for a few months and we wanted to make music and we were jamming on stuff, hoping he’d be back to help us,” Densmore tells ABC Audio. “And then, the manager came downstairs and said Jim had passed.”
John says that when Morrison was in Paris, he worried about the singer knowing his issues with alcohol.
“I was hoping he wasn’t drinking, but, you know, the Parisians have wine for breakfast,” Densmore notes. “[Paris] might not have been such a good place for him.”
As tragic as Morrison’s young death was, Densmore says he’s grateful for what he and the band created together.
“[I]t became bigger than its ingredients that came together in a garage in Venice [Beach, California,]” John notes. “And we gotta honor that muse and be thankful that something came in [that was] magic.”
Machine Gun Kelly has collaborated with jxdn on a new song called “Wanna Be.”
The pop-punk banger, which is available now for digital download, is accompanied by a video starring both artists, as well as Blink-182‘s Travis Barker, whose DTA Records released jxdn’s brand-new debut album, Tell Me About Tomorrow.
You can watch the “Wanna Be” video streaming now on YouTube.
MGK and jxdn will reunite this fall when the latter opens for the former’s Tickets to My Downfall tour, which kicks off in September.
In related news, Machine Gun Kelly is set to star in an upcoming movie that at one time was called Good News, but is now changing its title.
The film, according to Deadline, follows the “last days of a rising but troubled musician,” played by Kelly under his birth name, Colson Baker. It’s said to be a fictional work that takes inspiration from late artists including Mac Miller, Lil Peep, Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke, and its title is a reference to a posthumous Miller song.
That last bit irked Miller’s brother, Miller McCormick, who reportedly posted an Instagram Story reading, “F*** you f*** your movie at least change the title.”
In a statement to E! News, the film’s production company says it will be adopting a new title.
“Our film is about a fictional musician on the rise with a troubled life,” the statement reads. “It’s not in any way a biopic or based on any artist’s true life. We realize the title, which was intended as an homage to Mac Miller, and other artists gone too soon, feels disrespectful. We’ve heard from many people on social media who have found offense with the title so, without hesitation, we will change it.”
Ed Sheeran opened up about the special meaning behind his daughter’s unique name. Last summer, the “Bad Habits” singer welcomed Lyra Antarctica alongside wife Cherry Seaborn.
“I realize some people think it’s quite a strange name,” Ed said on the British morning show Lorraineon Thursday. “But my wife’s called Cherry, and she is the only Cherry that I’ve ever met and I think that she’s the only Cherry that she’s ever met and I quite like that.”
Ed continued with a smile, “In my class at school, there were probably more Eds.”
Because of that, Ed revealed that he and Cherry “wanted to give [our daughter] a name that was unique, so that she would be the only one.”
However, the singer noted the name Lyra may continue to grow in popularity because of the successful fantasy trilogy-turned-television-series His Dark Materials, which features a protagonist with the same name.
Ed also divulged why he gave his daughter the middle name Antarctica, saying he visited the continent with Cherry before she became pregnant.
“I’ve basically toured every single continent but I’ve never been to Antarctica so that was always on our list,” he gushed. “So we went down there in 2019 and it was just incredible. The most amazing place on earth.”
The “Shape of You” singer also noted that his experiences as a first-time father influenced his upcoming album that is due out later this year.
