Music

Ye, aka Kanye West, and Gap have announced a brief pause in the launch of their Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection, which was set to roll out Wednesday. The postponement comes in the wake of Tuesday’s Texas school shooting, in which 18-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, killing 19 children and two adults.

Instead, the new collection will release this Friday, May 27.

A statement posted to the collection’s website and Twitter page reads, “In light of the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, we are postponing the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga launch until Friday, May 27. As we pause, our hearts go out to the families and communities impacted.” 

Ye debuted the new partnership in February at the time of his live performance experience of songs from Donda 2, which dropped exclusively on the rapper’s Stem Player on February 23. 

A recent announcement about his upcoming single “True Love” with late rapper XXXTentacion, expected this Friday, hinted at a rerelease of Ye’s 11th studio album, Donda 2. 

Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga will be available at YeezyGap.com and Farfetch.com.

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Rammstein has premiered the video for “Dicke Titten,” a track off the band’s new album, Zeit.

The clip finds the German metallers residing in an idyllic countryside, with frontman Till Lindemann playing a blind farmer. Of course, this being Rammstein, that idyllic countryside is filled with suggestive images and innuendo related to the English translation of the song’s title.

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

Zeit, the follow-up to Rammstein’s 2019 untitled effort, was released in April. Rammstein will launch a North American stadium tour in support of the album in August.

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Bruno Mars brought an unforgettable gift to Ellen DeGeneres on the penultimate episode of her daytime talk show — a piña colada.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is creeping closer to its series finale and on Wednesday Bruno was welcomed among the final round of esteemed guests. To help send off the beloved show, the “Uptown Funk” singer pieced together a tribute montage as a farewell gift.

“I don’t know if you know this but I direct all my music videos … But when it comes to editing, I always have to be with somebody, so I figured I’ll take this time during quarantine [to] get behind a computer and learn how to edit things — so you can save money,” he announced. “I edited something that’s kind of like a tribute to you and I worked real hard on it.”

He wanted to “give it as a gift” and, when the video started rolling, the montage jokingly focuses on Bruno’s time on the show throughout the years and not so much on their time together.

“That’s … so sweet,” Ellen sarcastically quipped at the end of the tribute video — but the jokes were far from over. Bruno then rushed over a framed picture of one of his past performances, which features him singing to  Ellen, who’s been nearly cropped out of the photo.

Ellen said she will “cherish us together” and the two shared a hug.

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Old Dominion is headed home to Nashville this weekend, where they’ll play the city’s Bridgestone Arena as part of Kenny Chesney’s 2022 Here and Now Tour.

But while they’re in town, the band is planning something special: a free pop-up show.

It’s not the first time in recent weeks the group has planned a small, free show for fans at the cities they visit on tour. Old Dominion threw a pop-up show in Atlanta last weekend; they’ve also hit small stages in St. Louis, Charlotte and Tampa.

“One night in our hometown just isn’t enough, so you know what we’ve gotta do …” the band wrote on social media, along with a video of frontman Matthew Ramsey dropping some details about what they’ve got planned.

Old Dominion’s Nashville pop-up show is set for Friday, and you can find the location details by heading to ODPopUp.com.

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The Interrupters have premiered a new song called “Anything Was Better,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, In the Wild.

“This song is the story of my escape from not necessarily a location but from the pain and trauma of my upbringing,” says frontwoman Aimee Interrupter. “It’s also a story of hope and seeking refuge in the unknown. I said goodbye to everyone and everything I ever knew because in my mind anything was better than where I was from.”

You can listen to “Anything Was Better” now via digital outlets. An accompanying lyric video is streaming now on YouTube.

“Anything Was Better” is the second song to be released off In the Wild, following lead single “In the Mirror.” The album arrives in full on August 5.

The Interrupters will be supporting In the Wild on a co-headlining tour with Flogging Molly, which launches June 7 in Indianapolis.

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A dream come true is how Laverne Cox describes the news of a new Tribute Collection Barbie Doll created in her likeness. In celebration of Cox’s 50th birthday on May 29 and to continue their commitment to increasing diversity across their collections, Barbie worked closely with the award-winning LGBTQ+ advocate to create a doll reflective of her appearance and style. 

To help bring the doll to life, available for purchase May 25, Barbie’s design team researched her red carpet looks, and utilized skin tone and body sculpts samples that got Cox’s mark of approval.  

“We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate award-winning actress, producer, writer and LGBTQ+ rights trailblazer Laverne Cox with a doll,” said Lisa McKnight, executive vice president and global head of Barbie and Dolls, Mattel. “We are proud to highlight the importance of inclusion and acceptance at every age and to recognize Laverne’s significant impact on culture with a Tribute Collection Barbie.” 

Cox said Wednesday she’s been waiting for this moment for many years. 

“It’s been a dream for years to work with Barbie to create my own doll,” she said. “I can’t wait for fans to find my doll on shelves and have the opportunity to add a Barbie doll modeled after a transgender person to their collection. I hope that people can look at this Barbie and dream big like I have in my career. The space of dreaming and manifesting is such a powerful source and leads you to achieve more than what you originally thought was possible.”

As part of the launch, Barbie is also making a donation in Cox’s name to TransFamilySOS, a nonprofit close to Laverne’s heart dedicated to creating a more gender affirming and accepting community.

The new Tribute Collection Laverne Cox Barbie Doll is available online. 

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Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus and Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz are part of a team launching a new “venture capital music startup” called Verswire.

Founded by Sherry Saeedi, who previously co-founded the streaming platform Veeps, Verswire was conceived as a “development incubator” rather than a traditional record label.

“Using the ‘Shark Tank’ ideology, Verswire acts as a venture capital fund that views artists as entrepreneurs, tailoring each with a custom investment that includes funding, resources, tools, A-list mentoring, support from prominent music executives, and an ecosystem to own and operate their businesses within while allowing them to keep majority ownership of their masters,” a press release reads.

Hoppus is Verswire’s partner of A&R and is also among the mentors who will be partnered with each Verswire signee. Wentz, meanwhile, is a “strategic advisor.”

“I am very excited to help build a new way for bands and artists to create music for communities, while retaining ownership of their work,” Hoppus says.

Wentz adds, “I’ve been a fan of Sherry and the work she’s done for years, and look forward to being part of Verswire’s journey.”

Verswire’s first signing is a band called Beauty School Dropout, who just released a new song called “Assassin.” Hoppus, who mentored the group, appears in the track’s accompanying video, along with Wentz and Paris Jackson.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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Maren Morris, Tim McGraw and Mickey Guyton are among the celebrities who turned to social media to share their shock and horror following a mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school Tuesday. The shooting claimed the lives of 19 children and two adults.

“Imagine you walk down a hall & an entire class…GONE,” wrote Maren, adding that the number of child fatalities amounted to the size of a small school class. “I’ve already lost track of which shooting happened even a year ago. The victim’s families haven’t and never will.”

“There are no words. I’m broken and terrified,” Mickey wrote. “As a mother, when is enough enough.” Mickey and Maren hail from the state where the shooting took place.

Tim posted a lengthy message to his social media, expressing his sorrow for the families who lost children and sharing some of his thoughts on the prevalence of mass shootings in America.

“Divisive rhetoric has done zero to help this problem — it’s only made it worse,” he wrote. “For one minute, let’s set aside our idealistic views and concentrate on the kind of world we want our children to grow up in.”

He added, “This shouldn’t have been acceptable 20 years ago, 4 years ago or one week ago. This SHOULD NOT be acceptable. This is not normal.”

The shooting took place at Robb Elementary School. The 18-year-old suspect, identified by law enforcement sources and Gov. Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead.

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Paula Abdul turns the big 6-0 on June 19 and, ahead of her milestone birthday, the Grammy winner teased how she plans to ring in her special day.

“I’m gonna do something big,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Maybe charter a yacht or go somewhere exotic [and] take some friends.” Although she has lofty goals for her 60th birthday, Paula joked, “Knowing me, I’ll stay home [and] be with my dogs.”

The “Straight Up” singer continued, “I wanna do something fun and something spectacular … Every day we [should] celebrate ourselves. We are above ground. We are living. We are healthy. You know what? We’re celebrating really important things in life.”

Paula also spoke about getting to do something just as fun as celebrating a big birthday — serving as judge on ABC’s upcoming competition series The American Rescue Dog Show. The singer, along with fellow judges Yvette Nicole Brown and Leslie Jordan, will determine which rescue pooch is top dog in categories such as “Best in Snoring.”

“My heart’s gonna be melting [over] the cute factor, of course, and the sweet factor,” she gushed. “I wish I could take all of these dogs home … We will be aww-ing and ooh-ing and oh my God-ing.”

Paula added the show is all the more special to her because she has “rescued dogs for decades” and thinks rescue pets are “so special.”

“I hope that this show actually makes everyone tune in and that everyone adopts a dog. They’re magical. They’re so sensitive to our human feelings and they make everything better,” she raved. “I can’t imagine life without rescuing dogs. I really can’t. I have the coolest rescue dogs.”

The American Rescue Dog Show premieres May 25 on ABC.

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The viral music collective Rockin’1000 has shared a rendition of the Foo Fighters classic “My Hero” in honor of the band’s late drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

The performance, which featured 1,000 musicians playing together simultaneously, took place during a Rockin’1000 concert in Paris earlier this month. You can watch it streaming now on YouTube.

Rockin’1000, of course, has a special connection to Foo Fighters. The project made its debut in 2015 by gathering 1,000 musicians to play the Foos song “Learn to Fly” in an effort to convince Dave Grohl and company to perform a concert in founder Fabio Zaffagnini‘s hometown of Cesena, Italy.

Video of the performance — which now has over 60 million views on YouTube — soon went viral and caught the attention of the Foos themselves; they played a show in Cesena later in 2015.

Rockin’1000 has continued over the past seven years performing concerts around the world and has collaborated with musicians including Courtney Love.

Hawkins passed away on March 25. He was 50 years old.

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