Music

Just hours after he scored his first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, The Kid LAROI won two ARIA Awards, the Australian equivalent of the Grammys.

The Australian rapper was named Best Artist, and also scored the Best Pop Release award for “Stay,” his hit collaboration with Justin Bieber. 

While accepting his Best Artist award, LAROI, born Charlton Howard, said, “How good is Australian music? It’s incredible that I’m getting this much love, especially from home. That means to world to me.”

He added, “Starting this, all I wanted to do was just bring up the culture, and show the world how Australian music was. Shout-out to every one of you guys out there who’s been supporting it. I’ll be back next year on tour and I can’t wait to see you guys. I love you.”

LAROI was presented with the award by Australian journalist Brooke Boney, who, like LAROI, is Kamilaroi, one of the four largest Indigenous nations of Australia.  Earlier this month, LAROI was also named Best Artist at Australia’s National Indigenous Music Awards.

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Lady Gaga‘s previous collaboration with Tony Bennett, the album Cheek to Cheek, won them a Grammy, so it’s no surprise that their new joint album, Love for Sale, has been nominated as well.

Well, it’s a surprise to Gaga, evidently.

Reacting to the news that the project — which has been announced as Bennett’s final album — received six Grammy nominations on Tuesday, Gaga wrote on Instagram, “I am stunned and shocked and beyond grateful. I don’t know what to say. I just keep crying and am utterly speechless. This means so much to me, @itstonybennett, the Bennetts, my family, jazz music, and the great Cole Porter who wrote all these timeless classics.”

Gaga also said she congratulated Bennett, who has Alzheimer’s, on the nominations and revealed, “He could track every word I was saying and understood the world was celebrating him and celebrating jazz — a genre that embodies the joy, abundance and imagination of Black music throughout history.”

“This album happened because it was Tony’s idea and I made him a promise that we would make it and we did,” she continued. “At 95 years old, he has more nominations than ever, I’m so honored to be his companion in music and his friend.”

“Believe in love and partnership, even with 60 years between us, and Alzheimer’s, there is nothing like the magic of music,” Gaga concluded. “I love you Tony, and the world loves you too. How could they not?”

Love for Sale was nominated for Album of the Year and Traditional Pop Album of the Year, while “I Get a Kick Out of You,” one of its tracks, is up for Record of the Year, among other categories.

The Grammys will air January 31 on CBS.

 

 

 

 

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Move over, Drake, Adele‘s taking over! The British singer’s fourth studio effort, 30, now holds the title for biggest U.S. album debut of 2021.

Adele released the highly anticipated album on November 19, and according to Billboard, initial MRC Data reveals she racked up more than 660,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in just three days. The massive feat surpasses the September 3 release of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which launched with 613,000 earned units for the week ending September 9.  

Not only did the “Easy On Me” singer beat out Drake, she also beat out the previous year’s best-seller: Taylor Swift‘s evermore, which sold 462,000 copies in 2020. 

The official MRC Data won’t be reported until Sunday, November 28, but with sales like that, it’d be no surprise if Adele landed atop the Billboard 200 album chart as well. If so, that would earn Adele her third number-one album, after 2015’s 25 and 2010’s 21.

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Reba McEntire is a self-professed Christmas movie fan, so it’s only natural that she’s starring in one herself.

The country legend teams up with Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider in the original Lifetime movie, Reba McEntire’s Christmas In Tune, which sees the two portraying Georgia and Joe Winter, a former husband-and-wife duo who are forced to reunite when their daughter asks them to perform at a Christmas concert. 

Turns out, the “Fancy” singer is a Christmas movie fanatic and is excited to launch the holiday season with her own production. 

“I love Christmas movies. I watch them all year long if I can find one,” she professes. “John Schneider was so much fun to work with. We’re kicking Christmas off in grand style on Lifetime.” 

And while the two stars were walking in a winter wonderland on set, Reba reveals that getting into the holiday spirit took some extra effort, seeing as they filmed in the heat of summer. Despite the blazing temperatures, the superstar singer says the film supplies plenty of holiday cheer.  

“We filmed it in June. It was hot, as you can imagine. Even when we were inside, the air conditioning couldn’t keep us cool enough with all of our scarves and sweaters and things like that on, we were sweating up a storm,” she describes. “But it’s a sweet movie, and I hope everybody enjoys it.” 

Christmas in Tune premieres on Lifetime on November 26 at 8 p.m. ET.

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Lady Gaga is already getting Oscar buzz for her role in Ridley Scott‘s House of Gucci, which opens today. The film is based on the true story of Patrizia Reggiani, who hired a hit man to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci — and Gaga says it’s quite the emotional journey.

“I think that this movie is a really wild ride,” she tells ABC News. “It’s a drama, but it’s also a dark comedy, so if you’re looking to laugh, it’s great to go to the theater and see it. And also…I think it’s a really powerful story.”

Gaga feels the movie is really about how women are sometimes taught that they have no value unless a man loves them — and what happens if that loves ends.

“The Guccis…were so focused on the money and the business that they were blind to the thing that they should’ve been paying attention to, which was the disaster that was [Patrizia],” Gaga says.

“She was disposed of by the family…She was not treated like she mattered. She was treated like she lost her looks and was not valuable,” Gaga continues. “And had they not been so focused on their privilege, they would have noticed that a murder was just about to take place.”

Gaga says she was hesitant at first to play a real person because Patrizia has two daughters — but also because of the way Patrizia had been portrayed in the media.

“I was not interested in playing a stereotypical, sexy gold-digging woman that was after his money,” she explains.

She adds, “That’s not what the truth was. And I remember I sat down with Ridley and [he] said to me, ‘You know, they were really in love.’ And I said, ‘O.K., I’m going to run with that.’ And I did.”

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If your family board game nights could use a little more heavy metal, Metallica is here to help.

The “Enter Sandman” legends have launched their own edition of the classic mystery-deducing game Clue. However, instead of trying to solve the who, where and how of a murder, players are tasked with finding a missing piece of valuable recording equipment.

“Picture this: The band and crew are back at HQ to record Metallica’s next album, but with all the excitement, a key piece of equipment has gone missing!” the game’s description reads. “As the hours tick by, the group grows more and more eager to begin. They decide to split up and scour the building for any trace of their missing equipment.”

Your goal is to “find out WHAT piece has gone missing, WHERE it’s hiding, and WHO finds it so the recording session can get back on track!”

Metallica Clue costs $49.99, and is available now via the band’s web store.

By the way, if Clue isn’t your board game of choice, perhaps you’d be more interested in Metallica Monopoly.

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Lizzo is performing her first concert in two years on December 4 during Art Basel week in Miami, and the “Truth Hurts” singer-rapper says you can expect her to be wild at the show.

“Doing this at Art Basel really inspired me and my team to just get weird,” Lizzo tells Rolling Stone. “I feel like we have the opportunity to just step outside of our comfort zones and make something super interactive, and I’ve never done anything like this before.”

The three-time Grammy winner says she’s raring to hit the stage in front of an audience again after the pandemic forced her to put performing live on hold.

“[Zoom] isn’t the same because I don’t get to touch people,” she says. “It’s got to be moving and sweating.”

She adds, “I’m a little rusty but I’m so excited to be back on stage because this is where I belong. Live music and connecting with people — this is what it’s all about.”

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old entertainer attended Adele‘s One Night Only concert recently in Los Angeles, and was amazed by the British star.

“When you hear her voice? Everyone in the room gets goosebumps; everyone in the room’s eyes tear up; everyone in the room can feel it,” Lizzo says. “I love having visceral experiences like that, with musicians who kind of transcend the song and who are an incredible presence. These are singers with voices that truly touch your heart.”

Lizzo’s Unstaged concert can be viewed online via LIVE-Now.com on December 4.

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After you’re done with your turkey this Thanksgiving, why not join Alana Haim for a slice of Licorice Pizza?

The youngest of the HAIM sisters makes her acting film debut in the new movie, directed by Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. In addition to following the love story of its two central characters, played by Haim and Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Licorice Pizza is a love letter to the San Fernando Valley of Southern California.

“It’s a Valley story,” Haim tells ABC Audio. “I mean, I’m a Valley girl through-and-through, I grew up in the Valley, born-and-raised in Valley Village.”

Being that her only previous acting gig was playing the Wicked Witch of the West in an art school production of Wizard of Oz — “That did not prepare me for this experience,” she quips — Haim felt she was jumping “head-first into the deep end” while “learning on the job.” Helping her do that was Anderson, who Haim calls “the most incredible director.”

“There were times where scenes weren’t working, and instead of just cutting them, moving on, Paul would ask me, ‘What would you do in this scene?'” Haim shares. “Or there would be times where I would tell him, ‘I have an idea,’ and he would get super excited and be, like, ‘Go, go, go, go, go! Go do your idea!'”

As for the movie itself, Haim assures that you’ll “feel happy” leaving the theater.

“That’s the best part of it,” she says. “I’m a Sagittarius, I like making people feel happy.”

Licorice Pizza opens in select theaters this Friday. It premieres wide Christmas Day.

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Bloc Party has announced a new album called Alpha Games.

The first studio effort from the U.K. alt rockers in six years will arrive on April 29, 2022. You can listen to the first single, titled “Traps,” now via digital outlets.

“Alpha Games was conceived on the road, playing in front of amazing crowds on our last tour and then brought to life with the fire and the frustrations of 2020,” says frontman Kele Okereke.

Bloc Party’s most recent album is 2016’s Hymns.

Here’s the Alpha Games track list:

“Day Drinker”
“Traps”
“You Should Know the Truth”
“Callum Is a Snake”
“Rough Justice”
“The Girls Are Fighting”
“Of Things Yet to Come”
“Sex Magik”
“By Any Means Necessary”
“In Situ”
“If We Get Caught”
“The Peace Offering”

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