Music

Jack Johnson has announced a new album called Meet the Moonlight.

The eighth studio effort from the “Flake” artist will arrive June 24. You can listen to the lead single “One Step Ahead” now via digital outlets.

“When [producer] Blake [Mills] and I first got in touch we’d send each other playlists, and over time we realized we were drawn to music that sounds effortless despite all the effort put into making it,” Johnson says. “After a while we got a language together and I gained a trust in him that allowed me to let go, push outside my comfort zone, and get to a sound I really loved.”

Meet the Moonlight is Johnson’s first album in five years, following 2017’s All the Light Above It Too. More recently, he teamed up with Milky Chance for the 2020 single “Don’t Let Me Down.”

Johnson will launch a U.S. tour in support of Meet the Moonlight in June. The outing will stretch all the way into October.

Here’s the Meet the Moonlight track list:

“Open Mind”
“3AM Radio”
“Calm Down”
“One Step Ahead”
“Meet the Moonlight”
“Don’t Look Now”
“Costume Party”
“I Tend to Digress”
“Windblown Eyes”
“Any Wonder”

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As if we needed anymore reason to love the “Have Mercy” singer, Grammy-nominated artist Chloe Bailey just released a new music video that’s got everyone on the internet glued to their screens. 

The 23-year-old star is serving major seductive vibes in the Diana Kunst directed video, “Treat Me,” which she released at midnight on Friday. 

Chloe unapologetically shows off her musical versatility in the new visual. She raps, sporting an all-black skin-tight leather look, flexes her vocal abilities in a sexy lingerie two-piece, and shows off her model-like figure in a sparkly, jewel-dripped bikini.

Upon the new single and video’s release, fans on social media celebrated the singer, most of them not surprised by Chloe’s fresh approach to her music. 

“Chloe Bailey absolutely killed it with Treat Me, like I knew she would,” said one user on Twitter. “She DEVOURED the visuals, SHE WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS.”

On Thursday, Chloe teased the video on Instagram and tried to warn us all about the greatness she’d soon drop. “hope y’all are ready,” she wrote.

Not sure if we were, Chloe Bailey, not sure if we were. 

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After teasing it for several months, Lauv is ready to drop his sophomore album and announced its title on Friday, All 4 Nothing.  Also, mark your calendars for August 5 because that’s when it drops.

To mark the milestone announcement, Lauv also released the album’s dreamy lead single, “All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)” and announced he’s heading back on tour.  

The singer said in a statement that his newest track “is a song about loving someone so much at a time in your life when you’re still in the process of learning how to love yourself and being scared how your own personal insecurities could ruin a love that is and could be so genuine and transformative. In essence, it’s a song about surrendering to love and life.”

Lauv also dropped the track’s music video, which takes him to the beach to enjoy falling in love with someone new.  He rolls around in the water and plays various instruments on the sand.  He said in a statement it was “amazing” filming the music video because it “surpassed every dream I could’ve had for shooting a video for this song.”

As for his upcoming tour, it kicks off on August 11 in Minneapolis and will take him across North America’s biggest cities before wrapping September 20 in Seattle. 

Presale tickets become available Monday, April 11, beginning 12 p.m. local time with general tickets going on sale starting Thursday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time on Lauv’s official website.

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Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” domination continues at the upcoming 2022 Billboard Music Awards, where he’s a finalist in six categories.

The singer earned love in genre-specific fields, but he’s seeing all-genre success, too. He’s up for Top Song Sales Artist, Top Selling Song and the new Top Viral Song category. All three mentions are heavily bolstered by “Fancy Like,” which first went viral on TikTok after a video of the singer and his daughter, Lela, dancing to the song amassed over 34.9 million views.

Another major Billboard Music Awards contender is Morgan Wallen, who’s up for four awards. Two of those are in all-genre categories: He’s a finalist for the Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Billboard 200 awards.

Morgan dominated the Billboard 200 in 2021 with his record-breaking Dangerous: The Double Album, despite the fact that he spent much of that year on the sidelines. The singer was benched by the country music industry after video footage emerged of him yelling a racist slur in February, just a month after Dangerous dropped.

Chris Stapleton is also a four-time finalist at the Billboard Music Awards, with all his nominations in country categories. Carrie Underwood’s also got four mentions, thanks both to her country output and her Christian album, My Savior.

Luke Combs earns finalist status in three categories, while Florida Georgia Line, Lee Brice, Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Dan + Shay and Zac Brown Band are finalists, too. Taylor Swift’s name also appears in multiple country categories this year, thanks to the Taylor’s Version of her Fearless and Red albums.

The 2022 Billboard Music Awards will air live from Las Vegas on May 15 on NBC.

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We might have a new celebrity engagement on our hands.  Paparazzi noticed a new accessory on Jennifer Lopez‘s ring finger, sparking rumors she’s engaged to boyfriend Ben Affleck.

TMZ shared the images of what appears to be a chunky diamond ring on J.Lo’s left hand.  The “On the Floor” singer was out shopping with her daughter, Emme, when paps spotted the curious sparkler.  Eyewitnesses add that, once Jennifer was aware she was spotted by the paparazzi, she flipped the ring so the stone faced the inside of her palm.

While it’s currently unknown if Jennifer and Ben are indeed engaged, they recently purchased a $55 million Bel-Air mansion together.  In addition, this would mark their second engagement: The duo famously dated in 2002, sparking the couple name “Bennifer,” and ultimately became engaged before breaking things off in 2004.

They rekindled their romance last summer, following Jennifer’s high-profile split from former fiancé Alex Rodriguez.

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Kelsea Ballerini returns today with a new country-pop jam about the giddy early stages of new love. Called “Heartfirst,” the song recounts meeting a guy at a party and diving into a relationship with arms wide open, even though it might end in heartbreak.

“Could be forever or we might break / That’s just the kind of risk that we take,” Kelsea sings in the song’s chorus. “My head is yelling that I could get hurt / But I’m gonna jump right in / Baby, with my heart first.”

It’s the singer’s first new music of the year, and the follow-up to a very different kind of single: The chart-topping “Half of My Hometown,” an introspective ballad that Kelsea released as a duet with Kenny Chesney.

Before she released the song, Kelsea told fans that “Heartfirst” would be very different than “Half of My Hometown.” “It’s like, a bop: Breezy, windows down, go for a drive, get right,” she explained to E! News on the red carpet of the Grammy Awards earlier this month.

Speaking of awards shows, Kelsea will introduce fans to the live version of “Heartfirst” during next week’s CMT Music Awards, a show she’s also co-hosting with actor Anthony Mackie. Tune in to the show on Monday, April 11 on CBS to watch Kelsea’s performance.

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She’s widely recognized as the first Black woman promoted to head writer of a late-night talk show. She’s acted, done comedy, both professionally and personally, and even hosted her own late-night show. But multifaceted entertainer Robin Thede says her current project, HBO‘s A Black Lady Sketch Show, is “100 percent” the thing she’s most proud of.

Ahead of season three’s premiere Friday, Thede told ABC Audio that the purpose of the Emmy-winning sketch comedy series is to serve as a safe space for Black women, like co-stars Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black and Skye Townsend, to “play” and be unapologetically themselves.

Creating it as such, of course meant employing Black women only, to help bring the project to life.

“People are always like the cast is predominantly Black women, the writers are predominantly [Black women]. I’m like no, it’s all Black women, all the time,” Thede said, setting the record straight.

One of the many ways her mission to elevate the Black voice was always evident was through the guest stars Thede invited on set. With appearances from actors and entertainers such as Michael Ealy, Ava DuVernay and Kel Mitchell, Thede admittedly aimed to up the ante with this season’s line up.

“[I want this to be a safe place] for all of these amazing guest stars to come in and be able to play and know that they’re going to be taken care of every year,” she said, adding that Janet Jackson, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy all have an open invitation to play when they’re ready.

Thede says her main goal for A Black Lady Sketch Show‘s six-episode new season was simply to top what she’s done in seasons past. “I know that we’ve done that this season. I’m so excited,” she said.

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Machine Gun Kelly, Twenty One Pilots and Glass Animals are among the nominees for the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.

All three will compete for the Top Rock Artist prize, alongside Måneskin and Imagine Dragons.

The Top Rock Album nominees are Twenty One Pilots’ Scaled and Icy, Imagine Dragons’ Mercury — Act 1, AJR‘s OK ORCHESTRA, Coldplay‘s Music of the Spheres and John Mayer‘s Sob Rock.

In the Top Rock Song category, the contenders are Måneskin’s “Beggin’,” Imagine Dragons’ “Follow You,” Coldplay and BTS‘ “My Universe,” The Anxiety, WILLOW and Tyler Cole‘s “Meet Me at Our Spot” and, surprisingly, country stars Elle King and Miranda Lambert‘s “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”

Rock dominates the all-genre Top Tour category, with nominees including Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer‘s Hella Mega tour, The Rolling Stones‘ No Filter tour, Eagles‘ Hotel California tour and Genesis‘ The Last Domino? tour, as well as Harry Styles‘ Love on Tour.

Hella Mega, No Filter and The Last Domino? are the nominees in the dedicated Top Rock Tour category.

Other nominees include Glass Animals and Imagine Dragons for Top Duo/Group, and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” for Top Streaming Song and Top Viral Song.

The 2022 BBMAs will air live May 15 on NBC. The winners will be decided based on Billboard chart figures for the tracking period between March 26, 2021, through March 17, 2022.

For more info, visit Billboard.com.

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Bullet for My Valentine has dropped a new single called “Omen.”

The track, which is available now via digital outlets, will appear on the upcoming deluxe version of the Welsh metal outfit’s 2021 self-titled album, due out July 8.

“Omen” is one of four previously unreleased tracks included on the deluxe, along with “No More Tears,” “Step Out from the Inside,” and “This Means War.” The expanded set also includes the song “Stitches,” which had previously only been available in Japan.

The original Bullet for My Valentine dropped last November. It includes the singles “Knives” and “Rainbow Veins.”

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