Music

Love & Hip Hop: Miami is back — and so is Amara La Negra! The Afro-Latina has returned to the series for season four and she tells ABC Audio what keeps her coming back.

“These checks,” she says with a laugh before revealing, “I feel like Love & Hip Hop is home.”

Sharing that the show “opened up major doors,” the Dominican-American singer adds that she loves being on Love & Hip Hop: Miami because she can share who she is a person and promote new things she has going on in her life. That includes new music, which she says is on the horizon. 

“You’re going to see new music, new music videos and everything now,” Amara shares. “I’ve just been holding on to it waiting for the show to come out so I could be like ‘Look at this!'”

Speaking of new music, the Love & Hip Hop cast is full of other talented artists… So who would she want to collaborate with if given the chance? Amara picked Spice, from Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, another branch of the franchise. 

“From the show… I am the biggest fan of Spice,” she gushes. “I love Spice. I love what she stands for. I love her body. I love that she’s a beautiful Black chocolate woman. I love that she’s an amazing mother. I love her positivity. I love who she is.”

Amara adds, “And also there’s that Caribbean energy… If I had the possibility of collaborating with her I would love that.” 

Love & Hip Hop Miami airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on VH1.

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After sending social media into a frenzy when she went platinum blonde, Billie Eilish has changed her hair yet again.

The singer unveiled a brand new chop Monday on her Instagram Story. She’s now rocking a shaggy blonde bob.

Billie posted some old photos of her mom sporting a similar hairstyle, captioning one of the pics, “Like my mama.” She also posted a short video clip of her tousling the new ‘do, writing, “I love it.”

Of course, fans were instantly obsessed.

“Billie Eilish cut off her hair like she cut off her exes,” one fan tweeted. Another wrote, “BILLIE EILISH WITH THIS MARILYN MONROE STYLE HAIR FOR THE MET GALA????????????? GOODBYE.”

Yet another added, “that one women who breaks the internet just by cutting her hair: BILLIE EILISH.”

This week, Billie’s album Happier than Ever topped the Billboard 200 chart for the third week. She leads an all-female top three on the chart, along with Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo, marking the first time that’s happened in over 10 years.

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Lauren Daigle‘s latest single, “Hold On to Me,” is doing well, but it remains to be seen if it can match the record-breaking success of “You Say.” Lauren says she doesn’t expect a repeat — and that’s O.K.

“You Say,” released three years ago last month, topped numerous Billboard charts, including Adult Top 40, Adult Contemporary and Hot Christian Songs.  On the latter, it stayed at number one for an astonishing 129 weeks.  In fact, it was the first song to spend 100 or more weeks on any Billboard chart, ever.

“That was a one and done, probably,” Laure laughs. “I mean, unless there’s other plans out there, I have no idea if that will ever happen again. That’s why you have to revel in the moment when it happens.”

“Being present is so…rich because moments will pass you by and you’ll realize, ‘OK, I missed out on the joy of what that moment had. And now I’m longing for that moment in a different season,'” she cautions. “And it just doesn’t work out.”

Lauren, who’ll kick off a world tour on September 24, says for her, that’s the only way to approach any sort of overwhelming achievement.

“Being present and really reveling in, like, the ‘Wow, I can’t believe that happened,’ because it may never happen again,” she says. “But hopefully, fingers crossed, you wish for the best!” 

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Today, August 24, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Rolling Stones‘ classic 1981 album Tattoo You.

Tattoo You spent nine consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 in the fall of ’81, holding the top spot on the chart longer than any other Stones album.

Tattoo You featured three singles that reached the Billboard Hot 100’s top 20 — “Start Me Up,” “Waiting on a Friend” and “Hang Fire,” which peaked at #2, #13 and #20, respectively.

Respected music journalist and author Alan Light tells ABC Audio that many people consider Tattoo You to be “the last great Rolling Stones album,” while noting that it’s “such a funny and odd project” in the band’s history.

What made Tattoo You unusual was that it was put together from unfinished outtakes that The Rolling Stones had recorded during various sessions throughout the 1970s and that the band revisited to complete for the album.

Because of this, ex-Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who left the group in late 1974, actually appears on two of the record’s tracks.

Tattoo You also features contributions from a variety of guest musicians, including keyboardists Nicky Hopkins, Ian Stewart and Billy Preston, founding Santana percussionist Michael Carabello, The Who‘s Pete Townshend and legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

Townshend sang backing vocals on the song “Slave,” while Rollins delivered a memorable solo on “Waiting on a Friend,” and also played on “Slave” and “Neighbors.”

To date, Tattoo You has sold over 4 million copies in the U.S. As announced last week, The Rolling Stones will release a 40th anniversary reissue of the album on October 22. The reissue’s deluxe versions will feature nine previously unreleased tracks from that period to which the band has added new vocals and guitar.

Here’s Tattoo You‘s original track list:

“Start Me Up”
“Hang Fire”
“Slave”
“Little T&A”
“Black Limousine”
“Neighbours”
“Worried About You”
“Tops”
“Heaven”
“No Use in Crying”
“Waiting on a Friend”

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TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne is opening up about the impact of publicly coming out as gay, saying that his life has changed in “a lot of ways.” 

“I didn’t realize what a sense of purpose it would bring to my life to be here. I didn’t realize how much it would resonate with some people,” TJ told CBS Sunday Morning, appearing alongside brother John Osborne.    

After host Gayle King shared a tweet from a mother citing the duo as a role model for her teen son, who has depression and anxiety and recently came out to her, the singer admits he didn’t initially consider how being open about his sexuality would relate to parents of queer youth “and how that would really help them to be able to help their relationship. That was something that never dawned on me,” he expressed. 

TJ also met a fan at a recent show who shared a heartfelt message with him. “I want to thank you for making a safe space for people like me to come the show,” the fan told him.

“And I thought ‘to me, that is worth more than anything,'” said TJ.

Brothers Osborne continue on their We’re Not for Everyone Tour through November 20.

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Tetrarch has premiered the video for “Stitch Me Up,” a track off the band’s new album, Unstable.

The clip finds the “I’m Not Right” outfit performing in a high school gym where one student is dressed like the Batman villain Scarecrow and is shunned by the rest of his classmates.

“The theme of this video is kind of about being an outcast in your everyday life,” says guitarist Diamond Rowe. “You can sometimes feel like a complete freak when it seems like no one else sees things the same way that you do or has common interests, but finally meeting up with people that are like you can make you feel safe and whole.”

You can watch the “Stitch Me Up” video streaming now on YouTube.

Unstable was released in April. It also includes the single “You Never Listen.”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

SZA surprised her fans Sunday with three new songs, which she described on Twitter as “Dumping random thoughts.”

The Oscar and Grammy nominee shared the new tracks on an anonymous Soundcloud account, and tweeted that her astrologer reader, known on Twitter on Messiah of Astrology, “made me do it.”

On the first song, “Nightbird,” SZA begs her lover to “please spend the night. I only have you for a short time,” followed by the midtempo “I Hate You” about a relationship filled joy and pain. The trio of tunes ends with “Joni,” a tender acoustic guitar ballad.

Two months ago, 30-year-old SZA collaborated with SAINt JHN on the love song “Just for Me,” from the Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack, and prior to that, in April, she teamed up with Doja Cat for “Kiss Me More.”

SZA’s last solo single, “Good Days,” was released on Christmas 2020. Its been four years since she dropped her double platinum debut album, 2017’s Ctrl.

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