Music

Bad news for ARMY. BTS has scrapped plans for their world tour.

Variety reports the group’s label, Big Hit Music, confirmed the news on its Weverse fan platform.

“Our company has worked hard to resume preparations for the BTS Map of the Soul Tour, knowing that all fans have been waiting eagerly and long for the tour,” the statement reads.  “Due to changing circumstances beyond our control, it has become difficult to resume performances at the same scale and timeline as previously planned.”

The tour was originally planned for April 2020, but was put on hold due to the pandemic. The label suggests they are looking into different ways of giving fans a BTS performance experience.

“We are working to prepare a viable schedule and performance format that can meet your expectations, and we will provide updated notices as soon as possible,” the statement says.

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Demi Lovato announced recently they are non-binary and changed their pronouns to they/them. However, that doesn’t mean that the “Confident” singer will always identify that way. 

Appearing at The 19th Represents Summit, Demi opened up about their gender, sharing that it’s “a journey forever.” 

“There might be a time where I identify as trans. I don’t know what this looks like for me,” they candidly stated. “There might be a time where I identify as non-binary and gender nonconforming my entire life. Or maybe there’s a period of time when I get older that I identify as a woman, I don’t know what that looks like, but for me, in this moment right now, this is how I identify.”

“And I have a feeling that it’s not going to ever go back to one way or the other, but… it’s about keeping it open and free,” Demi added. “I’m a very fluid person, and so that goes with how I express myself as well.”

The “Tell Me You Love Me” powerhouse also revealed that the pandemic and the demise of their relationship with Max Ehrich was “probably the best thing that’s happened to me” and acted as a catalyst for them.

“I was able to stand on my own two feet without needing someone else to validate me or to make me feel accepted. And when I said goodbye to that relationship, I also said goodbye to everything that was holding me back from being my most authentic self,” Demi shared.

“I really started to identify with close friends and family as non-binary towards the end of last year,” they continued. “And yeah, it was the dissolvement [sic] of all things that had held me back from identifying as the person I do today.”

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Lorde‘s third studio effort, Solar Power, is finally here! 

The album dropped Friday, and its timing couldn’t be more perfectly tied to the season. The 24-year-old’s tunes are a medley that channels the beach, the ocean, and just the great outdoors. In other words, it’s the perfect album to kick back, relax, and enjoy on a summer day. 

Solar Power boasts 12 tracks including the previously released title track, “Solar Power,” as well as “Mood Ring” and “Stoned at the Nail Salon.” 

Of the album itself, Lorde says that it’s “a celebration of the natural world,” and “an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors.”

“In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers,” she adds. “I’ve learned to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through.”

In addition to a CD, the New Zealand native is releasing Solar Power in a brand-new disc-less format. Dubbed “Music Box,” the format features extra visual content, handwritten notes, photos and a download card that includes the album, two bonus tracks and access to what are described as “special surprises.”

“I decided early on in the process of making this album that I also wanted to create an environmentally kind, forward-thinking alternative to the CD,” Lorde shared in a statement. “I wanted this Music Box product to be similar in size, shape and price to a CD, to live alongside it in a retail environment, but be something which stands apart and that’s committed to the evolving nature of a modern album.”

Lorde also announced that she will be kicking off a world tour in 2022. For full tour dates, visit Lorde.co.nz.

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Shawn Mendes provided fans a sweet look at how he spent quarantine with girlfriend Camila Cabello in his new single “Summer of Love,” which he released Friday. 

The dreamy new track and its accompanying beachy music video arrived just as the sun is beginning to set on summer.

The song opens with Mendes musing about how he and his love would spend the day “tangled in the sheets until the evening” because “there was nowhere to go” before launching into the bouncy chorus that described how those months of solitude enriched him.

“It was the summer of love/ A delicate daydream/ And for a couple of months/ It felt like we were 18/ It was the summer of/ La-la-love,” the three-time Grammy nominee croons over the playful beat.

Mendes, 23, also revealed in the track that he filled his days with “meditation and tequila” and “calling you my señorita” — a throwback to his and Cabello’s steamy 2019 track.

In the sun-kissed music video, Mendes bumps up the nostalgia by palling around Mallorca, Spain, with his group of friends where activities include lounging on a boat, splashing around in the ocean and dancing in a night club.

“Summer of Love” also features reggaetón producer Tainy, whose resume includes producing hits for well-known Latin singers such as Bad Bunny and J Balvin.

Mendes is promoting “Summer of Love” as a non-album single.  His last effort, Wonder, arrived last December.  Plans for a fifth album have yet to be announced.

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For Thomas Rhett, his latest hit, “Country Again,” represents coming back to his roots in more ways than one.

The former ACM Entertainer of the Year confesses the inspiration came after a particularly difficult period, when he was “freaking out,” not knowing what to do since he couldn’t tour or make music, about a month after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My wife [Lauren] was like, ‘Honey, I think you have to just realize that you can’t do this right now. So maybe why don’t you just take a step back and live some life and then go try to write again?'” TR recalls. “And so I literally didn’t write a song for almost two months, which is the longest I’ve ever gone, I think, in my whole life.”

“And when I came back, the very first song I wrote was ‘Country Again,'” he reveals.

That also unleashed the floodgates for a double album, which begins with Country Again: Side A.

“Songs just kind of started flowing out of me,” TR explains. “And I think the writers were kind of on board with this vision.”

“And I think for the first time in a long time,” he continues, “I just was like, ‘What do I want to say? What do I want to write? If this had nothing to do with anything in the world, what would I say if nobody was in here?’ And these are some of the songs that just kind of flowed out of that.”

“And it was a really fun way to, just to be creative and write songs,” he adds.

The Country Again: Side A collection also includes his previous #1, “What’s Your Country Song,” with the new track, “Redneck Be Like,” presumably offering a glimpse into Side B.

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Yungblud has dropped a new single called “Fleabag.”

The grungy track will not only remind you of the acclaimed TV series starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but also Kurt Cobain‘s yelps on Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Heart-Shaped Box.”

“I wrote ‘Fleabag’ in a really dark time of my life, when a lot of people around me had an expectation about what I should be,” Yungblud explains. “To tell you the truth, it’s about being f***ing gutted about people judging me and trying to tear me down. I felt so alienated, I felt so alone.”

He continues, “This song is a kick back. A kick back against the world, a kick back against my friends, against my family and some of my fanbase. I am who I am, all I want to do is spread love and lead with my heart. I’ve always told people to be themselves, sometimes I have to remember that message myself.”

You can download “Fleabag” now via digital outlets.

“Fleabag” follows Yungblud’s sophomore album, Weird!, which dropped last December.

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After 6- and 7-year-old sisters were shot sitting in a car earlier this week in Chicago, one fatally, Lil Durk wants the violence to end in his hometown.

“This needs to change and ASAP,” the “Viral Moment” rapper said, according to My Mixtapez.com. “I be willing to help, but some higher power act like they just don’t care,” he added.

According to ABC Chicago affiliate WLS-TV, 250 kids have been shot in the city this year, with 32 losing their life.

As previously reported, Durk and his girlfriend, India Cox, were nearly victims of gunfire last month. Armed intruders attempted to break into their Braselton, Georgia home. The couple had guns to defend themselves and were involved in a shootout. Fortunately, they were not hurt.

Now the two-time Grammy nominee is looking forward to performing at the tenth anniversary of Jay-Z’s Made in America festival Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. He’s also up for two MTV VMAs September 12 in New York City: Best Collaboration and Best Hip-Hop for “Laugh Now Cry Later,” with Drake.

Lil Durk speaks on the violence in Chicago 🗣 pic.twitter.com/e6EW5x4Zp3

— My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) August 17, 2021

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Britney Spears is under investigation for alleged battery stemming from an altercation with an employee, according to Capt. Eric Buschow of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

An employee filed a complaint after Spears allegedly struck them during a dispute on Monday morning, Buschow said, adding that the employee was not injured.

The sheriff’s office will forward their findings to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of misdemeanor charges. A source from the sheriff’s office added that this is a very minor case.

“This is overblown sensational tabloid fodder — nothing more than a ‘he said she said’ regarding a cell phone, with no striking and obviously no injury whatsoever,” Spears’ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, told ABC News. “Anyone can make an accusation but this should have been closed immediately.”

Recently, Spears, 39, has been focused on ousting her father, Jamie Spears, from the conservatorship that has governed her life since 2008. Last week, Jamie Spears filed court documents stating that he would be willing to resign as conservator of his daughter’s estate, even though he believes it is “highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. [Britney] Spears’ best interests.”

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