Florence and the Machine performs live on stage in Milan. Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
The Florence + the Machine plot thickens.
On Monday, frontwoman Florence Welchshared a video of her furiously digging a hole and then yelling into the abyss below. Now, she’s dropped another mysterious clip, this time focusing on two tattoos on the back of her legs as she walks in red heels.
As for what all this means, fans are hoping that new Florence + the Machine music is imminent — although the comments on the latest video are more about how disconcerting it is to see Welch wearing heels, as she often performs live barefoot.
The most recent Florence + the Machine album is 2022’s Dance Fever. Since then, Welch has guested on songs from Taylor Swift and The Weeknd.
SZA is seen at The Carlyle Hotel on May 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by The Hapa Blonde/GC Images)
SZA‘s love of Vans has resulted in a multi-year partnership with the brand. The singer has been tapped as Vans’ first artistic director, a role that will require her to bring her vision into the reimagining of campaigns and the creation of exclusive collections.
“I’ve been wearing Knu Skools and other styles for years, they’ve always had an ethos I connect with,” she says in a statement. “As Artistic Director, my mission is to show that joy, community, creativity, and fashion are all still intersectional. That humanity, culture, and connection are still the access points.”
“I’ve learned that bravery and curiosity are the cures for uncertainty, it’s a lifestyle and Vans champions that spirit,” she continues. “They stand where I stand, and I’m honored to invite a whole bunch of people to stand Off the Wall with us.”
For SZA’s debut campaign, photographed by Sophie Jones, she rocks the classic Vans Knu Skools, capturing the “ethos of skate culture,” which she tells Vogue includes “a lot of perseverance, trying and failing.”
“I have this yearn to bring things back to deeply human spaces—AI is making me feel weird. What I’m noticing is that people are yearning to escape—to go into nature and the wilderness,” she tells the mag. “I feel like nature has poor marketing: I want to be part of the best marketing that nature could have, and be the best marketing for corny, cringey humanity.”
She saysshe’ll creatively go as far as she can when it comes to designing, noting, “I’m still a novice, but I know color, and I know silhouette.” She says she also plans to keep the sneakers affordable.
“I love cool, comfy things that don’t have a sprinkle of exclusion or elitism,” SZA says. “I’m not trying to make Vans into Bottega Veneta. I just want people to feel excited about being active.”
Demi Lovato‘s surprise appearance at the Aug. 10 Jonas Brothers concert in New Jersey apparently had fans deep in their Camp Rock nostalgia feels. Billboardreports that after Demi joined the brothers onstage to perform “This is Me” and “Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” streams of those two songs saw big increases. “This is Me” went from 41,000 streams to 167,000 the day after the concert, and 179,00 streams the following day. “Wouldn’t Change a Thing” went from 22,000 streams to 167,000 the day after, and then to 180,000 the next day.
BLACKPINK‘s LISA has released a short film for “Dream,” a song from her solo album, Alter Ego. The video stars LISA and actor Kentaro Sakaguchi, who play out a story of love and loss, as LISA looks back on memories of her ex.
Hip-hop icon LL COOL J will host the MTV Video Music Awards, airing Sept. 7 live from the UBS Arena in Queens, New York. It’ll be the first time the rapper, who won his first VMA in 1991, has hosted the show solo; he previously co-hosted in 2022 with Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow.
A new trailer has dropped for Fairyland, a new movie that features Adam Lambert in a supporting role. It stars Scoot McNairy as a gay man raising his daughter as a single father in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis. Geena Davis, Emilia Jones and Maria Bakalova also star.
Valerie Bertinelli & Eddie Van Halen (Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage)
Rocker Eddie Van Halen is being remembered in a new post by his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli.
“Some days I really do miss you,” she writes in the post on Instagram, next to a black-and-white photo of them smiling together. “There will always be a loud absence in these gratifying sideline years.”
Bertinelli writes of missing being able to talk to the guitar great about their son, Mammoth frontman Wolfgang Van Halen.
“Who do I yap to when there was really only one person I could talk to about Wolfie the way that we did? The pride we both felt. Still feel,” she writes. “I’m grateful for where we landed. Through the ups and the downs to still alight where we did is a blessing.”
She adds about their son, “You’d be so proud of Wolf. I know we’d be screaming together in the stands watching him on stage. Seeing who could whistle the loudest. I will never not miss being able to experience that with you.”
Eddie and Valerie wed in 1981, separated in 2001 and divorced in 2007. They had Wolfgang, their only child, in 1991. Eddie died in October 2020 at the age of 65.
Cardi B attends the Maison Margiela Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025/2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on July 09, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Cardi B is defending Tyla amidst the ongoing criticism she has faced from people on the internet. She addressed the topic during a recent X Spaces while discussing some of the “straight up disrespectful” comments she has received.
“Look at Tyla,” Cardi said. “People been dragging the s*** out of Tyla and it’s like, the girl don’t even f****** address or talk about nothing. I’m starting to feel that people just don’t like celebrities. It’s like the only way that people like celebrities [is] if you don’t f****** say nothing at all.”
Cardi said she doesn’t understand why Tyla has been targeted.
“[What] I do know is every single time I scroll down on my TikTok, there’s a video of her and people are talking s*** and it’s like, godd***, what do you want her to f****** do, cut her f****** veins? Like, enough. Enough,” Cardi said.
Tyla has been on the receiving end of negative social media comments for reasons including her ethnic identity and her past refusal to discuss it on The Breakfast Club.
“Me choosing not to say anything, I’m happy that I didn’t,” Tyla told British Vogue. “I didn’t want to explain my culture and something that is really important to me on a platform that is just going to be purposefully misconstrued. I’ve explained it a lot of times before, but people took that and put words in my mouth. They said a whole bunch of things that I never said and ran with it.”
In other Cardi B news, she is set to release her new single, “Imaginary Players,” on Friday. She shared a preview of the song on Instagram Thursday, confirming it samples Jay-Z‘s homonymous song. The song previews her upcoming album, Am I the Drama?
Kenny Loggins performs in Santa Barbara, CA in March 2025 (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
It’s really not such a long way to go to make it to the border of Mexico — and once you’re there, you can enjoy a concert by Christopher Cross and his yacht rock cohort.
Sunset Fest Cabo, taking place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, from Oct. 24 through Oct. 26, is being described as a “three-day celebration of yacht rock, ocean breezes and luxury lifestyle.” In addition to Christopher Cross, the festival will feature performances from Kenny Loggins, Rick Springfield, Alan Parsons, Ambrosia and Pablo Cruise.
Plus, Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass — the guy who wrote and sang “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” — is on the bill, along with Walter Egan of “Magnet and Steel” fame and John Ford Coley of England Dan & John Ford Coley. More acts are still to be announced.
On top of the music, the festival includes food and beverage experiences, parties, the usual resort activities at a variety of hotels and even a VIP yacht club experience. Tickets are on sale now at sunsetfestcabo.com.
Country Music Hall of Famer Connie Smith will celebrate her 60th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry Aug. 20, with performances by her husband, Marty Stuart, plus Vince Gill, Chris Janson and more. Connie and the late Jean Shepard are the only female artists in history to mark the milestone.
Sesame Street stars Elmo and Abby Cadabby are set to make their Grand Ole Opry debut on Friday as part of the institution’s 100th birthday celebration.
Luke Bryan‘s 2015 album, Kill the Lights, will be available on special-edition light blue vinyl Nov. 14 to mark the milestone record’s 10th anniversary.
Deep Purple is set to release a new super deluxe edition of their 1972 live album Made in Japan on Friday, and they are giving fans a way to enjoy it together.
The band is set to host a special Made in Japan listening party on YouTube Friday, where fans will get to experience producer Steven Wilson‘sstereo remix of the album. The party starts at 3 p.m. ET.
The album features performances from two shows in Osaka and one in Tokyo. The new super deluxe edition of the record is a five-CD/Blu-Ray set that includes the new stereo and Dolby ATMOS mixes of the original album by Wilson, as well as newly remixed versions of all three concerts and three rare single edits.
The set will also be released digitally and as a 10-LP black vinyl edition, which will be exclusively available on DeepPurple.com and Rhino.com. There will also be a two-LP vinyl edition featuring the Wilson remix, available in the U.S. on Oct. 3.
Live in Japan featured performances of songs from Deep Purple’s then-new album Machine Head, including their now-classic “Smoke on the Water,” as well as “Child in Time” and “Strange Kind of Woman.”
The double LP was supposed to come out only in Japan, but eventually got a wider release. It was released in America that December and was a huge success. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
T.I. gave fans a glimpse of his anniversary trip to Thailand celebrating 15 years of marriage to his wife, Tiny. He shared an Instagram Reel of their time in Phucket, where they overlooked the ocean, enjoyed a lobster dinner and swam.
“For 15 years we been vibin in holy matrimony, in love all over the world…To The Love of my Life. My BFF ta’death @majorgirl,” T.I. captioned the post. “Somehow Forever don’t seem long enough for us, but Phucket, Thailand seemed adequate for this anniversary, seeing as how you’ve been talking about going for so long… & Yessirski a time was had!!!”
In her own post, Tiny praised her husband for the way he’s treated her over the years. “Baby u set the bar so high on just how hard u love me, protect me, take care of me & more importantly was willing to be the best man for me for us to make it where we are today,” she wrote. “Love really wins when both parties fight for each other thru the tough times.”
T.I. and Tiny started dating in 2001 and got married in 2010. They share three children, Clifford “King” Harris, Major Harris and HeiressHarris. T.I.’s children Messiah Harris, Domani Harris and Deyjah Harris are from previous relationships, as is Tiny’s daughter Zonnique Pullins.
Taylor Swift, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ cover image (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot)
We’re not sure when Taylor Swift recorded the episode of New Heights that aired on Wednesday, but at the same time Swifties everywhere were glued to the podcast, she was stepping out in New York City.
Page Six reports that Taylor spent Wednesday night dining at Casa Cipriani in Manhattan, accompanied by her pal Ashley Avignone and actor Owen Thiele, star of Overcompensating. Eyewitnesses tell Page Six that Taylor wore a “black, romantic bodice dress” and had her hair in a messy low bun; she acted “friendly” and “chatty with staff.” One insider says she sat a few tables away from New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Casa Cipriani, a private, members-only club, became somewhat notorious in 2023 after Taylor went there with previous boyfriend Matty Healy and photos of them went viral. Membership was revoked for the members who sneaked the photos, Page Six reported. In September 2024, Taylor returned to the club with current beau Travis Kelce after they attended a wedding earlier in the evening.
When last we checked, Taylor’s Wednesday appearance with Travis and Jason Kelce on New Heights — during which she discussed her new album, her relationship with Travis, her parents, her hobbies and more — had racked up close to 11 million views on YouTube alone.
