Taylor Swift has over 50 million YouTube subscribers, making her the eighth artist to achieve this feat.
Speaking of Taylor, Zoë Kravitz revealed she leaned on her during the pandemic. “She was my pod. She was a very important part of being in London,” she told GQ, adding Taylor would “make me home-cooked meals and dinner on my birthday.”
Joe Jonas said writing “Not Alone,” his original song for Devotion, was tough. He explained to The List, “It’s a tough song to just think of how I was going to go about writing this, but the relationship between [the main characters] … there’s so much there.” He said the song embodies “the highest form of … friendship.”
Jennifer Lopez is buds with husband Ben Affleck‘s ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, a source tells Us Weekly. “They really enjoy each other,” they claimed.
Elton John is putting on a series of virtual live performances on Roblox: Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. The virtual, 10-minute shows run through November 20, coinciding with his final U.S. tour date at Dodger Stadium. Roblox is giving away the chance to take a selfie with Elton, to gain VIP backstage access and to have their avatar appear onstage during the Sunday show.
ABBA announced it expanded its Voyage residency through November 2023 at Queen Elizabeth’s Olympic Park. Tickets are on sale now.
The Funny Girl Broadway revival will release its soundtrack, which features Lea Michele, at midnight. Michele told her fans on Instagram Live, “I’m so proud of it.”
Lady Gaga‘s fans have an issue with former President Donald Trump‘s new slogan, which is condensed to #MAGAGA. Gaga herself hasn’t said anything about it, and her fans are already flooding the hashtag with memes.
The classic 1968 action drama Bullitt is getting an update for director Steven Spielberg, and Deadline reports he’s put Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper in the driver’s seat.
The trade reports Cooper will succeed the legendary stuntman-actor Steve McQueen in an all new adventure featuring McQueen’s hard-nosed, hard-driving San Francisco cop Frank Bullitt.
A Star Is Born director Cooper is also producing the film, which is being executive produced by Steve McQueen’s son, Chad McQueen, and granddaughter Molly McQueen.
Bullitt featured one of cinema’s most famous car chases, with McQueen in his hunter green 1968 Mustang GT, pursuing baddies in a 1968 Dodge Charger through the famously hilly City By The Bay.
The chase — and the actual car — became so iconic that the car sold at auction in 2020 for more than $3.7 million.
Thin Lizzy is celebrating one of their classic live albums with a new reissue. Next year marks the 45th anniversary of the double-Platinum Live and Dangerous, and to mark the occasion the band is set to release what they are calling a “definitive” eight-CD super deluxe version of the record.
The original live album was recorded at shows in London and Toronto in 1977 on the band’s Johnny the Fox and Bad Reputation tours. The new set, dropping January 20, will include a remastered version of the original, as well as six shows recorded for the album — in London, Toronto and Philadelphia — all newly remixed from the original multitracks.
Live and Dangerous was Thin Lizzy’s first live album. There was some debate as to how much of the album was recorded live when it was released. Regardless, the album was a huge hit, peaking at number two in the United Kingdom.
A Georgia judge shut down prosecutors’ request to delay the start of Young Thug and Gunna‘s RICO trial, Billboard reports. Jury selection is now set to begin January 5.
Thug, born Jeffery Williams,and Gunna, born Sergio Kitchens, were among 28 individuals included in a 56-count grand jury indictment in May. The counts include conspiracy to violate the RICO Act, murder, armed robbery and participation in criminal street gang activity. The rappers’ multiple requests for bond have been denied.
In October, prosecutors asked for a nearly three-month delay — from January 9 to March 27 — noting that eight defendants in the case still lacked lawyers. They added that attorneys retained at a later date wouldn’t have enough time to “properly prepare” if the trial began in January.
Young Thug’s lawyers argued against the request, saying it was “unjust that Mr. Williams rots in the county jail and … is being required to wait on the appointment of counsel for co-indictees.”
Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville opposed the delay during Thursday’s hearing.
Billie Eilish‘s first fragrance Eilish was a big success, so on Friday, she’s releasing a second one called, of course, Eilish No. 2.
“I really liked the idea of a darker, rainy world for Eilish No. 2,” Billie says in a statement. “We started with the original Eilish elements of warmth and sweetness, but then added spicy and woodsy elements for a more sultry, and wet feeling.”
In developing the new scent, her fragrance partner Parlux explains that Billie was “guided by her synesthesia, which involves all her senses to visualize and see the color, texture, shape and what number her second act fragrance represents.”
The new scent features Italian bergamot, apple blossom, papyrus, black pepper, wet poppy flowers, ebony and musk. The bottle is the same as Eilish’s — a sculpted container modeled on Billie’s chest, neck and collarbone — but it’s now in a dark, metallic slate color.
Eilish No. 2, which is, of course, vegan and cruelty-free, will be available Friday at BillieEilishFragrances.com, at a cost of $72.
With so much content out there to stream and stan, the platform Fandom asked 5,000 of its global community of some 300 million monthly users what they think about their favorite content, from Star Wars to The Sex Lives of College Girls.
The findings were rather revealing and could make a marketing exec’s head spin.
Fandom CMO Stephanie Fried noted in a statement, “The words ‘fan’ and ‘super fan’ are used constantly to describe consumers of entertainment, but those terms are too generic for today’s entertainment world.”
She adds that “fandoms are complex,” and to that end, Fandom has broken “fans” into four distinct groups, ranging from the hardcore — “The Advocate” and “The Intentionalist” on one end — to more casual fans, who are in “The Flirt” category on the other side of the spectrum.
The survey also revealed that 84% of Marvel fans say they’re “overwhelmed with the constant stream of MCU content” — but they still flock to the box office or streaming for every new entry. Their fanbase is more made up of “Advocate” and “Intentionalist” fanboys and fangirls.
On the other hand, rival DC has its fans, too, but most reside in the “Culturist” and “Flirt” categories — that is, they see new projects to calm their FOMO, or to remain plugged into what people are talking (or meme-ing) about.
However, die-hard fans aren’t just found watching superhero movies: The audience for HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls ranks as “Advocates” and “Intentionalists” — with 81% saying they’re ready for the forthcoming second season.
Similarly, fans of Harry Potter, Stranger Things, Rick and Morty, Zelda, Nintendo’s Mario games and The Simpsons also logged the largest number of “Advocates” and “Intentionalists.”
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.
(NEW YORK) — Ticketmaster is pulling the plug on the general-public ticket sale for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour that was set to take place Friday, Nov. 18.
The company tweeted Thursday: “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ has been cancelled.” It remains unclear whether the general sale will be rescheduled.
The announcement comes after backlash from Swift fans who experienced long waits and “error” messages when trying to purchase tickets during a “verified fan” pre-ticket sale Nov. 15.
Samantha Miller said she knew scoring tickets for Taylor Swift’s 2023 “Eras” tour for her 13-year-old daughter wouldn’t be easy, but she said her experience with Ticketmaster left her stressed, angry and empty-handed.
“The whole thing was like a bad joke,” Miller told ABC News. The New York City mom said she made sure to register her daughter’s name, email address and contact number a week before pre-sale tickets were available, so Ticketmaster could vet her “Swiftie” (as the popstar’s fans are called) and confirm she was a “verified fan” and not a third-party ticket reseller.
Despite having a special code from Ticketmaster to access tickets, Miller was stuck waiting in an online queue for four hours before seeing the below message pop up on her computer screen:
“We’re sorry! Something went wrong on our end and we need to start over. Broken things are a drag — our team is on it so it doesn’t happen again.”
At the same time, tickets that were selling for between $49 and $449 each, were already being listed on resale sites like StubHub for as much as $22,700 per ticket. West Coast fans had to wait an extra three hours as Ticketmaster delayed those sales to help ease traffic on its site.
Despite the glitches, Ticketmaster says it sold 2 million tickets for Swift’s first stadium concert tour in five years — the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day. Unfortunately for Miller, she wasn’t one of the lucky ones. She had to eventually abandon her efforts to “get back to my day job” and said she feels “guilty” about not being able to secure the tickets for her daughter.
Similar scenarios played out for thousands of disappointed Swift fans, renewing calls from activists and lawmakers to split up Ticketmaster and the concert promoter Live Nation, which merged in 2010.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday that he is looking into whether consumer protection laws were violated after Ticketmaster botched the rollout of Taylor Swift tickets.
“We have received complaints about the sale process, and we have previously looked into antitrust allegations involving Ticketmaster and Live Nation. We want to make sure that there are no issues here that merit legal response,” Skrmetti said, according to a transcript of the news conference obtained by ABC News.
Consumer advocates say the Taylor Swift ticket debacle underscores the pitfalls of consolidation in the ticketing industry. The combined company, which controls 70% of primary ticketing and live event venues, has been accused of abusing its market power by hiking up ticket prices and adding on arbitrary fees.
House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Ticketmaster a monopoly and said the merger with Live Nation should never have been allowed. “They need to be reigned in… Break them up,” she tweeted.
Senate Democrat Richard Blumenthal tweeted that Swift’s tour sale is “a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly.”
Congressman David Cicilline, D-R.I., added his voice to the chorus, calling the excessive wait times and fees “a symptom of a larger problem” at “an unchecked monopoly.”
Politicians are not the only ones targeting Ticketmaster. A consortium of organizations, including the American Economic Liberties Project and Sports Fans Coalition are lobbying to end the company’s hold on the ticketing industry with their Break Up Ticketmaster campaign.
In a statement to ABC News, Ticketmaster said, “Even when a high demand on sale goes flawlessly from a tech perspective, many fans are left empty handed. For example: based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing)…that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years. While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on.” Ticketmaster added that, “Every ticket was sold to a buyer with a Verified Fan code.”
The pandemic wreaked havoc on the live music industry as concerts and festivals were canceled and companies were forced to handle hoards of refunds. As a result, Live Nation’s revenue for the second quarter of 2020 was down 98% from the previous year.
Since then, the industry has roared back as fans flock to live entertainment again, and concert tickets prices have jumped nearly 20% from pre-pandemic levels.
Kendrick Lamar‘s back with a video for his single “Rich Spirit.”
Directed by Calmatic, the clip shows the rapper as he unplugs from the world in an empty home. He dances, eats a late snack and raps … until he’s interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone.
“Rich Spirit” marks the third video off Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers album, which recently earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. The rapper’s also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “The Heart Part 5,” plus Best Rap Album, Best Music Video, Best Rap Song, Best Melodic Rap Performance and Best Rap Performance.
Even Joe Jonas is weighing in on the controversy over the ticket sales for Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour.
The singer caught up with E! News, and when asked about his ex-girlfriend’s newly announced tour, he quipped, “I’ll get in line now.” He added it would be a “great idea” to surprise wife Sophie Turner — who is an outspoken Swiftie — with tickets. “She would love that,” he noted.
Joe also said the unprecedented demand for Taylor tickets was “to be expected.”
Joe and Taylor dated for about three months in 2008, when they were teenagers, and fans think her “from the vault” track “Mr. Perfectly Fine” is about the Jonas Brother. The two squashed any beef they had and are supportive of one another.
Elsewhere in the interview, Joe revealed the most romantic thing he has done for his wife. While the singer is admittedly “bad with numbers and dates,” he says he makes up for it with thoughtful gestures.
He says he likes “surprising Soph when she least expects it” and “does a pretty good job of that” even though it’s “not the most amazing thing” in the world.
As for how Joe pulls it off, he explained, “You play it off like you’re somewhere else in the world. You got to hide that. You’re on FaceTime and hiding you’re not on a plane — I’ve gotten away with that before.”
Joe and Sophie wed in 2019 and have welcomed two daughters.
Folks can’t seem to get enough of ABBA residency Voyage. It was just announced that there’s been such a high demand for tickets that the residency, which debuted in May, has been extended until November 2023.
The residency at Queen Elizabeth’s Olympic Park in London doesn’t actually feature the members of the Swedish group live. Instead it stars ABBAtar versions of the foursome — Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — backed by live musicians.
Tickets for the new dates are on sale now.
The news comes just days after ABBA earned four Grammy nods, including two in the major categories: “Don’t Shut Me Down” is nominated for Record of the Year and Voyage for Album of the Year. They also earned nods for Best Pop Vocal Album for Voyage and Best Pop/Duo Group performance for “Don’t Shut Me Down.”
