Month: September 2022

Though she may still have a ways to go, Selena Gomez is a lot closer than she was two years ago to adding “cook” to her multi-hyphenate career. Earlier in September, the pop star completed her fourth season of her HBO Max series Selena + Chef, and in a new interview, she shared how learning from all of the culinary experts she’s had as guests on her show since 2020 has drastically improved her cooking skills.

“Season one I was a complete disaster,” she told People as part of the publication’s “50 Food Faves” package, for which she was named a top tastemaker. “And not to say I still don’t have my moments, but I’ve come a long way.”

According to the magazine, Gomez now rates her culinary abilities a “5 out of 10.” “I wish I had more time to cook, but with work it’s not always easy,” the Only Murders in the Building star said. “I love when I get the chance to cook for my friends and family.”

“I have revisited many of the dishes I’ve made on the show,” she continued, adding that her biggest takeaway from the show has been how beneficial experimenting with homemade dishes can be: “You don’t have to necessarily follow a recipe exactly.”

Gomez also spoke with People about what it was like to work with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who appeared in episode 10 of Selena + Chef‘s fourth season. The Hell’s Kitchen star served as her first in-person mentor on the show — she had previously been learning from guest chefs via Zoom — and taught her how to make a scallop dish.

“When I saw him I almost started crying,” she said. “It was such an honor.”

With four seasons of Selena + Chef under her belt, the Rare Beauty founder is now taking on another reality-based screen project. On Wednesday (Sept. 20), Gomez announced that her documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me will drop Nov. 4 on Apple TV, and shared a trailer for the film with fans. See it below:

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The annual Nashville Songwriter Awards, presented by the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), shine the spotlight on unsung heroes — the songwriters, the crafters who unearth and then fuse together melodies, words and deep-seated emotions, whose creative highs, lows and daily work are the essential backbone underpinning an entire industry. Often these writers are unheralded, even as they are spurred by creative impulses to soundtrack the lighthearted moments, and bring beauty from heartache — while artists bask in the acclaim that comes with being center stage.

But on Tuesday evening (Sept. 20) at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, it was largely the artists feting their fellow creatives — and often, their co-writers on various songs.

The evening’s biggest moment came as the night drew to a close, as Taylor Swift was lauded as songwriter-artist of the decade.

The honor celebrated Swift’s successes between 2010 and 2019, a time period that saw Swift fully transition from country to pop, amassing hits and fan favorites including the pop-country crossovers “Fearless,” “Mine” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” to the electrifying pop of “Shake It Off,” “Style” and “Blank Space” to more intimate tracks such as “Lover” and “New Year’s Day.”

Swift’s acceptance speech served keen insights into her songwriting process, including categorizing her lyrics as most would categorize music into genres. She also thrilled the crowd is a performance of the 10-minute version of “All Too Well.”

“For me, tonight feels brimming with a genuine camaraderie between a bunch of people who just love making stuff, who love the craft, who live for that rare, pure moment when a magical cloud floats down right in front of you in the form of an idea for a song and all you have to do is grab it. Then shape it like clay. Prune it like a garden,” Swift told the audience. “And then wish on every lucky star or pray to whatever power you believe in that it might find its way out into the world and make someone feel seen, feel understood, feel joined in their grief or heartbreak or joy just for a moment … to be honored by you means more than any genre of my lyrics could ever say.”

Song of the Year went to the Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan collaboration “Buy Dirt,” written by Jordan Davis, Jacob Davis, Matt Jenkins and Josh Jenkins.

The evening’s winners testified to both the depth and breadth of the talent in Nashville’s songwriting community, pulling in songwriters from not only the country genre, but highlighting Music City as an epicenter of hit songs in the pop/rock and contemporary Christian music genres.

Matthew West was named songwriter-artist of the year, marking the first time a primarily Contemporary Christian Music artist has won the honor. The feat comes one year after a primarily CCM-centered songwriter, Ethan Hulse, became the first to win the NSAI songwriter of the year.

West teamed with “Sunday Sermons” hitmaker Anne Wilson to perform “Me on Your Mind.”

Each year, the NSAI’s voters choose 10 “Songs I Wish I’d Written” — tunes selected from songwriters’ peers as songs of high quality. Among this year’s honoree songs was pop/rock artist GAYLE’s “abcdefu.” The song, an international hit that topped multiple Billboard global charts, tapping into the angst, anguish and impulse to strike back after being scorned by a lover.

Wielding her guitar, GAYLE performed a freewheeling, vicious take on the song, gleefully offering musical F-bombs to an ex-lover and everyone associated with them — with the exception of the dog, of course.

While most of the evening honored chart hits from the past year, the Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement honor celebrated a canon of songs made famous by Garth Brooks, songs that are both timeless and very timely, given the celebration of ‘90s country influences in the country sphere. As one of ‘90s country’s chief architects, Brooks is the recipient of an accolade that recognizes a songwriter “whose works have made a significant contribution to the American songbook and who has inspired the careers of others.” Brooks has been a co-writer on several of his biggest hits, including “The River,” “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up”) and “That Summer.”

Trisha Yearwood introduced Brooks, offering a lengthy list of her husband and fellow artist’s accomplishments. Brooks is the first and only artist to earn nine RIAA Diamond-certified albums, and has seven CMA entertainer of the year wins. But according to Brooks, the attainment of these accolades have been a byproduct of his lifelong, dogged pursuit of mastering the craft of songwriting, having been influenced by writers including Dan Fogelberg and James Taylor. Yearwood called Brooks “a poet, a good man, a songwriter’s best friend and my best friend.”

A group Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame writers then took the stage, with Tony Arata performing “The Dance,” Pat Alger performing “The Thunder Rolls” and Kent Blazy performing “Ain’t Goin’ Down (til the Sun Comes Up).” Reigning CMA entertainer of the year Luke Combs honored Brooks with a rendition of Brooks’ 1995 hit “Beaches of Cheyenne.”

“I never felt like a songwriter until I heard him sing ‘Beaches of Cheyenne,’” Brooks said, becoming emotional as he thanked Combs for the performance. He added, “If you get to hang out with songwriters, you’re lucky, ‘cause these people are dreamers. It’s like sitting with Victoria Shaw in a house that she couldn’t afford, that she was renting. We’re sitting there, talking about James Taylor, and we talk about a line that says, “I know the river and the railroad/ Would run through the valley still.’ ‘The River,” the only writer that’s missing on that song is James Taylor. I ripped everything I could from James Taylor.” Brooks added that he later told Taylor the story when they had dinner one time, relaying that Taylor said that impulse to be heavily influenced by other writers “sounded familiar.”

Later in his speech, hugging his Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement honor, Brooks noted the ultimately eternal contribution of songwriters: “It’s the songs that live forever.”

Ashley Gorley, who recently aligned with Sony Music Publishing, has earned 50 Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hits to date, as well as 14 Hot Country Songs chart leaders (upping the tally to 63 total No. 1 hits if non-Billboard charts are considered). Gorley was honored as both songwriter of the year and songwriter of the decade. Craig Wiseman, who previously earned the songwriter of the decade honor for his work from 2000-2009, took the stage to “pass the torch” to Gorley.

Referencing Gorley’s amassment of hits, Wiseman quipped, “You’re buying us all a chicken parm at [Nashville restaurant] The Palm after this.”

Group Parmalee performed their recent chart-topper “Take My Name,” while HARDY performed “Give Heaven Some Hell.”

“You’ve written 60-something No. 1s, and this is not one of them,” HARDY quipped as he ripped through an acoustic rendition of the song.

Thomas Rhett performed “What’s Your Country Song,” telling Gorley, “I love you so much. You’re like family.” Babyface offered a slowed down, R&B-tinged rendition of Rhett’s “Unforgettable,” highlighting the genre-transcending modality of the song.

But with 50 chart leaders packed into a relatively scant 10 years, it still took a medley of tunes to pay tribute to Gorley’s undeniable impact on country music over the past decade. To that end, songwriters Ben Johnson, Wyatt McCubbin and Hunter Phelps performed snippets of Gorley hits, including “Don’t Forget to Remember Me” (recorded by Carrie Underwood), “Dirt on My Boots” (Jon Pardi), “Play It Again” (Luke Bryan), “You’re Gonna Miss This” (Trace Adkins) and his latest, Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.”

Gorley was also feted with videos from his family. Taking the stage, he thanked those who have had a part in his career, and recalled that it was over a decade before he notched his first hit as a songwriter, encouraging any aspiring songwriters to keep working. Throughout the evening, Gorley’s indefatigable work ethic was lauded. Gorley acknowledged his intense pace, noting that he was in a writing session before he came to the awards show. “It’s where I go, it’s my safe place,” Gorley said. “What gatherings like this do is make you feel like part of this community, but it also makes you feel like you have a long way to go.” He also thanked NSAI for their support of songwriters.

Sony Music Publishing chairman and CEO Jon Platt was honored with the president’s keystone award, presented by NSAI board president Steve Bogard. Bogard noted that during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Platt and Sony Music Publishing stepped forward with a $250,000 donation to NSAI, which helped launched the writer foundation to offer $1,000 grants to help songwriters in need. Bogard also noted that Platt and Sony Music Publishing later stepped up again, offering a second $250,000 donation to NSAI.

“They had his heart, and he had their back,” Bogard said, before Little Big Town performed “Rich Man.”

Taking the stage, Platt’s respect and dedication to songwriters was immediately evident, as he turned the spotlight back to the writers. After thanking NSAI for their work to advocate for songwriters, he said, “It’s incredible to be in the presence of all of you tonight, especially some of the greatest songwriters in the world … to be honored for the Keystone award is beyond anything that I ever expected. The Keystone award is special because the keystone is defined as the central stone at the summit of an arc, which locks the whole together as one. When you think about it, I may be receiving this award tonight, but that’s exactly what songwriters represent. The entire music business, and in many ways our world, revolves around the song and songwriting is at the summit. That’s why I will always say it is essential to put songwriters first.”

Other performers during the evening included Kelsea Ballerini, Larry Fleet, Sam Hunt, Walker Hayes, Alana Springsteen, sister duo Tigirlily, Brett James, Jonathan Singleton and Nicolle Galyon.

Those performances were in celebration of the winners of this year’s “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” Awards (which actually stretched to 11 honorees this year). In addition to GAYLE’s “abcdefu,” this year’s recognized songs were “7500 OBO,” “Sand in My Boots,” “23,” “You Should Probably Leave,” “Fancy Like,” “Knowing You,” “Half of My Hometown,” “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” “‘Til You Can’t,” and “Things a Man Oughta Know.”

For the past five years, Alex Alvga’s work as creative director for country star Kane Brown has yielded a catalog of attention-grabbing, thought-provoking work, dating back to 2017’s “Heaven” music video. More recently, their ongoing collaboration includes clips such as “Worldwide Beautiful,” which garnered Brown his first ACM video of the year win in 2021, and the CMT male video of the year-winning clips for “Worship You” and “Lose It.” 

“I was always the weird kid who didn’t like video games or sports,” says Alvga, who grew up in Barcelona. “I was obsessed with music and watching live concerts on TV all the time.” He recalls becoming particularly obsessed with Depeche Mode, saying he would watch all of their videos, and citing the work of their creative director Anton Corbijn as a main influence. 

Recognizing Alvga’s passion for film and music, Alvga’s father bought him a camera when he was 17. After building a portfolio on real estate, weddings and corporate events, Alvga started reaching out to band managers, leading to a last-minute offer from British band White Lies. “They wanted someone to capture their performances in [Spain], asking if I was attending their show in Madrid, which was the next day,” recalls Alvga. “I said ‘Yes,’ though that wasn’t true. I quickly bought a plane ticket to get there.”  

Alvga kept adding to his resume. While on tour in the U.K. and the U.S. with singer-songwriter Jacob Whitesides, the artist’s tour manager introduced Alvga to Brown’s manager — who was seeking a videographer/photographer for CMA Fest that year. As a trial run, Alvga was invited to capture Brown’s CMT Music Awards performance (which, at the time, was held the day before the fest). “The next day, I was offered the job full time,” says Alvga. “I moved to the States with a work visa permanently two months later, and it started from there.”

Below, Alvga breaks down three of Brown’s most impactful music videos. 

“Worldwide Beautiful” 

In June 2020, Brown released the pivotal track “Worldwide Beautiful,” a song that promoted peace and unity during a period of civil unrest. The video’s post-apocalyptic visual — which offers a somber juxtaposition — was filmed in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, with all the editing, color corrections and visual effects completed in just two weeks. “This was during the Black Lives Matter period, when all the riots were happening,” Alvga recalls. “To me, it was like, ‘Why all this division?’”

He came across a video online of two children playing together, which offered inspiration for the video. “I thought, ‘If we had a world where kids weren’t influenced by adults, how would the world be?’” he recalls. “There’s the opening scene with a car burning in the background, but there is a man who is so focused on his phone, and yet he has a car near him that can explode at any minute. But then you see kids playing amid all this destruction. It’s just playing with that vibe over and over — that even in devastation, kids can make the best of things.” 

“Lose It” 

Early on in his work with Brown, Alvga began setting the template for an arc of videos that forego much of the stereotypical imagery in country videos — the video for “Lose It” centers on a gleaming, warm desert scenes rather than country roads, with Brown driving a Camaro instead the requisite truck. “Being from [Barcelona], I had no cultural references when it came to country music,” he explains. “When I started creating videos, there were some people that said, ‘Hey, this is not going to work for country music — this isn’t what we usually do.’ When you talk about country music, a lot of people just want to do a regular video with a pickup truck, Broadway, whiskey. But Kane’s music is way more than that. I feel like we’ve been breaking barriers there and creating a new experience for country music fans, too.” 

“Thank God” 

The video for Brown’s latest release, “Thank God” — a collaboration between Brown and his wife Katelyn that currently sits at No. 35 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart — frames the couple’s connection and relationship. The video was filmed over two days in Oahu, Hawaii, near where the film Jurassic Park and TV show Lost were filmed. “That was an idea that Kane and Katelyn had,” Alvga says. “They wanted tropical, beach vibes for the video. They have a beautiful family with two kids, and are so young and amazing together. When you see them and spend time with them backstage, you can see that connection. I felt like the best way to do this to show them just having fun and letting them be them.” 

After Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine issued a statement on Tuesday (Sept. 20) denying an alleged affair with Instagram model Summer Stroh, 23, the social media influencer posted a provocative message on her Instagram Story that appeared to be in response to the musician.

“Someone get this man a dictionary,” she wrote in the now-vanished post alongside a bikini clip, not referring to Levine by name, but seemingly alluding to what she said was a nearly yearlong entanglement with the married star.

“A lot is being said about me right now and I want to clear the air,” Levine, 43, wrote in an Instagram Story in which he dismissed claims he stepped out on his marriage. “I used poor judgement in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner.”

Levine, who is married to Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo — with whom he shares two young daughters and is expecting a third child — did not go into specifics about his relationship with Stroh, even as he adamantly denied sharing anything beyond questionable flirty texts.

“I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life. In certain instances it became inappropriate; I have addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family.”

A spokesperson for Levine and Prinsloo has not yet returned requests for comment.

On Monday, Stroh claimed that she became involved with a man “who is married to a Victoria’s Secret model” at an unspecified time when she was younger. “At the time, I was young, I was naïve and quite frankly I feel exploited. I wasn’t in the scene like I am now, so I was definitely easily manipulated,” she said before explicitly naming Levine in a TikTok that featured what appeared to be flirtatious texts between them as the background. She claimed they saw each other for a year and that in June, Levine asked if it would be OK to name his baby “Sumner” if it’s a boy, adding that Levine gave her the impression that his marriage to Prinsloo “was over.”

In a second video, Stroh said she came forward this week in an attempt to kill the purported tabloid story while apologizing to the people “really getting hurt” by the rumors: Prinsloo and the couple’s children. She also claimed that Levine told her his marriage “was over.”

Prinsloo has not made a public statement about the allegations to date.

Levine and Prinsloo have been married since 2014 and share daughters Dusty Rose, 5, and Gio Grace, 4. “My wife and my family is all I care about in this world,” Levine continued in hist statement. “To be this naive and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make. I will never make it again.”

Good news, ARMY! There’s more BTS video game content coming your way, and soon. The Bangtan Boys are collaborating with the popular Devsisters mobile game Cookie Run: Kingdom, in which members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook will be their own special cookie.

The collaboration — titled “Braver Together” — will allow players of the game to explore BTS-themed maps and adventures that are central to each member of the K-pop group. BTS will also be performing an in-game concert as their cookie counterparts. The collaboration is set to arrive on Oct. 13.

The first teaser trailer for Cookie Run: Kingdom was released on Tuesday (Sept. 20), and features candied purple hearts — a nod to ARMY’s signature emoji — bubbling up to the surface. Shortly after the teaser, the big reveal came: THEY’RE COMING… TO COOKIE RUN: KINGDOM!” the game’s official Instagram shared. “The Cookie Kingdom is buzzing with excitement! Are you ready for the grand reveal of the BTS Cookies?!”

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Devsisters CEO Marie Suh shared the inspiration behind the collab. “The Cookie Run community is about celebrating diversity and supporting each other in choosing to be who you are,” she explained. “We knew how well our core values aligned with those of BTS, so welcoming BTS and ARMY into the Cookie Run Universe felt like a natural fit.”

“ARMY is a unique group of fans who sincerely love BTS because of the band’s authenticity, and messaging of self-love, social justice, and mental health awareness,” Jaechan Cho, a marketing team members at Devsisters USA, added. “Their music talks about self-love and inspires me to be proud of my identity. Also, even with BTS’ ‘idol’ status, they reinforce that everyone is an idol by just being themselves.”

See the posts about BTS’ Cookie Run: Kingdom collaboration below.

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