Month: June 2023

Noel Gallagher didn’t have any nice things to say about The 1975 recently, after Matty Healy suggested Noel and estranged brother Liam owe it to Oasis fans to get over their “mard” and reunite. Noel still doesn’t have any nice things to say.

“He needs to go over how s— his band is and split up,” Gallagher — who just released Council Skies, his latest album with High Flying Birds — had snapped back at Healy’s comment in May.

Now, in a new interview with NME, Gallagher was asked whether he feels Oasis continues to influence contemporary bands today. The topic detoured into him talking about the state of rock … and The 1975.

“Oasis’ influence, I think, was for people to f—ing start a band in the first place. I do meet loads of guys who say that and that’s great. There are a lot of them around, it’s just a pity guitar music has become marginalized. You’ve either got to be rock, or that f—ing 1975. At the BRITs, The 1975 won Best Rock or some f—ing s—,” Gallagher is quoted as saying in the piece published Saturday (June 3).

“I was watching it with my kids, two teenage lads, thinking, ‘Is it me being a grumpy old man, or is this s—?’” he recalled. “They were both going, ‘Oh no, this is f—ing s—’. The 1975, Best Rock Band? Someone needs to re-define that immediately, because that is… I don’t know what that is, but it’s certainly not f—ing rock. Whatever rock is, that’s not it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, when Gallagher was chatting about flaws on his albums (he says his recordings are “not perfect by any means”), NME presented a question related to Healy’s rumored girlfriend, Taylor Swift: “Would you ever do a Taylor Swift and re-record your past albums?”

“What’s the point?” Gallagher said. “Could you imagine the outrage? I’d rather push on and try new things.”

See the full interview here.

Keke Palmer is on a Taylor Swift kick. The actress served fans a mini cover of her favorite Swift tune in a new video from W Magazine, just days after she gave “Karma” a glowing review. Her top pick is actually a classic from Swift’s debut era.

“I know some Taylor Swift songs,” Palmer said in a clip posted on W‘s Instagram and TikTok accounts on Saturday (June 3).

Rather than only naming her favorite, she launched into song: “Our song is the slamming screen door,” she sang, starting the chorus of “Our Song,” which appeared on Swift’s self-titled first album in 2006. It was released as a single in 2007, following “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops on My Guitar.”

Palmer sang an impromptu version of the entire “Our Song” chorus, cementing her Swiftie status with “I love that song, honey.”

“Keke you’re an ICON. Real recognize real,” one follower commented on Instagram, while another suggested, “She should record a cover of that she has such a nice voice.”

Top TikTok comments included “Our song (keke’s version),” “Omg she’s a yeehaw swiftie” and “Keke on debut TV???? Plsss,” referring the the not-yet-released “Taylor’s Version” rerecording of the album that started Swift’s career in country music.

Earlier in the week, Swift praised a video of Palmer jamming out to Midnights single “Karma.” “It’s always going to be miss Swift’s lyricism for me,” Palmer wrote. “Omg I love u so much,” said the superstar, who is in the midst of her Eras Tour.

Watch Palmer sing “Our Song” in the video below.

Paramore was joined onstage by Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost during the band’s concert in Washington, D.C., on Friday (June 2).

After introducing Frost, Gen Z’s first member of Congress, to the crowd at Capital One Arena, singer Hayley Williams asked if the 26-year-old Democratic lawmaker had any words he’d like to share with the fans.

“F— Ron DeSantis! F— fascism!” Frost shouted to the cheering audience.

Williams then chimed in to address crowd. “Do you see this? Do you see the future right here?” she asked.

Last weekend, the vocalist shared her distaste for Florida’s republican governor, who is running for president in 2024, while performing at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City, N.J.

“I’ll be happy to tell you I’m very f—ing comfortable talking politics,” Williams said during the group’s headlining set. “If you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re f—ing dead to me. Is that comfortable enough for anyone?”

Following the lively introduction in D.C., the congressman assisted Paramore with a rocking performance of the band’s 2007 track “Misery Business,” which usually finds the band choosing an audience member to duet with. Earlier in the week, Paramore surprised New York City concert-goers by inviting uberfan Lil Uzi Vert to help perform the Riot! song.

“Very grateful for this moment,” Frost tweeted after the show, sharing a fan-captured video of the onstage collab. “I’ve been practicing in the shower for YEARS.”

Watch Frost’s appearance with Paramore in Washington, D.C., on Twitter below.

Kaija Saariaho, who wrote acclaimed works that made her the among the most prominent composers of the 21st century, died Friday (June 2). She was 70.

Saariaho died at her apartment in Paris, her family said in a statement posted on her Facebook page. She had been diagnosed in February 2021 with glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable brain tumor.

“The multiplying tumors did not affect her cognitive facilities until the terminal phase of her illness,” the statement said. Her family said Saariaho had undergone experimental treatment at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.

“Kaija’s appearance in a wheelchair or walking with a cane have prompted many questions, to which she answered elusively,” the family said. “Following her physician’s advice, she kept her illness a private matter, in order to maintain a positive mindset and keep the focus of her work.”

Her “L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar)” premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2000 and made its U.S. debut at the Santa Fe Opera two years later. In 2016, it became the first staged work by a female composer at the Metropolitan Opera since Ethel M. Smyth’s “Der Wald” in 1903.

“She was one of the most original voices and enjoyed enormous success,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “It had impact on one’s intellect as well as one’s emotions. It was music that really moves people’s hearts. She was truly one of the great, great artists.”

Saariaho did not like to be thought of as a female composer, rather a woman who was a composer.

“I would not even like to speak about it,” she said during an interview with The Associated Press after a piano rehearsal at the Met. “It should be a shame.”

Born in Helsinki on Oct. 14, 1952, Saariaho studied at the Sibelius Academy and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. She helped found a Finnish group “Korvat auki (Ears Open) in the 1970s.

“The problem in Finland in the 1970s and ’80s was that it was very closed,” she told NPR last year. “My generation felt that there was no place for us and no interest in our music — and more generally, modern music was heard much less.”

Saariaho started work in 1982 at Paris’ Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM), a center of contemporary music founded in the 1970s by Pierre Boulez. She incorporated electronics in her composition.

“I am interested in spatialization, but under the condition that it’s not applied gratuitously,” she said in a 2014 conversation posted on her website. “It has to be necessary — in the same way that material and form must be linked together organically.

Inspired by viewing Messiaen’s ″St. Francois d’Assise” at the 1992 Salzburg Festival, she wrote “L’Amour de Loin.” She went on to compose “Adriana Mater,” which premiered at the Opéra Bastille in 2006 and “Émilie,” which debuted at the Lyon Opéra in 2010.

Her latest opera, “Innocence,” was first seen at the 2021 Aix-en-Provence Festival. Putting a spotlight on gun violence, the work was staged in London this spring and is scheduled for the Met’s 2025-26 season.

“This is undoubtedly the work of a mature master, in such full command of her resources that she can focus simply on telling a story and illuminating characters,” Zachary Woolfe wrote in The New York Times.

Saariaho received the University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award in 2003 and was selected Musical America’s Musician of the Year in 2008. Kent Nagano’s recording of “L’Amour de Loin” won a 2011 Grammy Award.

Saariaho’s final work, a trumpet concerto titled “HUSH,” is to premiere in Helsinki in Aug. 24 with Susanna Mälkki leading the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The announcement of Saariaho’s death was posted by her husband, composer Jean-Baptiste Barrière; son Aleksi Barrière, a writer; and daughter Aliisa Neige Barrière, a conductor and violinist.

Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye revealed Friday (June 2) that The Idol Vol. 1 soundtrack will be released on June 30.

The superstar also unveiled the album artwork, which features his character Tedros in his full, frizzy rattail glory. But remember: “Never trust a dude with a rattail,” according to Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s character in the trailer for The Idol, which premieres Sunday on HBO and Max. The controversial, Sam Levinson-directed series had its debut at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

In his cover story interview with Interview magazine, Tesfaye told Jeremy O. Harris that David Bowie, Prince and Pink Floyd served as some of his inspirations when curating the soundtrack for his upcoming HBO series. “I’ve been inspired by The Wall and Purple Rain and when Bowie was doing it, but even films like Shaft, the music is literally telling the story of the film,” the “Blinding Lights” singer said. “But I want to take it to the next level. I want to challenge myself and I feel like, as a musician, I’m the best I’ve ever been.”

His newest single, “Popular” with Madonna and Playboi Carti, and “Double Fantasy” with Future will be featured on The Idol Vol. 1 soundtrack. Both tracks were co-produced by Tesfaye, Mike Dean and Metro Boomin. On Friday, Metro unveiled his own star-studded soundtrack for the new Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse film, which features Future, Don Toliver, 21 Savage, Offset, Lil Uzi Vert, Swae Lee, A$AP Rocky, Nav and many more.

See The Idol Vol. 1 soundtrack cover art below, and pre-order it here.

Kid Cudi is in the running for the father of the year award — at least, according to his 13-year-old daughter, Vada Mescudi. On Friday (June 2), Cudi shared a sweet text his daughter sent him after he was able to get her and her closest friends tickets to Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH DADDY! YOUR THE BEST DADDY I COULD EVER WISH FOR! IM SO EXCITED I LOVE YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH!!,” she wrote, adding a red heart emoji. Cudi replied with a double row of crying-face emojis.

“Got Vada some Taylor Swift tix for her and her friends. This is the message I got. Man, shes never said this to me ever before,” he captioned the screenshot of his and Vada’s exchange on Twitter.

He continued and thanked the pop star for assisting him with scoring tickets. “Taylor thank u for being a great role model for my daughter. U got me the best text from her ever. THANK U so much for helpin out w the tix, ima hero because of you. Love!!” he wrote, adding #VadaIsASwiftie.

The sweet message comes after Swift expanded The Eras Tour to include stops in Latin America. “Really thrilled to tell you this!!” the pop star wrote in a post to her social media accounts. “Mexico, Argentina and Brazil: We are bringing The Eras Tour to you this year!”

See Cudi’s text exchange with his daughter in the Twitter post below.

This week, our New Music Latin roundup — a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard‘s Latin and Billboard Español editors — is powered by new music from Daddy Yankee, Young Miko and Gocho, to name a few.

To everyone’s surprise, Daddy Yankee came out of retirement to drop a new collaboration with newcomer Omar Courtz (who he discovered on Instagram) for a summer-ready track called “BEACHY.” Co-written by Yankee, Courtz, Justin Quiles, and BCA, the song — part of the upcoming LEGENDADDY Goat Edition album — narrates the story of a girl who’s getting tanned at the beach and enjoying the sun while she’s living her best single life. The single, produced by Yankee, Dimelo Flow, BK, and PM, fuses reggaetón with Afrobeats, backed by Yankee’s signature sugary vocals and Courtz’s raspier tones.

Another rising act, Young Miko, also teamed up with reggaeton veterans Jowell y Randy on “ID.” With flirty, NSFW lyrics, the collab meshes reggaeton, reggae, and hard-hitting perreo melodies. 

A notable release this week is “Los Del Espacio,” an infectious cumbia-reggaeton track released by eight of Argentina’s hottest names right now: Lit Killah, Emilia, Duki, Maria Becerra, Rusherking, FMK, Tiago PZK, and Big One. “In slow motion/ You stuck with me and you didn’t realize/ That tonight I let you go’/ I know it tempts you,” says part of the chorus of the catchy song written by the octet of friends and produced and mastered by Big One. 

Additional releases this week include Francisca Valenzuela’s heartfelt pop ballad “¿Dónde Se Llora Cuando Se Llora?;” Gocho’s first solo project in eight years, a six-track EP titled No Soy el Mismo (Lado A); Sky Rompiendo’s adventurous “Cielo” with Feid and Myke Towers; Nico Hernández and Pipe Bueno’s “Una Noche;” Los Aptos and Cuco’s whirling love-letter ballad “Miel;” and many more. 

Last week, the new generation of Menudo and their single  “Feelin’” won the poll with over 54 percent of the votes. What’s your favorite new Latin music release this week? Vote below!