Month: August 2023

Demi Lovato, Karol G, Måneskin, and Stray Kids were already confirmed performers for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. Shakira joined that list on Monday morning, August 28.

MTV confirmed that Shakira will be this year’s Video Vanguard Award honoree, and Billboard relayed that the Colombian icon will also deliver her first VMAs performance in 17 years.

“Shakira is very likely to perform her 2023 smash ‘TQG,’ a collab with Karol G that debuted and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March,” the publication additionally speculated.

Karol G previously spoke with Uproxx about making “TQG” with Shakira, saying, “She’s a legend. She is someone who has made the name of our country [Colombia] global. I was very nervous to shoot this video because I really wanted to do my best to push myself to the limit and be someone that she could feel proud to collaborate with. To study the choreography with her, to learn it with her, and have that closeness with her because of this song.”

Shakira will become the sixth-straight woman to receive the Video Vanguard Award, following Rihanna (2016), Pink (2017), Jennifer Lopez (2018), Missy Elliott (2019), and Nicki Minaj (2022). As noted by Billboard, nobody received the honor in 2020 or ’21.

The 2023 MTV VMAs nominees were unveiled earlier this month, and Shakira is nominated for Artist Of The Year, Best Collaboration (“TQG”), and Best Latin (“TQG,” “Acróstico“).

The 2023 MTV VMAs will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 12. It will be broadcasted live, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

As Donald Trump‘s legal troubles continue to ratchet up — and keep our poor baby president from golfing abroad — so have the hysterical levels of his rants. On Sunday night, Trump took to Truth Social and outright demanded that Republicans in Congress quit having inquiries to find actual evidence that Joe Biden did something wrong, and just impeach the guy.

According to the former president, the “lowlifes” on the other side did it to him, so it’s only fair. Trump also cited his four indictments as a reason to impeach Biden even though the Department of Justice and prosecutors in New York and Georgia independently brought those charges. But why let facts get in the way of firing up the all-caps key and making over-dramatic claims of oblivion?

Via Truth Social:

The Republicans in Congress, though well meaning, keep talking about an Impeachment “Inquiry” on Crooked Joe Biden. Look, the guy got bribed, he paid people off, and he wouldn’t give One Billion Dollars to Ukraine unless they “got rid of the Prosecutor.” Biden is a Stone Cold Crook-You don’t need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it’s already proven. These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES – For NOTHING! Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!

Of course, it probably didn’t help that Biden landed a rare jab on the former president. When asked about Trump’s mugshot over the weekend, Biden couldn’t resist smiling and cracking a sarcastic remark.

“Handsome guy. Wonderful guy,” Biden said in reaction to the first American president having his own mugshot.

(Via Truth Social)

Demi Lovato, Karol G, Måneskin, and Stray Kids were already confirmed performers for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. Shakira joined that list on Monday morning, August 28.

MTV confirmed that Shakira will be this year’s Video Vanguard Award honoree, and Billboard relayed that the Colombian icon will also deliver her first VMAs performance in 17 years.

“Shakira is very likely to perform her 2023 smash ‘TQG,’ a collab with Karol G that debuted and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March,” the publication additionally speculated.

Karol G previously spoke with Uproxx about making “TQG” with Shakira, saying, “She’s a legend. She is someone who has made the name of our country [Colombia] global. I was very nervous to shoot this video because I really wanted to do my best to push myself to the limit and be someone that she could feel proud to collaborate with. To study the choreography with her, to learn it with her, and have that closeness with her because of this song.”

Shakira will become the sixth-straight woman to receive the Video Vanguard Award, following Rihanna (2016), Pink (2017), Jennifer Lopez (2018), Missy Elliott (2019), and Nicki Minaj (2022). As noted by Billboard, nobody received the honor in 2020 or ’21.

The 2023 MTV VMAs nominees were unveiled earlier this month, and Shakira is nominated for Artist Of The Year, Best Collaboration (“TQG”), and Best Latin (“TQG,” “Acróstico“).

The 2023 MTV VMAs will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 12. It will be broadcasted live, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

A white gunman shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend in an attack that’s being investigated as a hate crime. The shooter, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter, was armed with a Glock and an AR-15-style rifle that had swastikas on it when he took the lives of Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Jerrald Gallion, 29; and Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19. “This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Sheriff T.K. Waters of Jacksonville said.

The Associated Press reports that Palmeter, who killed himself following the shooting, “texted his father [during the attack] and told him to break into his room and check his computer. There, the father found a suicide note, a will, and racist writings from his son. The family notified authorities, but by then the shooting had already begun.”

On Sunday, Florida governor Ron Desantis attended a prayer vigil for the victims. The unsettling presidential hopeful, who loosened up gun restrictions in the state, was loudly booed. The jeering is so loud, it’s hard to hear what he’s saying in videos from the vigil.

Many in the crowd demanded DeSantis leave and some levied blame at him for the increase in gun violence.

However, Jacksonville City Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, who delivered remarks before DeSantis took the stage, stepped to ask the crowd to quiet down and listen. “It ain’t about parties today,” she told the audience. “A bullet don’t know a party.”

You can watch (and hear) the booing below.

(Via Mediaite and Associated Press)

A white gunman shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend in an attack that’s being investigated as a hate crime. The shooter, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter, was armed with a Glock and an AR-15-style rifle that had swastikas on it when he took the lives of Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Jerrald Gallion, 29; and Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19. “This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Sheriff T.K. Waters of Jacksonville said.

The Associated Press reports that Palmeter, who killed himself following the shooting, “texted his father [during the attack] and told him to break into his room and check his computer. There, the father found a suicide note, a will, and racist writings from his son. The family notified authorities, but by then the shooting had already begun.”

On Sunday, Florida governor Ron Desantis attended a prayer vigil for the victims. The unsettling presidential hopeful, who loosened up gun restrictions in the state, was loudly booed. The jeering is so loud, it’s hard to hear what he’s saying in videos from the vigil.

Many in the crowd demanded DeSantis leave and some levied blame at him for the increase in gun violence.

However, Jacksonville City Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, who delivered remarks before DeSantis took the stage, stepped to ask the crowd to quiet down and listen. “It ain’t about parties today,” she told the audience. “A bullet don’t know a party.”

You can watch (and hear) the booing below.

(Via Mediaite and Associated Press)

Meghan Markle has been off social media (lucky) since 2020, when she and her husband Prince Harry made Piers Morgan more irrationally angry than any human has ever been by stepping down from their royal duties. But now that Suits is the biggest show of the summer, the Duchess of Sussex is allegedly planning her return to Instagram.

Page Six reports that Markle has already taken the first step by claiming the @meghan handle (the photo for the currently-private account is a stock pic of peonies, her favorite flower). If any advertisers want her help in promoting their weed gummies or coffee that makes you sh*t yourself, it’ll cost them.

“I don’t think Meghan coming back to Instagram will surprise anyone,” social media “expert” Eric Schiffer told the Daily Mail. “I would expect her to quickly become one of the most followed accounts on Instagram. You have celebrities like the Kardashians who can command $1 million and up for a single post promoting a product. There is no reason Meghan couldn’t be earning those sorts of fees. She has to be careful, as a duchess, to avoid being seen to be hawking every product under the sun. She will align with quality brands and companies that are on point with her political and social beliefs.”

So, probably not the weed gummies then, huh?

Kardashian is said to make nearly $1.7 million per promoted post, while Cristiano Ronaldo, the most followed person on Instagram, earns around $2.4 million. Markle won’t command that much… until she starts hawking kooky wellness products. Coffee enemas is where the real money’s at.

(Via the Daily Mail)

Last weekend, Florence + The Machine canceled performances at two festivals, Pukkelpop in Belgium and Lowlands in the Netherlands, for medical reasons. Some may have suspected it was due to a foot issue, since Florence Welch broke one of her feet on stage in 2022. She has shared some more about what happened, though, and it sounds serious.

In an Instagram post shared yesterday (August 27), Welch wrote, “I’m so sorry that I had to cancel the last couple of shows. My feet are fine, I had to have emergency surgery for reasons I don’t really feel strong enough to go into yet, but it saved my life. And I will be back to close out the Dance Fever tour in Lisbon and Malaga. (Maybe not jumping so much but you can do that for me) Suffice to say I wish the songs were less accurate in their predictions. But creativity is a way of coping, mythology is way of making sense. And the dark fairytale of Dance Fever, with all its strange prophecies, will provide me with much needed strength and catharsis right now.

Welch has not yet revealed what caused her to need emergency surgery. The next concerts listed on the Florence + The Machine website currently are set to take place on September 1 and 2.

Selena Gomez’s new song “Single Soon” is about preparing for a breakup, so naturally, there’s been tons of speculation and theorizing about whether the song is inspired by one of Gomez’s famous exes. Some believe the track is about The Weeknd and the song’s opening verse certainly helps fuel that speculation: “Should I do it on the phone? / Should I leave a little note / In the pocket of his coat? Yeah / Maybe I’ll just disappear / I don’t wanna see a tear / And the weekend’s almost here.”

Gomez is putting all that to rest, though. Over the weekend, Hollywood Life shared an Instagram post that made note of the speculation about The Weeknd, and Gomez commented, “Couldn’t be more false.”

The Weeknd was on Gomez’s radar recently for a different reason: She caught wind of an AI-generated recording that made it sound like she was singing “Starboy.” She commented simply, “Scary.”

She also recently spoke about her classic hit “Who Says,” saying, “I was working with Disney at the time, and they were actually giving the song to another artist. I cried — I remember I was with my mom — because I loved the song so much. […] And so maybe it just didn’t work out with the other artist, but that was a gift to me that I did not know I needed. I love that song, and it has carried with me through my whole career, and I fought for it. So to be honest, I, to this day, need to hear it.”

Just months before Hip-hop’s 50th commemoration, De La Soul shared that their entire catalog would finally be available on streaming platforms for the first time. As one of rap music’s most impactful trios, fans jump for joy knowing that their years-long battle with former label Tommy Boy Records had finally ended. Unfortunately, beloved member Trugoy died before it could happen.

Now that their critically acclaimed bodies of work are available for all to enjoy, Maseo and Posdnuos addressed their fight to gain control of their catalog. The group discussed their lengthy legal pursuit in the teaser clip for their upcoming appearance on People’s Party with Talib Kweli.

“I’m going to be very candid and very real; it was like freeing the slaves but adding vagrancy laws,” said Maseo. Vagrancy laws were enacted to essentially make it a crime for an individual to loiter. For decades, vagrancy laws have been criticized as an attack on unhoused people.

With his statement, Maseo seemingly touches on the rumors that the group almost were given their rights to the past works but were told they wouldn’t be allowed to monetize it any further. This was at the root of online speculation after negotiations between parties were shut down in 2019.

Maseo continued, “[The deal] was almost like giving me a house that I couldn’t do nothing with… the wordplay in the contracts. I have a house I can live in, but I can’t sell it. I can’t control nothing [in it], but I can live inside of it. That just wasn’t going to work for me or my crew. It was another form of slavery, in my opinion.”

Maseo’s wife, Tina, played a critical role in his desire to push forward. “The more we continued to talk about it [I realized] we were talking about a new deal over old music and [look at] the age we’re at, at the same time… What future opportunity are we really talking about?.. The more I assessed this thing, we’re in a business where we are worth more dead than alive. So, it was really about negotiating that deal based on death and life. Knowing the realities of the business that we are in,” proclaimed Maseo.

He closed by saying, “It was a tough decision to make, but God was on our side. My wife was on my side, and it worked out for the best. It wasn’t even Tommy Boy that made it right. It was the new owners of the catalog that did. Tommy Boy… Tom Silverman would’ve never made it right.”

Watch the full clip above.

Miley Cyrus wasn’t joking around when she named her latest album, Endless Summer Vacation. The “Used To Be Young” singer aims to enjoy as much downtime as possible. Although fans hope she will change her mind and shock them with a string of shows, Cyrus is tripling down on her decision to no longer tour. In the latest video episode of her TikTok interview series, named after her new single, she gave followers more insight.

“Traveling as a cheerleader really set me up for touring. Like the show or the competition may only be for a day, but that’s what most people don’t understand about touring. The show may only be for 90 minutes, but that’s your life,” said the singer.

She continued, “If you’re performing at a certain level of intensity and excellence, there should be an equal amount of recovery and rest.”

Cyrus then revealed one of her most challenging discoveries about how touring impacts her. “There’s a level of ego that also has to play a part that I feel gets overused when I’m on tour, and once that switch is on, it’s hard to turn it off. Once you’re training your ego every single night to be active, that’s the hardest switch for me to switch off,” confessed the entertainer.

Then she confessed that touring isn’t even a focus for her now: “Having every day the relationship between you and other humans being subject and observer isn’t healthy for me. Because it erases my humanity and my connection; without my humanity and connection, I can’t be a songwriter — which is my priority.”

Before the clip concludes, Cyrus ends with a joke, “Have you ever seen a girl that’s been on tour for two years? They come back with facial hair. I’m telling you.”

Fans of Cyrus aren’t going to be too happy with the news, but with the explanation, she’s hoping they will understand.