Category: News

Lionel Richie was a 17-time American Music Award winner entering Sunday night’s (November 20) 2022 AMAs at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater. He added the ultimate prize to his shelf by accepting this year’s Icon Award. The recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee was showered with a career’s worth of love during an accompanying tribute performance.

Charlie Puth and Stevie Wonder sat at dueling pianos and tickled the ivories to classic Richie hits, such as “All Night Long (All Night)” before they were joined on stage for a rousing performance of “We Are The World.”

“You know, I remember getting a call from yourself and Michael Jackson when I was in New York,” Wonder said to Richie in the crowd, introducing “We Are The World” and still flawlessly playing piano. He relayed that Richie recruited him to come right away for the collaboration and praised Richie for writing “a song that made it possible for those millions in people in Ethiopia to have food, and it inspired everyone throughout the nation and the world to do the right thing.”

That led directly into the “We Are The World” chorus as Ari Lennox, Dustin Lynch, Jimmie Allen, Melissa Etheridge, Muni Long, Smokey Robinson, and Yola to gather around Wonder’s and Puth’s pianos. (There was also a predictable pan to Taylor Swift dancing in the crowd.) The powerhouse vocalists alternated delivering verses.

“I started out here at the AMAs, and my career to this day, 40 years later, I’m back to the AMAs,” Richie said during his acceptance speech. The 32-time Grammy nominee (and four-time winner) thanked his children, the mothers of his children, his professional families, and then he directed his attention toward “the young superstars.”

“God has given you a light,” he said. “That light is special. That light is only given to a few. When you hear the word ‘hip,’ it means today; when you hear the word ‘inspiring,’ it means forever. If you get a chance to have that light on you, understand what God has in store. He’s not trying to tell you that your car looks great, your clothes look great. He’s trying — he, she, Mother, God is trying to tell you that you are chosen to inspire. Take this opportunity. That light is on you. Inspire. God bless you all. Thank you very much.”

Watch the full speech below.

Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In an effort to change the narrative from the mass exodus of employees at Twitter, Elon Musk recently began reinstating several controversial accounts to shore up his self-proclaimed title of “free speech absolutist.” In addition to bringing back The Babylon Bee and Jordan Peterson, Musk reversed the ban on Donald Trump, who was booted off the platform following the January 6 attack. Although, in an embarrassing move, the former president rejected Musk’s offers and announced he plans to stay on Truth Social because Twitter has too many “problems.” (That delicious taste you’re experiencing is sweet, sweet schadenfreude.)

However, Musk was baited into a corner where he was forced to admit that there are limits to his free speech absolutism. After welcoming Trump back, neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris asked Musk if he plans to bring back conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and defend his reasoning if the answer is no. In an odd move, Musk replied with a Bible verse (he’d been using them all weekend) that hinted Jones’ despicable theories about the Sandy Hook victims would keep him off the platform.

“Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven,” Musk tweeted.

With Musk making it (sorta) clear that Jones isn’t returning, entrepreneur Kim Dotcom tried to change the Twitter CEO’s mind by appealing to his so-called commitment to free speech.

“Alex f*cked up with Sandy Hook. He admitted that and apologized,” Dotcom tweeted. “He also got a lot of ‘conspiracy theories’ right. If serial liars like Biden and Trump are allowed on Twitter then Alex Jones should be allowed too. Please reconsider in the interest of real free speech.”

What followed next is quite possibly the most deeply personal thing Elon Musk has ever said.

“My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat,” Musk responded. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

While it’s commendable that Musk has a limit on what sort of rhetoric he’ll allow on Twitter, his decision to ban Jones pokes a serious hole in his claims of “free speech absolutism.” While the decision is morally correct, it does however reveal that Musk’s definition of free speech is based entirely on his own personal whims. It’s his way or the highway, and that should concern a whole lot of people.

(Via Elon Musk on Twitter)

Rosalía returns to her flamenco music roots in a new collaboration with Niño de Elche. After mostly diverting from the genre on her Motomami album, she embraces it once again in the song “Seguiriya Madre” that was released on Friday (November 18).

Rosalía first broke out in the flamenco music scene with her debut album Los Ángeles that was released in 2017. With her follow-up LP, 2018’s El Mal Querer, she put a new pop and R&B twist on the traditional genre. With this year’s Motomami album, Rosalía showed that her appeal when beyond flamenco with her embracing global genres like electronica, reggaeton, and alternative music.

In “Seguiriya Madre,” Rosalía revisits the pure flamenco sound of her beginnings with Los Ángeles. Spanish artist Niño de Elche teamed up with her for the song on his new album Flamenco. Mausoleo de Celebración, Amor y Muerte. Backed by the Spanish guitar, Rosalía sounds fired-up when she appears at the halfway point. Her soaring voice is breathtaking as the track speeds with palmas in the mix.

“New song with my dears Niño de Elche and Raul Refree,” Rosalía wrote on Instagram. “Thank you for counting on me.”

Last week, Rosalía won four Latin Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for Motomami. She also received two 2023 Grammy Awards nominations. Motomami is nominated for Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album.

Machine Gun Kelly isn’t one to shy away from bold looks at public events, and at the 2022 AMAs this weekend, he went with one of his least conventional outfits yet: MGK donned a purple suit that looked relatively normal save for the dozens and dozens of spikes protruding out from all over it.

Indeed, it seems the outfit was as more of a burden to wear as it appeared. During his acceptance speech for the Favorite Rock Artist award, he joked (well, probably not) that the suit is “uncomfortable to pee in.” He continued, “Speaking of uncomfortable, there have been some people in the rock community who have called me a tourist, but they’re wrong: I’m a rocket man. We weren’t born on the moon, but we looked at it, we were curious, and then we went there… supposedly. These last two rock albums, to me, were me going to the moon. But I’m not done exploring the universe yet and I am all genres. I’ll see you on Mars, motherf*cker!”

So, while bathroom affairs were a concern for MGK, onlookers were more worried about the folks around him, who by being in his presence put themselves in danger of having an eye poked out.

Check out some reactions below.

Back in 2012 when The xx’s sophomore album, Coexist, came out, it went on to become the best-selling vinyl record of the year. Mind you, this was at the onset of the vinyl boon, before aging hipsters were sharing NPR articles ad nauseam about how quickly vinyl sales were surpassing CD sales and all other physical mediums. So what are The xx doing to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the album? Releasing a limited edition vinyl edition, of course. But there’s also a digital deluxe edition for the masses that you can listen to now, too.

The deluxe vinyl edition comes pressed on a clear vinyl record and is already out. The deluxe digital version is now streaming too and features live versions of “Angels,” “Chained,” and “Reunion & Sunset,” recorded from the band’s storied 25 night run at The Armory in New York City. And none of the magic and lightning in a bottle that Coexist represented is lost on the trio of Jamie xx, Oliver Sim, and Romy Madley Croft.

“That’s the special thing of having records, is that they are a concrete diary, a moment in our friendship,” the band said in a statement. “The fact that it’s been ten years, reflecting on that time passing and the music belonging to other people in those ten years—Coexist means something to us, but the connections that people have to those songs now. Fleeting moments of people saying they got married walking down the aisle to ‘Angels,’ it’s very surreal and special to be part of those people’s lives.”

Check out the album artwork, clear vinyl and tracklist for the Coexist 10th Anniversary Edition below. Stream/buy it here.

1. “Angels”
2. “Chained”
3. “Fiction”
4. “Try”
5. “Reunion”
6. “Sunset”
7. “Missing”
8. “Tides”
9. “Unfold”
10. “Swept Away”
11. “Our Song”
12. “Angels” (Live)
13. “Chained” (Live)
14. Reunion & Sunset” (Live)

Rap music has a long, proud history of super-sized groups that shouldn’t work but do. Obviously, there’s Wu-Tang, who’ve long been the benchmark for such collectives, but there have also been such groups as Native Tongues, Odd Future, Raider Klan, Beast Coast, the earliest incarnation of NWA, and hyper-local groups like LA Symphony and Justus League. Brockhampton holds an unusual position even among this rare group of acts, both for their unique configuration and their group dynamic, which is chaotic even by the standards set by their peers and predecessors.

And now, like so very many of those supergroups before them, Brockhampton has reached the end of the road, giving us cause to take stock of their legacy and impact in the wake of their last two albums and a rowdy but strangely muted farewell show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles Saturday night (November 19).

I don’t mean “muted” in the sense that the vibe was low or that the band’s energy was down, although anyone who’s ever seen Brockhampton perform a set at a festival knows there are moments where the emo takes over. But anyone who has seen those performances has come to expect certain standards of presentation – think the orange jumpsuits they wore along with blue face paint at Camp Flog Gnaw in 2018.

While the crowd was certainly peppered with attendees wearing this getup and others from the band’s lengthy stage history of rocking outlandish costumes, this night saw them dressing down. They looked less like the funhouse mirror version of the boy bands they half-parodied-half-homaged throughout their career and more like a group of guys hanging out with their friends for one last night before going off to college.

Even in this was quintessentially Brockhampton, though. They’ve made a career of teasing and trolling fans, hinting at grand plans while seemingly making it up as they went along. This tendency was even seen in the release of what they’d promoted as their final album, The Family, which turned out to be more of a solo album from the band’s de facto frontman Kevin Abstract. Hours after dropping the project, they announced one more: the odds-and-ends compilation TM, which felt like more of a proper Brockhampton album despite the unfinished nature of the songs on it.

From the start, the final Brockhampton show captured that mischievous proclivity, as Kevin Abstract came out on stage himself to perform songs from The Family. Just when I’d convinced myself that this was one last troll from the boys, he was joined on stage by Bearface, Dom, Jabari, Joba, Matt, and Merlyn, ripping through uproarious takes on fan favorites from their three Saturation projects, Iridescence, and Ginger as the crowd broke into mosh pit mayhem.

Weirdly enough, though, it never really felt like “the last” Brockhampton show. Just “a” Brockhampton show – a hangout with friends. The closest it felt to a farewell was when they pulled a fan named Brendan, who was wearing the orange jumpsuit (of course), onto the stage and asked him what he loved about Brockhampton. His answer, “because they feel like acceptance,” seemed to explain the phenomenon behind the group’s popularity as much as anything. Then they performed some more, with Brendan on the stage like he was part of the group.

That’s the thing that seemed to define them more than anything. It explained the intense loyalty and fervor of their fanbase, which delivered them to the top of the Billboard charts in 2018 with Iridescence and offered some of the most raucous performances at the festivals they took over in the years since. It was that feeling that, with all those members on stage, there might be room for just one more. And one more after that, and maybe one or two more after that. Brockhampton called themselves a boy band, but they were more like family – and when you were a Brockhampton fan, so were you.

Death, taxes, and Taylor Swift cleaning up at the American Music Awards. She won six awards at last night’s (November 20) 2022 AMAs, extending her all-time record as the winningest artist to 40. Fresh off the release of Midnights, Swift reveled in the continued success of last November’s Red (Taylor’s Version).

Swift swept her categories: Artist Of The Year, Favorite Music Video (All Too Well: The Short Film), Favorite Female Pop Artist, Favorite Pop Album, Favorite Female Country Artist, and Favorite Country Artist. While accepting Artist Of The Year, the record-breaking chart-topper gave fans a glimpse into her prolific production.

“You know, in the past few years, I have released more music than I did in the entire decade preceding that,” the pop mastermind said, notably looking very Speak Now-ish. “And I really feel like that’s down to the fact that you, the fans, made it clear that you wanted to hear lots of music that I would make. You encouraged me. And so, I found that the more music I made and the more music I put out, the happier I was.”

She continued, “The more I just kept that channel open and just kept creating, kept making things, and the more that happened, the more you guys were like, ‘Yay, keep doing it!’ And the happier I was. So, I have the fans to thank, essentially, for my happiness, and I love you more than I can say. I cannot express how unbelievable it is to me that I still get to do this and that you still care. So thank you, underlined with 13 exclamation points.”

Swift’s love for her fans was on full display last week when she eviscerated Ticketmaster’s failing to handle her The Eras Tour presale — leading to the cancelation of the general sale and multitudes of upset Swifties. The 2023 stadium tour will mark Swift’s first tour since releasing albums Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Evermore (’20), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (’21), Red (Taylor’s Version) (’21), and last month’s Midnights.

Watch Swift’s acceptance speech above.

We’re fast approaching the time of year when those Spotify personal year-end lists emerge, and this usually means that my coworkers get a laugh from mine. My editor recently called my musical taste “eclectic,” which is a very kind way to put things, but I expect to see the usual smattering of Slipknot, Prince, Grimes, a hefty dollop of “Eye of the Tiger,” some Leonard Cohen, and maybe an appearance from Cardi B‘s “Up,” which got me through a long drive on repeat. Oh, and there might be some Caliban, which brings me to Netflix’s Dead To Me, a series that showcases this band’s trademark growl during key moments for Christina Applegate’s character, Jen Harding.

Jen has seen and been through some sh*t, to put things mildly. Honestly, I’m surprised that she’s still holding it together in Season 3. When the show began, she was freshly widowed. Her husband died during a hit-and-run while out for a run, and that was only the beginning of the revelations. Soon enough, Jen learned that the cad was cheating with someone (literally) named Bambi. Later, Jen murdered one of James Marsden’s twin characters, so the FBI might be sniffing around, and her new best friend, Judy (Linda Cardellini), previously entered Jen’s life under false pretenses. Let’s just say that Jen has got work to do. And she’s not the type to traditionally meditate, but she does practice a form of meditation, which is humorously revealed in Season 1.

Immediately following this declaration, Jen let Judy know exactly what her brand of meditation included: heading to her car and headbanging to Caliban, a metalcore band that hails from Germany. The lyrics of the heavily-featured song are not subtle. They are not sophisticated. They’re actually stereotypically silly.

“You f*cking prick / Drop dead / You make me sick / Get out of my head.” Don’t worry, though. Things quickly grow melodic: “I’m the ghost, you’re the night / I’m the shadow you’re the light.” Yet the song is as rage-filled as one can expect, and this is how a formerly polished realtor unwinds when no one else is looking. Enter Linda Cardellini with the priceless, plausible reaction to witnessing a new friend’s outlet.

Oh, Judy eventually had to let loose, too. What a wonderful bonding moment.

If you’d like to witness the actual song in context, then you’re in luck. A YouTubing gentleman known as “Metal Jim” has a reaction-treat for you.

Fast forward to Season 3, and James Marsden’s Good Twin doesn’t handle metal so well. Jen’s even being tame in this scene, and he still can’t process the lack of ladylike musical taste. This is why I know that their coupling will never work out in the end.

Yeah, ignore him. No offense to James Marsden, of course, but some people simply don’t get it, and that’s alright. More metal for the rest of us.

Yet the really metal thing about Dead To Me happens to be how Applegate’s Jen refuses to behave in the way that a grieving widow is supposed to behave. She’s processing things differently and declining to give up her already punchy personality, which kind-of transcends the commonly accepted processes of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and so on. Instead, she veers right toward anger and stays there without appearing to be bitter. It’s quite an accomplishment, really, that she remains likable to the audience (not that she’d care too much if she wasn’t likable). What Jen had, or thought she had in her marriage, got ripped away from her by a screwed-up twist of fate. And then she found out that her marriage wasn’t all that, which is a lot to handle.

Jen’s refusal to quietly weep into a box of tissues feels authentic, as twisted as it sounds, and she’s keeping things as unapologetically real as possible. Amid the obvious black comedy of the show, the overriding authenticity represents the beauty of the story. Everyone copes in their own way, and the same goes for ways to enjoy meditation. If you’ve ever taken yoga, for instance, you will know the meditative final-resting pose (Shavasana, or corpse pose) that many yogis seem to enjoy the most. However, I cannot handle Shavasana. I attempt to do it, but I’ve been known to flat-out leave the yoga room because my mind doesn’t do well with the stillness of corpse pose (and I don’t want to disturb anyone with my fidgeting). I’m like the Jen Harding of yoga.

It’s something that I’m working on, to a degree, but I’m also learning to embrace where my mind goes. And the same goes for the venue of meditation, which can happen wherever one finds it. If that happens to be in one’s car where no one else can judge as the surround sound unfolds, then so be it. Rage metal can help work things out, and I love that this show kept the Caliban callbacks coming through the final season. Have you watched the show’s ending yet? If you have not, then you probably should scoot outta here after this out-of-context image of James Marsden’s return to a basket-loving character (shout out to those who suffered through Hop).

As Season 3 bingewatchers already know, Jen bid farewell to Judy, who died from cancer. Sadly, this maybe wouldn’t have happened had Judy not ignored her abnormal pap result for an entire year (don’t do that, people). Judy had set everything aside while attempting to make amends for partially setting the show’s tragic chain of events into motion. These two women let all of their bad deeds hang out for each other and forgave each other’s transgressions, and this ended up being the deepest and rarest of friendships.

In the end, Dead To Me highlighted how one can not only find meditation in rare places, but the same goes for adoptive family. Applegate’s Married With Children mom, Katey Sagal, did pop into view as Judy’s nightmare mother, and Jen’s family was around, but they didn’t share the same type of bond. These two women had both been through so much garbage, and they always had each other’s backs while navigating the fallout. Fans also know that this final season was punctuated by Christina’s real-life multiple sclerosis diagnosis, which led to a seven-month pause in production.

During this season’s promotional tour, Christina was very upfront about her physical struggles, which will leave her (at minimum) using walking sticks for the rest of her life. She didn’t have to finish shooting this show, but she wouldn’t have had it any other way. That’s beyond being “metal,” but it remains a thrill to watch Applegate head into one final headbanging rodeo on Dead To Me‘s third season. I’ll miss this show plenty, but Jen and Judy will always rock on.

Dead To Me‘s three seasons are streaming on Netflix.

After a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado left four victims dead and 25 injured in what is reportedly a targeted hate crime, newly reelected congresswoman Lauren Boebert issued a statement offering her prayers to the victims and the families.

“The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful,” Boebert tweeted on Sunday. “This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.”

However, it didn’t take long for critics to latch on the fact that Boebert has routinely championed anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and, like most Republicans, she has a well-documented history of being obsessed with guns and voting against any attempt to regulate their use. Armed with that information, Whoopi Goldberg did not appreciate Boebert’s disingenuous display of concern for the shooting victims and called her out on Monday morning’s episode of The View.

“They don’t really need your prayers and thoughts. They needed your votes,” Whoopi said via The Wrap. “That’s what they need.”

After dragging Boebert for her pro-gun voting record, Whoopi went to town on the congresswoman being on the frontlines of attacking LGBTQ rights. Boebert has not shied away from belittling pronouns or demonizing gay marriage, which often inspires shooters like the one in Colorado.

“This is what rhetoric brings,” Whoopi said. “Words matter. And people like Lauren Boebert, who, you know, has been in the forefront of dissing LGBTQ+ people is now saying her prayers and thoughts go with the families.”

(Via The Wrap)

Omar Apollo’s biggest hit of his career finally has a music video. The rising Mexican-American star wrecks a home in the video for “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)” that was released on Saturday (November 19).

After years of grinding as an indie artist, Apollo received his big break this year with “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).” Following performances of the soulful love song on NPR’s Tiny Desk series in September and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it exploded in popularity. “Evergreen” became his first entry on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart when it reached No. 51. The song also went viral on TikTok with more than 300k videos created on the platform.

Apollo has made sure to give “Evergreen” heavy promotion. On his YouTube channel, he uploaded a live performance of the song and a lyric video. Apollo also released a sped-up version of the song to match its viral TikTok remix. Now the official video is here.

In the “Evergreen” video, Apollo gives a powerful performance of the song as a house comes together and later implodes around him. There could be a metaphorical implication of home-wrecking in this captivating visual. The song is part of Apollo’s debut album Ivory. Last week, he received his first Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.