In 2018, an 8-year-old girl named Isabella McCune was badly burned in an accident and was hospitalized at Phoenix’s Arizona Burn Center. She had hoped to see Taylor Swift perform in Glendale but was unable to. She had a plan, though: She recorded a video that April calling out to Swift, saying, “I heard you were here, and I wanted to visit you but maybe you can come and visit me. So maybe that can happen.”
A few days later, Swift actually did visit, and while there, McCune told Swift how her music has helped her through the tough times she had faced. Swift wrote a message for McCune: “Isabella! I hope you feel better soon and I’m honored you’ve been listening to my music. You’re so awesome and I can’t wait to have you at a show!! Stay strong, gorgeous.”
Swift did have to wait to have McCune at a show, nearly five years. Now, though, Swift has made good on her promise by gifting McCune four tickets to the second of her Glendale Eras Tour concerts this past weekend.
McCune, who is now 13, told Arizona’s ABC 13, “Not only the fact that I’m able to go and I got these tickets gifted to me, they’re from Taylor Swift and her team and they remembered me, and thought of me to give me these tickets.”
Watch McCune tell the story herself in the video above.
A review of the fourth and final season of Succession, presented via Good News and Bad News…
GOOD NEWS: Succession is back, finally, over a year after the third season ended with various family members dropping bombs on each other, figuratively if not literally, at least for now. Tom and my sweet boy Cousin Greg sided with Logan and left the three primary children — Shiv, Kendall, and Roman (sorry Connor) — flailing in the breeze, detonating marriages and friendships and what little parent-child bonds remained, to the extent any ever existed. The show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, included a very nice note with the first clump of screeners released to critics in which he politely asked us not to reveal too much of what happens or why and when it does, but I think I can say this much safely: Season four picks up in the aftermath of all that, with everyone scrambling to look for an edge amid the chaos, and, to quote Jesse, the show has “some big moves coming.” Yes. Yes, it does. There are going to be so many screencaps of devastating lines of dialogue. I am going to make more of them. People in my group chats are going to get so sick of it. This will not deter me at all.
BAD NEWS: This is, as we have discussed, the final season of the show, both for better (go out on top instead of slowly fading away, fire all your bullets fast and win the gunfight as quickly as possible, etc.) and for worse (BUT I WANT MORE). This is going to amp everything up quite a bit. Things are going to mean more because we can see that end date coming. These goons have been trying to destroy each other for three seasons now and, if they’re ever going to do it, this is the time. It also increases the pressure to bring things in for a landing in a way that works, whether that’s something that’s satisfying or deliberately unsatisfying to the viewer, and the aforementioned big moves that happen in the first half of the season are going to raise those stakes quite a bit.
GOOD NEWS: At some point, unless the trailer lied to us, Cousin Greg will be riding a bicycle through New York.
HBO
BAD NEWS: It’s going to be much harder to root for Greg in these last few episodes, owing to the thing where he sided with Logan and Tom in the season three finale and embraced his Corporate Goon turn in full, complete with suits and a haircut and a new position in the company. I kind of hate it. But it does make sense. Everyone on this show is a cretin or a weasel or both, in some way. Logan is a crotchety old dinosaur who loves to manipulate people for his own interest and sometimes uses slurs, but he also built something important that he doesn’t want to watch crumble if and when he steps away. The kids are a little sympathetic in that they’ve all been broken in different ways by their domineering father but they’re also all entitled brats who seem to think they’re owed a whole lot on account of their DNA. I can talk myself into and out of who I hate most three or four times every episode. My weekly Report Card recaps read like a man in crisis.
GOOD NEWS: Good Lord, this show can still turn a phrase like nothing else on television. Examples from the new season include, but are not limited to:
“Rummage to fruition”
“Butter my beanpole”
“He looks like a ballsack in a toupee”
There is also a scene that opens with one character saying “Nobody tells jokes anymore, do they?” and leads to a few minutes of the most uncomfortable squirming you’ve ever seen, by both the people on the screen and anyone watching it at home. Very few shows can do more to advance a story with these little scenes between the action than Succession. Conversations about nothing become vital to the proceedings because of what they reveal on a deeper level. It’s kind of like Seinfeld in that way, and yes, I do believe this makes me the first television critic to compare Succession to Seinfeld. I feel okay about it.
BAD NEWS: There is some heavy stuff ahead. I suppose that’s not really “bad news” when you’re talking about a television drama. It’s part of the deal, really. But with things all wrapping up and everyone at each other’s throats after last season, there has to be some fallout coming. The obvious stuff is with Tom and Shiv, on account of Tom straight-up betraying his wife for his father-in-law, for reasons that aren’t entirely unreasonable if you dig a little, but still. I don’t think it’s really spoiling anything to tell you that there’s danger on the horizon there. Same with Logan and the three kids. This show is fun and preposterously watchable but it’s also a show about broken people walloping each other with the scraps of a personality they have left. Buckle in.
GOOD NEWS: You don’t have to wait much longer for any of it, and I don’t have to keep all this information inside either, as the new season debuts this Sunday, March 26.
BAD NEWS: That’s still like three or four whole days away.
GOOD NEWS: You can watch the trailer 10 times a day until then if you want. And drive around with the theme music blasting. You have options. That’s the point.
Grief is the yellow Starburst of deeply penetrative emotions. No one necessarily reaches for it, but when it is forced upon you, you have no choice but to stomach it. Indie rocker Alicia Bognanno, better known as Bully, knows this all too well. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the musician has made a more conscious effort to find an outlet for her emotions. Bognanno’s previous track, “Lose You,” was a cathartic demonstration of that, but it was only the beginning.
On her latest single, “Days Move Slow,” off her forthcoming album, Lucky For You, Bognanno is forced to reach down even deeper as she pours the grief of losing her beloved dog and best friend on the track in under three minutes. When asked about her grief process, she told Flood Magazine, “As someone who has spent the majority of my life feeling agonizingly misunderstood, there is no greater gift than experiencing true unconditional love and acceptance,” adding, “I waited my whole life for the bond and irreplaceable companionship I had with Mezzi. She was my best friend and my only constant through some of the most pivotal moments and phases of my life. I was a stranger to the level of love I now know exists because of Mezzi.”
That pain is felt through the grayscale video, which is heightened by the fact that the visual was captured on film rather than digital.
Filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, the video’s director, shared that this emotional pulling was at the center of the visual inspiration. “Right away, it seemed striking to make a piece as stark and measured as possible, not to make a video that replicates the song’s sonic energy but to visualize the emotional weight and feelings of loss and grief depicted in the lyrics,” said Perry.
Watch the full video for “Days Are Long” above.
Lucky For You is out 6/2 via Sub Pop. For more information, click here.
For over a year now, the family and fans of the late rapper Young Dolph have grieved his tragic death. To build upon his musical legacy, the recording artist’s estate has continued to produce projects under his Paper Route Empire label, the latest being Key Glock’s Glockoma 2. But that hasn’t stopped his supporters from spinning the label’s tribute project to him, Paper Route Empire Presents: Long Live Dolph, or his posthumous album, Paper Route Frank.
The most popular track off the album, “Love For The Streets,” produced by Dun Deal, has become yet another sobering reminder of his absence. To honor his memory, his estate blended archival footage of Dolph in his zone (in the recording studio, on stage, and riding around in one of his tricked-out foreign cars Memphis) while beaming with hometown pride. Throughout the video, several notable rappers make an appearance, including fellow Memphis native Juicy J.
The video blends together past clips with current clips of the community returning the love as murals, street sign dedications, and more flash across the screen.
Fans of the late rapper flooded the comment section with tribute posts. One user wrote, “Rest Easy, Dolph. Ima always support cause I know your kids own them masters to all yo music, so we gotta run it up for them, and you we watching every video back to back to back every time yo songs come on, we thumbs it up and never skip. Rest easy big bro.”
Another user wrote, “Legendary sh*t y’all don’t know how much this means to his fans,” and thanked the team for pulling together the footage for the video.
The scriptwriters for the 2023 World Baseball Classic could not have come up with a better ending. Japan won the tournament, 3-2, over the United States in Miami on Tuesday night, with the final at-bat coming between two of the greatest players of this generation, both of whom happen to be teammates.
Japan slotted in Shohei Ohtani as a designated hitter on Tuesday night, but the Los Angeles Angels star did take the bump in the ninth inning with a chance to pick up his first save since 2016. Jeff McNeil walked to start the frame, and then Mookie Betts grounded into a double play. All that stood between Ohtani and Japan was none other than Mike Trout.
The at-bat was thrilling, with Ohtani touching triple digits on multiple occasions and Trout showing his discipline at the plate to stay off of several offerings that were just outside of the strike zone. The count got to 3-2, and instead of trying to blow his teammate away, Ohtani went with a slider. For how great Trout inarguably is, there was nothing he could do here.
Now, both of these titans in the world of baseball will return to Los Angeles, where they will try to help the Angels make the postseason for the first time since 2014.
Ron DeSantis hasn’t yet announced his probably inevitable presidential campaign, but he has started doing one thing: returning fire against his probably primary rival, Donald Trump (who’s killing him in the polls). It’s just baby steps so far, nothing too mean or, for Trump, anger-making. He didn’t even have too many mean things to say about one of Trump’s mature nicknames for him, treating it only to some beneath him jokes.
On Thursday Piers Morgan will run his full sit-down with the Florida governor, but he started dropping teases on Tuesday. One was a brief clip of Morgan asking him about “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron.” DeSantis laughed them off, but only addressed the one that’s less mean (and also bad).
“I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one,” joked DeSantis. “I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine. I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner.”
Of course DeSantis knows how to spell “sanctimonious.” He went to Yale and Harvard. But he’s trying to win over Trump’s base, so he’s gotta dumb it down.
Transcripts from the interview were also published in The New York Post, in which DeSantis once again will neither confirm nor deny whether he’s running, possibly because he just got re-elected as governor. He also got in a customary dig at Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom he said he would have “fired” because “he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.” There was also some woke talk, though like most people who use that word, he has yet to even adequately define what it means.
With two singles already under his belt, namely “Let Me Go” and “Do You Like Me,” Daniel Caesar is officially ready for the release of his third studio album. Titled Never Enough, it’s slated to thrust the songwriter back to the forefront of alternative R&B music. Although his last work, Case Study 01, didn’t have much staying power, the Toronto native is looking to change that with his latest.
Below is everything you need to learn about the album, including its release date, tracklist, features, tour dates, and more.
Release Date
Never Enough is out 4/7 via Republic. For more information, click here.
Tracklist
“Ocho Rios”
“Valentina”
“Toronto 2014”
“Let Me Go”
“Do You Like Me?”
“Always”
“Cool”
“Disillusioned”
“Buyer’s Remorse”
“Shot My Baby”
“Pain Is Inevitable”
“Homiesexual”
“Vince Van Gogh”
“Superpowers”
“Unstoppable”
Features
At this time, it is unclear if the album will contain any guest features. Based on Caesar’s past releases, he may every so often slip in another vocalist into the mix, but for the most part he’s opted to highlight his own unique voice.
Artwork
Keeping in line with his cryptic nature, the album’s official artwork is a story within itself. What the cover is trying to tell us is not as clear without having listened to the album. However, thanks to Caesar’s latest Instagram caption, which reads, “I’m sensing a theme throughout my album covers,” viewers can guess the image emphasizes the singer’s desire to hide from the public eye. In the grainy blue overcast image, Caeser is seen in full sprint with his back towards the photographer.
Caesar’s past albums — namely, Praise Break in 2014, Pilgrim’s Paradise in 2015, Freudian in 2017, and Case Study 01 in 2019 — all capture the singer in his current state of mind. So, Never Enough, as Caesar shared on Instagram, may do the same.
Singles
So far, Caesar has released two singles from the album, “Let Me Go” and “Do You Like Me?” Fans were surprised to find out that his previously released 2022 single, “Horsepower,” did not make the album’s final tracklist.
Tour Dates
Caesar hasn’t announced a full tour as of yet. However, beginning in April, he’ll embark on a few spot dates for the Almost Enough: The Intimate Sessions performance stops. Pre-sale for the tour will begin on Thursday, March 23 at 10 am local time. General tickets go on-sale Friday, March 25 at 10 am local. For more information, click here.
04/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
04/11 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
04/13 — Toronto, ON @ History
04/18 — Paris, FR @ Elysee Montmartre
04/19 — London, UK @ Here at Outernet
04/22 — Berlin, DE @ Huxleys Neue Welt
A lot of damning secrets about Fox News, its higher-ups, and its staff have recently been made public, all thanks to that looming $1.6 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. (Two more lawsuits, made by a former producer and featuring extra dirt, surely won’t help their case.) Among the most explosive involve Tucker Carlson. Texts reveal that not only didn’t he actually believe the voter fraud nonsense he parroted on air, he also hated Donald Trump “passionately.” After weeks of just ignoring it, he’s finally trying to spin it.
As per The Daily Beast, on Monday Tucker went on conservative radio host Bo Snerdley’s show, where he was asked about all those private texts in a safer space than on, say, CNN. Indeed, Snerdley asked him straight up, “What’s the deal with you and Donald Trump?”
“I’m pretty straightforward; I love Trump,” Carlson said. “Like, as a person, I think Trump is funny and insightful. And I said this to Trump when he called me, you know, all wounded about those texts. That was a moment in time where I was absolutely infuriated.”
Granted, he was also mad when his damning texts, which say the opposite, “were all grabbed completely illegitimately.” He then claimed he wasn’t talking about Trump himself, but “Trump” as all his campaign staffers (and presumably not Trump himself).
“Those particular texts were pulled at exactly the moment where I was texting with one of my producers because some idiot on the Trump campaign had sent us the name of these dead voters who had voted,” Tucker declared. “And we went and I repeated them on air, and it turns out some of them were alive. So, I was just—I felt humiliated.”
Sure enough, Tucker — who says he still believes the 2020 election “was not on the level” — had reached out to Team Trump, asking them to provide evidence of voter fraud. They gave him easily-disprovable BS about dead voters voting, which he aired before properly vetting it.
“Well, it turned out some of them were still alive,” Carlson explained. “And I was so mad by the incompetence of that campaign, which was completely incompetent. I mean, completely you know, I’m like the one guy who’s open-minded about the election being unfair. And that’s what they send me? Anyway. Whatever. I was mad. That was a moment in time.”
For what it’s worth, Trump has forgiven him, though he did that thing he does by talking longer than he should and blurting out what’s probably the truth. “He doesn’t hate me, or at least, not anymore!” he wrote this month on his Twitter clone.
Bad Bunny might have enjoyed putting The Late Late Show host James Corden into a chokehold physically as the pair played around in a wrestling ring. But Tori Kelly dropped by the show for the television debut performance of her latest single, “Missing U,” she decided to try something else.
Inspired by the early 2000s, the electronic R&B fusion track is warm and fun. Although she was unable to pull together an elaborate set design from the nostalgic videos reference in the track’s official Marc Clasfeld-directed video, Kelly was sure to dress the part, shorting a victorian styled quilted corset, ruched parachute, and a mesh super crop top. The singer delivered a heartfelt vocal performance leaving host Corden too stunned to speak.
When asked about the inspiration behind the song in an interview with People, Kelly said, “This song is about missing somebody, but it’s also, just so inspired by the early 2000s, late ’90s. We wanted to make sure that we got that nostalgic feeling both in the lyrics and in the music. I just knew, ‘OK, when people listen to this, I want them to be transported. I want them to think about that era or just that nostalgic feeling,’ whatever that is for them.”
She later added, “I love that about this song because I think everyone can relate to it in their own way. For me, I just want to blast it in my car and belt it out.”
The Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast episode with Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin is the interview gem that keeps giving. The latest clip making the rounds on social media is Martin’s subtle response to the backlash he received after viewers deemed his wardrobe at this year’s Grammy Award unacceptable. But after a conversation with his friend and hero, actor Woody Harrelson, Martin feels more comfortable with his decision.
“I am happy to feel like I have to wear an outfit if it helps me perform better, but I don’t agree with telling people what they have to wear,” said Martin.
However, when it came to presenting the award for Record Of The Year, Martin opted for a comfort beanie, environmental awareness sweater, and what looked to be dark-wash jeans. Martin says to O’Brien, “Then there’s also this thing of does clothing show respect? And I would never want to show disrespect because I love the Grammys.”
As the pair discussed the annual ceremony’s implied dress code and respectability politics, Martin asks, “what if you’re an axe murderer, but you are dressed correctly? Are you a better groom than Woody Harrelson over here, who loves to, with all of his heart, is wearing board shorts? No, you’re not.”
“I’m going to give a big shout-out to Woody Harrelson because he was at a concert of ours in Oswald. he was so kind to my brother when he had no reason to be that he just became an extra hero in my eyes,” said Martin.
But his love for the actor runs deeper than that, as he shared another interaction Harrelson had with a member of the Martin family, the singer’s dad. “My dad talks to everyone on the crew — he met Woody and asked; he started talking about ‘hey, what you do you do? Do you fold the cables?’” The actor was respectful and showed the same kindness to Martin’s father. “Again, Woody Harrelson was cool as f*ck,” laughed Martin.
Watch the full interview clip above.
Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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