Category: Worldwide

As January comes to a close, we can’t help but think that with an already heavy-hitting month for the best new pop music, it’s exciting to see what the rest of this year will bring. If it’s anything like the artists on this week’s list, who pulled from a range of other genre inspirations, including EDM, R&B, Latin, Rap, and more, it will certainly be a great one.

Here is Uproxx’s list of the Best New Pop music from this week.

Zara Larsson — “Can’t Tame Her”

Zara Larsson delivered on “Can’t Tame Her,” an independent anthem for those who don’t want to be put in a box. There’s also a truly wild music video that borders on sci-fi as she encounters a freer version of herself.

“In the public eye, you have a lot of people telling you what’s wrong or how you should do something differently,” she told Billboard. “I’m out there, I’m very loud and I try to stay true to myself and surround myself with people who care about me.”

Maisie Peters — “Body Better”

After releasing a handful of high-quality singles scattered throughout last year, Peters returned this week with “Body Better,” the first official single from her sophomore album. While not much is known about the record yet, she sets the tone with an ode to the emotions after a breakup — and the tendency to compare yourself to literally every other person they know. (The girlies who get it, get it.)

Rosalía — “LLYLM”

“LLYLM” is an abbreviation for “Lie like you love me,” which Rosalía notes that she wants a lover to do. Playing into the concept of fake love being better than none at all, she switches between Spanish and English on this soft track — a slight departure from the sound of songs on Motomami.

Ava Max — “Sleepwalker”

Ava Max’s “Sleepwalker” appears in her newly-released sophomore record, Diamonds & Dancefloors, and is a standout. With an addictive pop hook that’s present throughout nearly every song on the record, Max cements herself as one of the most intriguing rising acts. This one, in particular, has quite a sick instrumental break worth checking out.

The Kid Laroi — “Love Again”

“Can we find love again? / Is this time the end?” The Kid Laroi asks on the brand new song from his anticipated debut album. While the song finds him reminiscing on a relationship, the music video counters those emotions with a robot girlfriend as his co-star.

Alexander 23 — “How To Drive”

“The candles take more breath on every birthday,” he sings on the heartfelt new “How To Drive” track, written to cope about growing up and getting older. “I know I should shut up, enjoy the ride – but nobody ever taught me how to drive.”

Chlöe — “Pray It Away”

Fans have been WAITING for Chlöe’s solo debut album since her and her sister, Halle, stepped onto the scene. Thankfully, the time is finally here. After announcing the project by posting from the cover photoshoot for In Pieces on social media, she also dropped the lead single, “Pray It Away,” which finds her turning to religious forces instead of getting revenge on a toxic dude.

Bella Dose — “Mírame”

Another bilingual drop this week, Bella Dose’s “Mírame” is the latest release from the popular girl group. Each member puts their own spin on the song, from slowed-down thoughtful verses to high-energy rap-inspired parts. Lyrically, it’s about “rediscovering yourself after a broken relationship,” per the press release.

Sans Soucis — “Merchants”

“’Merchants’ is a moment in time, something in between an epic journey and a psychedelic one,” explains Sans Soucis. “Moving to the UK has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life, as well as being one of the most challenging. Going through my coming of age, in what was literally an unknown territory, affected my sense of belonging and my sense of self.”

Kerli — “21st Century Kids”

Kerli’s “21st Century Kids” finds the Estonian artist “wanting to break free,” as she details a carefree, youthful mentality. Perfect for fans of Natalia Kills, Allie X, and (sigh) Grimes, the song has a unique and bubbly electronic production that pulls listeners in.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

I’ll admit, 80 For Brady did not seem like my cup of tea. In fact, it seemed so transparently not my cup of tea as to be the type of movie I generally avoid in order to let someone closer to the target audience opine over. And yet, if I could point to a reason that ultimately compelled me to see it anyway, it was to try to figure out who that target audience actually was.

80 For Brady stars the dream team of Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Rita Moreno, in the supposedly based-on-a-true-story of four seasoned ladies who took a bucket-list trip to Houston to see their favorite player Tom Brady play the Falcons in Super Bowl 51 (the 28-3 comeback one, from 2017). When I think of fans of Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda et al, I think of my mom, who could not care less about football and is probably only vaguely aware of Tom Brady. When I think of people who want to relive Super Bowl LI, I think Massholes, most of whom have probably never heard of Rita Moreno and probably still refer to Jane Fonda as “Hanoi Jane.”

Clearly, this movie, featuring the gals in Patriots jerseys on the poster, was produced with the full participation of the NFL (as well as Brady himself, credited as a producer). Presumably, that would make it some kind of puff piece for the league. And yet if that’s the case, why Brady? Most football fans I know are sick to death of Tom Brady, almost to the point that even I think they’re being a little unfair. People really seem to hate Touchdown Tom these days, who, as luck would have it, just recently played one of the worst playoff games of his career and got knocked out of the playoffs prior to 80 For Brady‘s release.

“Who is this even for?” is one of those questions culture critics love to ask. 80 For Brady, written by Booksmart screenwriters Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins and directed by The Climb producer Kyle Haskins, elevates “who is this for” to level of art, creating a new Zen unanswerable on the level of one hand clapping or the sound of a tree falling in the forest.

As the film began to roll, I was again hit with an overpowering waft of “probably not for me.” The gals were gathered in the living room of “Lou’s” house (Lily Tomlin), performing an elaborate pre-game superstition ritual involving “Betty” (Sally Field) standing halfway up a ladder and Lou flipping over a bowl of chips. The expository dialogue (“how many years have we been doing this now?” “At least since my husband died two years ago..”) seemed to have been loosely improvised, and the shots seemed somehow uncanny. For a movie about four ladies from Boston, it was also curiously absent any recognizable Boston accents — though possibly for the best, as later minor characters’ hammy attempts at them would suggest.

At first, I thought they were using a different, softer focus camera for all the Jane Fonda shots (she does look great for 85, though she’s buried under so much make-up, wigs, and glitter that it could’ve been David Spade under there), but as it went on it gradually dawned on me that there were rarely more than two of the main actors in the same room. This extended attempt to push the boundaries of the Kuleshov effect (shout out to the film studies majors) was only magnified further once the celebrity cameos kicked into high gear.

In the midst of this haphazard mashup of shots from different times and places, lots of the jokes seem half-delivered. Either aborted prematurely or built from set-ups that didn’t actually fit together — as if one line or two got flubbed or never delivered and no one bothered to fix it. One example I can remember sees Tomlin preparing to compete in a skills competition that involves sinking a football into some moving nets. Incidentally, this sequence begins with the extremely dubious line “Ooh, the NFL Super Bowl Experience, I’ve always wanted to go to this!” (…said no one ever).

Anyway, as Tomlin prepares at the throwing line of the game, a younger guy at the same booth says, “Dang, grandma, you look like you should be home knitting a sweater,” or something to that effect.

“You feeling pretty confident?” Moreno leans in to ask him.

Next thing you know, they’re taking bets on whether Lou can sink more balls. Now: how the hell did we get from knitting a sweater to “you feeling pretty confident?!”

It’s the movie that feels confident, just cutting this all together and assuming it will fly based on vibes alone. And it kind of does. You don’t really need photorealistic setups for jokes this corny. I couldn’t help but respect it.

There’s a cursory attempt to turn the gals into “types,” Sex And The City-style, along with a simultaneous endeavor to make this about the old gals showing the whippersnappers what’s what, Liam Neeson-style (with this much product placement, for everything from the NFL to Guy Fieri to Carmax, not to mention a handful of carefully image-managed star athletes making appearances, there must’ve been a lot of cooks in the kitchen). And so you’ll get about half a scene of Jane Fonda being like “I love men!” Samantha-style, and Sally Field doing something brainy, before it eventually descends into some kind of weird joke that seems to suggest old people have superpowers.

Not only does Lily Tomlin beat a young man at a football throwing contest (Tomlin’s character sometimes has a Boston accent and sometimes not, but always sounds like she has about three peppermints in her mouth when she’s talking), Sally Field wins a hot wing eating contest hosted by Guy Fieri. The apparent explanation? She was hungry. Old people be hungry, y’all!

Meanwhile, Fonda’s character writes “Gronk-themed erotica.” At one point doing a reading of her bestseller, Between A Gronk And A Hard Place, she also tosses off that she has an idea for a holiday-themed book, We Gronk You A Merry Christmas. Come on, man, that’s not even a play on words! And How The Gronk Stole Christmas was right there! Somewhere Chuck Tingle is watching this and can’t stop puking.

There’s a fun dose of nostalgia rewatching the exciting end of Super Bowl LI, and getting to do it from the perspective of Patriots fans, who I was rooting against hard the first time around. Brady has slightly improved as an actor, in that he actually feigns looking at other people in the scene now, though he’s still pretty terrible. Gronkowski, meanwhile, has his usual, seemingly effortless himbro charisma. Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman are also there. (Curiously absent? Cameos by any black players.)

80 For Brady was like a weird mushroom trip, and I found myself oddly fascinated by it all. In this jaded age of media saturation, we rarely credit wondering “how did they do that?” as a question that compels us to keep watching anymore. And yet, that question was as consistently on my mind during 80 for Brady as it was during Avatar. Which actors were actually in the room during this scene? Which parts of this were shot on location and which in a makeshift studio six months later? What lines used to be in this scene that someone forgot or flubbed and the director was too polite to ask them to redo them?

The hallmark of these “old timers kickin’ butt” movies is that they’re always kind of patronizing. That’s why it’s usually a little sad to see the aging titans of stage, screen, and comedy starring in movies where one of the jokes is them taking the wrong prescription pill (these movies always, ALWAYS include at least one of this gag, 80 For Brady has two). The beauty of 80 for Brady is that it manages to communicate, entirely through construction and subtext, that Fonda, Tomlin, Moreno, and the gang, actually are too good for this. “You already got the shot, Kevin,” you can imagine one of them telling director Kyle Haskins as he gently pleads for another take.

Let Touchdown Tom stumble through his lines with the stand-in, the ladies are taking lunch.

’80 For Brady’ hits theaters everywhere February 3. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

Ahead of the Super Bowl next month, Uber Eats unleashed their new ad for their ‘Uber One’ membership.

Three people attempt to pitch Diddy an ad, but appear to be unsuccessful. The camera cuts back to the media mogul wearing sunglasses and a stern expression before his bodyguard hilariously notes that “Diddy don’t do jingles.”

“No, of course not, it’s not a jingle,” the woman replies.

“It’s one song for Uber One,” another man adds off-screen.

The bodyguard repeats the sentiment again. “Diddy. Don’t. Do. Jingles.”

“Right. Of course. Diddy doesn’t do jingles,” she says again. “We just want a hit though.”

Thankfully, his bodyguard notes, “Diddy does do hits.”

“We’ll take a hit,” she responds.

Diddy finally cracks a big smile, showing off his pearly teeth. “Diddy is excited,” the guard points out in a deadpan voice.

The rapper then accepts a call, where he instructs the person on the other end to “meet me at the studio.” If there is an actual song in the works, we’d love to hear how Diddy’s non-jingle (totally not) works out.

“Watch Diddy not do a jingle,” the text reads with the date of the football game.

The timing of this ad and the look on Diddy’s face the entire time is truly the best part of this. It’s something you just have to see to understand. Watch Diddy’s Uber One ad above.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was the beginning of Rudy Giuliani’s very public downfall; a case could be made that without Sacha Baron Cohen, there would be no Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. But it’s the original Borat that had a bigger influence on the culture: it’s the movie that broke up Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock.

In her memoir, Love, Pamela, the Baywatch star wrote about attending the Borat premiere with her rock star ex-, real name “Bob” Ritchie. “We were about to move in, until the premiere of Borat. The screening at Ron and Kelly Meyer’s house didn’t go well. Lots of important industry people were there — Steven Spielberg, Rick Rubin, Laird Hamilton and his wife, Gabby Reece. I didn’t tell Bob I was in the movie, because I wanted to surprise him,” Anderson said. In the movie, Borat travels to California with the intention of marrying the actress, who he tries to abduct during a book signing.

Anderson continued:

“I forgot about the part in the film that referenced the ‘sex tape.’ Bob stormed out, calling me a whore and worse. He was embarrassed, and his reaction was not thought through… After I chased Bob to his car, he peeled out, leaving me there alone. I turned back and apologized, then asked if anyone could give me a ride home. When I walked in, Bob was smashing a photo on the wall. He said he was sick of waking up to a picture of me and David LaChapelle every day. But it wasn’t me and David — it was Marilyn Monroe and Bert Stern.”

“We broke up,” she added. “I didn’t stay in touch with Bob.” That proved to be a good call.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Remember a few years ago, when NFTs were all the rage?

Yeah, I don’t know why I brought that up. Anyway, everybody seems to be really into “AI” right now — or at least, algorithms that imitate artificial intelligence (ChatGPT ain’t passing a Turing test anytime soon) — and that’s led to some quirky, fun apps like the aforementioned ChatGPT and a new Drake song generator.

Drayk.it lets users type in a song concept — or randomly generate one — and out pops a reasonable facsimile of a one-minute Drake song, which is performed by a Drake bot.

Obviously, there’s a lot of fun to be had with getting Drake to sing about something other than his broken heart, and fans are stretching that idea to its absolute limits. Suggestions have so far included a lost wallet (A Tribe Called Quest did it first/better), Drake’s Shabbos reading list, and a song about a turtle pirate(???).

And sure, this is all in good fun, but whenever Drake gets around to pulling a Rick Astley and suing the pants off the app’s creators, this sort of thing will probably see a lot of legal scrutiny within the next few years. This is kind of a far cry from that Views cover art generator. This is actual likeness and art, which will need to be protected.

The genie’s out of the bottle now, and I can think of at least three ways this could be used for nefarious ends, and while Drake isn’t much of a sympathetic figure, there are hundreds of other recording artists out there who could be harmed by this. For now, we’ll enjoy making Drake rap about Warrior Nun or whatever, but the dominoes are already falling.

This year’s Record Store Day ambassadors have been announced — and it’s none other than the married musicians Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires. Ahead of the event on April 22, they are the first couple to be honored with the title.

“We’re happy to be your Record Store Day Ambassadors for 2023,” Isbell shared in a video. “We think record stores are so important, not only to the musicians who play in them, like Amanda did so many times this year and I’ve done in the past, but also to the communities and to people who love art.”

“Working at Ralph’s Records was great, but I had this guy that worked with me that played Fugazi nonstop,” Shires also told Variety about the announcement. “One day I’d had enough and he was like, ‘It’s come to the end of the record.’ I was like, ‘Yes, I know, thank God.’ He was like, ‘It’s your turn, I guess.’ And I reached for the quickest thing I could find, and it was that Songs Of Love And Hate record with Leonard Cohen, and I’d never heard it before. And that is when I fell in love with Leonard Cohen. So I owe my entire existence to that day in the record store.”

Along with being official ambassadors, Isbell and Shires announced their new collaborative EP, The Sound Emporium, which will appear among the 2023 RSD titles.

A full list of the Record Store Day 2023 titles will be unveiled soon.

Normani may be holding off on the release of her debut solo album, but that hasn’t stopped the singer from using her voice in other arenas. Yes, the cross-over act has dropped a string of singles over the years, including “Dancing With A Stranger” featuring Sam Smith, “Motivation,” “Wild Side” featuring Cardi B, and most recently, “Fair.” Still, she’s kept her creative options open.

Now, the musician is looking to add the title actress to her growing resume. In a new teaser clip shared by Disney+, the New Orleans native will blend her vocal skills both as a voice actor and as a singer thanks to her new role on The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder. Normani will play the role of Giselle, a member of the show’s fictional ’90s music group, The Soul Vibrations.

The episode is described as the staple character Uncle Bobby (played by Cedric the Entertainer) reliving his musical glory days as the leader of the fictional band. In the clip of the scene featuring Normani, Bobby recounts to his Penny (played by Kyla Pratt) all about Giselle’s early start in the industry as his backing support. Based on its description, Normani may make several appearances throughout the season. It makes you wonder, did Normani use her admiration for ’90s music star Janet Jackson to get into character?

Watch the episode teaser clip above.

The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder is exclusively available on Disney+. New episodes will be available for streaming starting on February 1.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s astonishing considering the song’s seeming ubiquity, but Ice Spice’s breakout song “Munch” was never actually on the Hot 100 chart, instead peaking at No. 5 on Billboard‘s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart in September. It didn’t take her too long to top that accomplishment, though; her latest single, “Gangsta Boo” featuring Lil Tjay, has garnered the Bronx rapper her first-ever Hot 100 appearance on this week’s chart.

“Gangsta Boo,” which appears on Ice’s debut EP Like..? alongside her previously released singles “Munch (Feelin’ U),” “Bikini Bottom,” and “In Ha Mood,” enters the Hot 100 this week at No. 82. Considering the omnipresence of Ice Spice catchphrases like, “you thought I was feeling you?” and “how can I lose when I’m already chose?”, it’s likely only a matter of time until we see her making regular appearances at the opposite end of the chart.

The signature redhead probably won’t stop at the charts, though; earlier this month, she hinted that a screen career might soon be on the way. “I didn’t ever really like see myself being a rapper,” she told Hot97’s Ebro Darden. “I always wanted to be an actress. That was my first passion.” With her witty personality and a gift for self-promotion, don’t be surprised if she takes over movies and TV, too.

In 2019, Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour passed U2’s U2 360° Tour to become the highest-grossing tour of all time. Sheeran got to hold onto that title for a few good years, but now there’s a new champion: Billboard reports that Elton John’s ongoing Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed $817.9 million from 278 shows so far, easily surpassing Sheeran’s Divide total of $776.4 million.

When it comes to tickets sold, though, Sheeran is still the record-holder and well ahead of John: Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has so far sold 5.3 million tickets while The Divide Tour concluded with 8.9 million. John is also behind U2’s tour as well as The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge Tour (1994 and 1995), Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams Tour (2016 and 2017) and Guns N’ Roses’ Not In This Lifetime… Tour (2016 to 2019).

Sheeran shouldn’t be too bummed about losing his throne to John, as the two are good friends. A few months ago, Sam Smith revealed Sheeran gave them a six-foot marble statue of a penis and noted that he actually gave one to John first.

Check out our review of John’s Los Angeles stop of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Despite continuing to collaborate with M. Night Shyamalan on the Apple TV series Servant and the writer/director’s upcoming film, Knock at the Cabin, Rupert Grint will always be best known as Harry Potter‘s red-headed best friend Ron Weasley. While promoting the post-apocalyptic film starring Dave Bautista, Grint opened up about the experience of living in J.K. Rowling’s Wizard World for over a decade and how it was all too easy for him to merge into his character because they were so alike.

“I was feeling the difficulty of being seen, being overshadowed,” Grint told Bustle about the similarities between himself and Ron Weasley. “In the movies, we merged into one. By the end of it, I was playing myself. The lines were blurred.”

As the films took him from age 11 to 22, Grint is glad the series ended when it did as the experience became extremely taxing:

“Potter was so full on — [filming] all year, then we’d promote the rest of the time. It was quite suffocating,” he says, uncrossing his legs. “I wanted a break, to reflect on everything… It was an out-of-body experience for a while, but I think we finished at the right time. If we continued, it could’ve gone downhill.”

However, Grint is fully appreciative of the fact that Harry Potter made his career, and he genuinely doesn’t even mind if people address him as his character in public.

“I answer to it, if someone calls me Ron,” Grint told Bustle with a laugh. “It’s my second name.”

(Via Bustle)