Music News

Dean Lewis releases new single and video, "Trust Me Mate"

Isaac Anthony

For his latest release, Dean Lewis turned to the same guy with whom he co-wrote two of his biggest hits: "How Do I Say Goodbye" and "Be Alright."

Dean and Jon Hume co-wrote both songs and have teamed up again for the new song "Trust Me Mate." It's the second track released from his upcoming third album, following his Julia Michaels collaboration "In a Perfect World."

"It was probably the most stressful song we’ve ever had to write," Dean says of the song. "It took us about five days to write it ... we just spent a lot of time perfecting it. But we’re both really proud of it, because similar to our other songs, it really means something to the both of us, and we think it will really resonate with others who are going through a hard time.”

The song is about wanting to help a friend who's descended into addiction. Dean sings, "Trust me, mate, you've got this/ You always were the strongest/ But I'm not gonna promisе that this won't hurt/ You were lying in the bathroom/ Wе almost thought we lost you ... I'm not giving up on you."

In the video, Dean finds himself in a series of life-threatening situations — he's in a burning room, he's drowning, he's about to walk into the path of a truck — but each time, he's "rescued" by seemingly anonymous people. At the end of the clip, he's struck by lightning on a hilltop, but a dozen people run up to help him.

Dean is currently out on the U.S. leg of his The Future Is Bright World Tour, which wraps up in Hawaii on November 4.

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Music notes: Kelly Clarkson, Stephen Sanchez and more

Kelly Clarkson had to dash off the stage to deal with a wardrobe malfunction during a performance in Minnesota recently. She was about to start singing "Catch My Breath" when she began adjusting her lacy black dress. “Am I good? Wait, hold on! Should I fix it?” she's heard saying in fan-captured video. “I think my boob’s showing!” She then quickly ran offstage to adjust her dress before coming back out and finishing the performance.

Stephen Sanchez will debut Angel Face: The Live Visual Album on his YouTube channel October 3. The "Until I Found You" singer worked with Lenovo to create a visual representation of his new release, Angel Face, a concept album set in the late '50s and early '60s. In addition to a "truly cinematic" performance of the album's songs, fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at how it was created.

It sounds like Taylor Swift may be supporting Sophie Turner with more than just dinner dates. Page Six reports Taylor is letting Sophie stay in her NYC apartment with her two kids while Sophie and Joe Jonas work out their custody arrangements amid divorce proceedings.

Taylor also showed her support for her "Karma" remix collaborator Ice Spice, gushing over the rapper in a new Variety article. “I relate to Ice in many ways, but I think her dedication and focus is what blew me away from the very start,” she said in part.

BLACKPINK's Lisa just set a mark recognized by the Guinness World Records. Her solo song "Money" is now the first K-pop track by a solo artist to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify.

Check out the newly edited trailer for the Britney Spears 2002 cult classic Crossroads, which is being rereleased in theaters next month.

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Ed Sheeran sets NYC 'Autumn Variations' pop-up with corn maze, pumpkin painting

Gingerbread Man Records

Ed Sheeran is going all in with the fall theme of his new album, Autumn Variations, which comes out on Friday, September 29.

He's partnering with American Express for a pop-up Autumn Variations experience, which will take place on Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at New York City's Rockefeller Plaza. In addition to the normal exclusive merchandise, fans will enjoy a corn maze and pumpkin painting, as well as various photo ops.

On his Instagram, Ed posted a video of himself saying that he's really excited about the release of Autumn Variations. He says, "I haven't released a record independently since I was, like, 19, so I'm super excited to just put an album out for the sake of putting an album out and not having the commercial pressures around it."

"So yeah: no singles, no videos and I hope you love it," he continues. "It's meant to just feel like a warm hug."

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Cops visit Britney Spears' house after Instagram knife dance

Britney Spears may have told her Instagram followers to "lighten up" about the fact that she was dancing with what looked like extremely real and sharp knives, but many people were so worried about it that they reported it to police.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department confirms to ABC News that its deputies went to Britney's home on September 27. Their visit was prompted by a call from the Los Angeles Police Department's SMART team, which handles mental evaluations. That team was notified by someone who actually knows Britney and was worried about her well-being, so they notified the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. 

After vetting the info and confirming the person indeed had a personal relationship with Britney, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department decided to investigate.

Deputies who spoke with Britney's head of security and her attorney determined she was not in danger.

In her initial Instagram post, Britney assured fans that the knives she was dancing with weren't real. She then claimed that she was "copying Shakira," because the "Hips Don't Lie" singer had danced with knives during the MTV Video Music Awards a few weeks ago.  

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


'TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR' to get October 11 premiere in LA

Taylor Swift Productions

Some of Taylor Swift's biggest fans on Spotify are getting emails inviting them to apply for a chance to attend the world premiere of TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR in Hollywood on October 11.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, attendees will be the first to see the hotly anticipated film, which will open in more than 100 countries on October 13. It's not known whether or not Taylor will walk the red carpet at the premiere.

The movie, shot in August during the final U.S. shows of Taylor's Eras Tour, will open in more than 7,500 movie theaters globally. Box office data suggests the film, whose adult tickets cost $19.89, could open with $75 million, though some analysts have floated a number between $100 and $125 million.

As part of the screenings, theaters are offering special merchandise, such as Eras Tour-branded popcorn buckets and soda cups. Some theaters are offering fans the chance to rent out an entire screening for them and 40 of their pals for about $800.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Yung Gravy and Rick Astley settle lawsuit over "Betty (Get Money)"

Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images

Though Yung Gravy did get permission to rerecord the melody and lyrics of Rick Astley's iconic 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" for his 2022 hit "Betty (Get Money)," he was sued for impersonating Astley on the track. Now, Astley's lawsuit against the rapper has been settled for an undisclosed sum, Billboard reports.

Astley claimed that Yung Gravy "flagrantly impersonated" his vocal style on the part of the song based on his hit, infringing upon his right of publicity. That right protects celebrities from people using their names and likenesses without authorization. 

According to Billboard, Astley claimed that because Gravy sounded so much like him on the song, the rapper "obliterated” his chance to “collaborate with another artist and/or producer to create something new with his voice from ‘Never Gonna Give You Up,’” robbing him of future opportunities.

Astley's attorney was Richard S. Busch, who also successfully represented the family of the late Marvin Gaye in their lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over "Blurred Lines."

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Rihanna is a big '90 Day Fiancé' fan, reality star says

ABC

Rihanna is apparently a big 90 Day Fiancé fan.

One of the stars from the TLC reality show, Yara Zaya, tells Page Six that the singer DM’d her on Instagram and let her know she loves the show.

“She DM’d me back in February 2021 when she was pregnant with her first baby,” Zaya says. “She told me she loved my storyline, and loves to watch the show.”

She says Rihanna also told her "she hopes that she is just as a good mother as I am."

“I always loved her," Zaya adds. "I reached out to her first, but had no idea that she would ever reply back to me.”

She tells Page Six she never planned to talk about her Rihanna moment, but she appreciated the singer’s kind words when she was going through a tough time. The two now follow each other on Instagram.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Hear Lady Gaga sing with The Stones on new track "Sweet Sounds of Heaven"

Geffen Records

You can now hear Lady Gaga wailing along with The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger on the legendary band's new song, "Sweet Sounds of Heaven."

The gospel tune starts off with just Jagger singing. Then, Gaga takes the second verse before they come together, singing, "No, I'm not, not goin' to hell/In some dusty motel/And I'm not, not goin' down/In the dirt/I'm gonna laugh/I'm gonna cry/Eat the bread, drink the wine/ 'Cause I'm finally quenchin' my thirst."

They continue singing together, and at five minutes and 29 seconds into the track, Mick says, "Play me something, Stevie," cuing Stevie Wonder to come in on keyboards. Gaga and Jagger then try to outdo each other with "Oh yeahs," "Oohs" and "Come ons" before coming back together to sing some more.

Speaking about the song to Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe, Jagger says of Gaga, "She's a really great singer and I'd never heard her sing quite that style before. Not exactly. We did it live in the room and that was a great experience, her just coming in the room and her just opening up and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident."

When they came back the next day to finish the song, Mick says, "We were ... really face-to-face, getting the parts really tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming."

"Sweet Sounds of Heaven" appears on The Stones' upcoming album Hackney Diamonds, out October 20.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Billie Eilish says Barbie song "What Was I Made For?" is "about me"

Cho Gi-Seok/Allure

Billie Eilish's latest hit "What Was I Made For?" was written specifically for the Barbie movie soundtrack, but the singer tells Allure that the song hits much closer to home.

Billie and her brother, Finneas, saw 30 minutes of Barbie footage ahead of writing the track. She tells Allure for the magazine's October Best of Beauty issue, "We wrote it in a period of time where we couldn’t have been less inspired and less creative. That day we were making stuff, and were like, ‘We’ve lost it. Why are we even doing this?’ And then those first chords happened, and ‘I used to float/now I just fall down’ came out and the song wrote itself."

“We wrote most of the song without thinking about ourselves and our own lives, but thinking about this character we were inspired by," she explains. "A couple of days went by, and I realized it was about me. It’s everything I feel. And it’s not just me — everyone feels like that, eventually.”

That appears to be true: Billie says, "The way the song has been heard and seen by women is so special to me. All the videos are devastating. I go on TikTok, and it’s video after video of how hard it is to be a woman, with that song playing.” 

Billie also tells Allure that she still struggles with how hard it is to be a pop star.

"I’m starting to do better, but I’ve not been doing so great, to be honest. For a while. I have impending-doom feelings most of the day," she reveals. "When I think too much about it, how I can never have privacy again, it’s enough to make you want to do all sorts of crazy things. But you have to let it go.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


See Dua Lipa as a gun-toting femme fatale in new 'Argylle' movie trailer

Universal

We've been hearing about it for years, but now we've got our first look at Dua Lipa in the new movie Argylle, directed by Matthew Vaughn, the man who brought us the Kingsman movies.

The new trailer opens with a glamorous, blonde Dua in a slinky gold dress, dancing with Henry Cavill, who she then outs as "Agent Argylle." Espionage-related hijinks follow, including Dua firing a gun while riding a motorcycle, and then getting yanked off said motorcycle by Argylle's helper, played by John Cena. Then, everything stops.

Turns out what we've just witnessed is the action in a new spy thriller written by author Elly Conway, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. She's written a whole series of books about Agent Argylle, but she soon finds herself embroiled in a real-life web of espionage: An actual spy, played by Sam Rockwell, saves her from assassins and takes her on a roller-coaster ride of adventure. 

It seems the government and the bad guys both want to get their hands on Elly because everything she wrote in her new book actually happened. "You kicked a hornet's nest you didn't even know existed," says Rockwell's character.

Throughout the movie, Conway keeps her cat close to her in an argyle-patterned carrier -- and said feline appears to figure heavily in the plot.

Argylle, which also stars Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson and Catherine O'Hara, arrives in theaters February 2.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


"Fast Car" singer Luke Combs has no interest in pop stardom: "Country music is enough"

ABC/Larry McCormack

Luke Combs' version of Tracy Chapman's 1998 hit "Fast Car" became a huge hit, hanging out in the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 for months. But despite his success on the pop charts, Luke, who's one of country music's biggest superstars, says he has no desire to enter the world of pop music.

"I feel like to me, country music is enough, right?" Luke told reporters recently. "Like, I don't want to be a pop star. You know what I mean? I love writing country songs with my songwriting buddies and singing them with the guys that I like to make records with. And I'm not chasing anything. I'm not chasing fame or notoriety or money."

And while fellow country superstar Chris Stapleton has duetted with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Adele and Pink, Luke says he has no interest in similar pop collaborations.

"If a really amazing collaboration came along, I would want it to be on a country song, you know?" he said. "I would want somebody to do a country song with me. I wouldn't want to go do a pop song with somebody else just because it would be good for my career, you know?"

"I've never made decisions based on that," he insists. "I've always let the music kind of lead where we go and what we do because that's why we're all here, right? It's like, we all love music at the end of the day."

As he put it, "I'm in the music business. I don't love business. I do love music."

Pop collaboration offers aside, plenty of people are hoping that at some award show in the near future, Luke will perform "Fast Car" with Tracy, who's already voiced her support for Luke's version of her signature hit.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Heinz commemorating possible Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance with limited-edition condiment

L- Travis Kelce's mother, Donna Kelce, R - Taylor Swift; Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

While Taylor Swift fans may be happy about their girl's potential new romance with Travis Kelce, businesses are too, because it gives them the opportunity to cash in on the alleged pairing.

To that end, Heinz has introduced a new limited-edition condiment called "Heinz Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch." This odd duo was inspired by a tweet from an excited fan who shared a photo of Taylor at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium over the weekend, where she watched Travis and the Chiefs take on the Chicago Bears.

In the pic, Taylor is seen sitting next to a table in the VIP Suite. On the table, there's a plate containing a piece of fried chicken, with dollops of two different sauces placed next to it.

The account, @tswifterastour, captioned the pic, "Taylor Swift was eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch!"

Since then, the expression "Seemingly Ranch" has blown up. The account holder posted, "Seen a few seemingly ranch products being released recently… they better be cutting me a cheque."

They then shared, "*SOME* companies have been really nice to me about the whole seemingly ranch blow up by sliding into my dms offering to send me items/ interviewing me and i can’t wait for them to arrive cause it’s just really funny to me this whole thing."

It's not clear if Heinz is one of those "really nice" companies, but US Weekly reports that there will only be 100 bottles of "Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch" made -- because Taylor's lucky number, 13, and Travis' jersey number, 87, equal 100.  Visit the Heinz Instagram page for more details.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Katy Perry expected to take the stand in trial involving dispute over $15 million mansion

Katy Perry may make a special appearance this week — in court.

Bloomberg reports that Katy may take the stand as soon as Friday in a trial over the ownership of a $15 million mansion in Montecito, California. The seller of the home, Carl Westcott, founder of 1-800-Flowers, signed a deal in July 2020 with Katy's business manager, agreeing to sell her the house for $15 million.

But then Westcott, 83, changed his mind, according to his son. He claimed he wasn't in his right mind when he signed the contract because he was taking painkillers after surgery and that he no longer wants to sell the house.

Katy wouldn't back down, though. Not only did she want the sale to go through, she wanted an additional $1.4 million from Westcott, which she says represents the money she could have made renting out the property if the sale had gone through as planned.

Westcott then sued Katy's business manager in an attempt to cancel the sale. Lawyers for the business manager argue that Westcott knew exactly what he was doing when he signed the contract: He hired a broker,  looked for somewhere else to live, arranged for Katy to tour the property and then submitted a counteroffer, which Katy accepted. Two days later, Westcott changed his mind.

Westcott's son has power of attorney for his father and has taken over the case; the son says Westcott's mental health and physical health are failing. He says he offered to pay Katy to walk away, but she wouldn't. He tells Bloomberg he was "appalled" at how he and his father have been treated.

Bloomberg reports Judge Curtis Kin of the Superior Court of Los Angeles will decide who gets the estate.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Lorde reflects on 10-year anniversary of 'Pure Heroine'

Universal Music NZ Ltd.

Lorde is looking back at her landmark 2013 debut album, Pure Heroine, in honor of its 10th anniversary.

"You may (like me most of the time) hold the opinion that this album has been MYTHOLOGIZED QUITE ENOUGH," the artist writes in a letter to fans posted by the Lorde's Email Archives Tumblr. "But a milestone is a milestone, so I thought coming here and typing some s*** to u about this time would be a fun thing for those who care."

Lorde goes on to reflect on the circumstances that led up to Pure Heroine, working with producer Joel Little, her approach to fashion — "God, this aesthetic, It's just TOO MUCH," she quips — and the technology of the time.

"A lot of stuff isn't good after ten years," Lorde writes. "But I am still totally touched by this sweet record. I have deep respect for the vision of the little one making it."

"Pure Heroine was a handful of Photo Booth selfies and emotional Word documents and Tumblr posts (and a gorgeous over-decorated bedroom) before it was even one song," she continues. "I had no reason, on paper, to believe that I was capable of anything. But if you can trust that the first impulse you had to create came from a place of deep wisdom, develop a few principles for your decision-making, and absorb a lot of stuff you find inspiring, you’ll have something special on your hands."

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


Music notes: Selena Gomez, JAIN and more

Selena Gomez is back with her third collaboration with the cookware brand Our Place. This time, she’s launching a new category for the brand: kitchen linens. The collection includes an apron, dish towels, oven mitts and more.

Swifties are showing their approval of the budding relationship between Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce through merch. TMZ reports a bunch of T-shirts and other items in support of the relationship are popping up on Etsy. There's a shirt that says "In my Kelce era," and another that says, "Go Taylor's boyfriend!" with a graphic of a football on it.

French international singer JAIN, whose song “Makeba” went viral on TikTok, is out with a new music video for her song “Night Heights.” The track is off her latest album, The Fool, which was released earlier this year.

Akon’s “Lonely” has joined YouTube’s Billion Views Clubs. The music video for the 2005 hit has surpassed 1 billion views. It’s Akon’s third video to reach the milestone, following “Play Hard” and “Smack That.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


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