A never released Whitney Houston track recorded in 1990 has been remixed by the Norwegian DJ and music producer Kygo. It’s not a Whitney original but rather a cover of the popular 1980’s hit ‘Higher Love‘ by Steve Winwood. The track was supposed to land on her third album but she switched musical directions. The vocals were pulled out of Houston’s archive making it the first release since her death in 2012.

It’s been 5 years since Avril Lavigne hit the road. The 34-year-old singer has announced her first 15 date North American “Head Above Water” tour that will kick off in Seattle on September 14 and wrapping up on October 11 in Philadelphia. She’ll be performing in 3 to 5k capacity Theatres.

September 14 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
September 15 – Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium
September 17 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
September 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
September 21 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
September 24 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
September 26 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
September 28 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
October 1 – New York, NY @ Pier 17 at South Street Seaport*
October 3 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
October 5 – Wallingford, CT @ Oakdale Theatre
October 6 – Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre For Performing Arts*
October 8 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre
October 9 – Washington, DC @ MGM National Harbor
October 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ XCite Center at Parx Casino

Lauren Daigle continues to stack up the accolades. She won K-Loves Artist of the Year and Female Artist of the Year. She’s also extend her sold-out “Look Up Child World Tour” with stops across the US and Europe. The new shows will include New York’s iconic Carnegie Hall and two nights at the 10,000 seater Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

While most never heard of K-Pop, more and more Americans are hearing about it. I had a conversation with a Canadian who wasn’t Asian and she said that an industry professional advised her to audition for a K-Pop singing show. Even though I told her that she would not quality because she wasn’t Asian – she still wouldn’t give up. At that point I began to dig deeper into the world of K-Pop.

First, K-Pop or Korean pop is based out of South Korea. Secondly, it’s growing fast. Third, K-Pop is a culture, it’s not a genre. The biggest K-pop act are BTS. You probably never heard of them. It’s difficult for a K-pop band to break into the U.S. You generally need top 40 radio to break in America and the K-Pop artists don’t sing in English, although they are very popular on YouTube.

Most Americans vaguely remember South Korean PSY who came out of South Korea but he isn’t really K-Pop. In fact, South Korea which is one of the smaller countries are supplying the pop hits for over a billion Asians. South Korea is a music power player.

The main suppliers farming out the K-Pop idols are companies like JYP, SM and YG. These are hybrid companies which more or less resemble old Hollywood Studios in the way they do business with talent. They are all in one -record labels and management companies. They are training stars for a long time that includes acting, singing, dancing – teaching them foreign languages, training them physically, and even plastic surgery. These companies hold yearly auditions searching for the next K-Pop stars and up to 50,000 teens show up. CONTINUE READING

Selena Gomez – one the most followed singers on instagram with 152 million followers said the social media platform made her depressed. In a time when big tech has come under fire, Gomez says she doesn’t even have the instagram app on her phone.

“It’s just become really unhealthy, I think personally, for young people including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all these comments and letting this stuff in, and it was affecting me,” Gomez said. “It would make me depressed. It would make me feel not good about myself, and look at my body differently, and all kinds of stuff.”