16 year old Evie Irie releases the track ‘Bitter’ as well as a music video. The track clocked nearly 500k streams on Spotify in less than two weeks. The Australian artist who lives right outside of Sydney and signed with Republic Records after writing and recording her debut EP called ‘5 Weeks In LA’ during her trip to LA. She’s managed by Troy Carter who has worked with Lady Gaga and Meghan Trainor.
Electro pop artist Adara releases Alien. Pulling influences from Lady Gaga, Sia, and Ellie Goulding, the Nashville based singer’s 2017 single “Oasis” clocked 700,000 spins on Spotify. She has an extensive background from collaborating with well known DJ’s to writing with popular Kpop artists. In fact, her first cut became the theme song for the EDM festival Station. Give the latest track listen.
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Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, BTS – a South Korean boy band, Khalid, and Ariana Grande made the ‘Time’ ‘Most Influential’ List.
Celine Dion said about Lady Gaga: “She’s definitely one of the most inventive artists we’ve ever seen. Her artistic expression has no rules, no boundaries. When she first came on the scene with her outrageous style, she didn’t care what the critics said. She marched to the beat of her own drum, knowing that her message of individuality was a way to express her inner strength.”
Shawn Mendes on Swift: “Taylor makes anyone older feel young again and anyone young feel they can do anything. It’s so rare and so special. If there is one thing I want to achieve in my career and life, it’s that.”
Halsey on BTS: “Surely it takes remarkable talent, charm, kindness, altruism and dedication. But you’d still be missing a key component: a devoted community to uplift your efforts, soften your stumbles and shoot light from their eyes into the sky in your name every single night. By these parameters, BTS has reached the top.”
Lady Gaga successfully transitioned from a pop singer to a social media star, then to an actress. She is wrapping it all up with a Las Vegas residency debut.
Billboard: “An absolutely delicious smorgasbord of pop music, performance art and fantastic futurism during her 90-minute set that kicked off in true Gaga fashion.”
People Mag: “highly energetic show.”
Rolling Stone: “Brittany Spanos also said “sensory overload” of a performance. “For a show that at first seemed like an excuse to remind us what Gaga is best at, it ended up becoming a show that confirms and begins her legacy”
Yahoo Music: “full-on conceptual production featuring the diva at her campy, crazy best…”
Entertainment Weekly: “weird, wonderful Lady Gaga.”
Consequence of Sound said it best. Lady Gaga is pop’s self-made woman. She kept saying she was a superstar until everyone believed her.
Rap has taken over the Spotify Charts and now the genre has dominated the Grammys.
Shockingly, Ed Sheeran’s massive selling “Divide” did not get an Album of the Year nod, neither did albums by Gaga or Kesha. Rather, the Grammys went mostly for R&B and rap: Jay Z, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino, who is really the actor Donald Glover.
Rather, all the pop stars including Gaga, Sheeran, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and Kesha have been pushed down to to best vocal category.
“How the Grammys became the R&B/Hip Hop Awards will be the subject of much discussion at Black Rock today. Their traditional country nominee is absent, which for CBS is a disaster. The only pop singer who scored an Album of the Year nod was Lorde, the 20 year New Zealand singer whose “Melodrama” album not much of a hit compared to her previous outing.
Kendrick Lamar, Glover, Bruno Mars and Jay Z also took up most of the Record and Song of the Year categories even though almost none of that music is not what is typically thought of for those categories. I’ll bet a lot of pop, rock and R&B stars are in shock right now. Ed Sheeran and his team must be having Xanax omelettes.
Again, for older skewing CBS and producer Ken Erlich, this will be a challenge. This is not the show they want. Having no country nominees in the main categories is heart-attack inducing.
There were no nominations for singles released before the September 30th deadline by pop superstars Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and so on. Swift will not be performing “Look What You Made Me Do” with Right Said Fred. Cyrus won’t be singing “Malibu.”
For Jay Z, this must be quite a celebration. He wanted the Grammys at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. That didn’t happen. Instead, he will be a huge part of the Madison Square Garden show. Stunning.”