Latest news with #OneDirectioner
Metro
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Louis Tomlinson and Zara McDermott pictured getting hot and heavy
Louis Tomlinson and new girlfriend Zara McDermott have been spotted sharing some serious PDA. The couple were spotted getting seriously smoochy on Banana Beach, where the sun wasn't the only thing blazing. Zara, 28, and Louis, 33, looked head over heels as they giggled through a DIY photo shoot and cozied up for a romantic lounge session. The loved-up duo have been glued to each other since March – just three months after Zara's split from Made in Chelsea star Sam Thompson. Footage previously shared by fans captured the former One Directioner channeling peak boyfriend energy, gently placing a hand on Zara's shoulder as they left a venue in Costa Rica. According to The Sun, Louis made sure Zara travelled in style, arranging for her to fly first class from London to join him in Costa Rica. The romantic gesture meant Zara missed out on attending the TV BAFTAs, but sources say she had no hesitation: 'She is keen to spend as much time with Louis as possible. He's been out in Costa Rica for a few weeks recording his album and is keen to show her the sights.' Zara has been documenting moments from their tropical retreat, recently posting a photo of a fiery orange sky tagged with the simple caption: 'beautiful.' Louis has been making it clear he's his new love's biggest fan, leaving a heartfelt 'Proud of you x' under another of Zara's posts, in which she celebrated her growing confidence as a documentary filmmaker. In March the pair first sparked romance rumours when being spotted on a romantic getaway in Suffolk. More Trending They were seen together just three months after Zara's split from Sam Thompson, 32, who now seems to be dating another Love Island star – Sami Elishi, 25. In the past few months Louis and Zara had dropped several hints on social media they were together, firstly when posting similar videos from a concert in Los Angeles followed by a snap of her at brunch with his wrist tattoo in the background. Since then, they've been snapped in public holding hands and kissing before they seemed to go official with Louis' comment on Instagram. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Pete Wicks 'stirs the pot' with Louis Tomlinson and Sam Thompson 'rivalry' MORE: Louis Tomlinson goes Instagram official with Zara McDermott with rare heartfelt comment MORE: Sam Thompson details 'terrifying' first date after Zara McDermott split
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Kiwi producer and songwriter Joel Little on life, Lorde, legacy and the power of giving back
'When my wife and I moved back from LA, we were in a position where we could do something,' he tells the Herald of the inception of Big Fan, which opened as an all-ages performance space and studio in late 2022. 'I feel like for me in my career, I wouldn't be where I am if there hadn't been certain people along the way that had said the right thing or given me a little opportunity. We wanted Big Fan to provide opportunities for people to upskill, to connect with other like-minded people, and to learn.' While Big Fan and helping support rising stars has been one of Little's main passion projects of late, he's still writing and producing for some of the industry's biggest stars, albeit trying to do it from his home turf as much as possible. 'I was doing, like, three weeks here, two weeks in LA, like back-and-forth travelling way too much,' he says. 'Now I've got a little 4-year-old as well as our two older kids, and so I'm trying to just keep the balance a bit more, leaning a bit more towards New Zealand.' While he notes that his kids also liked to dabble in music, he jokes that his 17-year-old once told him that 'the legacy dies with you Dad'. Recently, he's worked with country-pop superstar Maren Morris on some songs on her album DREAMSICLE, and in 2023 struck up a great creative friendship with former One Directioner Niall Horan, collaborating with him on his hit album The Show. 'He'd sent me a song of his called The Show, where he just had, like, a piano and a vocal, and I thought it was a great song,' Little recalls, noting the process started during the pandemic. 'So I just, at home here, produced the rest of the track, played all the instruments on there, and sent it back to him and he was like, 'Oh crap, this is awesome'.' Working in collaboration and figuring out how to manage different creative processes is a skill Little said he's learned over more than a decade in the music business, and it wasn't something he could do 'right off the bat'. 'Sometimes an artist will come in with the start of an idea and other times they'll want to hear some sounds or some music, so I have ... a bunch of tracks that we can work off of,' he reveals. 'Other times they just want to play, like pick up guitars and play that way or jump on a piano. There aren't really any rules, it's just whatever people need to do to feel inspired that day.' Most Kiwis would naturally link Little's name to New Zealand's biggest musical export: Lorde. The pair gained international acclaim after Little produced and co-wrote her EP The Love Club (with Royals winning the 2014 Song of the Year Grammy) and her album Pure Heroine. 'I'm always so grateful for that. It genuinely changed both of our lives and the lives of everybody around us,' he says. 'We were just making music in my studio, Golden Age, which is actually just a few hundred metres away from here, and we just had zero expectations. We were just trying to make something that we liked and that we thought was interesting, but obviously it took on a life of its own.' With the superstar about to release a new album, Little says he can't wait to see what impact it makes. 'It's always nice when she's releasing new music and comes back and saves pop music every three to four years,' he says. Before his stint as a fulltime producer, Little was also the lead vocalist for pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse, an experience he said helped him appreciate the value of live music. 'A song can bring people from so many different walks of life together,' he says. 'Live shows in particular create a way for people to feel connected with the music and then connected with each other at the same time.' After not playing live for 13 years, he and the band reunited to open for My Chemical Romance in Auckland in 2023. 'To go out, and in front of 17,000 people, and play, it was such a powerful thing,' Little says. 'Just reconnecting with the guys in the band and seeing fans that had been Goodnight Nurse fans when they were teenagers, all that kind of stuff is really powerful.' Fittingly, for New Zealand Music Month, he's also shifting his efforts towards another powerful cause, the local charity MusicHelps. 'I've been a board member for maybe five years,' he says. 'They fund hundreds of projects across the country every year that use music in various ways to help people out, whether that be music therapy, providing instruments to community groups, or helping people who are in palliative care or rest homes.' Just like Little's work at Big Fan, the charity also helps provide support services for working musicians and those in the industry. 'Another arm of it is to do with helping those with mental health issues or who are struggling in various ways. There's a wellbeing service that people in the industry can access, and also things like counselling and access hardship grants.' Those who want to support the cause can do so in various ways, but one of the biggest is through the New Zealand Music T-Shirt Day on May 30. All net profits of official New Zealand Music Month T-Shirts are donated to the MusicHelps Grants programme. People can also text Music to 2448 to donate $3. 'I have, like, an embarrassingly small collection of music T-Shirts and I always wheel out the same ones,' Little admits, saying it would be poor form to wear a Goodnight Nurse one.
