Latest news with #popmusic
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Dua Lipa sets pulses racing in sheer lace minidress at the opening of her merchandise pop-up shop in London
Dua Lipa sent fans in a frenzy as she arrived at her exclusive merchandise pop-up shop in London, England on Thursday. The singer, 29, showed off her killer figure in a disheveled-looking black sheer lace minidress, paired with knee-high boots and a stylish leopard-print bag. Dua greeted fans outside the venue to mark the launch of the limited-time pop-up - a four-day immersive experience celebrating her music and upcoming summer stadium shows. Presented by American Express, the event runs from June 19-22 at Protein Studios in London. It has been reported that Dua has 'lined up' two huge British pop stars to support her at her upcoming 'monumental' Wembley Stadium gigs. The singer is believed approached Charli XCX and Raye to open her shows on June 20 and 21, ahead of their upcoming Glastonbury performances. A source told The Sun: 'These two Wembley shows are monumental for Dua and she wants to give her fans an extra team has approached Raye to open Friday's show, while Charli is in talks to perform on Saturday. 'Dua, Raye and Charli are all super supportive of each other and it would be amazing to have these three British female powerhouses playing Wembley. 'With Glastonbury the week after, this is the perfect warm-up for Raye and Charli too as they'll be playing to almost 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium.'
Fox News
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Is Justin Bieber Crashing Out?
Kennedy frequently talks about the decline of former teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. However, his recent crash-outs, such as his strange comments on Mother's Day and publicly criticizing a friend on Instagram, makes Kennedy question whether Bieber may have officially fallen off the wagon. Follow Kennedy on Twitter: @KennedyNation Kennedy Now Available on YouTube: Follow on TikTok: Join Kennedy for Happy Hour on Fridays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sabrina Carpenter Is Under Fire for a Spicy Album Cover. Tell It to Carly Simon
Almost 25 years before Sabrina Carpenter was born, Carly Simon was in a department store in New York and feeling pretty good. She'd just released her fifth album, Playing Possum, and the frisky single 'Attitude Dancing' was looking to follow her hits 'You're So Vain,' 'Haven't Got Time for the Pain,' and 'Anticipation' onto the radio. Then, a woman who was apparently familiar with the cover of Playing Possum approached her. 'She'd either seen a picture of it, or she knew someone who had the album,' Simon recalls. 'And she said, 'What were you thinking?' Voices were raised.' More from Rolling Stone Sabrina Carpenter Cold-Plunges Before Every Show and 16 Other Things That Didn't Make Our Cover Story Sabrina Carpenter's 'Manchild' Debuts at Number One on Hot 100 Sabrina Carpenter Laughs Off Critics of Her Sexy Shows: 'You're Obsessed With It' Last week, Carpenter unveiled the now-notorious cover for her upcoming album Man's Best Friend, in which she's depicted kneeling on the ground, one hand extended toward a figure in a suit who's grabbing her hair. Debates, some pretty intense, ensued about whether the photo signified savvy, knowing female empowerment or simply empowered the male gaze. But as Simon well knows, the sight of a female pop star in a similar pose and pushing plenty of the same buttons didn't start with Man's Best Friend. Released in 1975, Playing Possum sported a couple of suggestive song titles, like 'Are You Ticklish' and 'Love Out in the Street,' but its most provocative aspect was its black-and-white cover photo: Simon, on her knees, looking fierce and mysterious in a black negligee and black boots, fists clenched, face partly hidden, mouth sightly open. Photographer Norman Seeff's shot was the polar opposite of the cover of her previous album, 1974's Hotcakes, which featured a smiling and visibly pregnant Simon. Of Playing Possum, Simon says, 'I remember thinking, if this works, it'll also let people see that I've gotten my body back.' But in a scenario that may be familiar to the Carpenter camp, fans and feminists alike didn't know what to make of it and began arguing over its message. As Rolling Stone reported at the time, the Sears department-store chain, which sold a good deal of LPs, considered not carrying Simon's album at all. Crawdaddy, a competing counterculture magazine, published a review that was entirely devoted to analyzing the cover instead of the music. The image became so indelible that the negligee Simon wore was included in her exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when she was inducted in 2022. Given how much Playing Possum's cover contrasted with Hotcakes, its back story is ironic: It actually began with Simon's daughter Sally, who, only a few months old, was in a baby carrier on her mother's back as Simon shopped in Bloomingdale's. 'I was looking through the racks of undergarments, and she bent over with me as I bent over to look at something,' Simon says, recalling how her daughter grabbed at the black lingerie and pulled it into the carrier with her. 'It wasn't noticed at checkout.' (These were the days before security tags were affixed to clothing.) When Simon arrived at Seeff's L.A. studio for the photo shoot, she was wearing the purloined piece of clothing underneath a skirt and blouse. As Simon remembers, she was in a dressing room putting her street clothes back on after the session when she heard Isaac Hayes' 'Theme from Shaft' playing in the studio. 'I loved that song, so I ran out and started dancing to it,' she says. As Seeff clicked away, Simon, in the black lingerie, sang along with Hayes, ultimately lying down on the floor on her back before pulling herself up. 'And that's when Norman took that picture, after I landed in that pose,' she says. 'It wasn't done on purpose. It wasn't a setup.' When the photos were developed, Seeff zeroed in on one in particular. 'I'm looking at these shots, and I go, 'Well, here's a shot that's got some kind of energy to it,'' he says. 'The head's cut off. She was in movement from being on the floor to standing up, and she's got this clenched fist. No one thought about what it might convey. It was a fascinating, unique image and it left a lot to the imagination.' Simon herself wasn't sure at first but came around to the same thinking. 'There was something about black and white photographs, where you suddenly see it as an art picture,' she says. 'The whole thing looked artistic, even though it wasn't artistic on purpose.' In Simon's memory, the initial feedback she received — from then husband James Taylor and her producer, the late Richard Perry — was positive, and she proudly showed it to Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash at a birthday party Simon threw for Taylor in L.A. just before the album was released. 'Everybody looked at it, and people definitely had a reaction to it,' she says, 'but they wouldn't have told me what they really thought.' The more visceral responses arrived when Playing Possum was shipped to stores. 'How's that for crashing the image of the sweet mother-to-be beaming on the cover of her last album?' wrote one critic. Another wondered if she should be carrying a whip to match the outfit. Simon even recalls her mother, Civil Rights activist Andrea Louise Heinemann, saying, 'Carly, darling! What are you doing?' 'Suddenly, I'm getting calls from Time and Newsweek, saying, 'This is one of the sexiest covers that has ever known,'' Seeff says. 'There's this whole controversy around what did it represent? It felt very much like that energy in a woman, but I just thought of it as a beautiful shot. None of that stuff they were talking about was the intention.' The conversation didn't hurt sales: Playing Possum became Simon's third straight Top 10 album. The cover of Carpenter's Man's Best Friend isn't an overt homage to Playing Possum, but Simon has been recognized by modern pop stars. Both Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have covered 'You're So Vain' onstage, and Addison Rae shouted out Simon's later Boys in the Trees album in a recent interview. 'I love it that the younger girls are discovering me, and that I've had attention from them,' Simon says. Of Carpenter's controversial artwork, Simon doesn't quite see the fuss. 'She's not doing anything outrageous,' she says. 'It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I've ever seen was [The Rolling Stones'] Sticky Fingers. That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don't know why she's getting such flak.' Simon herself hasn't released a new album since 2009, but she's been working on new music on and off for a decade. The songs, many produced by her son Ben, include 'Howl,' featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar and a guest vocal from Chris Stills, son of Stephen. 'It's kind of a vengeance song about getting back at someone, or, in this case, a whole lot of people,' she says. 'Is it tender? No, it's not. It's very gutsy. It's got a lot of power.' She's also written a song about her daughter Sally, 'Mother of Pearl,' and another, 'Do It Anyway,' that she calls 'kind of a coach song — 'if you think you can't do it, do it anyway.'' 'Pity the Poor Man' was co-written with Natasha Bedingfield, and Simon has also set a W.H. Auden poem to music. What form the songs will take remains to be seen, Simon says. 'I didn't record it as an album,' she says. 'I just did it as a song here and a song there. We have 10 songs, an album's worth, but you don't really release albums now, so we're just going to release one by one.' Since it may not be an actual old-fangled album, Simon isn't even thinking about cover art. But as far as advice to Carpenter on how to deal with her situation, Simon says, 'Well, any press is good press, so I wouldn't worry about the press. And as far as her being salacious, I certainly don't think it's that. I mean, look at all of the people who dress much more scantily. She's so beautiful, and she should be proud of herself and the way she looks. I don't see anything wrong with that.' Taking another look at Man's Best Friend, Simon has one last thought. 'I thought it was going over the line a little bit, touching the man's knee,' she says, with a chuckle. 'I thought she didn't have to do that.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sabrina Carpenter's Smashes Mount Comebacks As She Scores A New No. 1
Sabrina Carpenter's new single "Manchild" debuts at No. 1 on multiple U.K. charts this week, and as ... More it does, it's joined by returning favorites "Espresso" and "Nonsense." PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 18: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY - For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) Sabrina Carpenter attends the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 18, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by) Sabrina Carpenter is in charge of multiple rankings in the United Kingdom this week, as her brand new single 'Manchild,' a catchy country-tinged pop tune, debuts atop several tallies, including the Official Singles chart, which lists the most consumed tracks in the nation. The cut serves as the first taste of the Grammy winner's forthcoming full-length Man's Best Friend, which will drop later this summer. As the new track gets off to a fantastic start, several of Carpenter's recent wins return to the weekly rosters as well, as fans appear to have gone on something of a buying spree lately. Seven songs by Carpenter find space on at least one list in the U.K. this frame. Three of them reappear on one ranking or another, and 'Manchild' is brand new, all of which makes this an especially exciting period for the pop superstar. Among her trio of comebacks, 'Espresso' is the highest rising. That tune, the only one of the three to return to just a single roster, breaks back onto the Official Physical Singles chart at No. 8. Amazingly, it wasn't present anywhere on the 100-spot tally just days ago, and now it's a top 10 smash once more. 'Please Please Please' reappears on a pair of tallies this frame. The track reenters both the Official Vinyl Singles and Official Physical Singles charts at Nos. 15 and 18, respectively. What must have been a sizable increase in purchases of the tune help it climb. It also ascends to No. 60 on the Official Streaming ranking, but there's no need to reappear in that case. One more track from a previous era — one which didn't include 'Espresso' or 'Please Please Please' — also breaks back onto rosters at the same time. 'Nonsense,' the big single from Carpenter's 2022 album Emails I Can't Send, surges to No. 16 on the Official Vinyl Singles list and No. 22 on the Official Physical Singles chart. The track didn't appear on either roster last period. In addition to 'Manchild' debuting on half a dozen tallies and opening at No. 1 on all but two of them, Carpenter also appears on various songs rankings with beloved compositions like 'Taste,' 'Busy Woman,' and 'Bed Chem.' She has three eras of music going on the U.K. charts at the moment, and as summer progresses, the Grammy winner is likely to score even more wins from her upcoming album.
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Ed Sheeran Blocked From A No. 1 Debut By His Pop Competition
Ed Sheeran's new single 'Sapphire' debuts at No. 2 on the Official Singles Sales chart, landing ... More behind only "Manchild" by Sabrina Carpenter. Ed Sheeran performs onstage at the 2025 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 19, 2025 in Indio, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images) Ed Sheeran is used to hitting No. 1 in the United Kingdom whenever he delivers a new single. The singer-songwriter ranks as one of the most successful pop acts of all time in that nation, and he's currently barreling toward the release of a brand new album. Play has already produced a trio of hits, including 'Sapphire,' the most recent of the bunch, which debuts on a number of tallies in Sheeran's home country this frame. The cut nearly manages a No. 1 start on one tally, but another of the hottest names in pop music today – and a true superstar in the U.K. at the moment – beats him to the punch. Sheeran's latest cut 'Sapphire' opens at No. 2 on the Official Singles Sales chart, the ranking of the tracks that sell the most copies in the U.K., regardless of style, language, or format. Sheeran is blocked from another champion by 'Manchild,' Sabrina Carpenter's latest smash, which opens in first place. While 'Sapphire' might not lead the charge on the Official Singles chart, its arrival does help Sheeran reach a pair of exciting milestones. The tune is his thirty-fifth career top 10 on the tally and his eightieth overall placement. 'Sapphire' does manage to conquer one of the four U.K.-based rankings on which it appears, but it doesn't do so as it arrives. The track was released with only a few hours left in the previous tracking period, and 'Sapphire' managed to sell just enough copies to debut at No. 99 on the Official Singles Downloads chart. Now, it rockets from second-to-last place to No. 1, earning Sheeran his sixteenth leader and fortieth top 10 on the tally that looks only at purchases on digital download storefronts. 'Sapphire' also manages to debut inside the top 10 on the other two tallies where it can be found this frame. It opens in ninth place on the Official Singles chart — the all-encompassing ranking of the most popular songs in the U.K. — and No. 8 on the Official Streaming roster. The new arrival joins previous Play singles 'Azizam' and 'Old Phone,' which are declining on almost every tally on which they appear in the U.K. Those tracks have already hit the top 10 on a handful of rosters, but interest seems to be fading, as none of them have reached the same levels of ubiquity as some of his past releases.
