All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Need to spruce up your makeup collection for the fall?
Rihanna’sFenty Beauty is having a major Labor Day sale to help you save on new releases and bestseller from Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Fenty Hair to get you looking right. Whether you’re starting your holiday shopping early, or shopping for yourself, you can save up to 60% off on the best of the best products up until Sept. 1. The limited sale launched Aug. 28.
The end-of-summer is a fine time to shop for essentials and gifts for cheap. If you’ve been waiting to stock up on lip gloss, foundation, hair masks, skincare and other must-haves, get them on a discount at FentyBeauty.com. But you’ll have to act fast, the 60% off sale won’t last long. These products will only be available on super-sale while supplies last.
To save you the time, we rounded up some of the bestselling items and that you can shop directly from the links below.
Missing your summer glow? Not to fear, Fenty Beauty’s Body Sauce Body Luminizing Tint is here! The glowy tint is currently on sale for $26, which is 50% off the original price tag. The luminizer comes in seven pearlized shades and can be used on the body to bring back that bronzy glow you had during peak summertime, without spending hours out in the sun. This luminizer offers a subtle sheen thanks to finely-milled pigments. The formula is buildable, non-sticky, as well as humidity-, sweat- and transfer-resistant. To sweeten the deal, this luminizer is packed with Vitamin E, an ingredient that is moisturizing and anti-aging.
Bring life back to your base with this Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer, currently on sale for $25.20. The cream bronzer comes in seven blendable and flattering shades meant to warm-up the complexion. Cream products are often easier to blend than their powder counterparts. The medium coverage creates a mistake-proof finish that can be built on for higher impact. We suggest dipping in with a damp sponge or a fluffy brush, sweeping across the hollows of the face, along with the jaw and temple, for the best effect.
This Skin Boost’rs Trio is sure to upgrade your skincare game tenfold. Retailing for $73.80, the set comes with some of Fenty Beauty’s best-selling skincare in full sizes including their Cookies N Clean Whipped Clay Pore Detox Face Mask, Blemish Defeat’r BHA Spot-Targeting Gel and Watch Ya Tone Niacinamide Dark Spot Serum.
Each product is focused on clearing acne and brightening the complexion. You’ve got a mask that clears up unwanted dirt and oils on the face, a spot-treating gel formulated with chemical exfolinants that visibly reduce the look of blemishes and a trusty serum packed with niacinamides, an ingredient that is widely used to tackle hyperpigmentation, or dark spots. With all that in mind, it’s safe to say that this dream team set is a deal worthy of a splurge.
The Comeback Kid Instant Damage Repair Treatment Bond Builder
This The Comeback Kid Instant Damage Repair Treatment Bond Builder won Oprah Beauty’s O-Wards for “Best Hair Mask” in 2024, and it’s easy to see why. Retailing for $22.80, the repair mask is formulated with a ton of good ingredients that’ll get your damaged strands back in shape, like replenicore-5, Fenty Hair’s proprietary complex that strengthens the hair follicle, baobab seed extract, which is another strengthening agent and chia seed extract, which is known to help repair follicle bonds. You’ve also got amino acids that form strong bonds with the follicle, repairing damaged hair and sealing the cuticle to reduce frizz. In a study done by Fenty Hair, 96% of users agree this treatment instantly softens, repairs and moisturizes the hair.
Much like your body, your face needs exfoliation. While your body can handle heavy-handed exfoliation, it’s best to gently exfoliate the face to get rid of dirt, dead skin and excess oils. Fenty Skin’s Cherry Dub Superfine Daily Cleansing Face Scrub is the perfect gentle exfoliator, and it’s currently 40% off. The cherry-scented product has a subtle grit to it that exfoliates the skin, leaving your complexion smoother and brighter.
The formula features caffeine, which reduces the look of puffiness, along with fruit enzymes that act as a chemical exfoliant. Usually, exfoliants are textural exfoliating or chemically exfoliating. This means that there’s either some kind of grittiness to the product that buffs at dead skin or there’s a chemical ingredient that breaks down dead skin cells. This product seemingly has both, a concept that is extremely innovative in the world of skincare.
Fenty Beauty’s foundation went viral upon its release back in 2017, and it’s still a banger. The fan-favorite is currently on sale for 30% off and comes in a whopping 52 shades, so there’s something for every unique complexion and undertone. The foundation is long-wearing and offers the skin a soft, airbrushed matte finish. It’s also noncomedogenic, which means it won’t clog your pores. It looks so good, you’ll think you’re wearing a filter. Trust us.
Another viral product from Fenty Beauty is the brand’s Gloss Bomb Cream Color Drip Lip Cream. The beloved product is currently on sale for $11.50 and comes in five shades. The gloss glides on the lips, leaving a glassy finish without that unpleasant sticky feeling. Plus, the extra-large wand offers a full-cover finish with just one swipe. We’d recommend using this gloss alongside a lip liner to define your pout before applying the shine.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:07:192025-08-28 17:07:19Stock Up On These Rihanna-Approved Beauty Must-Haves from Fenty Beauty During Their Summer Send-Off Sale
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
The Addison Tour, Addison Rae’s debut trek, kicked off in Dublin on Aug. 25, and everyone’s talking about it.
The “Aquamarine” singer’s first-ever tour will feature a whopping 31 shows across North America, Europe and Australia, concluding on Nov. 18 in Sydney. With your tickets bought and your seats secured, you’ll likely be focusing on outfit options, the most important part, in our opinion. It just so happens that Urban Outfitters is running a major end-of-summer sale to end all sales, where you can shop for the perfect concert outfit for an affordable price.
We’re talking 40% off on Rae-approved accessories, footwear and apparel from brands such as Levi’s, Saucony and Kimchi Blue. To help you along your way or to spark some inspiration, we’ve put together three concert-ready outfits catering to three different vibes, all consisting of pieces from the UO sales section, down to the footwear. Keep reading to shop our sale outfit ideas for Rae’s The Addison Tour.
We’re taking a page from Rae’s wardrobe playbook with this UO Samara Mesh Strapless Midi Dress retailing for $41.40. This piece is sleek, sexy and vaguely ’90s-inspired based on the form fit and lack of straps. Sizes range from XS to XL. The polka-dotted print is especially on trend, especially as of late. The print is so popular, in fact, that Rae herself has dabbled in the world of polka-dotted pieces on numerous occasions. The side slit is a welcome touch, allowing the wearer more movement so they can dance and sway to hits such as “Fame Is a Gun” or “Headphones On” to their heart’s content without feeling restricted.
As for accessories, we’d pick Urban Outfitters’ Wren Buckle Slingback Kitten Heel in black, retailing for $47.20, along with the brand’s Tea Party Layered Charm Necklace in gold for $25. The kitten heel is equally sexy and vintage inspired, but toughens up the otherwise feminine silhouette of the dress thanks to the silver hardware.
You’ve also got a subtle heel, which is perfect for dancing, and slingback straps that keep the shoes secured to the foot. Sizing options for the heel range from 6 to 10. You’ve also got two other colorways to choose from if you want to add a pop of color to your look. Speaking of pops of color, the Tea Party necklace brings all the vibrancy into this look that it was likely lacking. Breaking up the black hues, this gold chain necklace is equipped with tons of whimsical charms in various sizes that bring visual interest to this concert ensemble.
In the mood for something less dressy? We totally get you. This outfit is for our casual concertgoers looking to prioritize both comfort and style. On top, we’ve got the NYC Star Appliqué Graphic Slim Tee for $28. The gray tee comes in sizes XXS to XL and features gingham appliqués fixed to the front reading “NYC” accompanied by a bright red star graphic.
The tee features a slouchy fit, though it’s slightly cropped, so you still get a semblance of shape and dimension. We’d pair the tee with Levi’s High-Rise Baggy Shorts for $55.60 in the Worn Memory Short colorway. Sizing for the shorts ranges from 24 to 34. The style is high rise, but more fitted than your standard jorts. The fit is classic and comfortable, thanks to the wide legs and relaxed composition. If you’re looking for a lighter or darker wash, the Levi’s style comes in three other colorways that are all also on sale.
On the accessory front, we’ve chosen two shoe options: the Saucony Women’s ProGrid Triumph 4 Sneaker for $128 or the UO Tall Leather Slouch Boot for $87.20. The sneaker is definitely more casual and speaks to a sportier vibe. Sizing on the kicks ranges from 6 to 10. The sneaker is lightweight and features a mix of suede and mesh uppers that give the shoe a breathable finish. The outsoles are made of a thick rubber that cushions the feet while offering non-slip traction, so you won’t need to watch your step while you’re busting a move. We also love the yellow accent featured in the Silver/Gold colorway.
Alternatively, the boot is slouchy and rugged, contrasting with the cropped fit of the tee. Sizing ranges from 6 to 10. Moto boots are exceedingly popular at the moment, especially when paired with more feminine pieces. Like the sneakers, these boots are extremely comfortable and sturdy, able to withstand all the trials and tribulations of a concert, like jumping, walking and standing for long periods of time. Whichever one you choose, you’ll be glad you did. The price points on both are extremely reasonable, especially for how cute they are.
This one’s a bit of a wildcard. We chose this one for our daring readers looking to turn heads upon entering their chosen venue. It’s all about impact with this one, hence our picks of the UO Cynthia Sequin Plunging Cowl Neck Halter Top and Kimchi Blue Ellie Sheer Lace High-Rise Stretch capris. Both are striking options that play with texture rather than color to create a major fashion moment perfect for seeing Rae live.
The Cynthia top currently retails for $41.30 and is made of a black sequined fabric. Sizing ranges from XXS to XL. The top features a cowl halter neckline, a cropped fit and a low back. The halter neck ties in a bow at the nape, giving the top a dainty effect. The Ellie capri retails for $23.40 and is another pure Rae moment. Rae is a major fan of early 2000s fashion, and capris fit the bill. Sizing options range from XXS to XL.
The “2 Die 4” singer has been spotted on numerous occasions sporting capri styles, accompanied by the ever-polarizing but so 2000s thong sandal. These capris are made of sheer black lace fabric, creating a see-through effect. The style is extremely risqué, but one we think even Rae would gravitate toward.
The Wren slingback mentioned earlier would make a great footwear option once again, worn in place of a thong sandal to elevate the whole look. The black model or the baby pink would be a great choice for this look. We’ve also included the Flora Flower Pendant Pearl Layering Necklace Set for $15 and the Gem Inset Waterproof Hoop Earrings for $10.50 if you want some jewelry inspo.
The necklace is another layered piece consisting of a silver chain with a bright pink floral pendant, accompanied by a pearl necklace. The chunky hoop earrings are stainless steel and feature gemstone inlays that offer the jewelry a subtle shine. If you need more convincing, the hoops are hypoallergenic, as well as tarnish, water and sweat resistant. No itchy or blue earlobes here!
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:07:182025-08-28 17:07:18Get Ready for The Addison Tour With These Dreamy Pieces From Urban Outfitters’ End of Summer Sale
The Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers will soon play against each other at the 2025 NFL São Paulo game on Sept. 5 — and Luísa Sonza is coming along.
Ahead of the big game set to be broadcast live on YouTube from the Corinthians Arena in Brazil, the Brazilian singer-songwriter — who was honored as a Global Force at the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards — teamed up with the Kansas City Chiefs to release a reimagined Portuguese version of Tech N9ne’s “Red Kingdom,” Billboard can exclusively announce today (Aug. 28).
The song, originally released in 2019 by the Kansas City-based rapper, has become an anthem for the team and their loyal fans known as Chiefs Kingdom.
“‘Red Kingdom’ has been such a staple song,” Lara Krug, Kansas City Chiefs executive VP and CMO, tells Billboard. “It was something that the community gravitated to, and therefore, we as an organization too. We’ve used it in our in-game experience, and it’s become a big part of fans’ playlist on the way to the game. To now have this reimagined version with Luísa, provides a fun and fresh angle to it. Just having her female voice adds a different dimension to it.”
The original track fuses rock with hip-hop and its lyrical content is about winning big and having team pride. Sonza’s version stays truthful to the song’s sentiment, but is amped by a hard-hitting Brazilian Funk beat, powered by lyrics in Portuguese.
“Luísa was our first choice when we had this idea,” Krug explains. “To find someone like her and make it true to who the Chiefs are and what the song is, with that authentic Brazilian angle and voice, felt like the perfect marriage. We were starstruck that she was willing to partner with us. Through that quick creative process, we trusted her and her team on creating the best version of ‘Red Kingdom,’ and making it special for the Brazilian fans.”
With the mission of turning the Chiefs into “the world’s team,” Krug says the organization is looking forward to playing in Brazil next month, where Karol G will headline the halftime show during YouTube’s first exclusive NFL live broadcast.
“We know how passionate fans are over there. We’re excited to build campaigns that hopefully speak to the Brazilian fans and welcome them to the [Chiefs] Kingdom,” she notes.
Watch the music video exclusively on Billboard, below.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:01:212025-08-28 17:01:21Luísa Sonza Gives Kansas City Chiefs ‘Red Kingdom’ a Brazilian Twist: ‘Felt Like The Perfect Marriage’
The Beatles set the standard for rock bands until their 1970 breakup — then just kept on doing so. In the ’70s and ’80s, they put out two of the first marquee greatest hits collections (the “red” and “blue” albums, which were iconic enough to be reissued in 2023), and their 1987 CD release campaign qualified as an event. Back then, though, they were just starting their afterlife — a productive posthumous career that will continue this fall with a 30th anniversary reissue of the Anthology project, including an extended documentary (available on Disney+ starting Nov. 26), an expanded rarities set (Nov. 21) and an updated edition of the book (Oct. 14).
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Even 55 years after their breakup, the Beatles remain big business. Since the company now known as Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, they have sold 74.1 million albums in the U.S., more than any other act. (That includes physical and downloaded albums, the latter of which weren’t even available legally until 2010, but not streams.) Their 1 collection was the biggest album of the first decade of the 21st century. Since 2020, they have scored 11.9 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate, much less than Taylor Swift (64.6 million), but more than Fleetwood Mac (9.7 million), Metallica (8.6 million) or Queen (7.9 million).
Like so much of the Beatles’ career, Anthology and 1 seem unremarkable only because they’ve been so widely imitated. At this point, what big act hasn’t released a career-spanning documentary or a single-disc collection aimed at casual fans (a big deal back when big-box retailers sold CDs)? Sure, but Anthology came out before DVDs mattered, back when rarities collections were still rare. And while the Beatles didn’t invent the number-ones idea, their success with it was followed by similar-concept collections from Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and others.
Recent Beatles documentary projects loom as big as the band: Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Backran for eight hours, divided into three episodes on Disney+, and Anthology ran for more than 10, over eight parts. The new ninth part shows the Beatles working on the Anthology project in 1994 and 1995, which brings the project full circle. (Will a future 2050 version show Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr approving this 2025 cut?) There’s something superfan-ish about all of this — the Beatlemaniacs may have been the original fan army — but the audience for it includes much of a generation, as well as plenty of people, like myself, who were born after the band broke up. When it comes to the Beatles, and probably only the Beatles, a superfan just means most people who care about pop music.
I would love to write a column about what other acts can learn from the Beatles about curating their legacies, but it’s not so simple — they’re the Beatles and no one else is. Some lessons apply universally: Curate well, choose top-tier partners and exercise light but consistent control. Every Beatles project that involves recorded music, from the Cirque du Soleil show “Love” to The Beatles: Rock Band, has a high level of quality. (Those that only use the band’s songs are more uneven: Across the Universe and Yesterday were interesting but not all that compelling.) It’s remarkable.
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These projects don’t feel micromanaged, though. In Peter Jackson, the Beatles found a filmmaker who was talented enough to bring his own perspective to their story, and they relaxed enough to let him. These days, it’s hard to imagine anyone that famous letting his guard down quite so much. In the footage Jackson assembled, the Beatles are the biggest band in the world, but they work and joke and sometimes argue like they’re not paying much attention to the camera. The finished movie doesn’t seem fussed over, and the history comes across as curated with a light touch. Most newer pop stars can’t seem to do that, which is why so many music documentaries end up looking like television commercials.
How many acts could even use that advice, though? Making a great show or movie means having timeless music, a compelling story and enough charisma for an eight-hour documentary. (I can think of only one other artist who has all three, Bob Dylan, which may be why he’s been the subject of a few great documentaries.) The music is obvious. The Beatles also have a story that fans want to see retold, not despite its familiarity but because of it. They have four distinct personalities, a songwriting partnership that turned into a rivalry, a fast evolution through different styles and a breakup that fans still argue about. (Queen and Led Zeppelin, much as I love them, don’t have much chemistry offstage.) As famous as the Beatles are, the story still rewards different perspectives.
They’re also just plain fun to watch, with an easy camaraderie forged in Hamburg dive bars and honed during Beatlemania. That’s what makes A Hard Day’s Night so watchable, even though the Beatles essentially just play the Beatles. Many bands, even ones that shine onstage, just aren’t that much fun to look at in the studio. For the Beatles, recording was a creative process that’s visible from the outside — the internal becomes external because they play, talk out what they’re doing, and play again. For most solo artists, that process is internal — there’s not much to look at. These days, it hardly ever even takes place in a studio.
There’s no suspense about how Anthology will do — the four-volume set, available as eight CDs and 12 LPs, will probably be the biggest catalog release of the fall. (The fourth volume is new, made up of unreleased takes of songs, as well as some that appeared on box sets over the past decade.) Since their 1995 release, the three volumes have scored more than 7 million album equivalent units in the U.S., according to Luminate. This time around, many of those sales will be on vinyl or as box sets, for premium prices. The long and winding road goes on forever.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:01:212025-08-28 17:01:21How the World’s Biggest Band Stays Big Business
For Lettuce, Japan is more than just another tour stop. It is where the American funk collective first discovered an audience beyond U.S. borders, a place that welcomed their sound with open arms two decades ago. The band’s 2004 Live in Tokyo album captured that connection, and bassist Erick Coomes still recalls how meaningful it felt to find early international fans in Tokyo and Osaka.
“Japan was one of our first opportunities to go overseas,” he says. “They were our first really loyal audience, and we’ve wanted to get back ever since.”
This year, Lettuce finally makes that long-awaited return. As part of the tour supporting their new album Cook, the six-piece will make their fifth visit to Japan for two special engagements — Oct. 29 at the Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka followed by a Oct. 30 concert in Tokyo at the Duo Music Exchange — before continuing on to Europe and a first ever tour of Australia.
“Japanese audiences make you want to give even more to the music,” Coomes said. “The respect they show makes you raise your own level.”
After recording their 2004 album at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Lettuce returned twice, first in 2008 and then again in 2013, to play Japan’s famed Fuji Rock Festival. Playing at the foot of Mount Fuji, Coomes recalls feeling struck by both the surreal natural setting and the audience’s extraordinary respect for music. “It’s the cleanest festival you’ll ever see,” says Coomes. “Not a piece of trash on the ground. That kind of respect for art and for each other is something we’ll never forget.” He recalls the long bus ride from the airport, exhausted from travel, when the mountain first came into view. “You catch that glimpse of Fuji and suddenly all the fatigue disappears. It’s like magic.”
For drummer Adam Deitch, the Japan trip feels like a full-circle moment. “Hearing music from different countries has broadened our creative outlook,” he says. “Japan in particular had a huge impact on us early on.”
Lettuce is eager to bring new music from Cook to eager fans. The album ties together their passions for food and funk, even including a cookbook insert with family recipes alongside the vinyl.
“Music and food are very related,” Deitch says. “Use the wrong ingredients in either and you can ruin the sound or the meal. With this record, we feel like we’ve got the right recipe.”
Recorded at Colorado Sound outside Denver, Cook builds on Lettuce’s past success at the studio where they recorded Elevate (2019), Resonate (2020) and Unify (2022). This time, the band leaned even harder into layering, textures and arrangements that blur genre lines with a record that is equal parts funk and R&B, hip-hop and jazz, cinematic soul and old-school rock.
“This record is a little more three-dimensional than our past albums,” Deitch explains. “It shows a lot more sides to the band, exploring further depths of production and arrangements.”
Tracks like “Storm’s Coming” carry the raw, urgent energy of early Wu-Tang Clan, a nod to the group’s recent tour with GZA of the legendary hip-hop collective. Others, like the album closer “Ghost of Yest,” echo the band’s dream-come-true collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, where they performed their catalog backed by a full orchestra.
On “The Mac,” Lettuce even pays tribute to Maceo Parker, the James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic sax master who once performed with Lettuce onstage. Lettuce’s cover of Keni Burke’s 1982 R&B classic “Risin’ to the Top” is pure bliss, featuring Hall’s soaring vocals over a groove the band describes as “spirit caught in the moment.”
“I had never played the song on bass before,” recalls Coomes, noting that the track was cut in a single take. “I learned it one second before we hit record, and when we nailed it, we just started screaming with joy in the studio. We left those screams in the final cut because it was real, raw emotion.”
The title Cook isn’t just a metaphor. Along with the vinyl edition, Lettuce is releasing a glossy print cookbook featuring family recipes from each member. It’s a playful but sincere extension of the band’s culture, one built around sharing meals on the road as well as sharing grooves on stage.
“My dad’s Caesar salad recipe is in there, [Lettuce vocalist] Nigel Hall contributed a Portuguese dish, and I added a watermelon basil salad for the summer,” Coomes says. “It’s all food we actually love and make. The idea was to combine our love of music and cooking into something tangible.”
The cookbook is packaged with the album art so fans pulling the vinyl from its sleeve discover recipes tucked inside. “It’s beautifully presented,” Coomes says. “It feels like the band has come full circle.” Deitch says Cook marks the start of a new chapter. “This is the best team we’ve ever had. Our infrastructure is solid, our ideas are flowing, and we feel like the world is our oyster. It’s the start of a brand-new era for us.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:01:202025-08-28 17:01:20Lettuce Head to Japan in Support of New Record ‘Cook’: ‘We Feel Like the World Is Our Oyster’
Last week, select college seniors were granted special access to Donald Glover’s Gilga, a creative campus in Ojai, Calif., for a week-long bootcamp hosted in partnership with Sony Corporation of America.
“Our first collaboration with Donald Glover was helping bring his pop-up concert at Little Island in New York to life, tied to the Bando Stone & the New World album rollout last year,” says Sony’s Jordy Freed, head of brand, business development and strategy. “That experience gave us a window into his goals, his team’s goals and ultimately led us to discover Gilga.”
To kick off the camp, the students – all of whom are studying music production, composition or related fields – were divided into two teams. By the end of the camp, each team emerged with five original songs that they wrote, recorded and mixed themselves, having full access to Gilga’s studios and editing suites plus Sony’s cutting edge technology, including its 360 Virtual Mixing Environment.
“It was cool to see young people working towards a goal in person,” says Glover. “I’m glad they made things, but the best part was them hanging together.”
Gilga x Sony camp
Joseph Collier
When the students weren’t making music or getting to know one another, they were learning about the industry through various panels, with speakers including composer and producer Ludwig Göransson, recording and mix engineer Stu White, artists Samara Cyn and Ray Vaughn and executives from Wasserman Music, RCA Records and elsewhere.
Students stayed at Gilga’s on-site housing, and were also free to explore all that the Ojai farm has to offer beyond creation, including its orange and avocado orchards and an artisanal sandwich shop.
“What Donald is building with Gilga is more than a location or a company — it’s a cultural hub that intends to support creators holistically and nurtures their ideas with care,” says Freed. “That philosophy mirrors our creator-first approach at Sony, where we are supporting creators at all stages, providing tools and resources and supporting their vision authentically. Prioritizing creativity with integrity at the root not only helps elevate creators, it also has the power to strengthen culture as a whole.”
Adds Myles Williams, Gilga’s Director of Operations, “Being able to ignite creativity in such talented youth makes us excited for a future that people tend to speak bleakly about.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:01:202025-08-28 17:01:20Donald Glover on Hosting Sony’s Creator Camp at His Gilga Compound: ‘It Was Cool to See Young People Working Towards a Goal’
As their music has endured over the course of the two decades since their last studio album, System of a Down shows have remained a rare commodity — before this week, the band had played a grand total of three U.S. shows in the past three years. Yet for Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan, the ability to reunite sporadically, play a couple of packed-house shows and then wander off in separate directions is possible because of how fine-tuned their craft has become, full of easy instrumental virtuosity and effortless onstage chemistry.
If you were plopped into MetLife Stadium on Wednesday night (Aug. 27), unaware of the greater context of the performance, you’d think that System of a Down had been pummeling stadiums together ceaselessly for years, and that the East Rutherford, N.J. tour stop was one in a months-long string of headbanging balls. Instead, the Armenian-American metal quartet were kicking off a limited-edition stadium run — three cities, two stops each, one top-line rock act preceding each show (Korn was the over-qualified opener on Wednesday) — with the whole affair wrapped up by the end of next week, and who knows what’s to follow.
All of which is to say: System of a Down’s mercurial nature makes these stadium shows all the more special, and if you’re on the fence about trying to snag a ticket over the next week, make the extra effort. Amidst global tumult, the band’s political righteousness sounded especially pointed; in a performance full of screams, the group’s rapport and down-to-earth humor felt just as cathartic. “Chop Suey!,” “Aerials” and “Prison Song” all absolutely crushed. The fact that they weren’t among the very best moments of the evening tells you just how vital of a live act System of a Down remain, and will likely always be.
Here were the five best moments from System of a Down’s first MetLife Stadium show:
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 17:01:192025-08-28 17:01:19System of a Down Pays Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, Pummels MetLife Stadium to Kick Off Tour: 5 Best Moments
People who felt scandalized by Short n’ Sweet songs such as “Juno” or “Bed Chem” probably won’t like Man’s Best Friend, according to Sabrina Carpenter.
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In a clip released Thursday (Aug. 28) ahead of her appearance on CBS Mornings Friday, the pop star confirmed that her new album is not for the faint of heart — and if they do want to listen, they’ll probably want to do it in the privacy of their own homes.
“The album is not for any pearl clutchers,” Carpenter told Gayle King of the LP, which drops Friday (Aug. 29). “But I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.”
When King noted that the songs on the project are as “sexual” as they are “powerful” and “vulnerable,” the two-time Grammy winner replied, “I think that’s the thing, is sometimes people hear the lyrics that are really bold or they go, ‘I don’t want to sing this in front of other people.’”
“It’s like it’s almost too TMI,” Carpenter added. “But I think about being at a concert with, you know, however many young women I see in the front row that are screaming at the top of their lungs with their best friends, and you can go like, ‘Oh, we can all sigh [in] relief like, ‘This is just fun.’ And that’s all it has to be.”
This isn’t the first time the pop star has addressed backlash to her sexual song lyrics, which have polarized audiences ever since Carpenter found breakout success with 2024 album Short n’ Sweet. In a Rolling Stonecover story published in June, she said, “It’s always so funny to me when people complain … like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’”
“But those are the songs that you’ve made popular,” she continued at the time. “Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.”
Man’s Best Friend has also caused people to, as Carpenter puts it, clutch their pearls even before its release. When the Girl Meets World alum first shared its cover art — a photo of herself down on all fours, held in place by a man grabbing her hair — she was met with backlash from some critics who found the image degrading to women.
Not to worry, though. Carpenter has since released several variants of MBF with alternate covers that even pearl clutchers can probably get behind.
See a snippet of Carpenter’s Friday CBS Mornings interview below.
“This is just fun”: In an exclusive interview tomorrow, pop superstar @SabrinaAnnLynn tells @GayleKing how she embraces the provocative lyrics in her highly-anticipated next album, “Man’s Best Friend.” pic.twitter.com/DBWlGjXu2K
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 16:39:352025-08-28 16:39:35Sabrina Carpenter Warns That NSFW ‘Man’s Best Friend’ Album Is ‘Not for Any Pearl Clutchers’
In 2014, British singer-songwriter Coyle Girelli’s indie rock band, The Chevin, went on hiatus, and he says, “I jumped into a million other things.” One of them was a trip to the Los Angeles home of another singer-songwriter Mac Davis, who scored 15 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1970 and 1981 — including the chart-topping “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” — and wrote or co-wrote memorable songs for such acts as Elvis Presley (“In The Ghetto,” “A Little Less Conversation”), Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (Something’s Burning”), Dolly Parton (“White Limozeen”) and Weezer (“Time Flies”).
Girelli and Davis were both published by Primary Wave, and its CEO Larry Mestel suggested they meet because, Mestel says, “They were both extraordinary writers — but also genuinely nice, down-to-earth human beings.”
More than a decade after the two artists met — and nearly five years since Davis’ death in 2020 — Girelli will release the extraordinary result of their collaboration on Aug. 29: Out Of This Town.
The solo album, which Girelli also produced, features his interpretations of 10 songs he and Davis wrote and a coda by Davis that was lifted from a voice memo he sent to his writing partner.
Girelli, who’s currently based in New York, says that he had Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska in mind when he arranged and recorded the songs on the album, and Out Of This Town‘s acoustic guitar, pedal steel and piano sound is spare and crystalline. The richest instrument on the album is Girelli’s voice, which, at moments, recalls Roy Orbison‘s lush falsetto.
It’s appropriate then, that Orbison’s onetime label, Sun Records, will release Out of This Town. As Girelli recounts in this interview with Billboard, he and Davis initially intended to record the album together and came close to a deal with another label until an executive shakeup derailed it.
Enter Sun, which Primary Wave acquired in 2021. Primary Wave and Sun Label Group chief strategy officer Dom Pandiscia, says, “Coyle had played the demos of these songs for me years ago, and we’ve talked regularly about finding the right way to bring them to market. The creative connection between Mac & Coyle align perfectly with the history of Sun,” he adds, “while also leaning it forward and adding to its legacy.”
Girelli talks with Billboard about the set and his relationship with Davis below.
Coyle is an unusual name. What’s its origin?
It’s an Irish name. My father was Irish and my mother, Italian. Very New York but not very common in England.
How did you come to collaborate with Mac Davis?
I think it was Larry [Mestel] who shared a performance of me in my old band, The Chevin. We performed on [Late Show WithDavid Letterman]. He shared it with Mac, and according to Mac’s wife Lise, Mac said something along the lines of, “This kid is the next Roy Orbison.” He wanted to get in a word with me, so Primary Wave threw that out.
I was super excited. It was a real curve ball. I had only just started cowriting outside of the band — it was a matter of months — and I got this opportunity.
The next time I was in L.A., I went over to Mac’s house. I didn’t know what to expect. I had listened to the music he had written, but I had no idea how it was going to look. We grabbed guitars, sat over a cup of coffee and wrote something together probably within an hour of meeting each other. It’s a song called “Already Gone,” which is on the record.
What did you do for an encore?
We spent the rest of the day just talking about music and songs. He told me stories about Elvis and Frank Sinatra. We really got on. Him being a small-town guy who had really hustled., and me, also being a small-town guy who had really hustled for everything I’d gotten — there were a lot of similarities between us. We then kept getting together. I just loved writing with him. I’d always loved Elvis and Roy Orbison, and Americana [music] was always my favorite. That kind of influence is always in there.
Being from Northern England, I never had the confidence to be okay, “I can sing this stuff.” Working with Mac gave me permission. His whole angle was that my voice was built to sing the type of music we were writing, and we really leaned into it. Before we knew it, we had a big collection of songs and we were like, what do we do now with it?
You said that when you were writing with Mac, he literally had a bag of songs that he had written?
There was a point where we wrote together for four days in a row. We’d written a bunch of songs in the first few days, but on the fourth, we were both burned out. We stopped for a coffee, and when we came back, Mac said, “You know what? Let’s see what’s in my publishing company.” And he pulled up this Nashville Music Week swag bag that he had next to him. He unzips it, and inside are sheets and sheets of yellow lined paper with lyrics on them. He starts pulling them out and saying, “Oh yeah, this one.” He plays it to me. It’s “Mary in the Moonlight” [on the album]. He was like, “Yeah, it works. That can be for the project.”
He just kept doing that. There were hundreds of songs in that bag. He picked out songs from there that he thought worked with what we were doing. And I would voice memo them and take them home to demo them. I spoke with Lise about it when I was with her a couple of weeks ago in Nashville, and she said, “That’s where he put his songs. He would write them and then put them in his bag.
Did any real-life experiences inspire any of the songs?
Yeah. I only learned this a couple of weeks ago when I was with Lise. Mac was from Lubbock, Texas and apparently there’s a Mac Davis Day there. They’d asked him to perform there, and he played a pretty big show. Afterwards, he said, “Can you guys get me a limousine back to the airport?” The limo arrives and it’s a hearse being driven by an 18-year-old kid. Mac is like, okay.
He gets in the back of this hearse, and just before they get to the airport, the kid pulls over and says, “Mr. Davis, how do you do it? How do you get out of here?” Mac was like, “Well, I wrote songs, worked hard, persevered, and with a little bit of luck, I managed to get out. The kid was like, “I can’t even whistle. I’m never going to get out of this town. I’m going to die in this town driving a hearse.” And then he carries on to the airport. Mac was like, “That’s a good idea for a song.” And that became the title track of the album. I just love the poetry behind the story.
It’s a powerful, heartbreaking song.
Yeah, and it resonated so much with me because I’m from a similar place. Most people I went to school with will spend their entire lives in the town, regardless of any hopes to get out. A lot of people are trapped in these small towns.
You and Mac discussed doing a duets album?
Yeah, it was a pretty serious discussion. We were talking to a couple of record labels and very nearly signed it to Warner. The two of us had gone in and met with their whole team, and they were super into the album. I had never got my head around quite how [a duets album] would work in the studio, but Mac was so in love with the idea of getting these songs out. I guess he would have sung some songs, and I would have sung some. Whether we would have dueted, I don’t know.
For whatever reason, we got caught in a shuffle and the entire team was [let go], and the album never signed up there. Then the same thing happened at Capitol. It would have been interesting.
Coyle Girelli, Out of This Town
Courtesy Photo
It’s interesting that you ended up at Sun, because your voice does reminds me of Roy Orbison at moments. How did that happen?
It feels very serendipitous. My band [The Chevin] was with Capitol and Caroline at the time, so we were working with a bunch of people there who are now at Primary Wave. I was with Primary Wave as a songwriter with my band for many years, and became very close to a lot of the team over there. When they acquired Sun and relaunched it as a label they were already familiar with the album, and with Mac’s connection to Elvis and my natural sound, it felt like a perfect fit. It didn’t take me very long to say yes. The idea of being a Sun Records recording artist was not something I’d ever thought was possible a few years ago.
Was Mac still alive when you began recording these songs?
Yeah. When we first wrote the songs and came up with the idea of putting it together as an album, I think we both had conversations to make this a very richly produced record with strings and tympanies and everything thrown in there. So, a real throwback to the stuff of the ‘60s that Elvis and Roy Orbison and people like that were making. I demoed the songs as we were writing them, and he would voice memo stuff to me or share chats. I would record them and interpret them my way and record them with just acoustic guitar and vocals and then send them back to Mac. We would tweak things. That’s how we got the demos together that we shared with labels.
After the label signings I mentioned didn’t work out, I released a solo album, my first, Love Kills, which was very much influenced by the stuff Mac and I were working on. It’s got that very similar sound. Then COVID happened, and then Mac passed away. We never really got the chance to flesh out the idea [of where to go next].
So you had to make that decision on your own?
I had the demos for such a long time. I’d listened to them and shared them with people who also loved them, including the team at Sun and Primary Wave. I struggled with the big sound that we had originally wanted to create. It seemed to me that the strength of the album was in the songwriting and also letting my voice be front and center — not hiding it in a million instruments which is what I tend to do usually when I produce my stuff.
The first couple of days in the studio I thought, “Let’s experiment and see how much bigger we can make the tracks.” Every time I laid something, especially drums, felt too heavy handed. Even the bass at times. It was process of figuring out what was necessary. Bit by bit, we worked through it. At some point I landed on Springsteen’s Nebraska as a reference point — another album where the demos led the way sonically. So, that seemed to make sense here as well.
You have some interesting featured singers on the album, such as KT Tunstall. How did those come about?
Like I said, when Mac and I wrote it, the idea of duets was something that we’d spoken about — whether or not it was dueting with each other, we knew we wanted duets in there. I’ve never done duets before, so it was fun to start thinking about that. KT had also released a record [with Suzi Quatro] on Sun, and I had heard the project. KT really loved “Lost to the River” on Out of This Town and was like, “I really, really want to sing this song.” I hadn’t thought of it as a duet, but I shared it with her, she threw her voice on it, and it sounds awesome.
Then, with Cassandra Lewis [who is featured on “Everyone But Me And You”], I had met her a year previous at a music conference, saw her perform and loved her voice and her style. And Jaime Wyatt was recommended to the project. She brought a very different tone, and I love the layer she added to “Never Thought I’d See You Again.”
Has Lise heard the finished album and given you any feedback?
Lise loves it. She was around when we were working on the record at their house in L.A., and she would pop her head in and say, “I like that song,” or, “I like that sound.” I know from talking to her, that Mac talked with her a lot about the project. She’s very much a part of the whole thing and was from the beginning. She’s really thrilled that it’s finally coming out. Also having Mac’s voice on one of the songs is pretty special.
Tell me more about that one.
So, Mac would send me voice memos of songs, and one of the memos he sent was, “I Wanna Make Love.” Thankfully, there’s technology in the last couple of years where you can pull the vocal out of a recording like that. We used a company called AudioShake, sent them the track and got back this immaculately clean .WAV of Mac’s voice. It’s absolutely mind blowing. We loaded it into the computer and built the track around it. I was thrilled that we could have Mac on the project.
You’re going to go on tour now?
I’ll do a few dates to start. I’m in L.A. at the moment. I plan to start there. Then, we’ll do London, New York, Nashville, Austin, a bunch of other cities, and we’ll go from there.
I read that you have pretty broad musical tastes?
A lot in life doesn’t really make sense when you’re a kid, but half my family is Italian, so my grandma and my mother, played a lot of opera around the house. A lot of Puccini, and I grew up hearing a lot of opera. I always liked the melody and the singing and how theatrical it was and stuff. Then on my dad’s side he always played a lot of Americana — Tom Paxton, Jackson Browne, Springsteen and the Eagles.
Whenever we were on a car drive that was what was playing. I hated it as a kid. Because you hate your parents’ music when you’re eight years old or whatever. I remember loving Queen. Then a couple of years later, I really fell in love with it. Whatever I try, I don’t think I can ever get away from the opera and the Americana influence. They’re just in me at this point.
Is The Chevin still together?
No, we went on hiatus in 2014. We’ve released little bits and pieces since, but we hit a touring wall. And then I jumped into a million other things, and we’ve not got together since. We keep threatening to make another record, and we’re technically still signed to the label who said they would release it, but we have to find time.
Have you thought about what’s next once you’re done promoting the album?
I’m going to be working on a new record pretty much straightaway as soon as this comes out. I have an idea for what I’d like to do. It’s in the same vein as this one, but we’ll see. It’s kind of all I know how to do at this point.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 16:12:532025-08-28 16:12:53Coyle Girelli on How Collaborating With Mac Davis ‘Gave Me Permission’ to Sing the Music He Always Wanted To Sing
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, and the song she used when she reshared their joint Instagram announcement to her Stories was her 2024 track “So High School,” which accumulated more U.S. streams on Aug. 26 than the previous four days combined.
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On Aug. 26, when Swift and Kelce’s joint post revealing the engagement went live on their respective social media accounts, “So High School” earned 794,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to preliminary data from Luminate.
Their usage of the song in the post was apt, as Swift’s caption read, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
That 794,000-stream count represented a 394% increase over the previous day, Aug. 25, which saw the song sport 161,000 streams in the U.S.
In fact, during the previous four days (Aug. 22-25), “So High School” had accumulated 640,000 streams, fewer than the single-day Aug. 26 sum.
The song debuted and peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2024 upon the chart start of its parent album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift held the entire top 14, the most by one artist on down from No. 1 in the list’s history, on the May 4, 2024, ranking and 19 of the top 25, and the LP blasted in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
In all, Swift’s catalog earned 35.8 million streams on Aug. 26, a 27% gain from Aug. 25’s sum of 28.1 million.
More gains for Swift’s catalog could be reflected on the upcoming Sept. 6-dated Billboard charts, which will reflect the Aug. 22-28 tracking week.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2025-08-28 16:12:532025-08-28 16:12:53Taylor Swift’s ‘So High School’ Sports 394% Streaming Gain After Engagement Reveal