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It’s finally happening.
After much speculation over a remix of Ed Sheeran‘s “The Joker and the Queen” featuring his old pal Taylor Swift, the English star seems to have finally confirmed it. During a red carpet interview with LADbible ahead of the Brit Awards on Tuesday (Feb. 8), Sheeran shared that a new song “comes out Friday and it’s with Taylor Swift.”
“We’re literally announcing that in, like, an hour,” Sheeran added, though there hasn’t been an official announcement at the time of publication.
🚨 Ed Sheeran tells @LADBible at the #BRITs that he will be releasing a song with Taylor Swift on Friday.
It’s anticipated to be a remix of “The Joker And The Queen.” pic.twitter.com/XHcjoihJF8
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 8, 2022
While Sheeran didn’t reveal what the song would be, fans are guessing it’s a remix of “The Joker and the Queen,” originally featured without Swift on Sheeran’s fourth studio album, =, which topped the Billboard 200 albums chart dated Nov. 13.
According to Twitter fan theories, there have been a series of hints that the two might be doing something together related to the song — like the Taylor Swift patch on the back of Sheeran’s jacket in his “Overpass Graffiti” video, and the equal sign Swift carved into the cake in her “I Bet You Think About Me” video.
The latest hint came on Saturday (Feb. 5), when eagle-eyed fans noticed the song credits on YouTube for Sheeran’s “The Joker and the Queen” official lyric video showed the words “feat. Taylor Swift.”
“The Joker and the Queen” remix would not be the first time the longtime friends have worked together. The two have previously collaborated on three Swift songs: “Everything Has Changed” on Red, “End Game” on Reputation and “Run,” a vault track on Red (Taylor’s Version).
The widow of Ol’ Dirty Bastard is suing Wu-Tang Productions for breach of contract, alleging that the company has “willfully refused” to pay the late rapper’s estate at least $1 million in royalties.
The complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday (Feb. 8) by attorney Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt on behalf of ODB’s widow Icelene Jones, claims that the company – which is owned and operated by ODB’s cousin/Wu-Tang bandmate RZA (born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) – has made just one payment of $130,000 to the ODB estate over the last decade and has failed to provide detailed accounting statements during that time.
The estate is seeking at least $1 million in damages plus interest, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.
“Despite its repeated efforts and requests, the Estate has been unable to obtain payments and accountings from Defendant under the Recording Agreement for the sale of Wu-Tang Clan Recordings and ODB recordings since at least 2011,” the complaint reads.
The $130,000 payment arrived on July 6, 2021, without a detailed accounting statement, the suit adds. Several additional payments were made by the group’s co-publisher/administrator Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. in 2019 and 2020, but the complaint alleges the total amounts “represent only a small percentage” of what the estate is owed for royalties related to Wu-Tang Clan recordings, ODB’s solo recordings and compositions, merchandising rights and music videos. Warner-Tamerlane is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
As laid out in the complaint, the original recording agreement signed between the individual band members and Wu-Tang Productions entitled ODB to receive 50% of the net earnings from his compositions, the exploitation of his name and likeness and films and videos produced by the group within 45 days of the receipt of payment from distributors (publishing royalties were to be paid semi-annually). The agreement also gave ODB and his representatives the right to request an audit of the company’s books within two years of a royalty statement being provided, with the process to commence within three months of the request.
Wu-Tang Productions did not immediately respond to Billboard’s request for comment. A representative for the ODB estate declined to comment.
Formed in Staten Island in 1992, Wu-Tang Clan shot to stardom with their 1993 debut album Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which went three-times platinum in the U.S. They followed it up with six more albums, including 1997’s Wu-Tang Forever (four-times platinum), 2000’s The W (platinum) and 2001’s Iron Flag (gold). The group’s other members include GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and Cappadonna.
Born Russell Tyrone Jones, ODB released a total of three solo albums, including 1995’s platinum-selling Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version. The rapper died of an accidental drug overdose in November 2004 at age 35. Icelene Jones was named the administrator of his estate in December 2005.
The NBA announced Tuesday (Feb. 8) that DJ Khaled and friends are set to headline the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night performances. The star-studded lineup of Khaled’s crew is set to be announced in the coming weeks.
“Wait until you see the all-stars I’m bringing,” DJ Khaled said in a Twitter video shared by the NBA. “We the biggest. We the best. There’s big stars and there’s all-stars. I’m bringing the all-stars!”
We the biggest. We the best.@djkhaled & friends to headline #StateFarmSaturday performances during #NBAAllStar! pic.twitter.com/CVPHoIvY2u
— NBA (@NBA) February 8, 2022
The event will take place on Saturday, February 19 at 8 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio and will air live on TNT. State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, a main highlight of the NBA’s annual All-Star Weekend, features entertaining games including the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, MTN DEW 3-Point Contest and AT&T Slam Dunk.
Team Antetokounmpo (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo), Team Cavs (Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley) and Team Rooks (Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey) will face off in the Skills Challenge, in which players will make their way through an obstacle course that challenges their ability in dribbling, passing and shooting.
Fred VanVleet (Raptors), Desmond Bane (Grizzlies), Luke Kennard (Clippers), Zach LaVine (Bulls), CJ McCollum (Pelicans), Patty Mills (Nets), Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves), Trae Young (Hawks) will take on the 3-Point Contest, which, as the name suggests, will have the players taking shots from well beyond the 3-point line that count for three points each.
Obi Toppin (Knicks), Jalen Green (Rockets), Cole Anthony (Magic), Juan Toscano-Anderson (Warriors) are this year’s Dunk Contest participants, in which the group will do their best slam dunks and the five judges score the effort on a scale of 1-10.
Kristen Stewart is officially an Oscar-nominated actress.
Stewart, 31, earned a best actress Oscar nod for her portrayal of Princess Diana in Spencer, the biographical drama directed by Pablo Larraín. The movie is streaming on multiple platforms, so if you want to watch the movie in time to root for Stewart at this year’s Oscars, you’ll have plenty of time to watch before the awards show takes place next month.
How to Stream Spencer Online
Spencer is streaming on Hulu at no additional cost to subscribers. If you’re not signed up for Hulu, you can join with a free 30-day trial. After the trial ends, your membership will cost $6.99 a month for ad-supported streaming. To stream without commercials, sign up for Hulu’s ad-free plan ($12.99 a month). If you want to add even more channels, check out Hulu + Live TV ($69.99 a month) or a Hulu Bundle, which adds Disney+ and ESPN+ to your subscription ($13.99 a month).
Not interested in Hulu? You can rent Spencer on Amazon Prime Video for $3.99 ($9.99 to buy). Spencer is also available on Vudu and Apple TV.
Stewart stars opposite Jack Farthing as Prince Charles in Spencer, which follows Princess Diana through swirling affair rumors and an impending divorce. The film is set in December 1991 as the royal family prepares to spend Christmas at the Queen’s Sandringham estate.
In reaction to landing her first Oscar nomination, Stewart admitted to being surprised by the nod but ultimately humbled.
“I am speechless and humbled this morning. I am bowled over by this,” she said of her Oscar nod in a statement to ET. “I never thought in a thousand years I’d be in the company of these four incredible women,” Stewart added. “I would pay to make movies. I would make them if it was illegal. This is dream state, to share on this level.”
The 94th Academy Awards will be held on March 27 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. ET.
It’s Sebastian Yatra’s week. Dharma, his third studio album, debuts at No. 2 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Albums chart (dated Feb. 12) — his third album to reach the top two.
Plus, on Feb. 8, it was announced that the Encanto track “Dos Oruguitas,” which Yatra performs, received an Academy Award nomination for best original song for its songwriter, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Yatra, who first made a splash on Latin Pop Albums with the two-week leader Mantra, his album debut, in 2018, is back on the chart as Dharma opens in the runner-up slot with a little more than 4,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 3, according to MRC Data.
The 17-track set, released Jan. 28, is the third effort via his label Universal Music Latino/UMLE and arrives almost three years after his second and last No. 1: Fantasía (April 2019). Dharma, which gifts the Colombian his third straight top 10, is an amalgam of genres, from his usual Latin pop to vallenato, reggaetón and even a pop-punk tune and the bilingual “Runaway.” (The album does not include “Dos Oruguitas”; it is on the Encanto soundtrack album.)
The Latin Pop Albums chart ranks the most popular Latin pop albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by MRC Data. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Unlike Dharma’s predecessors, that debuted with a combined number of streams and album sales, streaming activity makes up nearly all of Dharma’s debut totals, with almost 4,000 units deriving from streaming-equivalent albums (SEA) units, a sum amounting to 5.6 million on-demand streams on the project’s tracks. The remaining 500 units come from album sales and track-equivalent album (TEA) units.
Dharma’s entrance on Billboard’s charts also adds a third career entry for Yatra on the all-genre Top Latin Albums chart, as the set bows at No. 13.
The set has yielded five hits on the all-metric Hot Latin Songs chart (a blend of streams, airplay and digital sales). Let’s take a look:
Title, Artist (if other than Yatra), Peak Position, Peak Date,
“Runaway,” with Daddy Yankee, Jonas Brothers & Natti Natasha, No. 12, July 6, 2019
“TBT,” with Rauw Alejandro & Manuel Turizo, No. 16, June 27, 2020
“Chica Ideal,” with Guaynaa, No. 13, Feb. 20, 2021
“Pareja del Año,” with Myke Towers, No. 10, May 22, 2021
“Tacones Rojos,” No. 18, Feb. 12, 2022
In addition, Yatra’s “Dos Oruguitas,” from Disney’s Encanto soundtrack, holds at its No. 2 high on Hot Latin Songs and continues in the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, his first and only entry on the latter.
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