After seven years on her label, Tenille Townes and Sony Nashville have parted ways. 

Though Townes has achieved much success in her native Canada, including winning 15 Canadian Country Music Association Awards over the past five years, her Stateside career never experienced the same liftoff, even after winning the ACM Award for new female artist of the year in 2020. (That same year, she won a second ACM Award as a featured artist on Miranda Lambert’s remake of “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” which was voted music event of the year.) 

On Monday (Aug. 26), Townes took to Instagram to update her fans in a narrated video over various images, including a Polaroid photo of herself with the words “I’m free” beside a heart, as an acoustic, instrumental version of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” played. 

“My Nashville record label and I have parted ways. This is not a sob story, but a story of opportunity. We had a really good run and this is a big shift for me. We’ve been working together for over seven years, but we haven’t been seeing eye to eye on my music and my path and it’s creatively been a struggle waiting on green lights inside a corporate system that doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore,” she said. “I want the freedom to write and record a song and be able to get it to you guys, and making this decision means I can do that as I take back ownership of what I create. And that feels liberating and if I’m honest it also feels terrifying. Lots of fear but I’m doing it anyway and I’m excited to figure out  what’s next on my own terms. So this is me as a newly independent artist and a work-in-progress human telling you I’m starting a new journey learning to bet on myself again and I hope you’ll come with me.”

Though critically acclaimed, Townes biggest success in the U.S. was 2018’s “Somebody’s Daughter,” which reached No. 1 in Canada but peaked at No. 26 on the Country Airplay chart in the U.S. 

Townes released one full-length album in the U.S., 2020’s The Lemonade Stand, reached No. 41 on the Top Country Albums chart. She also put out four EPs, the most recent being Train Track Worktapes last year. 

Townes starts a Canadian tour Oct. 9.

Sony Nashville did not return a request for comment. 

Congratulations are in order for Lea Michele, who is officially a girl mom.

The actress took to Instagram on Sunday (Aug. 25) to announce that that she and husband Zandy Reich welcomed their second baby, a girl named Emery Sol. “Our hearts are so full 🤍 Emery Sol Reich 💕,” Michele captioned a photo holding the newborn bundle of joy’s foot.

The Glee actress — who is already Mom to four-year-old son Ever Leo — revealed that she was pregnant back in March with a sweet Instagram post. In the pictures, Michele posed with a silky white shawl draped over her shoulders, cradling her baby bump as it peeked through the fabric.

“Mommy, Daddy and Ever are overjoyed,” she captioned the post. Michele and Reich tied the knot in 2019. The couple became first-time parents the next year, welcoming Ever in August 2020.

The Funny Girl actress recently appeared on Katherine Schwarzenegger’s podcast BDA Baby, where she shared that the process of her second child’s conception was “completely not what [they] expected” and that she had “two back-to-back very early failed pregnancies.”

Barbz, September is going to be your month. After several teasers, Nicki Minaj has announced the release date for her Pink Friday 2: Gag City Reloaded deluxe album.

The Queens legend revealed on Monday (Aug. 26) that the deluxe edition will hit streaming services on Sept. 13 while she’s on the road for the second North American leg of her tour.

“9.13.24 #GagCityRELOADED THE DELUXE ALBUM,” Minaj captioned the photo dump featuring several pictures loving on her hubby Kenneth “Zoo” Petty.

The Barbz were understandably ecstatic to hear the news that Nicki would be dropping again with her tour coming up.

“love these types of posts! It feels like a mini documentary from you. Thank you for this #GagCityReloaded album! I can’t wait to hear the new songs,” one fan wrote.

Another chimed in: “GAG CITY RELOADED IS GONNA GE THE BIGGEST MOVIE IN GAG CITY HISTORY!!!!”

Nicki has been tight-lipped about the deluxe, but divulged that a Sunday night (Aug. 25) studio session produced what she thinks will be fans’ favorite on the project.

“Well, Barbz- Didn’t really want to have to speak on this but I just can’t stay quiet about it any longer,” she tweeted. “Last night, I recorded what will probably be your favorite song on the deluxe. It will immediately go into your TOP 5 of the entire PF2 era. OH MY FREAKING GOODNESSWDRFFHJKGV.”

Nicki’s Pink Friday 2 World Tour is slated to kick off once again in Philly on Sept. 4. She’ll be making stops in NYC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Miami and more on the 22-city trek.

PF2 was originally released in December 2023 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 228,000 album units sold in the first week.

Chase & Status and Stormzy continue their reign atop the U.K. Official Singles Chart for a second consecutive week with their collaboration “BACKBONE.”

The track, which pairs Chase & Status’s high-energy drum and bass production with Stormzy’s commanding lyrical delivery, remains the most-streamed song in the U.K. this week, boasting an impressive 5.5 million streams.

Following the single’s debut at No. 1 in the U.K. last week, Chase & Status, comprised of Saul Milton and Will Kennard, said of the collaboration with Stormzy, “We knew that connecting with Stormzy was going to create something special, but we didn’t expect a KO reaction like this.”

“To see him running out at our show at The Milton Keynes Bowl in his best man’s suit, straight from a wedding and in front of 45,000 people, was insane!” they added. “One of the greatest British MCs to ever do it, spitting over DnB. And for it to go straight in at Number 1? It couldn’t get any better for us.”

This week’s highest new entry belongs to the powerhouse duo of Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Their track “Die with a Smile” debuts at No. 7, marking Gaga’s 15th and Mars’s 11th Top 10 singles in the U.K. The track fuses Gaga’s distinctive flair for dramatic pop with Mars’s smooth, R&B-infused vocals, creating a unique blend that has quickly propelled the track into the Top 10.

Meanwhile, BL3SS, CamrinWatsin, and bbyclose celebrate their first-ever Top 5 single as their summer dance hit “Kisses” climbs to a new peak at No. 5.

Belfast’s rising star Jordan Adetunji also continues his ascent, with his catchy track “KEHLANI” moving up to No. 8, marking another career milestone.

Elsewhere on the chart, Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” breaks into the Top 10, reaching No. 10 after 14 weeks on the chart, thanks in part to a surprise performance with Olivia Rodrigo in Los Angeles. Indian rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi make their mark on the U.K. charts as well, with their track “Big Dawgs” jumping six spots to land at No. 15.

In other notable movements, Sonny Fodera, Jazzy, and D.O.D’s “Somedays” continues to climb, now at No. 16, while Taylor Swift’s “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” rises to No. 21 following the release of its Eras Tour-filmed music video.

Finally, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song” makes its first appearance in the Top 40, climbing to No. 35, and Gracie Abrams’ “I Love You, I’m Sorry” gains a new peak at No. 37.

Listen to “BACKBONE” by Chase & Status and Stormzy below.

Macklemore said he canceled an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force that’s been fighting government troops there.

The announcement by Macklemore reignited attention to the UAE’s role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, United Nations experts reported “credible” evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.

Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions including Darfur. Estimates suggest over 18,800 people have been killed in the fighting, while over 10 million have fled their homes. Hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.

At a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting in June, Sudan’s embattled government directly accused the UAE of arming the RSF, and an Emirati diplomat angrily told his counterpart to stop “grandstanding.” The UAE has been a part in ongoing peace talks to end the fighting.

The Emirati Foreign Ministry offered no immediate comment on Macklemore’s public statement Sunday, nor did the city-state’s Dubai Media Office. Organizers last week announced the show had been canceled and refunds would be issued, without offering an explanation for the cancelation.

In a post Saturday on Instagram, Grammy winner Macklemore said he had a series of people “asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan and to boycott doing business in the UAE for the role they are playing in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis.”

Macklemore said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. He recently has begun performing a song called “Hind’s Hall,” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car.

“I know that this will probably jeopardize my future shows in the area, and I truly hate letting any of my fans down,” he wrote. “I was really excited too. But until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there.”

He added: “I have no judgment against other artists performing in the UAE. But I do ask the question to my peers scheduled to play in Dubai: If we used our platforms to mobilize collective liberation, what could we accomplish?”

The RSF formed out of the Janjaweed fighters under then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.

Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and other tourist destinations, long has tried to draw A-list performers in the city-state at a brand-new arena and other venues. However, performers in the past have acknowledged the difficulties in performing in the UAE, a hereditarily ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms in which speech is tightly controlled.

That includes comedian Dave Chappelle, who drew attention in May in Abu Dhabi when he referred to the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” while also joking about the UAE’s vast surveillance apparatus.

Macklemore, a 41-year-old rapper born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty in Kent, Washington, won Grammy awards in 2014 for his breakout song, “Thrift Shop.”