Japanese Breakfast guitarist and vocalist Michelle Zauner has offered a disappointing update to the status of her critically-acclaimed memoir’s film adaptation.

Zauner, who co-founded the Philadelphia-based band in 2013, released Crying in H Mart in 2021 following an essay of the name that name was published in The New Yorker in 2018. Inspired by her mother’s passing and the emotional experience of visiting the titular H Mart stores, Zauner had previously chronicled her encounters with loss in a 2016 essay for Glamour magazine.

The publication of Crying in H Mart was met with an overwhelmingly-positive response, with the book ultimately spending 55 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. In 2023, it was reported that The White Lotus’ Will Sharpe would be directing a feature film adaptation of the book, with Stacey Sher and Jason Kim producing.

According to an official synopsis, the adaptation was described as a “coming-of age story about a half-Korean daughter who returns to small town Oregon to care for her Korean mother. Critical and smothering Chong-mi and creative and independent Michelle struggle to understand each other across a cultural fault line, only learning to see and accept one another through the formative power of music and the vibrant flavors of Korean cooking.”

In a recent interview with SSENSE, Zauner discussed the current status of the adaptation and revealed that those who had hoped for a timely arrival of the film will now be left waiting for an undetermined period of time.

“Well, it’s on pause,” Zauner explained. “There were issues with the Hollywood strikes, and the director stepped away from the project. I spent a year working on the screenplay, which was a tough but rewarding process. I still have faith it will get made someday, but it’s not happening anytime soon,” she added. “Right now, I’m focusing on other creative projects, so the film will have to wait.”

Though she didn’t address specifics of her creative projects, Zauner and her Japanese Breakfast will be releasing their fourth album, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women), on March 21. Their previous record, 2021’s Jubilee, was their first to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching a peak of No. 56.

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars added to their trophy collection at the 2025 Grammy Awards Sunday (Feb. 2) when they won best pop duo/group performance for their Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping song “Die With a Smile.”

Gaga and Mars shared the stage and rejoiced after winning over Beyonce and Post Malone, Gracie Abrams and Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande with Brandy and Monica, and Billie Eilish and Charli XCX.

“Gaga, I’m so honored to be a part of this song with you,” said Mars. “I’m so honored to have a small part in your giant musical legacy and I really truly believe that God gave us this song to sing together, so thank you so much.”

Gaga followed up Bruno’s touching words with similar sentiments, crediting him for being a “beautiful human being and musician for the ages” before delivering an encouraging message to the LGBTQ+ community.

“It is a privilege to be a songwriter, a producer, [and] a musician. It’s such an honor to sing for all of you and I just wanna say tonight, that trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love. Thank you.”

Earlier in the night, Gaga and Bruno teamed up for a stirring rendition of the 1965 classic “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas after a powerful video highlighted the destruction caused by the Los Angeles area fires. In addition to that performance, Gaga premiered her new song and video for “Abracadabra” from upcoming album Mayhem during a commercial break.

English musician Morrissey has taken to his website to share his fondness of Loudon Wainwright III’s 1970 self-titled debut album.

Morrissey’s essay – published under the title Let Us Now Praise Famous Men – arrives as an 800+ word love letter to Wainwright’s record, complemented with lyrics and personal opinions in regard to its composition and release.

“Only the best singing voices can become the very sound and image of geographical places,” Morrissey wrote. “In Delaware when he was younger, Loudon Wainwright imagined his first ever LP, and unzipped it in 1970 to a narrowed public taste that left it chartless forever. On the sleeve he stood with no importance against a brick wall, in the way that classic art avoids fashion. 

“He needed nothing but his solo acoustic and his impressive palette of words,” he added. “Whoever else was offering musical dynamics in 1970 did not concern him. The voice was almost hayseed in its yearning, fully in the ‘now’ of 1969/70, saying everything whilst looking nothing, and how ridiculous it is to be afraid.”

Originally released in 1970 via Atlantic Records, Loudon Wainwright III (occasionally referred to as Album I in keeping with the naming convention of his next two records) was an auspicious start to his career. Though it spawned no singles and didn’t chart (a feat Wainwright wouldn’t achieve until 1972’s Album III), it is still remembered fondly by supporters such as Morrissey as proof that Wainwright was simply ahead of his time.

“All political careers end in failure. All musical careers eventually go soft,” Morrissey continued. “Loudon Wainwright refused to become a sleeping-pill accident like similar dreamboats Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley. By the year 2000, singers are given awards for songs that weren’t worth writing in the first place; Loudon Wainwright missed all of that and stood clear of the three-ringed circus. It wasn’t the case that he followed 1970 with failure, but the scholastic pride of life is caught in a thought-smashing way on this irradiant debut, and like an old hang-dog hound it stays beside me – dolefully looking up occasionally to make sure that I’m still here and I’m still me. I am.

“Finally, victory. Sometimes it takes the rest of the world fifty years to catch up,” he concluded. “But they do.”

His 1970 debut marked something of a transitory period of Wainwright’s life. Released shortly after he had relocated to New York City and signed a record deal, its release occurred one year before his marriage to Canadian musician Kate McGarrigle, with whom he had two children. Wainwright and McGarrigle would later divorce in 1976.

Wainwright’s most recent album, Lifetime Achievement, was released in 2022. Morrissey, however, hasn’t released a new album since 2020’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, though he has since claimed that a war on “free speech” has left him unable to release further records. Planned albums include 2023’s Bonfire of Teenagers, and Without Music the World Dies, though the latter has yet to be given even a tentative release date.

The boycott is over. The Weeknd made his surprise return to the 2025 Grammy Awards stage on Sunday (Feb. 2) with an electric performance of “Cry for Me” and “Timeless” featuring an assist from his upcoming tourmate Playboi Carti.

After an extended broadcast tease, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. shocked viewers by introducing The Weeknd, who previously said he’d boycott the Grammys following his criticism of the Recording Academy in 2021 when his After Hours album received zero nominations.

A hooded Weeknd in a trench coat rose atop the smoky stage to deliver a fiery performance of the Metro Boomin-produced “Cry for Me” — a standout from his new Hurry Up Tomorrow album — while commanding flailing dancers completely covered in full bodysuits.

Laser beams then filled the stage as Playboi Carti popped out to bring the rage to their Billboard Hot 100 top three hit “Timeless” to close out the performance.

Prior to The Weeknd touching the Crypto.com Arena stage, Harvey Mason Jr. reflected on hearing the artist born Abel Tesfaye’s frustrations and instituting change to the makeup of the Recording Academy body over the past few years, which has improved its diversity efforts.

“Criticism is OK. I heard him, I felt his conviction,” the Recording Academy head said. “What we all want is an organization dedicated to the well-being of all music makers … So over the past few years we’ve listened, we’ve acted and we’ve changed.”

Mason Jr. says that the Academy has added more than 3,000 voting women members and now boasts nearly 40 percent people of color. “I firmly believe we’re on the right path … What better way to bring us together than this next artist,” he added before welcoming The Weeknd — a four-time Grammy Award winner — back into the fold.