After spending her time emoting musically on the big screen and dazzling audiences with her performance in the two-part film musical, "Wicked", Ariana Grande is returning to her pop music career. "Hate That I Made You Love Me" is the lead single off of her upcoming eighth studio album, "Petal" which is due out at the end of July. Teaming once again with frequent collaborators, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Max Martin, the song is a bit of a departure for Grande with this synth-pop ballad having a subtle, minimalist vibe. "Hate That I Made You Love Me" deals with her complicated relationship with fame and the public scrutiny that comes with it, especially commentary regarding her appearance and body. The humorous video for the song, directed by Christian Breslauer and features actor, Justin Long, plays like a short film that involves a man who has apparently murdered his wife (played by Grande) and buried her body while he is continuously being haunted by her. Grande has also begun her long awaited Eternal Sunshine Tour on June 6th which will take her through the US and Canada before concluding in September with a ten-date stop at the O2 Arena in England.
June is the month where we celebrate Pride and here is a collection of LGBTQ+ artists who have new music out: for his upcoming sixth studio album, "Adam", Adam Lambert digs into the sounds of '90's electronic and alternative rock with the first single, "Eat U Alive"; free from her label, pop diva, Kim Petras is now independently releasing her music and the latest song is "Brutalist"; the queer Nashville-based country group, the Cowgays (made-up of solo artists, Brooke Eden, Chris Housman, and Adam Mac) have released a campy tune, "Good Hoedown"; the English synth-pop act, La Roux has dropped a new track, "Cabin Fever" from their upcoming album, "Old Flames"; Frankie Grande is currently appearing in the Broadway production of "Titanique" and has delivered a fast-paced "Pride anthem" of the number he does in the show, "I Drove All Night"; David Archuleta has dropped his latest dance-pop tune, "Love For Free" and the electroclash performer, Slayyter has the single, "Dance..." from her second studio album, "Worst Girl in America".
And with her next album, "Confessions II" due out on July 3rd, Madonna is moving into overdrive to promote this dance music collection. First she was involved with doing some playfully sexy promo on the gay networking app, Grindr and then did a mini concert in the middle of Times Square in NYC. Now, the Queen of Pop has released "Confessions II – The Film". This fourteen minute visual album directed by TORSO features the first six tracks from the upcoming album. The short film made its premiere on June 5th at the Tribeca Festival and was released three days later on YouTube. Filled with wild imagery and many notable famous faces, this dazzling musical film is an impressive reminder of what a powerful and enduring force she is as a visual stylist and performer.
When Miley Cyrus approached the recording of her latest album, "Something Beautiful", she was inspired by the win of her first Grammy Award last year for Best Pop Solo performance for "Flowers". It's not that she placed that much importance in awards but it did give Cyrus even more confidence that she was moving creatively in the right direction. A performer since she was thirteen when cast in the Disney Channel television series "Hannah Montana", the now thirty-two year old Cyrus has conceived her ninth studio album as a visual concept record centered around the theme of "healing". She continues to take control of her sound, co-writing and co-producing the album, with this collection utilizing alt-r&b, jazz and disco-pop to express her thoughts on discovering beauty and light following trauma and heartbreak. "Something Beautiful" also features guest appearances by Brittany Howard, Danielle Haim, Flea of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Super Model, Naomi Campbell. A musical film that is a companion to the album called "Something Beautiful", directed by Cyrus along with Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter, made its premiere on June 6th at the Beacon Theatre during the Tribeca Festival and will be released theatrically on June 12th.
June is Pride month and to help kick off the celebration here are some recent songs by artists who are either queer or strong allies: The latest song from David Archuleta is a sensual ballad, "Can I Call You"; the French musical stylist, Christine and the Queens has an upcoming EP collaborating with legendary disco producer, Cerrone and their lead single is the throbbing dance track, "Catching Feelings"; Sam Williams, the grandson of the influential country music pioneer, Hank Williams and son of Hank Williams Jr., is continuing in the family tradition yet in his own way with a country-pop love song that is unabashedly queer; German producer, Toby Gad has released "Run", a track from Donna Summer that was unreleased from the recording sessions for her final studio album, "Crayons" back in 2008; and the performer who first found fame in musical theater before soaring on to the big screen (in the adaptation of hit musical, "Wicked") and this year's Tony Awards host, Cynthia Erivo has managed to find time to record her second studio album, "I Forgive You", a collection of contemporary r&b.
And to close, here is a classic one-hit wonder from 1969 that I love from Spiral Starecase, a Northern California based band, and their big hit, "More Today Than Yesterday". Beginning as an instrumental group called the Fydallions, they managed to get signed to Columbia Records but the label insisted they change their name. Taking it from a 1946 psychological horror film but slightly altering the spelling, Spiral Starecase charted with "More Today Than Yesterday" with the soulful pop song reaching number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. None of their follow-up music managed to find much success and the band actually disbanded a little over a year after their charting hit due to in-fighting amongst the members and poor management.
David Archuleta had seemed to be happy during his time pursuing a music career and getting a jump start by becoming runner-up during the seventh season of "American Idol" back in 2008. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his faith was very important to Archuleta, even putting his rising career as a pop singer on hold while he spent two years as a missionary. But he had also been keeping a secret that he had been struggling with for many years: he was gay. This created a problem for him with the Mormon Church when he finally came out in 2021, eventually feeling he had to leave it behind. Archuleta has continued with his music career, more recently with a desire to perform freely whatever kind of music that personally motivates him and he can have fun with. His latest single, "Crème Brulée" is exactly that, clearly inspired by Sabrina Carpenter's catchy hit, "Espresso" which he had performed live in concert. The music video for this playful song has Archuleta dancing with smooth choreography interchangeably locked with male and female dancers.
Here is a spotlight on some new music: Kendrick Lamar and SZA team up on the single, "Luther" from his album, "GNX" with the video as a short film; "Tonight", the latest from British pop artist, PinkPantheress that is a part of her upcoming mixtape; Lucy Dacus, member of the indie supergroup, Boygenius, has just released her fourth solo album, "Forever is a Feeling" and this is a single from the collection and Kesha is back with new music from her upcoming album, a country/hip-hop hybrid that features T-Pain.
It's not really a great surprise that the romantic relationship between actress/pop singer, Selena Gomez and producer/songwriter, benny blanco would lead to a musical connection between these two. Beginning their love affair a little over two years ago, although they first met working together on music for her second solo album, "Revival" in 2015, this couple, who are engaged, has just released their recent collaboration, "I Said I Love You First", an album filled with songs that focuses on the ending of one relationship and finally finding true love in a new one. Gomez, who stars in the popular series, "Only Murders in the Building" and recently co-starred in the provocative, Oscar-nominated big-screen musical, "Emilia Pérez" and blanco, the pop music creator who has probably worked at some point with every contemporary artist you may know, has brought on board Gracie Abrams, The Marías and J Balvin to appear on their project. Here are a few of my favorite tracks from the album:
"Used To Be Young" is the latest single from Miley Cyrus. This is a bonus track on the reissued digital copy of her album, "Endless Summer Vacation" and first premiered on her recently updated documentary concert special, "Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions)". The introspective ballad (co-written by Cyrus with Gregory Aldae Hein and co-producer, Michael Pollack) addresses her wild behavior in the past, summing it up to her simply being young. The music video for the song is uncluttered and direct with Cyrus going through a flood of emotions while performing the song.
It has been ten years since Ariana Grande's debut studio album, "Yours Truly" that helped turn this teen actress into a pop music icon. Now a re-issue of the album has been released and this 10th anniversary edition features the original twelve tracks and new versions of six songs, recorded live at the Soho House in London. There is also a Spanglish take of Grande's breakout single, "The Way" with the late Mac Miller.
After briefly deciding to step away from music following the disappointing reception of her 2021 third album, "The End of an Era", Iggy Azalea has made a comeback with a new single. "Money Come", produced by Tricky Stewart and features a sample of K7’s "Come Baby Come", has the Aussie rapper's distinctive style and swagger back in action. The video for the song has Azalea acting as a CEO, going through an office building filled with men and transforming them into powerful women. She has also surprisingly teamed up with OnlyFans to help her in promoting the upcoming fourth album.
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