Category: news

NME

BTS‘ ‘Butter‘ has surpassed Olivia Rodrigo‘s eight-week run at the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 singles chart.

• READ MORE: BTS’ ‘Permission To Dance’ cements their status as kings of the feel-good summer smash

The K-pop group’s second English language single, which was released in May, has now reached nine consecutive weeks in the Number One spot, beating Rodrigo’s previous US record so far in 2021 for ‘Drivers License‘.

According to Billboard today (August 2), ‘Butter’ holds the top spot with 30.5million radio airplay audience impressions, 8.1million US streams and 112,900 downloads sold.

Rodrigo, meanwhile, has seen huge success with her debut single and album, ‘Sour‘, the latter of which topped the US album chart with the biggest first-week figures of the year.

In June, the singer and actress made history in the UK’s Official Singles Chart by becoming the first female artist to have three singles in the top five slots of the singles chart in the same week.

In other news, Jimin of BTS has opened up about his feelings towards the group’s success and popularity.

Over the past year the K-pop juggernauts have released three English-language hits – ‘Dynamite’, ‘Butter’ and ‘Permission To Dance’ – all of which have reached Number One on the Billboard 100.

In a recent interview with Weverse Magazine Jimin spoke about his views this success and how it has affected him.

“At some point, it stopped feeling real,” said the 25-year-old singer, who went on to express his gratitude for how fans have continued to support them. “The reactions from fans, the cover videos they uploaded and the dance challenges they did – I’m just so thankful for that. It lit up my life,” said Jimin.

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Lizzo has announced that she will return with a comeback single next week.

• READ MORE: The Big Read – Lizzo: “If I feel worthy, then everyone gonna want to eat my pussy”

The singer will release her first new music in two years on August 13 with new single ‘Rumors’.

The track will be the singer’s first new music since the release of her 2019 album ‘Cuz I Love You’.

Few details have been made available about ‘Rumors’ so far but fans can pre-save the single on streaming services here. See its artwork below.

Earlier this week, Lizzo revealed that she’s been in the studio with Mark Ronson, though it’s not clear yet whether the producer worked on ‘Rumors’.

Elsewhere, Lizzo has urged fans to remain six feet away from her until coronavirus cases in the US decrease significantly. “This shit is coming back. COVID,” she said. “And people being real sloppy with personal space.”

She added: “It’s not you! It’s me. I’m not trying to catch nothing. I don’t even want to catch feelings, bitch. You think I’m trying to catch COVID?”

Lizzo also recently responded to a bizarre rumour that she killed a fan while stagediving. The pop star shared her thoughts on the rumour in a TikTok posted last week (July 28), saying: “I’ve seen a lot of annoying things about me on the internet, but the thing that bothers me the most is this rumour that I stage-dived at a concert and killed somebody.

“It’s a lie, first of all. I’ve never stage dived in my life, and bitch… How? Like, killed somebody!? Y’all really going to put that on my motherfucking name? Like, I know I’m big, but bitch, I’m not that fucking big.”

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A number of white fibreglass elephant statues have been removed from an Oscars venue, rejecting the legacy of D.W. Griffith.

• READ MORE: How to watch all of this year’s Oscars films in the UK

The Los Angeles Times reports that the new owners of the Hollywood & Highland shopping centre are removing the statues and “all of the faux Mesopotamian elements” as part of a new makeover.

The elephant statues were used on the set of the 1916 film Intolerance, directed by D.W. Griffith, which followed his 1915 film The Birth Of A Nation that was condemned by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Chad Cress, chief creative officer for centre co-owners DJM, told the Times in a statement regarding the renovation: “This is a real opportunity to move away from the clichés of Hollywood, red velvet ropes and big studios.

“The Hollywood of the future really needs to stand for something that is more inclusive of what our culture looks like today.”

He added: “We want to celebrate the fact that we are all creatives.”

Architect and head of redesign David Glover of Gensler told Deadline that the centre needs to “pivot and transform away from being a hub of transaction to a hub of culture”.

The renovation will be completed by next summer and will rename the Hollywood & Highland centre to Ovation Hollywood.

Design plans will give the centre a new colour scheme, modernised outdoor space, new landscaping and a simpler outdoor facade to attract a younger audience and move away from relics of Griffith’s films.

In other Oscars news, Samuel L. Jackson is set to receive an honorary Oscar at the 2022 ceremony. Elaine May and Liv Ullmann will also be presented with awards, while the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will go to Danny Glover.

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Ubisoft and Bungie have teamed up to take a subscription-based cheat company to court, saying they’ve cost them “millions of dollars”

• READ MORE: The unstoppable rise of the UK’s favourite homegrown ‘Call Of Duty: Warzone player, Jukeyz

Company Ring-1 currently sells bundles of hacks for online first person shooters like Destiny 2 and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.

As reported by PC Gamer, these cheats include aimbots, a hardware ID spoofer to avoid bans, special tools to show the health and distance of other players as well as the option to alter weapon spread and recoil.

They offer similar cheat bundles for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Escape from Tarkov, Apex Legends and many more, with over 13,000 people using their message boards. Their website promises weekly updates and new features while promising “the best security possible, giving us an upper hand against the Anti-Cheat.”

Last month though, Bungie and Ubisoft filed a lawsuit against Ring-1 in the California state district “in order to put an immediate stop to the unlawful, for-profit sale and distribution of malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages.”

Apparently the products Ring-1 sells, “impair and destroy not only the game experience, but also Plaintiffs’ overall businesses and their reputation among their respective player communities.”

The company is apparently “engaged in the development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular multiplayer games”

According to the lawsuit, the actions of Ring-1 have cost Ubisoft and Bungie damage that “may amount to millions of dollars.”

In other news, Escape From Tarkov developers Battlestate Games has added a host of changes to the game, including cheaper stash upgrades for standard edition players and new barter trades for Jaeger. This change likely follows feedback that the standard edition stash size doesn’t offer enough space.

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Charli XCX has revealed that she will release a new song in September called ‘Good Ones’.

• READ MORE: The Big Read – Charli XCX: “People think I’m this person who parties every single day  – but I’m a business woman”

The artist, who in her announcement said it was a birthday present to herself today (August 2) confirmed that it will arrive on September 2. Fans can pre-save it now on streaming platforms.

‘Good Ones’ will be Charli’s first new music since ‘How I’m Feeling Now‘, an album she wrote, recorded and released last year over a six-week period during a coronavirus lockdown.

The soloist announced her new single via Twitter, writing that fans should “get ready to surrender”. Her message came with what appears to be the single’s artwork, which shows Charli posing in an ’80s get-up.

Earlier this year the singer joked that she has a new “mainstream” album coming out soon.

The comment came after she was an answer on TV gameshow The Chase but the contestant incorrectly guessed her name as “Charli SFX”.

In an interview earlier in 2021 Charli also said she’s thinking about revisiting unfinished music she made before the coronavirus pandemic.

She told Insider that she’s started to consider returning to the music she started pre-lockdown. “I’m sort of beginning to think about that again. There are thoughts that I’m having, and a direction that I’m taking.”

Meanwhile, Charli is set to play next year’s Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona alongside Tame Impala, The Strokes and Lorde.

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