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Day in Pop Report for 07/01/2015



Freddie Mercury Laughs at Kanye West's Queen Cover In Viral Video

(Radio.com) Kanye West may have declared himself the "greatest living rock star on the planet" at Glastonbury over the weekend, but from the looks of this clip, Freddie Mercury doesn't seem to agree.

During his headlining set, West took on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," with some saying he totally nailed it and others making it clear there is only one version of that song, always and forever.

Now, a very loyal Queen fan--or, someone who just doesn't like Kanye, and since a lot of people signed that petition to get him off the Glastonbury bill, this may be more likely--had taken the time to edit together footage of 'Ye's performance with classic footage of Mercury, who passed away in 1991.

In the less than one-minute clip, Mercury throws back a beer and gets a good chuckle at Kanye as he pours his heart and soul out on lines like, "Mama, I just killed a man."

Mercury isn't having it though, and through the magic of editing, Kanye is left looking sad and let down as Mercury begins to sing. Kind of like that time he went zip lining or ate Chinese food all alone. See it here.

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Katy Perry Vs Nuns Over Former Convent

(Radio.com) Katy Perry has some opposition in the way of some nuns from the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who don't want Perry to buy a former convent located on a hilltop in Los Feliz, California.

According to the CBS L.A., the nuns are locked in a land dispute with the Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez and Perry, who is looking to buy the former convent, worth millions of dollars.

Perry has been in talks with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to pay $10 million for the property. The problem is the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have already struck up a deal with local restaurateur Dana Hollister to take over the convent. Now, the archdiocese has filed a lawsuit asking to block the nun's sale of the property.

In a statement the archdiocese wrote, 'Unfortunately, the archdiocese had to take civil action to protect against the unauthorized action by Ms. Hollister, which was undertaken after the preferred transaction had been accepted with the Sisters." Read more here.

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Apple Music Streaming Service Now Online

(Radio.com) Heads up, streaming music fans: You can now download Apple Music. The service is included as part of iOS 8.4, and is available starting Tuesday (June 30) for iPhone and iPad users.

The big question on everyone's minds, of course, is: what exactly does it give you? For $9.99 a month, Apple Music allows you to listen to streaming music from its entire database of 30 million tracks. And right now Apple is offering a one-month free trial of the new service.

Apple Music also provides a tailored content recommendation system called For You, as well as a platform for artists to host radio shows called Connect. As CNET notes, Apple Music is not a standalone product in the App Store.

Instead, in order to get it, you need to update your device to iOS 8.4. "This can be done by going to Settings, followed by General, selecting Software Update, and clicking on the Download and Install button." Then "click on the white Music icon on your home screen," which leads you to the option to start your free one-month trial. Read more here.

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Carrie Underwood Raps In Wiz Khalifa's 'See You Again' Cover

(Radio.com) Carrie Underwood is no stranger to hip-hop. Weeks after she showed off her skills by rapping the theme to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air backstage at the CMT Awards, the country singer demonstrated that rapping wasn't just a one time thing for her.

This past Sunday (June 28), Underwood performed on closing night of the Big Barrel Country Music Festival in Dover, Del. and showcased her rap skills on the mic with a cover of Wiz Khalifa. But not just any cover: While performing her own 2013 hit "See You Again," Underwood segued into an impressive cover of Khalifa's recent No. 1 hit "See You Again," from the Furious 7 soundtrack.

On the song, she not only rapped Khalifa's part but also sang Charlie Puth's feature on the chorus before taking it back to her familiar song. Watch a clip from the performance here.

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Taylor Swift Expands 1989 World Tour

(Gibson) Taylor Swift is set to bring her 1989 World Tour to fans in Asia this November. She'll play two dates each in Singapore and China in support of her fourth consecutive #1 album.

In addition to the North American and European legs of the tour, which last all the way through December 2015, Swift has also announced four concerts for her Asian fans.

She'll play two dates in Singapore - on the 7th and 8th of November - followed by two back to back shows in Shanghai, China on the 10th and 11th of November. Read more here.

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Avicii and Zac Brown Band Reveal New Song 'Broken Arrows'

(Radio.com) Ever since canceling all tour dates indefinitely last year, things have been relatively quiet on the Avicii front. The Swedish producer is reportedly hard at work on his sophomore album, Stories, and finally returned to the spotlight with the release of "Waiting for Love" last month.

"Broken Arrows" features Zac Brown of Zac Brown Band on vocals, with Avicii himself providing an introduction that hypes Brown's "incredible" voice while debuting the tune on his podcast, "Le7els."

As for the song, Brown's voice carries the melody, with the DJ adding a steady stream of builds and drops to the fold. Maybe best is the hand-clap percussion that eases in for the song's bridge, creating a more dramatic moment when the chorus kicks in.

Listen to the song here.

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Kendrick Lamar Takes Flight In 'Alright' Video

(Radio.com) Fresh off a show-stopping performance of "Alright" on the BET Awards, Kendrick Lamar has rekeased an equally impressive music video for the To Pimp a Butterfly standout.

The clip, directed by Colin Tilley and The Little Homies, begins with the gut-wrenching screams from Lamar and the Butterfly poem that does not precede "Alright" on the album. Black and white imagery juxtaposing beauty (the Golden Gate Bridge, sun shining through trees) and ugliness (alcohol abuse, riots, police violence) characterizes the beginning of the video, until the song's message kicks in, when an image of Lamar driving around his friends (Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock) in a car carried by police officers takes the clip in a different direction.

Lamar later floats around the urban landscape while proclaiming that "we're going to be alright." Despite some of the horrors depicted on the screen, and Lamar's eventual falling to the ground after a white police officer targets him, the lasting feeling from the clip is uplifting (pun intended) when Lamar flashes his smile as the closing visual. Watch it here.

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Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Reportedly Still Living Together

(Extra) Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are divorcing, one day after their 10th wedding anniversary. The couple announced the breakup on Tuesday, in a statement Ben and Jen telling "Extra," "After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce.

"We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children whose privacy we ask to be respected during this difficult time."

Sources telling "Extra" the couple is seriously committed to co-parenting, so much so that Ben is actually still living in the family home and will continue to for now.

Sources saying Garner and Affleck worked at their marriage for a long time and were in therapy for years, relaying that this is not a huge divorce and will be handled via mediation, explaining, this is about two people who love each other and have mutual admiration for one another. Read more here.

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Lee Brice Releases 'That Don't Sound Like You' Video

(Radio.com) Lee Brice often wears his heart on his sleeve, and his new single "That Don't Sound Like You" is no exception. The video for the song premiered Tuesday (June 30) on CMT, and it shows Brice pensive as he remembers an old flame who has changed who she is because of the new relationship she's in.

In the opening clip, we see Brice watching the waves at a beach in Virginia as the video flashes back to a woman smiling on the boardwalk. Throughout the video she's enjoying life by surfing, biking, and riding on all the carnival rides near the beach.

However, things have changed since she got in a new relationship, and Brice recalls a time when she was happy. To him, she always sounded like "truck tires on a gravel road, laughing at the world, blasting my radio, cannon balls splashing in the water, doing whatever you wanna whenever you wanna."

The video for "That Don't Sound Like You" was directed by Ryan Smith, who also produced Brice's last two videos. It was filmed outside of Virginia Beach. Read more here.

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Mumford & Sons Release 'The Wolf' Video

(Radio.com) Maybe not expected from the often serious musicians, Mumford & Sons showed their wild side two weeks ago during their stint at Bonnaroo. Director Marcus Haney's team of cameras followed the band for two days while the foursome went relatively unrecognized as Robinhood, a chicken, a wolf and a blushing bride.

Funny enough, the cameras didn't seem to give away the identity of the band, even when the group went hurtling down a giant inflatable children's slide.

As the sun set, the cameras followed the group onto their tour bus and watched as they ditched the costumes and geared up to headline the sold out festival.

Spend 48 hours with Mumford & Sons as they live through Bonnaroo by watching the new video here.

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'Back to the Future' Remake Idea Outrages Robert Zemeckis

(Radio.com) If you want to remake Back To The Future you're going to have to kill Robert Zemeckis, seriously. The director of the classic trilogy told the Telegraph that he won't let anyone remake the films while he's alive. He hopes it won't happen after he dies, either.

'Oh, God no," the 63-year-old director said when asked if he'd ever allow a remake. 'That can't happen until both Bob and I are dead. And then I'm sure they'll do it, unless there's a way our estates can stop it.

"I mean, to me, that's outrageous. Especially since it's a good movie. It's like saying 'Let's remake Citizen Kane. Who are we going to get to play Kane?' What folly, what insanity is that? Why would anyone do that?"

The contracts that Zemeckis and his co-writer Bob Gale signed with the studio mean they have final say on rights to the film until they die. Read more here.

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'BoJack Horseman' Season 2 Trailer Released

(Radio.com) Can BoJack hold it together and become a better Horseman? That's the question hovering at the beginning of season 2 of the Netflix not-for-kids animated series.

Will Arnett is the voice of BoJack, a 1990s TV star who, as we met him in the first season, was basically a washed up boozehound with a crazy agent named Princess Caroline (Amy Sedaris) and a handful of loser friends, most notably Todd (Aaron Paul).

The series also features characters voiced by Alison Brie (BoJack's love interest), Paul F. Tompkins (his rival Mr. Peanutbutter) and Lisa Kudrow. If you haven't seen the first season, go watch it now--it's clever, smarter than you might think and tons of fun.

If you have seen it, you'll remember (warning: spoilers) that when we left off, BoJack had just landed the lead role in a biopic about his idol Secretariat. That's where Season 2 picks up. And if the bits in the trailer are any indication, he's not having an easy time breaking old habits. Watch the trailer here.

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Julia Roberts Goes Vigilante in 'Secret in Their Eyes' Trailer

(Radio.com) The first trailer for Secret in Their Eyes has been released and it features Julia Roberts as we've never seen her before. The actress plays Jess, a member of an FBI team along with her partner Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and their District Attorney supervisor Claire (Nicole Kidman), whose daughter is killed violently but they are forced to release the man they suspect did it.

The trailer shows Jess and Ray finding her daughter's body in a dumpster, capturing her soul-breaking emotional reaction. "It was just one of those scenes. You knew it was part of the reason she was doing the movie and yet it was something she was really dreading," writer/director Billy Ray told Yahoo! Movies. "She was going to have to go to a place that was going to be very painful."

13 years later, Ray finds a lead he thinks can send the killer to jail but Claire is hesitant to follow it and Jess only wants vengeance, in or outside the law. The film is in theaters on Oct. 23. Watch the trailer here.

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Joe Manganiello Is A Proud Backstreet Boys Fan

(Radio.com) In Magic Mike XXL we get to know Big Dick Richie a little better and find out he's a closeted Backstreet Boys fan. But in real life, actor Joe Manganiello is out and proud with his BSB love.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Manganiello admits that men can't deny the power of the boy band's hit, "I Want It That Way." Though, as Manganiello makes clear, BSB are really a "five-part harmony group," not a boy band.

'I'm kind of obsessed with the idea that no matter how tough you think you are as a man, 'I Want It That Way' comes on the radio and you roll that window up and sing at the top of your lungs," Manganiello said laughing. 'You're the sixth member of the group, harmonizing."

In the Magic Mike sequel, hitting theaters today (July 1), Manganiello gets to show off his choreographed moves in a drug-fueled sequence that has him dancing to "I Want It That Way" in a convenience store. And yes, we imagine it's as amazing as it sounds. Read more here.

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Terminator 2 Trailer Given A Makeover By Children

(Radio.com) For relevance sake, it is appropriate to mention that Terminator 2 was released 24 years ago this week. And, while we're at it, let's mention that the latest Terminator film, Terminator Genisys, was released last week, with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the franchise after a relatively lengthy break for his role as Governor of California.

But in reality, no reason is needed to enjoy a humorous take on the Terminator. The on-going series, Kids Lip Dub, turns the original trailer for the '91 classic Judgement Day into the cutest movie about impending nuclear destruction ever made. (via The AV Club)

As adorable as the kids lisping their way through the speaking parts of the preview are, their inspired reenactments of the movie's sound effects, whether present or not, might surpass them. Sure, the kids can hear and recreate the explosions and gun fire, but their "beep boop beeps" for the computer typing or the "whoosh" for laser effects is a stroke of creative genius, making a film about time-traveling cyborgs as cuddly as possible.

Watch it here.

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Singled Out: WASI's Gets Me Everytime

Today Merilou "Cosmo" Salazar and Jessie Meehan from the riot pop group WASI tells us about the song "Gets Me Everytime" which comes from their brand new EP "Bleed Pop". Here is the story:

We wrote Gets Me Everytime to define the pressure we feel as artists trying to do our thing in a place that tells us what to do otherwise. The lyrics are basically anxiety driven with a stream of consciousness of two inner voices battling each other to be heard. The situations where people told us we're not good enough for this or that inspired this song.

When we first demo'd it, it came out completely different from what we were hoping to portray. We ended up scrapping the majority of it, picked up an acoustic guitar and started from the beginning with the melody. We were listening to a lot of Icona Pop at the time, so I think there's a huge influence of their melodies in there.

That super simple guitar riff you hear in the pre-chorus and outro became a pretty vital part of the song. That along with the verse melody are a couple of the parts we kept from it's original form after we started from scratch.

A recurring theme on this EP are self-defining and empowering moments that are driven by optimistic attitude on even the darkest points. Things always end up getting better, and even the hardest times just add to our character.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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