Rare Round-Up: Entertainment News of the Week (09/02/2024)

Following on from last week, music is dominant this week with the Grammy Awards airing last Sunday. Whilst we may be a little late to write about it in a blog-style format, our Facebook community have certainly been very vocal about one particular incident from Sunday night. Whilst it’s not quite “Keep my wife’s name out your fudging mouth” levels of TV fun, it has certainly stirred up some conversation!

Before we get to that though, let’s take a look at the winners and milestones reached on the year’s biggest night for music: The artist who raked in the most awards was Phoebe Bridgers with four, three as a member of the rock trio boygenius. SZA (whom Bridgers won Best Pop Duo alongside for their song ‘Ghost in the Machine’) took home three awards as did rapper Killer Mike and newcomer Victoria Monét, who in addition to two others, picked up Best New Artist.

As for milestones, Taylor Swift became the first artist to win Album of the Year four times, this time for Midnights and previously for Fearless (2010), 1989 (2016) and Folklore (2021). Miley Cyrus won her very first Grammy, and then another, namely Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for her song ‘Flowers.’ In her acceptance speech, she said “I hope this doesn’t change anything, because my life was beautiful yesterday” and that “not everyone in the world will get a Grammy, but everyone in this world is spectacular.”

Such words were clearly not in the mind of a certain Jay Z and perhaps by extension, his wife Beyonce. The difference here though is that Beyonce does have a Grammy- in fact, she has 32- the most out of any artist in history. Her husband also sits in the top 10 most awarded artists. And yet, circling back to that “one particular incident”, Mr Z used the time he had on stage accepting his own Global Impact Award to comment on the fact that Queen Bey had never won Album of the Year. To be specific, what he said was “We want y’all to get it right — at least get it close to right” and continued “[Beyonce] has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”

Now, there is of course long-running conversation surrounding the Grammy’s alleged exclusion of black artists, and what Jay Z said perhaps addresses a much bigger issue, but people on social media were quick to point out what many described as “entitled behaviour.” Some even pointing out the production of the album itself, with one commenter stating Every song has 30 writers all writing over samples of other people’s songs. None of it was original.”

Whether or not you agree with what Jay Z expressed, it, for better or for worse, seems to be the most talked about part of the event. So we’ll leave you with that very question: Do you agree?

Moving onto new music, this New Music Friday sees new releases by Zara Larson, with her fourth studio album titled Venus. Larson described it as a "collection of really good music", ranging from ballads to "dancey" tracks.” British grime icon Dizzee Rascal is back with Don’t Take It Personal, his eighth studio album, led by the single ‘How Did I Get So Calm?’ Noah Kahan returns with his second album Stick Season, showcasing his conviction for storytelling and a pursuit of a more organic sound that aligned with the folk music of his upbringing. Chelsea Wolfe with She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, her seventh studio album. Known for her goth rock sound, her latest has been described as being "closer to trip hop and industrial than traditional rock." Usher, who will lead this weekend's Superbowl Halftime show, which he described as the “honor of a lifetime”, returns with Coming Home- his first solo album in eight years- with the last being 2016s Hard II Love.

Also, in classic “Barbenheimer” fashion, both the Barbie and Oppenheimer soundtracks are out today. Granted, the Barbie album has been released previously but just like with the Oscars, this is Ken’s moment. This edition of the album is titled Ken: The album and comes on a pink and blue splatter vinyl. There’s many more out today that would need a whole blog or two just by itself, so we’d both be better off if you just browsed them all here.

Leading filmic news this week came on Wednesday when Francis Ford Coppola- the man behind The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, shared the first teaser image of his upcoming sci-fi epic titled Megalopolis. The film features an ensemble Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Nathalie Emmanuel and Lawrence Fishburne. Coppola shared the title card on his Instagram, showing a gloomy dystopian city setting. The film is aimed for release this year.

New to home media this week is 2007 French home-invasion horror Inside by filmmaking duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. It follows a pregnant woman as she is pursued in her home by a mysterious stranger who wants to take her unborn baby. In a stunning release by Second Sight, the new limited edition Blu-ray set includes new audio commentary, interviews, new artwork, a 70-page book, and 6 art cards!

What are you most excited about this week?