Free Republic

My latest song. Happy Halloween!

For the first time in more than three decades, not a single rap song ranks among the 40 most popular tracks in America. Last week's Billboard Hot 100 marked the end of a remarkable 35-year streak, after Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "Luther" - a 13-week No. 1 hit - dropped off the chart. With that departure, the genre that once dominated the nation's listening habits found itself completely absent from the chart's upper tier. Not since February 1990 has the Billboard Hot 100 gone without a rap entry in its upper ranks. The gap has been widened by Taylor Swift's...

LOS ANGELES -- The city of Pasadena, California, and the Rose Bowl Operating Company have sued UCLA for allegedly trying to move its college football games from one of the sport's most iconic stadiums to the much newer SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The 200-page lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday and obtained by ESPN, accuses UCLA of "profoundly" betraying trust by attempting to relocate its home games from the facility the Bruins have called home for 43 years to the home of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. "The City expects UCLA will...

She wore the metallic, see-through design by Christian Cowan to Variety’s Power of Women event.

"I figured I’d see what all the hype was about"Mangione, who was arrested in December for allegedly shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a Manhattan hotel, has turned into somewhat of a cultural phenomenon over the last year, earning himself a large base of fans, some campaigning for his freedom, while others praise his looks. The suspect has spent the last 10 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he awaits charges for second-degree murder. He turned 27 in May, and now, a letter that he wrote to an undisclosed recipient reflecting on his birthday...

If you are strongly opposed to the NFL choosing Bad Bunny to perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show, you are not alone. However, if you approve of Bad Bunny or don’t care, you’re also not alone. That seems to be the main takeaway from a recent Quinnipiac poll, which shows that 48 percent of respondents approve of the selection of the Puerto Rican rapper for this year’s halftime entertainment. In comparison, 29 percent disapprove and 24 percent have no opinion. The numbers break down along party lines. “Democrats (74 – 10 percent) and independents (52 – 22 percent) approve of...

Here’s to the lads in Westminster, may they drink their Guinness through a straw! 0:05 Hurrah! To the wise men of Ottawa, Canberra, and 0:09 Paris — may they choke on their virtue-signalling! Hurrah! 0:14 And to the clowns in Madrid, Ankara, and Dublin — may their speeches sink in the swamp of their 0:21 own lies! Hurrah! .....

ack DeJohnette, the jazz drummer celebrated as one of the genre’s true greats – who worked with stars including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Charles Lloyd – has died aged 83. A press representative for ECM, the record label that released many of his recordings, confirmed the news, while his personal assistant added that he died from congestive heart failure.

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau took their romance public Saturday night ... the lovebirds went out on a date in Paris, France, to celebrate Katy's 41st birthday. For their first official outing, Katy and Justin took in a cabaret show at the Crazy Horse Paris, where the paparazzi waited in anticipation for them out front. TMZ obtained exclusive video of what happened next ... After the show, the couple walked out of the theater hand-in-hand, and a fan gave Katy a rose and wished her happy birthday. The two then walked to a waiting vehicle as the shutterbugs snapped photos...

Exactly two hundred years ago, on October 25th, 1825, Johann Strauss II, also known as the Waltz King, was born in Vienna. Waltz King or even Emperor: he truly deserves this title, as he is one of those very rare classical composers—like Mozart or Beethoven, but who else? –whose music almost everyone has heard at least a few bars of, even if they can’t always identify it. We owe him such immortal waltz masterpieces as The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods, and Viennese Blood, which are still universally known today as embodying the Viennese way of life throughout...

The Hollywood writer’s union is raising the alarm over the possible merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, saying that such a merger would be a “disaster,” but President Donald Trump says he is all for the plan. On Thursday, the Writers Guild of America put out a statement warning about the proposed merger, according to The Wrap. “Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth. Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a...

A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained out of view for more than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about $37 million), including fees. Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso’s partner and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the...

My latest song. Groovy!

Not content with dominating the music scene, Taylor Swift is apparently now taking on the art world, with hundreds of her fans making the pilgrimage to a German museum to catch a glimpse of a certain painting. Earlier this month, the Grammy winner released the music video for her latest single The Fate Of Ophelia, the opening shot of which seems to have been inspired by artist Friedrich Heyser’s painting depicting the iconic Shakespearean character. Heyser’s painting now lives in Museum Wiesbaden in Germany, and dedicated Swifties have been paying it a visit in their droves much to the surprise...

The Walt Disney company has suffered some of its worst popularity numbers since 2020, according to a new report on Internet search results. The results are seen in Google’s Trends analysis which calculates the number of times a topic is searched and compares this year’s trends to previous totals. When applied to major theme parks — of which Disney’s various attractions are a huge part — the numbers show that more than half of the Mouse House’s parks have seen a fall in popularity of Internet searches. The trends were highlighted by Forbes magazine, which noted that an Internet search...

Synth-pop musician Dave Ball, who was one half of the popular 1980s band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66. The electronic musician, who, along with bandmate Marc Almond scored a UK number one with Tainted Love, died on Wednesday, just days after completing a new Soft Cell album. Almond, 68, described him as a "wonderfully brilliant musical genius".

'And I was totally embarrassed. And for years, I would almost disguise myself before going into the psychiatrist's office that had my baseball hat on and my glasses and I'm looking around and I'm sneaking in as fast as I can. 'Yeah, and just because, you know, I was grown up to believe that it was embarrassing to ask for that kind of help and need that kind of help. 'And it took me years to get used to just feeling fine and confident about walking into the office. It was so forbidden in the world that I grew up...

As country music grew in popularity in America throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the roots of the genre also took hold in an unlikely place: Japan.A detail from the 1971 album of The Bluegrass 45, a legendary bluegrass band from Kobe, Japan. Rebel RecordsDuring World War II, the Armed Forces Radio Service provided entertainment for American troops stationed in Japan. But in the days after the war ended in 1945, the United States established a more permanent, far-reaching band of stations for its servicemembers remaining on bases in the rebuilding country. Until it was disbanded in 1997, this was known...

Kiss rocker Gene Simmons called out Jewish Hollywood celebrities pushing “incendiary” anti-Israel propaganda. “They don’t understand, they’re just idiots,” the “I Love It Loud” singer said. “Hey guys, my name is Haim, born in Haifa,” Simmons said in Hebrew, before switching to English, adding, “I’m one of you guys, so don’t worry about all the Jewish morons who are running around saying all kinds of incendiary things. They don’t understand, they’re just idiots.” “If they spent a day with you, and saw — well, imagine this, you live in Beverly Hills and 35,000 rockets come in that week from Pasadena,...

Key Points Warner Bros. Discovery said it is open to a sale as it expands its strategic review. The company had planned to split into two separate entities and is not abandoning those plans. WBD said it’s received “unsolicited interest” from multiple parties. =============================================================== Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday it’s expanding its strategic review of the business and is open to a sale, sending shares of the company 8% higher in premarket trading. Earlier this year, WBD announced plans to split into two separate entities, a streaming and studios business and a global networks business. It’s also been fielding takeout...