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Bunny Zou defends surrogacy decision – Music News

Jelly Roll's wife, Bunny Zou, defended the couple's plans to pursue surrogacy.

Responding to a comment on Facebook that Bunny had chosen surrogacy over pregnancy to avoid physical changes, the singer's wife replied: “This is so awful.”

“Be careful what you say to people on the internet. You haven't been in their shoes, you haven't fought their battles and you know nothing about the journey we've been through.”

In fact, Bunny, who is in her 40s, revealed that she is scared of getting pregnant because of her age and medical history.

“I'm scared because I've had two ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages and I don't want to go through that again at my age,” she says.

In a clip she shared from the latest episode of her podcast, Dumb Blonde, Bunny also spoke about her concerns about how pregnancy would affect her mental health, highlighting how it's taken her years to get her anxiety and depression under control.

Bunny met Jelly Roll when he went to his concert in Las Vegas in 2015.

She and the “I Am Not OK” singer began a lengthy IVF process in 2019 but hadn't spoken publicly about the process until last month.

She admitted that while fan response has been overwhelmingly supportive, the negative comments have hurt.

“I want to keep it a secret from now on,” she said. “I just want it to be just between us, so the only time I'll talk about IVF or the baby is after the baby is born.”

Bunny further explained, “I want twin boys. I'm not sure. Maybe one, maybe two. I'm not sure what I'll do yet.”

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AJ Tracey promises to release 'funky' new album exploring 'what it means to be British' by the end of the year – Music News

AJ Tracey joined Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie.

Appearing on Capital Xtra this morning with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie, AJ Tracey teased details about his upcoming untitled album, promising a funky new album by the end of the year. The London-based rapper also opened up about taking a year off Instagram to work on his mental health, and offered his views on England's chances ahead of this weekend's Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland.

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AJ Tracey – AJT
Robert Bruce – RB
Shayna Marie – SM

AJ Tracey promises to release a “funky” new album by the end of the year that explores “what it means to be British”.

SM: “I've heard talk of an album floating around, AJ Tracey, is this true?”

AJT: “Yes, yes. 100%. The album will be out by the end of the year. I was a bit hesitant to say that before because it wasn't finished, but now it's basically finished.”

SM: “What can we expect from the album?”

AJT: “Features are great, but I'll say it's not all about the features. Actually, this is about me. No, the featurers are amazing. They were awesome. But, you know, the majority of the work is me. There are a few featurers, but I handpicked them. I didn't just pick the best people in my buddies. I just picked the people that sound good on the record. So it's about the sound, you know? At the end of the day, I'm not criticizing anybody else, but features are important, you know? But I think it's important to have a consistency in the sound so that when people hear it, they think, 'These guys had fun making a record.' I mean, there's a meaning behind it. It's not like, 'They're both great, but they're just…' You know? It clashed. I can tell you the theme. The theme is about being British – my British experience, what it means to be British. I listened to funky music as a kid, so this rhythm is kind of a funky reference. Obviously grime, dancehall and whatever my influences are as a black British guy, that's what the album will sound like.”

AJ Tracey explains why she took a year-long break from Instagram to focus on her mental health and personal development

RB: “That's amazing. Everything you represent. What kind of journey have you been on over the last few years, or since your last album?”

AJT: “Life is good, you know? My mom is super happy, doing well, smiling, I have my own backyard now and all that stuff. Going to see my cats is just another little aspect of my life. Outside of music, like you, I've got a lot of business going on, like what we have to do. But money aside, my mental state is better than it's ever been. I kind of took a break from Instagram. I think it was around 2019, I can't remember exactly, but I deleted it for like a year. There was just too much pressure being an artist and it was building up. Where you come from and where I come from, obviously, it's kind of drilled into your head to be this type of person and to always be on your guard. You know? Not to trust people, not to go out and experience new things, or, 'I shouldn't be there,' or, 'I don't belong there,' you know what I mean? I had to unlearn a lot of things that I learned before. So I took a little bit of a break and worked on my mental health. And, yeah, I feel good. I feel a lot more mature. Of course, I'm 30 now, so it's a new chapter for me. I had to be like, 'I can't act like a kid anymore.'”

SM: “I'm on the third floor now.”

AJT: “Exactly. No, I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna be honest. But it's important. You have to evolve as a person and as an artist and your music will grow with that, because as you go through it, you'll be able to talk about it. You know what I'm saying? I say it in every interview so I think you all know, but Skepta is my favorite rapper. When I listen to his music, I'm always growing through music. So that inspires me to keep improving and pushing myself. So we're working on it.”

Rapper AJ Tracey believes Gareth Southgate is not the man to take England forward because he is playing defensive football with “the best attacking players in the world”.

RB: “What are your thoughts on England and the Euros and the quarter-finals? Can you give us a quick rundown?”

AJT: “Amazing, amazing, amazing. I have a lot of friends who play football so I'll be rooting for them. I'll be rooting for England. I hope we win.”

RB: “Haha! That's a political answer.”

AJT: “No, no, no. What I'm going to say is this. Honestly, as a fan, I wish we could play better football. But as a Tottenham fan, if they told me we could play bad football and still win, I'd say, 'All right, come on. Let's do it.' At the end of the day, it's the same as tournament football. They're playing differently. They're playing to win. And playing to win isn't always pretty. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you get a little fight out there and you have to kick somebody you shouldn't kick. You've got to win. You know what I'm saying? That's the reality. But I wish we could beat Switzerland. I don't think we can. That's my honest opinion. That's my honest opinion. Because a lot of them, like… Our team might be the best team on paper, but their team has heart. You know the Turkish team? But they have passion. It's like, they're fighting fire. You know what I'm saying? So, I don't know.” All our players are super-high-paid, celebrities, jumping out of Ferraris.”

RB: “They don't know hard work. We need to get back to hard work!”

AJT: “They may know the struggle, but you know what I'm saying? They're all Premier League players, Real Madrid players. You know what I'm saying? Some of the Turkish teams are like, 'This is our shop. This is our job.' So I don't know. It's different to fight for their job. You know what I'm saying? But I hope we win. I'm on their side. We need someone to shake up the team a little bit. I just, with all due respect, I don't think Southgate is the right manager. And we need someone who's going to play. We have the best attacking players in the whole tournament, but we're playing defensive football. It just… doesn't make sense.”

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Lana Del Rey names Quavo's “Tough” her favorite new song of the week

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Lana Del Rey and Quavo's “Tough” tops this week's new song poll.

Music fans picked the duo's just-released Western trap track as their favorite new song of the past week in a poll published in Billboard magazine on Friday (July 5).

Lana and Quavo's fresh collaboration garnered over 66% of the vote. This week voters chose “Tough” over new songs from Kesha, Childish Gambino, Eminem featuring Big Sean & Babytron, Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan.

Lana Del Rey invited the Migos rapper onstage for a surprise debut performance of “Tough” during her sold-out stadium show at Fenway Park on June 20 (which was postponed due to bad weather), after Migos had promoted the song in an Instagram video shortly before.

A little bit country, a little bit trap, and alt-pop, the Andrew Watt and Cirkut-produced song has a dreamy hook that you won't stop humming even after the song ends, with a chorus shared by the two: “Tough as a scarf on an old leather boot/Like a blue-collar, red-dirt attitude/Like a .38 made of brass/Tough as the stuff in your grandpa's glass/Life is life/Sure as God's up there/I'm tough as a diamond in the rough.”

“I'll show you around… Come take a drive with me. Anytime. Call me when you're ready,” Quavo tells Lana, and the song ends.

“Our new song dropped with the toughest rapper I know @quavohuncho,” Del Rey wrote in an Instagram post on the day of the release, while Quavo predicted in his own post that the track would be “Song Of The Summer.”

To coincide with the single's release this week, the home video-like music video for “Tough” was also released, showcasing the pair's chemistry as they spend a sweet and intimate day together in the countryside.

After “Tough” in this week's poll, the next top new song is Kesha's “Joyride” with 21% of the votes, followed by Childish Gambino's “Lithonia” with 5%.

See the final results of this week's new song poll below.

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Country music stars battling serious health issues

The country music world has been hit by tragedy this year, with at least 20 performers and celebrities losing their lives.

Want more country music news? Click here.

Several more stars have recently announced that they are battling serious health issues, but two of them, Mark Chestnut and Colt Ford, are fortunate to be surviving.

Here's a quick look at four country music stars who've been in the news recently for battling serious health issues.

Mark Chesnutt

Mark Chesnutt has had a tough few months, which is probably an understatement, as the country music star nearly lost his life in June.

The 60-year-old man was rushed to the emergency room and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, which sounds serious and is true, and will obviously take some time to recover.

Chestnut seems to be a tough guy and has already returned to social media to speak to his fans.

“Hey guys, the doctors told me I have a new heart implanted!” Chestnut wrote on Instagram earlier this week. “Recovering comfortably at home with my family. Sitting on the porch today enjoying the sun and beautiful Texas weather. But I can't wait to get back to playing guitar and singing with all my beloved fans! Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers. You all stepped up when I was in need and it meant so much. I'm so grateful for you all. See you soon!”

It was a welcome sign for the country star's fans, and it was incredible to see his positive energy so soon after such serious surgery.

The health scare comes just months after Chesnutt was forced to cancel two shows in November, with a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account at the time saying he was “admitted to a local hospital undergoing a medical examination.”

Chesnutt rose to stardom in the early '90s, releasing numerous albums and hit songs, including 20 that reached the top 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. Eight of those 20 songs, “Brother Jukebox,” “It Sure Is Monday,” “I'll Think of Something,” “I Just Wanted You to Know,” “Gonna Get a Life,” “Almost Goodbye,” “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing” and “It's a Little Too Late,” all reached No. 1 on the charts.

Colt Ford performs at the Kentucky State Fair on August 21, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Coltford

Colt Ford is feeling better and has been taking some time to reflect on the past few months of his life, and he's clearly emotional about how it's all unfolded.

Can you blame him? After all, he died twice after performing in Arizona in April, only to be resurrected each time.

Either way, Ford has started to appear more consistently on his Instagram account as we move into July, and it's clear he's feeling better.

“As I sit here tonight… I'm so grateful to be alive,” he said in the latest video posted to his account, “and so many of you have been praying for me. I hope that you all feel the love that you've given me all these years that I've been playing.”

“Thank you so much,” he added. “I love you guys.”

This comes after Ford provided an update in June.

“I did a little cardio rehab today,” the singer said in the video.

“Louis, what did you do?” he said, nodding to the dog who was sleeping with him on the sofa. “His tail is wagging. He walked from the bedroom to the sofa. Didn't you, Louis?”

Ford then spoke directly to fans.

“I love you guys,” he said. “I'm trying to get better every day. I'm trying to get back. I miss you guys. Have a great weekend and happy four-game series. I love you guys.”

It was a remarkable comeback for Ford, who collapsed and died twice after performing in Arizona in early April (though of course he was revived each time).

He called into Big D and Bubba's radio show later that month and revealed some of the details of what happened.

“It was a traumatic, crazy experience,” Ford told the hosts. “I didn't even remember coming here to play a show in Phoenix.”

Ford had just returned to his tour bus after performing at Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row bar when he texted his fiancée, “Hey, baby.”

“And then I fell down and died,” he said.

Ford said he was lucky when members of his band came to check on him and found him, and that country music star Brantley Gilbert rushed him to the hospital and ultimately arranged for him to be transferred to another hospital because the one they were in didn't have the proper equipment to treat Ford's heart condition.

“He said, 'I don't care what you do, just take him to another hospital,'” Ford said of Gilbert.

Ford said he died while being transported to another hospital.

“They brought me back,” he said. “They saved my life. The Lord gave me more to do.”

Ford said he actually died twice during the ordeal.

“This definitely happened on the third, but I didn't wake up until the 10th,” he said.

He added that one of the doctors told him he had less than a one percent chance of survival.

“He said, 'You have a 0.1 percent chance of surviving,'” Ford said.

“I suffered a lot of physical and mental trauma,” he said. “I had three stents put in my heart.”

Ford, who has worked closely with Toby Keith, Jamey Johnson and Jason Aldean, has also had his own health problems. Taste of Country magazine reported last year that he was battling the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis.

He was also reported to have had eye cancer and had to undergo surgery three years ago to treat it.

Ford, whose real name is Jason Faris Brown, is a former professional golfer. Since releasing his first album in 2008, he has released eight studio albums, with his latest, “Must Be Country,” due in 2023.

The Mavericks, with lead singer Raul Malo, headlined the 2024 Jazz Festival in downtown Syracuse. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)

Raul Malo

Raul Malo, frontman for the popular country music band The Mavericks, announced in late June that he was battling cancer.

Malo made the revelation in a video shared on the band's Instagram page.

The video begins with Malo thanking everyone for all the love and support he has shown throughout his career so far, especially this year with the release of his new album “Moon and Stars.”

“So I want to give you a little bit of personal news,” he said. “The last few years, being on tour, we've been really focusing on our health, taking care of ourselves a little bit, looking after ourselves a little bit, making sure we're doing all the right things really, nutrition-wise. So part of the health journey is checking yourself up. Go to the doctor, get a checkup and go from there.”

Malo, 58, said he did. “That led me to go back to the gastroenterologist and get a CAT scan,” he said, “and they found two spots of cancer.”

Malo said doctors have agreed to begin treatment after the Fourth of July.

“The reason I'm telling you all this, one of the reasons I'm telling you all this, is because as we get through this and we wait to see what the treatment is, it's possible that some of our shows this year will be affected,” he said.

Malo said doctors have told him his chemotherapy is one of the most manageable treatments they administer.

“And most people are continuing their work and daily activities as if nothing happened,” he said. “So let's pray for the best and hope that's the case.”

Malo said he feels he is “receiving the best care possible.”

“And we're going to do everything in our power to combat this,” he said, “but most importantly, I'm telling you this because I want you to get tested. Go see your doctor. Be proactive about your health. It's going to help you combat any disease.”

“Stay healthy,” he added. “Take care and see you on the road.”

You can see his post here.

Carly Pearce

Carly Pearce announced in late May that she had been diagnosed with a frightening heart condition called pericarditis.

The 34-year-old actress gave a bit more detail about the condition during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

“I thought I was going to die,” she told Clarkson. “I had this huge chest pain. I thought I was having a heart attack…I'm a runner and I was like, 'Oh, my heart is healthy,' and I don't know if that's true.”

She told Clarkson she was still “working through” dealing with the issue. She first announced her diagnosis in an Instagram video in late May.

“I have always been transparent and honest about every part of my life, so I feel it is appropriate to be just as honest this time,” she said. “As many of you know I have been experiencing health issues, which have caused me to develop a heart problem called pericarditis. I have been working with my doctors and speaking with cardiologists, but I still want to be on the road – that is really important to me – but we have all decided that it would be in my best interest to modify the show a little bit while I recover.”

“Right now we have to get our heart rate under control,” Pierce said.

“That doesn't mean it's not totally okay,” she said, “but it just means that we have to take this seriously right now. So if you want to come to the shows, if you want to take part in any of the amazing things that we have going on at Hummingbird, that's fantastic. But we just ask that you be a little bit lenient because things might look a little different.”

She also urged her fans and followers to everyone to value and listen to their bodies.

“I love you guys,” she concludes the video. “See you soon.”

Pericarditis is an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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Sabrina Carpenter breaks new record in UK charts – Music News

Sabrina Carpenter has made music history by breaking UK chart records and becoming the first person to achieve this feat.

The 25-year-old is currently topping the UK singles chart with her song “Please Please Please” at number one and catchy pop tune “Espresso” at number two.

The American star made history by topping the charts and spending three weeks at number one and number two.

The Official Charts Company broke the news on Instagram on Friday in a statement saying, “She's a Record Breaker (Again)!”

“Congratulations to the unstoppable Sabrina Carpenter who has become the first female artist in official chart history to reach number 1 and number 2 for three consecutive weeks with #PleasePleasePlease and #Espresso.”

Last week, the Official Charts Company revealed that Sabrina had become “the youngest female artist to achieve two consecutive weeks at number one and number two on the Official Singles Chart.”

Both singles are taken from her sixth studio album, “Short n' Sweet,” due for release in August, so the pop singer is expected to enjoy further chart success.

Her record-breaking act has earned her a place in the ranks: the only other two female musicians to hold the number one and two spots simultaneously in the UK are Madonna in 1985 and Ariana Grande in 2019, but Sabrina puts her ahead of them by holding the spot for longer.

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Makav's GMA win marks highlight for Taiwan's indigenous music

Golden Melody Award

Over the years, the Golden Melody Awards (GMA) have put the spotlight on indigenous Taiwanese music, and at this year's event, Makab, a member of Taiwan's indigenous Bunun people, won the coveted Best New Artist award.

“I'm so grateful! I hope I can inspire my fellow 20-year-old creatives to pursue their musical ideas and bring them to fruition,” Makav told Variety.

Taiwan's 16 indigenous ethnic groups make up just 2% of the population, but young Gen Z artists like Makav are sparking a resurgence of truly local music across the island, while eagerly blending in international influences. “When I make music, I blend English, Bunun and Mandarin, singing however I feel natural, but I always make sure to include my native language, because it's so cool,” she said.

“In Taiwan, more and more people are participating in the creation of indigenous music,” Makav said. Indeed, indigenous musicians were prominent in several categories at GMA. They were also recognized in the indigenous language category, winning Best Vocal Group (O-Kai Singer) and Best Taiwanese Language Album (Panai Kusui's “Iā-Pô”).

ABAO, founder of the Taiwanese indigenous label NANGUAQ, emphasized that contemporary artists are fusing diverse musical genres: “Today, young indigenous people are influenced by R&B, African-American music, gospel, hip-hop, electronic music, K-pop, and so on.”

These artists draw inspiration from a variety of sources, but also respect traditional wisdom. Mani (Dremedreman), a musician from Nangak, highlighted the importance of elders in preserving cultural heritage: “My aunt once said, 'Learn as much as you can from us, whatever you want, while we are still here!'”

Professor Jonathan PJ Stock, from University College Cork, said awards like the GMAs help bring more attention to such artists. “Being nominated is a big step forward, and winning can give a singer a sense of recognition for several years to come.”

Some Taiwanese indigenous artists explore themes such as revitalizing cultural heritage and championing environmental protection, but others adopt apolitical attitudes in their music. “Some are just all about having a good time, but at the same time they use Austronesian languages ​​to infuse popular music,” says DJ W. Hatfield, an associate professor at National Taiwan University. “Musically, they're eclectic and don't necessarily echo or allude to traditional music.”

“As an indigenous Taiwanese, I am proud. The uniqueness of Taiwanese indigenous music comes from having many different ethnicities and languages ​​on a small island,” said Kivi, a musician from Nanguaq.

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Macy Gray and Britney Spears 'didn't get along very well' during awkward first studio meeting – Music News

Macy Gray admitted that things “didn't go very well” with Britney Spears after she interrupted one of her studio sessions.

The “I Try” hitmaker was recording in the same studio as Britney when the “Toxic” singer came into the room on a skateboard, leading to an awkward exchange as he's a fan of the 56-year-old star.

Macy, who appeared on Australia's “The Project,” recalled: “She was in a room across the hallway, and we looked up, and all of a sudden she came into our room.”

“We talked a little bit, but we didn't really hit it off. I'm still a groupie. I was sitting with Britney Spears and I kind of stuttered and didn't know what to say.”

“Then she rolled her eyes and seemed annoyed at whatever I said and walked away.”

Despite the awkward encounter, Macy remains a huge fan of the 42-year-old pop star and listens to her 2007 album, Blackout, before taking to the stage.

She said: “The best album ever, or at least one of them!”

The album includes the lead single “Gimme More,” as well as other hits such as “Piece of Me” and “Break the Ice.”

Macy picked “Radar” as her favourite song off the album, and revealed how the album as a whole gives her “encouragement” before taking to the stage to perform it.

Thinking about why she's drawn to LPs, she added: “I don't know, it's just like, here we go. It makes me feel a bit braver.”

Everyone has that little thing that motivates them. For some it's just coffee, for me it's the Blackout album!”

For Macy, this year marks 25 years since her debut album, On How Life Is, topped the Australian and New Zealand charts and the UK R+B rankings, and her second single, I Try, reached number one in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.

When asked when she knew it was a hit, she replied: “I was actually on tour in England and my manager called me and said, 'Your album is number one' and I said, 'What does that mean?'

“And he said, 'That just means people are listening to you more than anyone else.' And then I got to New York, and for the first time, I was surrounded by a crowd.”

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MTV News website preserved by Internet Archive after being deleted

Late last month, Paramount Global suddenly disabled its MTV News website, wiping out more than two decades of music and entertainment journalism, and just over a week later, the Internet Archive responded by creating a searchable collection of the old MTV News site via the Wayback Machine.

The collection is made up of more than 460,575 snapshots of web pages that the Internet Archive has collected over the years. As Variety, which first reported on the collection, points out, the archive appears to date back to 1997. However, it doesn't include everything MTV News has published over the years. Images of many of the archived pages are also no longer available, although the original text of these articles remains intact.

The new MTV News collection came about after the site was shut down and the Internet Archive reached out to Michael Alex, who founded and led MTV News' digital group from 1994 to 2007. Alex called the collection “incomplete” but “very impressive,” adding that it's “like a treasure trove when you find what you're looking for.”

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, told Rolling Stone in an email: “The Internet Archive has archived Mtv.com/news for decades, and its contents are stored in the Wayback Machine. We've built a full-text search engine to help you find MTV News pages. We apologize that it may not be complete; we're more likely to have a complete snapshot when the publisher announces it's going offline. As a library, it's our job to preserve cultural heritage. We hope this helps.”

A source close to Paramount production told Rolling Stone that nothing from MTV News has been removed and that the company is “evaluating ways to more efficiently deliver this important content.”

The nonprofit Internet Archive collects and makes available all kinds of material, both digital and physical, but is best known for its Wayback Machine, which has been crawling and recording the internet since the mid-'90s. Over the years, it has created specific collections that make it easier for users and researchers to dig into the backlog of specific sites, like its new collection for MTV News (it has also created collections for former digital media giants like Gawker and Vice).

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Last year, Paramount Global shut down its long-running MTV News division as part of major staff reductions. The site has been dormant since then, but was accessible until the decision to disable it last week. In addition to removing MTV News, Paramount Global also appears to have removed thousands of articles from the CMT website and tons of videos from the Comedy Central site.

Commenting on the decision, a Paramount Global spokesperson said: “As part of a broader change to our website across Paramount, we have introduced a more streamlined version of the site, which will result in all MTV News content being archived.”

The Internet Archive is best known for such preservation projects (as well as the revival of the DatPiff mixtape archive), but they've also landed the nonprofit in legal trouble: The archive is currently facing two copyright infringement lawsuits, one from a book publisher and one from music rights holders.

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Last year, the publishers won a lawsuit brought by the Archive over its “National Emergency Library,” an effort the Archive launched to make its trove of scanned books more readily available while libraries and schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. That suit was followed by another led by two major record companies, Universal Music Group and Sony Music, over the Archive's “Great 78 Project,” an effort to digitize and make available obsolete 78 RPM records. The Archive denies copyright infringement in both cases. The publishers' cases are currently being heard on appeal.

This story was updated at 6:53pm ET with comment from the Internet Archive, a Paramount Global spokesperson and a source close to the production.

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Loss of MTV News' online archives is a tragedy

Courtesy of MTV

Michael Alex joined MTV News in 1989 and produced hundreds of segments for “The Week in Rock,” the Peabody Award-winning “Choose or Lose” series, documentaries and more than 1,000 daily television news stories. He founded and led MTV News' digital organization from 1994 to 2007. Variety welcomes responsible commentary. If you're interested, please contact us at music@variety.com.

MTV News reports that a few days ago, 25 years of entertainment history vanished from the internet when parent company Paramount deleted the site's archives along with those of CMT and other media. There was no warning, no explanation, no comment. What was a valuable resource for music fans, journalists, cultural ambassadors, and millions of people who love music, just disappeared. It's unclear for how long, but what is certain is that from the beginning, the MTV News digital archive was created and designed for music fans – people who care about artists and their art. The archive was always intended to be more than just a repository of old articles, but a playground for fans who wanted to dig deep and find out more.

Here's the origin story: As a kid in the late 1970s, I found some old issues of Rolling Stone and Circus magazines for cheap in a used record store. I flicked through them and found early interviews with bands that are now at the top of their game in the world. Hearing interviews with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath when they were just breaking out was a godsend for me as a music nerd. It wasn't old news, it was hidden treasure.

After I joined MTV News in 1989 as producer of “The Week in Rock,” it wasn't uncommon to find interns and staffers trawling through the videotape library, watching old news reports and interviews with their favorite artists. I did the same, staying late many days and rarely alone. “Hear it first” was the watchword in the building where Kurt Loder delivered the news with his trademark deadpan and authority. And when the iconic spinning globe appeared on the TV screens and Loder announced his latest news, fans knew he and we were about to share something important.

So when it came time for us to move to the Internet and become an Internet-first daily source of music news, I, as Director of MTV News Digital, directed them to create an artist index that linked to every report on every artist we'd ever covered (we did it alphabetically, since this was the day before search was available). We began in November 1996 and added to the archive with transcripts of old interviews that we pulled from our videotape library. Want to read the first interviews MTV did with Nirvana, TLC, the Rolling Stones, Jay-Z and the Pixies? We've got them.

MTV News on the web quickly took off, fueled by a loyal young audience of early adopters. As TV stations pivoted to story-focused news programming, the “first hear” soon shifted to the web, and of course we merged the two. Over the next few years, mtvnews.com became the go-to source for breaking coverage of any major artist-related event. From the rise of the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and NSYNC, to the trial of Sean Combs in 2000 on charges related to the New York nightclub shooting, to Aaliyah's tragic death in a plane crash in 2001, to joining Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance on their Warped tour, to accompanying 50 Cent on his African tour, to recruiting artists to support get-out-the-vote campaigns during election years, we were the place to go for both speed and depth.

Being a team of music nerds ourselves, we knew the Archive would be popular, and within a year, people were reading old news articles as much as they were reading the news of the day. In the first few months, we did about three small articles about the Backstreet Boys, and our usage reports showed that these relatively unknown musicians were just as popular as the channel's biggest artists. By the time Google opened up and crawled the Archive, we were in the music history business as much as the music news business.

MTV News has always covered a much wider range of artists than the channel's other shows, but even more so on MTV News Digital. Among the many concerns we heard from people in the days since the archives were deleted was the long-running hip-hop column Mixtape Monday. This weekly series of long-running, in-depth reports featured many unknown hip-hop artists who went on to become stars and superstars, capturing the evolution of artists and the genre in a way that's never been documented anywhere else. Last week, the column disappeared. For how long? Like it or not, MTV was a unique cultural force, and MTV News reached far beyond the music world, into Hollywood, presidential campaigns, war zones and disaster zones, the United Nations and more. Where are those articles now?

I also haven't forgotten the hundreds of journalists who make MTV News what it is, whose careers were cut short by this news, losing countless stories that they spent countless hours reporting and writing. Of course, they could have saved the stories in PDF or some other way, and probably would have done so if they had been told in advance that their archives would disappear. But the Internet has made that unnecessary. As a former editor-in-chief of this team commented last week, “We're conditioned to believe that the Internet is forever, but this proves that it's not.”

To be fair, running an online archive as large as MTV News, especially one containing thousands of hours of video, can be difficult and expensive to maintain due to site redesigns and other technical issues. This isn't the first online archive to disappear, and it won't be the last.

But if there's one thing history has taught us, it's that archives are valuable. For decades, recording studios threw out priceless master tapes from everyone from the Rolling Stones to James Brown. Then, when those tapes started appearing as bootlegs, artists and labels would pay thousands of dollars to get them back. The archives of MTV News and countless other news and entertainment organizations have a price: they're living records of entertainment history as they are. And while they probably still exist deep within Paramount, it's not hard to imagine them being deleted forever in a site-wide update.

What will happen to this archive? I think it will be sold, because it's too valuable to let it not exist. But what will the new owner do with it? Perhaps they'll charge an access fee, as The New York Times and other established media outlets do. But even if there is a fee, at least the history is available.

History needs custodians, not owners. Whoever legally owns the archive may own the creative work of thousands of writers, editors, producers, and others, but they do not legally own the history. This archive — the archive of MTV news as you first heard it — needs to be made available to the public.

(Full disclosure: Variety's executive music editor, Jem Aswad, worked at MTV News from 2004 to 2010.)

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Shania Twain wants to ride a horse onto the Glastonbury stage – Music News

Shania Twain wants to ride a horse onto the stage when she performs at Glastonbury this weekend.

The “You're Still the One” hitmaker has previously performed riding his favourite four-legged animal during his Las Vegas residency, and says that if a horse can be found for the Legends slot on Sunday afternoon (30 June 2024) and permission is granted, he would like to saddle up and ride to the Pyramid Stage.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast she said: “I love horses. I love animals so if there was a horse nearby I'd go and hire one.”

“I would love to ride a horse to the stage,” he said, but acknowledged, “I need to check whether it's allowed.”

The 58-year-old country pop icon admitted it's “surreal” to follow in the footsteps of artists like Dolly Parton and Diana Ross into a slot reserved for music royalty.

She said: “They are all people I consider to be my musical heroes and have had a huge influence on my career so it feels surreal to be invited.”

“It was explained to me that this was a real event, a once in a lifetime thing. Everyone keeps saying, 'Let me talk about it. Let me tell you my experience.'

As well as performing on horseback, the “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” hitmaker has previously performed a duet with one of his horses.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shania self-isolated and took her horses and dogs to the stables to perform in virtual shows.

She said: “These are difficult times but we will get through this as we always do, together – from our homes to yours, with stories and songs, all of us. Because, let's face it, we're all in this together.”

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