Publishing date: May, 20, 2022
If you’re anything like us, we see an interesting headline during our daily scroll—pause to read it—but then keep scrolling without reading the actual story. So at the end of each week, we’re rounding up all the buzziest, news-worthy headlines you might have missed. Think of it like the “saved” feature on Instagram but for news instead of aesthetically pleasing photos. Taylor Swift gave the graduation speech for NYU’s class of 2022, Gorillaz announced their first North American tour in 4 years, and Tame Impala collaborates with Diana Ross—this is what you missed this week.
#1
Taylor Swift Tells Grads to Embrace Cringe in NYU Commencement Speech
‘Tis the season of graduation for many college students, this week was New York University’s graduation (Taylor’s Version). The esteemed college gave the esteemed songwriter (Taylor Swift) an honorary doctorate of fine arts and she delivered the class of 2022’s commencement speech during graduation. Naturally, Taylor can’t speak to the hurdles other students overcame to obtain their doctorates but she can give life advice to fellow young adults in an inspirational 23-minute speech like the wordsmith she is. Allow me to share some snippets that would also double as killer fortune cookies. “Life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once” I see what you did there Taylor, carrying life’s baggage like the heavy textbooks a student carries. “You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.” Widely applicable to anything in life but especially true for terrible exes that give you enough material to write an album. Last but not least, “you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life.” To which I will add: when you make a plan God laughs.
#2
Diana Ross Shares Tame Impala Collaboration “Turn Up The Sunshine”
Tame Impala continues their children’s music collaborations by teaming up with Diana Ross on “Turn Up The Sunshine”, a new song from the soundtrack to Minions: The Rise of Gru. Producer Jack Antonoff has recruited a star-studded team of artists for the soundtrack but instead of original music they’re covering songs from the ‘70s keeping in theme with the movie’s retro setting. Despite their hiatus, BROCKHAMPTON will be covering Kool & The Gang’s “Hollywood Swinging” and Phoebe Bridgers is doing The Carpenters’ “Goodbye To Love”. Other featured artists include Kali Uchis, St. Vincent, Tierra Whack, and Thundercat. The soundtrack will be available to stream on the same date the movie’s released, July 1st.
#3
Rina Sawayama Announces Sophomore Album ‘Hold The Girl’
Rina Sawayama released details of the follow-up to her 2020 debut album Sawayama and gave fans a taste of what’s to come with a new single. Titled Hold The Girl, the album is set for release on September 2nd and will likely see the singer explore different genres and sonics than in her first album. The first single “This Hell” is an electric pop take on country music, starting off with the iconic Shania Twain whisper “Let’s go, girls” and later has lyrical references to pop icons like Britney Spears and Whitney Houston. Speaking about the song in a statement, she said “The past couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of female country singers and wanted to write a euphoric and tongue-in-cheek country-pop song. Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling, and authentic expression of the writer’s reality.” She also mentioned that she was specifically thinking about minorities and the LGBTQ community that are having their rights taken away when writing this song. The sense of empowerment can be felt in the lyrics paired with the sonic influence of country music seen through Rina’s pop-colored glasses.
#4
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky Reportedly Welcome Their First Child
After announcing their pregnancy in January, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have officially welcomed their child into the world and it’s a boy. According to TMZ, RiRi had her baby on May 13th in Los Angeles which if correct, would make him a Taurus. Let’s hope he takes some emotional empathy from his Pisces mother and skips over the indecisive nature of his Libra father. Killer style and looks are already a given. Neither parent has publicly confirmed the birth of their son or if he’ll have the A$AP moniker in his government name but this is the first child—of hopefully many—for the couple.
#5
Gorillaz Announce First North American Tour in 4 Years
The Damon Albarn-led group, Gorillaz, has announced their North American tour dates for September and October of this year. Albarn and the 14-piece live band are currently on a world tour in South America but this marks the first time they’ll be performing in Canada and the US in four years with the last tour dating back to 2018. EARTHGANG and Jungle were announced as the official supporting acts but there will likely be a variety of guest performers throughout the tour. You can see all the tour dates/cities and where to buy tickets on the Gorillaz website.