Last week’s ICYMI article was pushed back due to honoring #BlackoutTuesday and the Black Lives Matter movement. Universal Music New Zealand stands beside our colleagues around the world in the fight against all forms of racism, bigotry, and injustice. We must use our voices and influence to effect real and lasting change and we urge you to use yours. Change must come. Tomorrow must be different.
Please continue to listen, read, sign petitions, protest, donate (if you can), and keep educating yourself and others around you in the fight against racism. You can find helpful resources here.
Musicians Showed Their Support For The Black Lives Matter Movement
A magnitude of musicians expressed their solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement following the unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more. Billie Eilish, Jessie Reyez, Rihanna, Denzel Curry, 6LACK, Lorde, Selena Gomez, and many more used their voices to fight the injustice with artists such as Halsey, Lil Yachty, Machine Gun Kelly, Ariana Grande, and Yungblud even posting from the frontlines of various protests.
Everybody is Dancing To Chromatica 💖⚔️
Despite Covid-19 delaying the release of Chromatica, Lady Gaga still had a full-on release week which involved driving her own album delivery truck, giving weather updates with ‘Rain On Me’ partner Ariana Grande, getting another #1 song on the Hot 100, and shattering Spotify and Youtube records by dropping the dreamboat BLACKPINK collab ‘Sour Candy’ an entire day early. The 16-tracks all make you want to hit the dance-floor immediately which is our current mood after having no new Coronavirus cases for over to weeks.
Lil Yachty Released His Third Studio Album ‘Lil Boat 3’
Lil Yachty has completed the trilogy with the drop of his latest album Lil Boat 3. Earlier this year he teased how impressive his phone book was by recruiting A-list star power on collab ‘Oprah’s Bank Account’ with DaBaby and Drake. With a jam-packed 19 songs, the album slaps and proves that Lil Yachty is only just getting started. Listen to it in its entirety below.
SIX60 Are Coming To A Movie Theatre Near You In 2020 🎬
As if we couldn’t get enough of the Kiwi lads, SIX60 have announced their movie ‘SIX60: Till The Lights Go Out’ coming soon to NZ theatres following their Western Springs concert special. Even though there is no official release date yet we are already counting down. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below or relive the concert on TVNZ On Demand for a limited time – get amongst it asap!
Juice WRLD Has Released ‘Tell Me U Luv Me’ With Trippie Redd
Following the release of ‘Righteous’, the second posthumous single ‘Tell Me U Luv Me’ from the late Juice WRLD has dropped accompanied by a video. The song features Trippie Redd and the animated video is made up of archival footage of Juice and his girlfriend Ally Lotti.
Ellie Goulding Has Announced New Album ‘Brightest Blue’
Like us, you probably haven’t stopped screaming since you heard this news. And if this is your first time hearing it, you’re welcome 🤯. Brit-pop Queen Ellie Goulding has “f*cking finally” revealed details about her fourth studio album after initially teasing that it was supposed to come last year. Brightest Blue set for release on 17 July will be EG’s first full-length (two-part) album in five years following 2015’s Delirium. The announcement comes after the drop of lead single ‘Power’, with previously released tracks such as ‘Close To Me’, ‘Hate Me’ and ‘Worry About Me’ making a feature on EG4.
Billie Eilish Has Released A Powerful Short Film Titled ‘Not My Responsibility’
Billie Eilish has tackled body-shaming head-on in the new video, which was originally created for her ‘Where Do We Go?’ World Tour. Titled ‘Not My Responsibility’, Billie addresses the relentless comments she receives on a daily basis about her body and androgynous wardrobe choices. The powerful video is on her terms and is a sharply manicured middle finger to anybody who thinks otherwise 💚
BTS Teased This Years Festa 2020 Schedule
BTS ARMY! It’s that time of the year again – the band is celebrating their anniversary with their annual Festa. This year’s festivities began on June 1 with an opening ceremony and runs until June 13 for “Bangtan’s Birthday Party”. Check out the jam-packed schedule below which includes special family portraits, choreography videos, photo collections, and possibly even a new song called ‘Still With You’… 🤔
2020 #BTS FESTA Timeline#2020BTSFESTA pic.twitter.com/vxyMHT7UVj
— BTS_official (@bts_bighit) May 28, 2020
We Celebrated NZ Music T-Shirt Day
Recently we celebrated #nzmusictshirtday (all still working from home of course) to support all Kiwi artists and everyone working in the NZ music industry who have been directly impacted by Covid-19. If you want to help you can do so by texting ‘MUSIC’ to 2448 to make an instant $3 donation 🙏
