The good, the bad and the musical

 

Many things happened in the past few days, including Justin Bieber testing positive for Covid-19 and the investigation into Young Dolph’s death making headway, but we somewhat randomly chose to focus on the following news:

Good: Priscilla Block, a rising country star who essentially got her start through viral TikTok videos a couple of years ago, recently explained how all of this almost never happened. And that the reason it did is none other than country-folk megastar Taylor Swift herself. A few years ago, Block was merely a young aspiring musician trying to make a dent in Nashville, not quite succeeding and having to take menial jobs to make ends meet, to the point where she came to doubt it would ever change. Then, one day, she walked out in the street wearing a random Taylor Swift T-shirt… and the star happened to drive by. She complimented Block on her shirt, they took a selfie and the rest is (musical) history…

Bad: Jamal Edwards, a 31-year old British music entrepreneur who was responsible for the career of many rising UK hip hop stars, passed away from unknown causes (to date). A pioneer in making Youtube videos, he started out posting some of himself rapping, then others as well, many of which became viral. He launched his company SBTV in 2006, which eventually grew to become a major platform for up and coming musicians — of all genres. While helping launch the careers of many young rappers including Stormzy, Dizzee Rascal and Bugzy Malone, he is also credited with discovering Jessie J… and Ed Sheeran himself! RIP, Mr. Edwards…

Musical: while The Weeknd performed at last year’s Super Bowl rather than this one, people still remember. Also, he did release his fifth and latest album Dawn FM earlier this year, which helps. That LP, a subtle retro-electro-pop set, reached #2 right behind Gunna‘s latest output, spawning a couple of Top 20 singles as well. Now, the Canadian artist wants to go a bit further and offer a music special centered on the album to his fans and music amateurs alike. The show is set to premiere on February 26th on Amazon Prime, and it should be good: The Weeknd is (almost) as great with images as he is with sounds…