Top, sweet and smart news

 

Top news:

• There’s a new top seller in town — or, rather, a new repeat top seller. That man is Harry Styles, whose new single “As It Was” from upcoming third album Harry’s House not only made it to the top spot but actually shot straight up there. This is the first time it happens this year, which should be a sign. Also, it comes with the biggest streaming week of said year, which should be another sign…
• Meanwhile, other fan favorites are also back on top: these would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose twelfth album to date, Unlimited Love, takes the #1 spot on the albums charts. It is also a debut, by the way: a good week for changes indeed. And a sweet change for the band, whose last #1 album, Stadium Arcadium, was released over 15 years ago. An interesting kind of change too, since this is the first time in over 4 years that two rock albums top the charts back to back — last week’s being Machine Gun Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout…

Sweet news:

• Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s first son, performed “Imagine” publicly for the first time — ever. Such a momentous occasion came for a remarkable cause: the Stand up for Ukraine campaign, which aims to raise money in support of the country as it (still) faces an all-out assault from Putin’s military forces. Lennon junior had always refrained from performing the song, in an effort not to follow too openly in the footsteps of his illustrious father. But that cause was just too great…
• Pop superstar and recently freed woman from a highly questionable parental conservatorship Britney Spears has more good news to share to the world. She had indicated that one of the ways her father tried to control her life during those conservatorship years was by forbidding her to have more children. Whether or not that’s true, the fact is that Spears just announced on Instagram a very happy third accident. And fourth as well, if we are to believe her…

Smart news:

• Fellow pop superstar Ed Sheeran recently won a landmark plagiarism case that spared him from having to share copyright over his 2017 hit “Shape Of You”. This is not the first such situation the man has to face, though: a previous settlement over his other hit “Photograph” left such a bad taste in his mouth that Sheeran started recording all of his writing sessions in the event more cases would be brought to court. Although it does come at a creative cost — it is arguably harder to think freely in such a context — it does at least ensure that the legality of the proceedings can easily be proven. And it has not overly harmed the singer’s career either, if his latest chart-topping = album is any indication…