Words: Gery Hristova
#1
The Golden Globes winners were announced this week with one of the biggest being ‘West Side Story’, the remake of the iconic American romantic drama film adaptation of the 1957 stage musical of the same name. Steven Spielberg’s movie was recognised in three different categories and Rachel Zegler, who made her film debut as main character Maria Vasquez, was named best actress in a musical or comedy, which made her the first Latina actress to win as well as the youngest winner in that category at 20 years old. Her co-star Ariana DeBose took home the supporting actress prize.
LDN loved this remake too; to find out what Giulia Lombardo had to say, check out our latest Movie Soundtrack Wednesday.
#2
The US answer to Glastonbury, Coachella Festival announced their official headline of this year. Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Kanye West will join North America’s largest music festival. The trio will also be joined by Swedish House Mafia, though it is unclear whether the house music supergroup will also headline. The already sold-out festival will take place this April on the weekend of 15-17 April and 22-24 April at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, California, east of Los Angeles. In this age of concert streaming, let’s hope global audiences can get a look-in live as well.
#3
Foo Fighters have shared the first trailer for their forthcoming horror comedy ‘Studio 666’. The official trailer shows the Foo Fighters moving into a haunted mansion in Encino, California to write and record their 10th album. Once in the house, Dave Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the band.
‘Studio 666’ is an extension of the Foos fondness for concept and comedy videos, and Grohl called the project “insane”. “We wanted to recapture the classic magic that all of our favourite rock and roll movies had, but with a twist: hilarious gore that fucking ROCKS,” he told MOJO magazine.
The movie, which stars band members Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee, should be expected in the US theatres on February 25, 2022 with details of a UK release tbc.
Link to official studio trailer:
#4
The iconic live music venue Band on The Wall is said to reopen following £3.5 million expansion project. From being at the epicentre of Manchester’s punk scene in the late 70s, where some of the earliest performances from The Fall, Buzzcocks and Joy Division took place, through to hosting a young Björk, Nadine Shah and Sun Ra Arkestra and everything in-between, the venue closed its doors in 2020 to begin work on the ambitious project. Finally, after two years of renovation, the much loved Manchester venue will open its doors this spring. The building that dates from 1803 and has been a hub for Manchester’s music scene, has been transformed with the main room capacity extended to 500 and a whole floor dedicated to its innovative learning program, World of Music.
Band on The Wall has also put together a schedule of events for its opening month and beyond – you can check it out here.
#5
GAYLE‘s debut hit ‘abcdefu’ is the biggest song in the world, bounding to No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. The viral TikTok hit rocketed from No. 5 to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 with 58.8 million streams up to January 6.
This is partially down to the multiple versions released: “angrier,” “chill” and “nicer” (radio-friendly) versions, a demo version, a remix with Royal & the Serpent, and ‘The Wild Mix’. Its main driver, however, has been going viral on TikTok, with over two million videos featuring the song.
But was the song a well-planned marketing strategy? Many TikTok users believe GAYLE wrote the track in response to a fan’s comment asking her to “write a breakup song using the alphabet”. However, a TikTok user under the name of @danielswall believes he has exposed the truth about the hit track pointing out that although the song did blow up because of the social media platform, it was not created there.
According to the research made by the TikTok user, GAYLE was already signed with Atlantic Records by the time she made her viral ‘response’ video in July 2021, suggesting that the newfound star is a good example of a successful ‘industry plant’.
Whether that’s true or not Gayle just knocked Adele’s ‘Easy On Me’ off from being No 1 the UK Official Singles Chart after she spent eight non-consecutive weeks on the top.
Listen to ‘abcdefu’ here:
LDN Music Magazine 