Pulse Music

U2 will be spotlighted at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday (7-21) that the 22-time Grammy winners, along with actor George Clooney, singers Gladys Knight and Amy Grant and composer Tania León will be honored in December.

It's a rare occasion that a band is among the honorees… Though U2 is in the company with Earth, Wind & Fire, they were the most recent group, that was in 2019. The Eagles were honored in 2016 and Led Zeppelin in 2012.

Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said she was told that U2 frontman Bono was eating and was so surprised that he dropped his fork when he was told the band had been selected for this lifetime achievement award.

This is the 45th year of the honors, which will include a gala performance Dec. 4 in Washington featuring top entertainers. The show will be broadcast on CBS at a later date.

TL;DR:

• U2 will be spotlighted at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.
• Along with actor George Clooney, singers Gladys Knight and Amy Grant and composer Tania León.
• Will take place on Dec. 4 in Washington and will be broadcast on CBS at a later date.

Ricky Martin is declaring "justice" in his case against his nephew, who withdrew his previous bombshell claims of harassment and being involved in a sexual relationship with the singer. Martin's nephew had initially claimed the pair were in an illegal incest relationship.

Martin, 50, appeared on Zoom before a judge, to face the shocking allegations on Thursday (7-21) and in less than an hour the judge ruled in Martin's favor.

His lawyers told The Post that his nephew dismissed the case himself. And that he was a troubled individual making false allegations with nothing to substantiate them.

The judge also dismissed the temporary restraining order that was issued a week ago.

TL;DR:

• Ricky Martin nephew withdrew his claims of harassment and being involved in a sexual relationship with the singer.
• Martin, appeared on Zoom before a judge and in less than an hour a judge ruled in Martin's favor.
• The judge also dismissed the temporary restraining order that was issued a week ago.

Ozzy Osbourne has revealed that he once was "paranoid as f*ck" about Eric Clapton and believed that Clapton had a grudge against him. During a radio interview, he said, "Many, many years ago, me and Sharon were in New York and we had to go to an award show. Everybody was there. And I was still doing drugs and alcohol and I was all freaked out by it. So, we go to this award show and afterwards there's me, Grace Jones, that chick I did the award show with. Me, Grace Jones, and I wanted a picture of Eric Clapton, me and Grace Jones together."

Ozzy explained that Clapton just came out of rehab so he was "freaked out" when they took the picture. He explained, "And I'd convinced myself that he was gonna stop this photograph from being released."

Years later, he ran into Clapton at an AA meeting. He explained, "I went to an AA meeting in the San Fernando Valley many years later, it was like 10 years later. I turn around in this AA meeting and there at the back was Eric Clapton sitting there. And I'm, like, ‘F*cking hell.' … I'm thinking, ‘He still remembers.' Not thinking of what he's done in the last 10 years. I'm thinking, ‘All he's done, he's still thinking how much he hates me.'"

Ozzy continued, "A couple weeks later, I go to the AA meeting again. There he is again. So, I'm just about to cross the road and get in my car and drive off. He goes, ‘Ozzy.' I go, ‘Here we go.' And he goes, ‘Good to see you in the room.' We had a chat and I thought, ‘Wow, what a nice guy.'"

Osbourne's new album, Patient Number 9 will be released in September.

BTS were appointed as ambassadors for the World Expo 2030 Busan, Korea in a ceremony at HYBE headquarters Tuesday (July 19th).

To fulfill their responsibilities, the group will hold the Global Busan Concert in October to bring the World Expo 2030 to Busan.

RM said, "We are honored to be appointed as ambassadors for World Expo 2030 Busan. BTS will do our best to support in bringing the World Expo 2030 to Busan. Starting with the Global Busan Concert in October, we will carry out various ambassador activities. We will also make extra efforts to not only support the nation's bid, but also promote the beautiful nature and culture of the Republic of Korea worldwide."

Justin Bieber is heading back out on tour.

On Tuesday (July 19th), the singer announced that he will hit the road later this month after postponing multiple shows due to his Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis.

According to the Justice World Tour's official social media channels, the singer will resume touring on July 31st at Lucca Festival, Italy. Details on Bieber's postponed U.S. shows will be announced soon.

The singer cancelled several U.S. tour dates last month after revealing that half of his face was paralyzed.

Ariana Grande announced Tuesday (July 19th) that she'll be launching the next phase of r.e.m. beauty later this month.

The singer tweeted that "chapter 4: out of body," will be available exclusively at rembeauty.com on July 28th.

The collection includes a new skincare infused sweetener concealer, available in 60 shades.

Texas State University is set to teach the world's first university course on the work of Harry Styles.

Harry Styles and The Cult of Celebrity will be be taught in 2023. According to a tweet from the school's associate professor of digital history Louie Dean Valencia, the class will focus on Styles and popular European culture to "understand the cultural and political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, nation and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, internet culture and consumerism."

In an interview with KXAN, Valencia explained that the course will be similar to a history class and will address gender, sexuality, race, and globalism.

Lady Gaga kicked off her Chromatica Ball tour in Germany Sunday (July 17th) night, revealing the set list for the highly anticipated tour.

According to Vulture, she includes classic hits like "Bad Romance," Shallow," "Monster" and "Rain on Me" but omits tracks from her 2013 album Artpop and her 2016 album Joanne.

The tour was originally planned for June 2020 but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

She wrote on Twitter Friday (July 15th), "There was a time I thought I'd never be on stage again. I was so sad I couldn't even dream anything but a painful nightmare. I've overcome my nightmare with love, support, trust, truth, bravery, talent and dedication. I am so grateful. I'll see you in BABYLON."

The first trailer for In The Soop: Friendcation dropped Monday (July 18th).

The clip shows BTS' V having a family-style dinner with rapper Peakboy, Parasite star Choi Woo-shik, and actors Park Hyung-sik, and Park Seo-joon.

The docuseries, which follows the group as they connect and spend time together in the woods, will have a total of four episodes.

In The Soop: Friendcation will first air on Korean TV networks on July 22nd, and will later arrive on Disney+ in select areas.

Billie Eilish wants her fans to vote in the midterm elections.

The star told Rolling Stone that she is partnering with the non-profit voter registration organization HeadCount.

She said in a statement to the outlet, "I'm working with HeadCount to encourage everyone to show up at the polls and use their voice during these midterm elections. With what is going on in our country, we need to get out to the polls and vote for what we believe in. Not showing up is not an option."

Fans who check their voter registration status through HeadCount can also win a chance to travel to New Zealand and Australia to see Eilish perform.

Halsey's makeup brand ‘af94' will launch next week.

The singer announced on Instagram Monday (July 18th) that the "cute bratty younger sibling" of their about-face beauty brand will be available at Walmart and Walmart.com starting July 25th.

According to Halsey, the line is full of "fun, easy and accessible products." They added, "I promise, you're going to want them all."

Each item in the clean, vegan and cruelty-free collection is under $10.

Pink takes on The Supreme Court in the new video for her single "Irrelevant".

In the visual, released on Monday (July 18th), the singer blends self-filmed clips of her recording sessions along with images of protests from the Civil Rights Movement and videos of marches in support of #MeToo, LGBTQIA+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and calls for an end to gun violence.

Rolling Loud founder Tariq Cherif has spoken out about Kanye West pulling out of Rolling Loud Miami. Cherif took to social media to reveal that he "tried to convince Ye to stay." Cherif added, "He wasn't having it." When followers bought up Travis Scott, Cherif said, "Venue won't allow Travis because of astroworld deaths." He later told TMZ that he deleted the tweets about Travis Scott because "it simply was not accurate.

Rolling Loud reportedly asked Scott to headline the event but unfortunately, the timing didn't work out. TMZ reported that "Tariq's comment on Instagram appears to have been made out of frustration from negative posts from festival-goers demanding Travis."

Fans are excited to see Britney Spears back in action. On Friday, she sang an a cappella, deeper and slower version of her 1998 classic, "Baby One More Time."

She captioned her IG post: "I haven't shared my voice in an extremely long time … maybe too long … and here's me playing at my house with a different version of ‘Baby.'"

Spears added: "Well I have asked for what I wanted for 14 years … a different version of ‘Baby' but have the producers actually work for me and put it together … a start …"

"I love your natural voice but I love more seeing you comfortable showing it to the world," one fan commented.

Another fan added, "Your deep natural voice is the best."

"Hit me with those vocals queen," another wrote.

Drake took to Instagram to confirm that he did have an encounter with police in Sweden. As previously reported, last week, rumors hit that Drake was arrested for having marijuana in Sweden. After the rap superstar starting trending, his team released a statement, saying that he was never arrested and that he had been asleep during the time that he was trending on social media.

However, yesterday (July 17th), Drake took to Instagram and posted a recep of his trip, along with a letter with the Swedish National Police Board's logo on the top left corner. The sheet was titled, "Information for Those Suspected of a Crime and Subsequently Obtained."

The letter was laid out into two parts: the rights and the consequences. Under the "You have the right to" column, a few of the options were, "...know what it is you are suspected of and why you are being obtained; ... receive food and rest as needed; ... receive the assistance of an interpreter during interrogations, as needed."

Below the "What is going to happen?" portion, it read, "... An interrogation will be held with you as soon as possible; ...If the prosecutor requests a court trial, you will be notified of this at once."

Ricky Martin's lawyer is responding to reports that he could face decades in prison over domestic violence charges filed by his nephew, People reports.

"Unfortunately, the person who made this claim is struggling with deep mental health challenges. Ricky Martin has, of course, never been — and would never be — involved in any kind of sexual or romantic relationship with his nephew," Marty Singer, attorney for the singer told the mag.

He continued, "The idea is not only untrue, it is disgusting. We all hope that this man gets the help he so urgently needs. But, most of all, we look forward to this awful case being dismissed as soon as a judge gets to look at the facts."

This came after his ex-manager Rebecca Drucker sued Martin for more than $3 million in what she said were unpaid commissions.

Gwen Stefani is getting blowback on social media for her appearance in Sean Paul's new "Light My Fire" video. In the video, the No Doubt singer dons dreadlocks and the colors of the Jamaican flag.

"Ahhhh Gwen Stefani went back to her Jamaican roots. Nature is really healing," wrote one critic.

Kanye West is no longer headlining the first night of Rolling Loud Miami 2022. The festival announced the news in a statement, saying "Due to circumstances outside of our control, Ye will no longer be performing at Rolling Loud Miami 2022." Kid Cudi will replace Ye as the headliner. Rolling Loud: Miami is going down July 22nd-July 24th.

AMBER ROSE WAS NOT SUPRISED THAT KANYE AND KIM KARDASHIAN DIVORCED

In other news, during an interview with the It's Tricky with Raquel Harper Show, Amber Rose revealed that she wasn't surprised when Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her ex Kanye West. She said, "I don't have any feelings about it. Of course. I mean I always hope for the best, for people to be happy. I have my own issues and feelings about how I feel our relationship was." She continued, "I never really had any ill feelings like, ‘I hope they get divorced!' or ‘He gon' get his day!' I was kinda just happy in my marriage at the time with Wiz, or even after just doing my thing, so I never really thought about them much."

Taylor Swift's relationship with longtime love Joe Alwyn has always been under wraps. Neither star chooses to comment on their relationship, and they rarely make appearances together.

But that hardly stops the speculation. Recently, the pair were rumored to be engaged and Swift and Alwyn apparently set out to quash those rumors quietly by making an appearance in public together happy, but sans rings.

The pair were spotted in London drinking iced coffees and strolling together.

Pink's new song, "Irrelevant" takes on anyone who dares to make her feel invisible or powerless.

She said she wrote the song after she woke up and got heated and that's how the song came about.

In a statement about the track, she explained, "As a woman with an opinion and the fearlessness to voice that opinion, it gets very tiring when the only retort is to tell me how irrelevant I am. I am relevant because I exist, and because I am a human being. No one is irrelevant. And no one can take away my voice." When We All Vote's mission is to increase participation in each election cycle and change the culture around voting."

Proceeds from the track, will be donated to former first lady Michelle Obama's nonpartisan voting initiative called When We All Vote.

The artwork for the single is a blurry snap of Pink throwing up the middle finger with glee.

TL;DR:

• Pink's new song, "Irrelevant" takes on anyone who dares to make her feel invisible or powerless.
• She said she wrote the song after she woke up and got heated.
• Proceeds from the track, will be donated to former first lady Michelle Obama's nonpartisan voting initiative called When We All Vote.

Lady Gaga recently gave her first online makeup tutorial and it was an automatic success.

Known for her dramatic eyeliner, she demonstrated exactly how she gets that look. The superstar has really come through with some revolutionary products. Plus, Haus Laboratories by Lady Gaga products are vegan and cruelty-free.

So far, she has over 10,000 5-star reviews on her eyeliner and it sells for only $6 on Amazon.

TL;DR:

• So far, she has over 10,000 5-star reviews and it sells for only $6 on Amazon.
• Lady Gaga's Haus Laboratories by Lady Gaga products are vegan and cruelty-free.

Reports say that Beyonce recently shot the video for "Break My Soul" in Los Angeles and New Orleans. According to Theybf.com, clips leaked online of Big Freedia filming scenes for the video. The video is rumored to ben directed by Dikayl Rimmasch -- who also served as cinematographer for Beyonce's Homecoming film on Netflix. He also directed Black Is King, her Tiffany & Co ad and more.

BEYONCE JOINS TIKTOK

In other news, Beyonce has joined TikTok. The singer shared her first post, which was a montage of fans, including Cardi B, dancing to her new song "Break My Soul." She captioned the post, "Seeing y'all release the wiggle made me so happy! Thank you so much for all the love for BREAK MY SOUL! – Love B." Beyonce's seventh album Renaissaince is due out om July 29th.

Looks like Travis Barker is on the mend following his stay in the hospital. He gave a surprise performance at Machine Gun Kelly's Mainstream Sellout show at The Forum in Los Angeles on (7-13) Wednesday night. Marking his first on-stage appearance since his pancreatitis diagnosis last month.

As MGK introduced him, he said, "There's a person I grew up idolizing that I became friends with and he believed in me. And never more have I wanted to jam to a song that he and I created. LA's own, Travis Barker! Make some noise for him tonight."

The Blink-182 drummer emerged to huge applause and settled in to play "Tickets to My Downfall" and "Bloody Valentine."

Machine Gun Kelly told the audience, "You know, a fun fact is… Travis is not supposed to be playing drums right now, but guess what he's doing? Playing drums right now."

TL;DR:

• Travis Barker gave a surprise performance at Machine Gun Kelly's Mainstream Sellout show at The Forum in Los Angeles on (7-13) Wednesday night.
• Marking his first on-stage appearance since his pancreatitis diagnosis last month.
• They played "Tickets to My Downfall" and "Bloody Valentine."