Celebrity Scoop – 04/25/2019

TAYLOR SWIFT DEBUTS PINK-DIPPED HAIR, PERFORMS AT TIME 100 GALA – (04/25/2019)

Taylor Swift debuted her new pink-dipped hair at the Time 100 gala where the pop star also performed and discussed her love of songwriting.

Swift arrived to the event on Tuesday in New York rocking a light pink and yellow gown with a matching, sparkling headband.

Swift was among other Time 100 honorees which included Dwayne Johnson, Sandra Oh, Emilia Clarke, Brie Larson and Rami Malek. Swift took the stage to perform a number of her hit songs including “Style,” “Delicate,” “Love Story,” “New Years Day” and “Shake It Off.”

She gave a speech in the middle of her performance, stating that she believes she was selected for the Time 100 list due to her songwriting:

[I use [writing] as a way to justify things that happen to me. Whether they’re good or bad, I like to honor the good times and really process the bad times.”]

Swift’s Time 100 gala appearance comes as she prepares to release new music on Friday. The singer released a countdown clock recently on her website and has teased fans on Instagram about what is coming by posting images of pastel items such as purses and jewelry.

Swift’s last album Reputation was released in November 2017. The release included the singles “Look What You Made Me Do,” “…Ready for It?,” “End Game” and “Delicate.”

SAM SMITH CANCELS BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS 2019 PERFORMANCE: Sam Smith was forced to cancel his 2019 Billboard Music Awards performance on May 1st. The 26-year-old singer also had to cancel other shows on doctor’s orders. Sam released a statement on Twitter, saying, “In the wake of cutting his South African tour short last week, Sam’s medical specialists are requiring him to have further rest.” The statement continued, “Regrettable, this means that he will be unable to perform at the Azerbaijan Gran Prix in Baku this weekend or the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas next week.” The statement concluded, “We apologize for the disappointment for those affected, but the primary focus at this time needs to be on Sam’s recovery and health.”

PANIC! AT THE DISCO HITS TWO MORE MILESTONES WITH ‘HIGH HOPES’ – (04/25/2019)

Panic! At The Disco has reached two more milestones with its massive hit single “High Hopes.” The song, which was released less than a year ago in May 2018, has now been streamed over half a billion times on Spotify, leaving the band’s previous top streamer, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” and its 286 million views far in the dust.

In addition, the “High Hopes” music video, issued last August, has racked up 268 million views in just seven months and is now the band’s most-watched clip on YouTube. Once again it eclipsed “I Write Sins,” the video for which amassed over 266 million views — but over the course of 12 years.

“High Hopes” has been widely successful on the airplay charts as well, hitting Number One on the Alternative survey and becoming the longest-lasting chart-topper on Billboard’s Adult Pop Songs chart in more than 10 years. It also hit Number Four on Billboard‘s mainstream Hot 100 chart, a new peak for the group.

Panic! At The Disco will next perform at the Billboard Music Awards for the first time ever. The band is up for four awards, including Best Rock Song with “High Hopes.” The show will be held at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 1st, airing live at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC.

JUSTIN BIEBER HITS BACK AT COACHELLA CRITICISM AND ARIANA BACKS HIM UP – (04/25/2019)

When Justin Bieber hit back at a reporter for criticizing his Coachella performance, Ariana Grande backed him up.

Earlier this week, E!’s Nightly Pop host Morgan Stewart slammed Bieber for his Coachella performance on Sunday, in which he joined Ariana on stage and was caught lip-syncing to his hit song “Sorry.”

“I did not realize it was going to be that bad,” Stewart said on the show before ripping into Bieber’s facial appearance. “He definitely looks like he put an Oxy pad on that forehead, but I don’t care. That is f*cked up!”

In response, Justin tweeted, “Imagine if you spent even half the time you spend laughing at other people’s expense actually building people up and encouraging people, how much positivity you could bring.”

Justin encouraged Stewart to use her platform for good, continuing, “And rather than being positive you belittle people. Think about how awesome it felt for me to be on that stage after being away for so long the excitement and joy it gave me doing the thing i love the most, i sang to [a] backtrack like most cameos do this is a normal thing.”

Ariana quickly came to his defense, tweeting, “We also decided to do this ten minutes before my set started. we had 0 soundcheck, 0 rehearsal. u were singing with the back tracking like most cameos do.”

She added, “people are bored. people don’t know how it feels to be under such scrutiny. the world was happy to have u on stage again.”

After tweeting some more words of encouragement to Justin, she concluded, “i don’t like when people try to ruin beautiful moments for my friends that’s all. have a good day.” Her tweets have since been deleted.

HERPES SPIKE AT COACHELLA? TMZ is reporting that there was a spike of Herpes diagnosis at Coachella this year. HerpAlert, an online treatment website, saw an enormous rise in people looking to get treated for the issue. While they typically see 12 cases a day, during Coachella weekend they reportedly saw 250.

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