Pop Base: Taylor Swift Addresses Vienna Fans, Wicked's Extreme Paparazzi, and Much More!

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Taylor Swift Addresses Cancellation of Vienna Eras Tour Shows

After a thwarted terrorist attack in Vienna that led to the arrest of two men, Taylor Swift addressed the cancellation of three of her Eras Your dates in the city earlier this month. 

In an Instagram post marking the conclusion of the European leg of her tour, which recently finished after a string of shows at Wembley Stadium in London, Swift expressed her feelings of being overwhelmed by the sudden cancellations. She revealed that these unexpected changes filled her with fear and apprehension. 

Swift was originally scheduled to perform at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on August 8-10 as part of the international segment of her Eras Tour. However, the shows were cancelled following the arrest of two men in the town of Ternitz, just outside of Vienna. The arrested subjects were a 19-year-old who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, as well as two other men. Authorities said that the 19-year-old had ‘recently been radicalized through the internet and had specific plans on how the attack would transpire’. 

The European leg of the Eras tour came to a close this week, with Taylor Swift being joined on stage by long-term friend and collaborator, Jack Antonoff, for ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’ and ‘Getaway Car’, and Florence Welch for the live debut of their collaboration, ‘Florida!!!’. In the final show, Swift also revealed the music video for ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’. 

Ariana Grande Recalls Paparazzi Using Hang-Gliders to Fly Over the ‘Wicked’ Set to Take Videos

Paparazzi went to great lengths to obtain and release photos and videos from the set of Universal’s highly anticipated ‘Wicked’ musical adaptation. During an interview with VMan magazine, cast members Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey shared their astonishment at the audacity of paparazzi who used hang-gliders to capture unauthorized footage from the ‘Wicked’ set. 

“We were very spoiled to have done this with [director Jon M. Chu],” Grande stated about the experience of filming the two-part musical. “It felt like a teeny, little secret student thing — its intimacy. It felt so small and private until all of a sudden, we were outside, and the Daily Mail was hang-gliding over our set — oh, he should play the pterodactyl in your film [‘Jurassic Park’].”

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Grande continued. “Well, firstly because I don’t have the best eyes. But secondly, because there’s no way. There’s no way! I was like, ‘Ah! A guy on a hand glider.'”

Adapted from the popular Broadway musical, ‘Wicked’ serves as a prequel to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, focusing on the complex friendship between Cynthia Erivo’s character, Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Grande’s portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch.

Fontaines D.C. Frontman Grian Chatten Urges Artists to Speak Out In Support Of Palestine in NME Interview. 

In a new interview with NME, Irish five-piece Fontaines D.C.'s frontman Grian Chatten has opened up to support Palestine, explaining why everyone should use their platform to speak out.

Chatten states, ‘It really is the responsibility of the masses, of artists, and anyone with a voice - which is most people nowadays - to do something, say something. Which side are you on?’

Fontaines D.C. cancelled a show at Zorlu PSM in Istanbul, Turkey, after consulting with Palestinian artists and human rights activists. They cited the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which calls on artists to refuse to play at the venue due to reports that Zorlu Energy supplies a percentage of Israel's energy.

Fontaines D.C. have released their fourth studio album, "Romance," today. This follows their headline performance at Glastonbury's 'The Park' stage in June and extensive summer touring. The band will bring the album to the United States next month for their biggest Stateside headline tour, following their support for Arctic Monkeys last year.

New Music Friday

We’ll make this short and sweet as possible.

It’s reasonable to say the summer belonged to Sabrina Carpenter. “Espresso” found pretty impressive overnight success and “Please Please Please” seemingly went number 1 everywhere. The singer’s recent popularity can likely be traced to her ability to write such interesting lyrics. There’s moments on Short n’ Sweet that’ll have you sitting upright, confused — Did she really just say that? On “Juno” for example, she sings, “Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried this one?” Most of the tag line, though, comes from Carpenter’s brilliant, sensual delivery. “Bed Chem” does this marvelously. “Come right on me, I mean camaraderie / Said you’re not in my timezone, but you wanna be / Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?” She just has a golden humor you don’t see all that often in pop music today.

Ariana Grande’s celebrating 10 years of My Everything with “Cadillac Song” and “Too Close.” The songs are available on streaming now.

Also celebrating 10 years, Travis Scott re-released his mixtape Days Before Rodeo on streaming. Interestingly enough, he also released some songs “from the vault” to accompany the release.

Lainey Wilson’s new album Whirlwind is lighthearted at times, and pretty clever all throughout. She puts it best — country’s cool again.

NCT Dream’s new song “Rains in Heaven” pulls itself together wonderfully. It’s a pretty low-key sounding song, but the downbeat actually works great. The high note at the bridge’s end is also nice. “I heard when you cry, it rains in heaven,” they sing.

And so we arrive at our favorite release of the week. We have to, of course, go with something from Short n’ Sweet, and we just might have to declare 2 best releases. Making a decision between “Juno” and “Bed Chem” was just too difficult. Both songs leave quite an impression.

— Dawson Therre

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ICYMI:

• Paul Mescal graces the cover of October’s Empire Magazine for Gladiator II.

• FLO have announced their debut album, ACCESS ALL AREAS, set for release November 15th.

• Megan Thee Stallion is set to host this year’s VMAs.

• Nintendo has announced Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will shut down on November 28th - a new version of the game is set to be announced as its replacement in October.

• Donald Trump’s campaign has taken down the video using Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ after she reportedly threatened to send a cease-and-desist.

• AOC has called out the DNC for not having a Palestinian speaker at the convention - in a social media post she stated ‘to deny their story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity’.

• John Legend and Oprah Winfrey have made appearances at the DNC, alongside Mindy Kaling.

• Chick-fil-A is reportedly working on launching a streaming service! The restaurant is reportedly initially focusing on family-friendly unscripted programming, including a game show, but could eventually feature original series and other content.