Celebrity Scoop – 07/30/2019

KATY PERRY LOSES ‘DARK HORSE’ COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT: Katy Perry has been defeated in a lawsuit that claimed her song “Dark Horse” copied a 2009 Christian rap song. Marcus Gray and two co-authors say that “Dark Horse” stole elements from their song “Joyful Noise,” which was released by Marcus under the stage name Flame. A jury in Los Angeles decided in favor of the plaintiffs following a seven-day trial. Katy’s lawyer argued that the song featured simple musical elements and that ruling in the plaintiffs favor could cause issues for music and artists in the future. Katy and the song’s author writers, including producer Dr. Luke, said they had never heard “Joyful Noise” nor had they heard of Flame before the trial. They also said that they don’t listen to Christian music. The jury now has to decide how much money the plaintiffs are owed.

LIL NAS X’S ‘OLD TOWN ROAD’ BECOMES LONGEST-RUNNING NO. 1 HIT – (07/30/2019)

Country-rap hit “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X has became the longest-running No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts, continuing into its 17th week at the top.

Previously, the record was held at 16 weeks by “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men and “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber. Lil Nas X first climbed to the top of the country charts but was booted for “not [embracing] enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version,” Billboard said. After Billy Ray Cyrus added a verse and the song became a viral hit, “Old Town Road” topped the genre-spanning Hot 100 chart.

The 20-year-old rapper posted a video in which he thanked fans for their support – albeit from an unusual location.

In the video, X, wearing a cowboy hat, says, “I’m on the toilet right now, but I wanna say thank you to every single person who has made this moment possible for me. We just broke the record for the longest running #1 song of all time…let’s go!” As “Old Town Road” starts playing, the rapper laughs and starts bobbing his head.

Billy Ray tweeted, “Congratulations my friend @LilNasX You sir are what ya call a ‘game changer.’ Love ya man. You are a light.”

Even Mariah took to Twitter to congratulate X on beating her Billboard Hot 100 record. “Sending love & congrats to @LilNasX on breaking one of the longest running records in music history! We’ve been blessed to hold this record with a song that means a great deal to @BoyzIIMen and myself and has touched so many. Keep living your best life!” Mariah wrote.

She continued, “Thank you for acknowledging this song ❤ One Sweet Day will always hold a special place in my heart and I want to thank anyone who’s ever told me how this song has affected them and their loved ones.”

Lil Nas X quickly responded, writing, “wowwww thank you so much mariah! you are a legend and an icon and i’m blessed to even have you acknowledging me right now! growing up to your music & now having you talk to me directly is unreal! ❤️❤️❤️”

On top of that good news, Lil Nas covers Dazed magazine’s Autumn 2019 issue, available August 1st. The upcoming issue celebrates Lil Nas X’s success and the reemergence of cowboy culture.

 “I knew this was my chance to break out, and if I didn’t push this as hard as I could all day and night, I was failing myself,” Lil Nas X said of his viral hit “Old Town Road” in an excerpt from the article.

The magazine is also partnering with TikTok for the new issue, where they gave a first look at the cover on their new account. Fans can get involved by taking part in the #LassoChallenge on the app, where they need to lasso any object while Lil Nas X’s new song “Panini” plays in the background.

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Full Story: Billboard

ARIANA GRANDE TEASES NEW COLLAB WITH SOCIAL HOUSE COMING FRIDAY; APOLOGIZES FOR JONBENÉT RAMSEY COMMENT – (07/30/2019)

Ariana Grande is gearing up to release a brand new song with her Sweetener tour openers Social House.

The singer teased the track, called “Boyfriend,” and its music video on Instagram Monday, revealing it will be dropping on August 2nd. As a snippet of the new song plays, the teaser shows various shots of Grande and Social House, who helped produce “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings.” She tagged her longtime video director Hannah Lux Davis in the post.

This news comes after much teasing from Grande, who posted a black-and-white selfie July 28th with the caption “u ain’t my boyfriend.” In the post, she tagged Social House as well as Alfredo Flores and Davis, who have both directed music videos for her before.

It looks like Grande will also be plugging her recent collaboration with Givenchy in the visual, as she tweeted another photo July 24th saying, “I even wear @givenchy in my videos.”

Meanwhile, Ariana is in hot water after an exchange about JonBenét Ramsey, the six-year-old girl who was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home in 1996. Her case was never solved.

It started when Ariana’s friend Doug Middlebrook posted a photo of a magazine cover featuring JonBenét.

He captioned the photo, “No one has done more covers,” to which Ariana replied, “I can’t WAIT for this to be your Halloween look.” Middlebrook responded, “Working on it already.”

Grande’s comment quickly sparked outrage, with many fans criticizing the 26-year-old for joking about Ramsey.

“Wait WHAT?? An 8-year-old girl who was violently killed, strangled and suffocated cannot be anyone’s costume…,” one Twitter user wrote.

“I love Ariana but that comment about Jon Benet was very tasteless. Ugh…” wrote another person.

Grande soon replied to one fan, saying, “Yeah no i deleted it very quickly and understand that it’s not at all funny. this was out of pocket and i sincerely apologize.”

However, Grande’s apology did not sit well with many social media users, who claimed the singer’s “comment was up for a day.”

“No baby that comment was up for a day and you’re just now apologizing because you got called out. this ain’t it sis. r u good?,” one Twitter user responded.

Meanwhile, some of Grande’s fans came to her defense, accepting her apology as sincere. Another fan thanked Grande for apologizing but advised her to take time away from the social media platform. “Thank you for not staying silent abt this and apologizing. you can only learn and grow from this. love you now get off twitter,” the person wrote.

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Full Story: People

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