Author: GoneTrending

Musician Glen Hansard has been organizing a Christmas charity event in Dublin for several years now. And to support the Irish event, Ireland’s very own rockstar, Bono of U2, has been making appearances at the annual event. In previous years, Bono has performed the holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love in 2020, as well as “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way” and the carols, “O Holy Night” and “O Night Divine” back in 2018. Both of those years, Edge joined him in his performance. This year, however, he showed up by himself and played with a group of Irish musicians, including Hansard, as his backing band.

After giving the people what they want with The Joshua Tree tour in 2017, he’s since realized how near and dear this album — well, and Achtung Baby — are to U2 fans. In that spirit, he performed “Running To Stand Still” from The Joshua Tree at the event as a slightly more subdued version, but complete with a harmonica solo. Previously the event was held on Dublin’s Grafton Street, but this year the concert 2021 was moved to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and performed as a livestream event, with all the proceeds still set to benefit Simon Community.

Check out the performance above, and if you’d like to support the charity efforts of Hansard, donate to support people experiencing homelessness across Ireland right here.

Last year Bad Bunny was quite prolific, releasing not one, not two, but three albums. He kicked off the year with his second album, Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana in February, and followed that up a few months later with Las Que No Iban A Salir
as a surprise album in May, and finally finished off the year in December with his surprise third project, El Último Tour Del Mundo. That third project became the first Spanish-language album to ever top the Billboard lbums chart, following up Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana‘s positioning at No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart before that.

With that many albums out in one year, it’s no surprise that the Puerto Rican rapper, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is still in the process of sharing videos from the projects with his fans. Yesterday, Ocasio dropped the “Te Deseo Lo Mejor” video, which was directed by David Silverman, the filmmaker behind The Simpsons Movie. In the clip, Homer is once again on the outs with his wife Marge, and wanders Springfield running into the Puerto Rican rapper (transformed into a Simpsons character, of course) several times, before stumbling into a Bad Bunny concert where, with Ocasio’s help, he wins Marge back. Check out the clip above.

Earlier his month, Cardi B announced that she was joining Playboy in a new role as a creative director, and this week more details about the collaboration have been revealed. In an Instagram post, the rapper let her fans know that the launch of a platform called Centerfold is her first project with the magazine. “My first project with @playboy !!!” she wrote in her caption. “Introducing CENTERFOLD, so excited to share this platform with so many amazing creators.”

The website for the new platform is now live, and boasts a series of creators who are already active on the platform to help support the launch, including Mia Malkova, James Maas, Lana Rhoades and more. Fans and creators can sign up for an account on Centerfold in order to access or create content. Cardi is also the model for the site’s launch page, in a signature pose alongside a pool showcasing her assets with plenty of jewelry and her peacock tattoo on full display. “A platform for creative freedom, artistic expression, and sex positivity,” reads the tagline on the landing page. It looks like Playboy has taken notice of some of what’s happened with platforms like OnlyFans, which supports sex workers, but also includes accounts from plenty of other celebrities and rappers like A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. 50 Cent has also teased starting an account, and Tyga recently deleted his account with hopes of launching a competing platform, so he seems likely to get involved with Centerfold in the future, too.

Keep your eyes out for more from Centerfold and more of Cardi’s potential future endeavors with Playboy.

As one of the few younger rappers who has been recognized by the Grammys recently, Roddy Ricch has more of a relationship with the Recording Academy than some of his peers. At the 2020 awards, Roddy was nominated for a whopping six nominations, including nods for both Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year. Anyone who has followed the conversation around the Grammys and hip-hop over the years knows that they haven’t always gotten it right in the past.

During an appearance on Kevin Durant’s The ETCs Podcast last week, Roddy told KD that after his 2020 nominations he was “tripping” on the Grammys for snubbing a few of his peers. “Uzi is like, like when I was talking to the Grammy’s ‘y’all ain’t nominate Uzi for [Best Rap Album],’ I was tripping on them,” he remembered. “Even like Lil Baby, y’all ain’t nominate Lil Baby? Like I’m tripping, cause it’s like everybody got their own lane, and it should be spoken about, talked about more because I feel like the n——s now that’s doing shi* like, no disrespect, we really breaking barriers.”

In the year where Roddy received all his nominations, the projects from Uzi and Baby that would’ve been eligible are Lil Baby’s My Turn and Lil Uzi Vert’s long-awaited release, Eternal Atake, which were both released in 2020 as well. In fact, Baby’s My Turn was the best-selling album of 2020 (!) — even beating out Taylor Swift’s Folklore.

Roddy also told KD that instead of competition, he feels like it’s more of a collaborative vibe within the new cohort. “I feel like it’s more for sure more a collaboration because we run into each other more,” he said. “But I feel like everybody got their own lane, everybody got their thing they do, you know what I’m saying?”

Check out the interview clip below, and the full episode here.

The 2021-22 NBA season is out of office on Christmas Eve, taking some time to celebrate the holiday before a monster, five-game slate on Christmas Day. So, on this day without games, let’s celebrate some enjoyable developments and occurrences from the first two months.

Anfernee Simons’ emergence

Back-to-back stinkers (11 points on 3-for-18 shooting) dampens some of the luster around Simons’ breakout, but the fourth-year guard is a notably more comfortable and capable creator with the ball in his hands this season.

Averaging a career-high 12.1 points on 55.4 percent true shooting, Simons has displayed serious shot-making chops and newfound moxie when operating in ball-screens. After shooting just 44.3 percent on twos during his first three seasons, he’s up to 48.6 percent this year. That’s not a sterling mark, but it’s a sizable uptick and emblematic of his growth.

Previously, Simons was routinely timid and ineffective venturing inside the arc. Now, he’s much more composed and confident, and understands how to get the spots he desires. He no longer appears as though his only means of scoring is a catch-and-shoot triple. Knocking those down at a 44.6 percent clip this season, they remain quite the reliable source of offense, yet he’s also expanded his arsenal to provide secondary handling and creation.

Portland’s season has been rather underwhelming, but Simons’ development in a contract year is a bright spot for him and the team.

D’Angelo Russell, defensive anchor

Before a recent slide, due in large part to injuries and COVID-related absences, the Minnesota Timberwolves were fielding a top-10 defense. A number of players and factors are responsible.

Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaden McDaniels have been awesome. Patrick Beverley’s arrival has been crucial. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns have made strides. Head coach Chris Finch employs impactful, creative schemes.

One reason, however, is probably most surprising and equally paramount: D’Angelo Russell’s off-ball awareness and general communication. He’s constantly arranging his teammates on where to be, while simultaneously offering steady contributions as a helper with stuff like this:

Because of inflexibility and poor lateral quickness, Russell struggles navigating screens and containing ball-handlers at the point-of-attack. So, Finch reduces his workload in those roles and he’s excelling off the ball.

His minus-0.2 Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus is the second-best mark of his career and just the second time he’s ranked outside of the bottom 25th percentile. The Timberwolves’ defense is 12 points better with him on the floor (101.2 vs. 113.2 defensive rating).

Those numbers aren’t a fluke. Russell’s defense has been legitimately good and deployed in an effective way. It’s a reason why Minnesota is fighting for a play-in berth — or, if they get lucky, just a straight-up playoff spot — these days.

Kemba Walker’s recent scorchers

Right around Thanksgiving, New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau opted to remove starting point guard Kemba Walker from the rotation. Not merely a demotion to the second unit, an outright benching. Walker watched from the sidelines for 10 consecutive games and didn’t play a minute.

While I wouldn’t have done it, the move was understandable, given New York’s bevy of scoring guards available. Walker was struggling mightily to create and score inside the arc, and his defense wasn’t cutting it either.

Over the past three games, absences from Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Derrick Rose have led to Walker returning to the starting lineup and absolutely cooking opponents to the tune of 31-8-5 on 60.9 percent true shooting. The run’s been punctuated by a 44-bomb against the Washington Wizards on Thursday evening, a flurry of buckets that surely seemed to delight the veteran guard.

Walker is a New York native and handled the benching basically as well as anyone could. When opportunity arose, he seized it and let the joy of the game overtake him. Thursday’s experience seemingly carried notoriety and his passion was evident. Walker’s long been a marvel to watch, both for his torrid pull-up shooting and blissful demeanor. This recent stretch is no different.

Aaron Gordon’s two-way play

The Denver Nuggets’ 2021-22 campaign has been a season from hell, apparently. Jamal Murray entered the year sidelined with a torn ACL, while Michael Porter Jr. and PJ Dozier are also now sidelined indefinitely with serious injuries. A team that looked like a legit title contender just eight months ago is now simply trying to make the playoffs.

One positive beyond Nikola Jokic having an historically great season: Aaron Gordon has been quite good on both ends as he continues to bring the off-ball scoring and perimeter defense the Nuggets coveted when they acquired him last season.

Virtually every night, Denver pins him to the top perimeter creator. By and large, he’s performed admirably, particularly at the point of attack and navigating screens to bother talented scorers.

Offensively, his chemistry with Jokic as a cutter is telekinetic. Despite the absences of Murray and Porter, Gordon isn’t routinely overindulging in self-creation attempts, even amid Denver’s vastly undermanned attack.

He’s shooting a career-high 74 percent at the rim (93rd percentile) and has shown faculty as a trusty slasher. His 59.9 percent true shooting is 4.4 points above league average, the best number of his career. If Murray and Porter return as the versions they were last season, this team is going to be tremendously good and Gordon’s two-way profile will be vital to that.

Following a few years of turmoil, Ariana Grande seems to be in a really good place lately. At the end of 2019, she released one of her best albums to date, Positions, and announced this March she’d accepted a role as a guest judge on The Voice. Right around Christmas last year, she got engaged to her boyfriend Dalton Gomez, and the pair tied the knot at their home in Montecito this spring for an intimate ceremony.

Today, however, fans woke up and noticed that Ariana had deactivated her Twitter account. She’s been posting on her Instagram story throughout the day, so it seems like her social media presence isn’t a thing of the past, but there was no message or reasoning behind the step with Twitter. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why anyone — and especially a celebrity — would want a break from the endless doom scrolling that Twitter often elicits. And even more so in a world where the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has once again led to many cancellations.

But it might also be that Ari is readying new music or signaling the beginning of a new era, so fans are also wondering what she might have up her sleeve with the move. Keep an eye out for more info either way, now that The Voice is over, we just might be getting new music.

After the year she’s had, it’s not that surprising that Olivia Rodrigo would feel like giving fans a little gift in return. Seriously, since her massive rise off of her debut single “Drivers License” and all the follow-ups that made Sour one of the top picks in our critics poll, it’s been a whirlwind of a year for Rodrigo. But, keep in mind, she’s been on her grind since way before any of us heard her latest material. In fact, apparently Olivia wasn’t just writing songs as young as the age of five, she was writing holiday songs way back then, too.

Today on Instagram, the young pop star shared a snippet of “my very first Christmas song,” along with a couple of old photos of herself as a kid. “In honor of Christmas Eve may I present to you my very first Christmas song “the bels” written by 5 year old me lol. happy holidays!!!!” she wrote in the caption. Check out her adorable old photos in the post below, and considering Olivia’s idol Taylor Swift has been slowly but surely giving us a few Christmas songs here and there, perhaps they can team up on a holiday classic for all the pop heads? For now, we have “The Bels” to tide us over, listen below.

In the age of Covid-19, attending a massive concert — even outdoors — is a risky prospect. But it’s even more so for the performers themselves, who are repeatedly exposed to thousands of fans. So it’s not that surprising that one of the members of BTS, Suga, tested positive for Covid-19 following the group’s recent string of performances in Los Angeles. Suga, real name Min Yoon-gi, was already self-quarantined in Korea when his PCR test returned a positive result today. Luckily, he is asymptomatic and seems to be fine so far.

A statement from BigHit Music let fans know that Suga is vaccinated and received his positive result while under quarantine, so none of the other members have been in contact with him. Check out the full statement below.

“Hello. This is BIGHIT Music. BTS member Suga was confirmed with Covid-19 on Friday, December 24 during his self-quarantine after taking the PCR test immediately upon his return to Korean on Thursday, December 23.

Sugar completed his second round of the Covid-19 vaccination in late August and is not presenting any symptoms as of today. He is currently administering self-care at home per the guidelines of the healthcare authorities.

Suga, who has had a number of personal engagements in the US during BTS’ official time off, had tested negative for the PCR test taken before traveling to the US, and began his self-quarantine after taking the PCR test upon his return to Korea. He received positive results during quarantine, and there was no contact with other members.”

Get well soon Suga!

The Golden State Warriors will head to Phoenix to take on the Suns in a potential Western Conference Finals preview on Christmas Day. It is one of the most highly-anticipated games of the season and the centerpiece of the NBA’s loaded slate on its biggest regular season day of the year.

While it is a big deal to get one of the league’s Christmas games, there is a pretty obvious downside: you have to work on Christmas. Not only that, but if you’re the road team, you don’t get to spend Christmas at home. If you’re lucky, you’ll get home late at night after a win and spend a little bit of time with your loved ones.

Following the team’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night, Draymond Green expressed some frustrations about this year’s arrangement for the Warriors. Basically, the team was on the road last year for Christmas, and Green isn’t a fan of having to do it for the second year in a row.

“I have a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old,” Green said, per ESPN. “I want to spend some time at home with my kids, too. We’re not playing against a defending champion. If we’re playing against a defending champion, you understand, but we’re not. And it’s a bit frustrating to have to go on the road a second year in a row. So now I miss my daughter’s first Christmas, and I’ll miss her second one. It’s kind of f*cked up. But it’s the reality. That’s what we’re faced with.

“You have to go do your job, but we’re human beings, too,” he continued. “So like I said, I missed her first one and I’ll miss her second one. I can’t explain that to her. So it sucks. We’re not robots, we’re not machines. We’re actual human beings with actual feelings, with actual families.”

It’s a tough situation for any player, but like Green said, it’s especially tough when players aren’t able to be with their families for several years in a row. The NBA is usually pretty good at responding to these sorts of things, so we have a hunch we won’t see Golden State playing anywhere other than Chase Center if they play a game on Christmas next year.

For the third time in sixteen months, Nas and Hit-Boy joined forces to deliver a new project to the world. Their latest effort is titled Magic and it comes four months after the duo came together for King’s Disease II. Magic presents nine songs with features from ASAP Rocky and DJ Premier. A highlight moment on the project comes on “Ugly” when Nas uses the Hit-Boy produced beat to share some news. “I’m on offense every day until I see the love,” he raps on the song’s first verse. “KD3 on the way, this just to feed the buzz.”

KD3 is of course an abbreviation for King’s Disease III, which would be the third installment in Nas and Hit-Boy’s album series that they began in August 2020. The first installment gave Nas his long-awaited Grammy award as the project won in the Best Rap Album category earlier this year. It’s not the first time that Nas has spoken about the possibility of a King’s Disease III. He previously did so during an interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden earlier this year.

“He’s like my Quincy [Jones], you know what I mean?” Nas said. “So I feel like the next thing I do, if I was to work with Hit-Boy on the next thing I do, I think that we might do something that is going to be magical.”

You can listen to “Ugly” in the video above.

Magic is out now via Mass Appeal. Get it here.