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Pop star Britney Spears has signed a USD 15 million book deal with publishing house Simon & Schuster for a tell-all memoir. According to Page Six, Simon & Schuster secured the deal for Spears' memoir after a massive bidding war involving multiple publishers. The book deal comes three months after the singer's 13-year conservatorship was terminated by a judge. In her public testimony last year about the conservatorship, Spears told the Los Angeles judge that she had been forced to work by conservators despite begging for breaks, and that she had no control over her finances, was denied her wish to marry her boyfriend, and was barred from removing her birth control despite her wish to have a third child. Spears, 41, has also been vocal about her estrangement from her family, including dad Jamie, mom Lynne and sister Jamie Lynn. She recently publicly condemned Jamie Lynn, who made allegations about the singer's mental health while promoting her own memoir. She described her pop ..
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has said that the band will stop recording new music in 2025. The 44-year-old musician made the revelation during an appearance on BBC Radio 2's special broadcast. "Our last proper record will come out in 2025, and after that I think we will only tour," Martin said. "And maybe we'll do some collaborative things but the Coldplay catalogue, as it were, finishes then," he added. Martin leads the band which also includes Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion. Coldplay released their ninth album, 'Music of the Spheres', in October this year. The band is set to embark on a global tour next year. At the time of the album's release, Martin had said that the band might stop after releasing three more albums. "This is not a joke, this is true. I think after 12 that will be the end of our catalogue, but I think we will always want to play live together," Martin told Absolute Radio. "So, I think in the way that the (Rolling) Stones do, it will be so
Jon Batiste might be the Grammys biggest surprise: The multi-genre performer and recent Oscar winner made such an impression on voters that he scored the most nominations with 11 on Tuesday. Batiste earned an album of the year nod for We Are along with record of the year with Freedom, a feel-good ode to the city of New Orleans. His nominations span several genres including R&B, jazz, American roots music, classical and music video. Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and HER each came away with the second-most nominations with eight by the time the Recording Academy was done announcing its nominees for its January 31 show. Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo both had seven nods. Along with Batiste's surprise domination, another shock was The Weeknd nabbing three nominations after the pop star claimed he would not allow his label to submit his music. Earlier this year, he angrily slammed the Grammys, calling them corrupt after he received zero nominations despite 2020's biggest single, Blinding
Thousands of Venezuelan musicians, most of them children and adolescents, have earned the title of the world's largest orchestra. The record was set by 8,573 musicians. Guinness World Records in a video released Saturday announced that the musicians, all connected to the country's network of youth orchestras, earned the designation with a performance a week earlier of Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March". The musicians, ranging in age from 12 to 77, attempted the record during a patriotic concert at a military academy in the capital of Caracas. To set the record, more than 8,097 had to be tallied playing at the same time during a five-minute period of Tchaikovsky's piece. The network of orchestras known as El Sistema, or The System, assembled some 12,000 musicians for the concert. The repertoire included Venezuela by Pablo Herrero and Jose Luis Armenteros, the South American country's national anthem and Pedro Gutierrez's Alma Llanera, which Venezuelans consider their unofficial anthem.