OHMYGOSSIP — Mo Gilligan is donating his fee for hosting the 2022 BRIT Awards with Mastercard to charity.
The 33-year-old comedian has taken over from Jack Whitehall as the compere for the annual music awards ceremony, which returns to The O2 arena in London on February 8.
And the British funnyman has announced he will be giving his paycheque to the maternity charity Five x More, an organisation “committed to changing Black women and birthing people’s maternal health outcomes in the UK.”
Mo wrote on Instagram this week: “Last year I had the year of my life it was amazing so I’m starting how I finished, I’m starting it by hosting the 2022 @brits award & I’m extremely excited to be donating my @brits fee to @fivexmore_.
“They do amazing work in the community and when the spotlight is on me it’s only right I shine it on others. Give these ladies a follow to see the ammazing work they do for maternal health. (sic)”
Sharing his excitement to be hosting the BRITs, Mo said in a previous statement: “It’s an absolute privilege to host the 2022 BRIT Awards. I’m truly honoured to be asked. We’re already in the extensive planning stages and all I can say is, I promise we’re going to give it all we’ve got to create an incredible night for music fans everywhere. Let’s go!”
Adele leads this year’s nominations, with four nods.
The London-born star is shortlisted for Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Best pop/R&B categories after releasing her new album ’30’ in November.
Adele is joined on four nominations by Dave, Ed Sheeran, and Little Simz.
Dave is in contention for the Best hip-hop/grime/rap, Song of the Year, Artist of the Year and Album of the Year gongs.
Ed – who released ‘=’ in October – has also been nominated for the Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year accolades, as well as the Best pop/R&B gong.
Little Simz is up for the Best hip-hop/grime/rap, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and Best New Artist awards.
Meanwhile, the Best International Artist accolade will be contested by Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift.
Olivia – who released her debut album, ‘SOUR’, in May – has enjoyed a meteoric rise this year, and she’s also been nominated for the Best International Song award.
Elsewhere, the Best International Group gong will go to one of Abba, BTS, Maneskin – who won the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year – Silk Sonic and War On Drugs.
Holly Humberstone has already been announced as the winner of the coveted Rising Star award, following in the footsteps of artists such as Adele and Sam Smith.
The upcoming ceremony will feature a new selection of gender-neutral categories, after the organisers decided to scrap the best male and female categories and create a broader group of nominees.

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OHMYGOSSIP — PinkPantheress has won BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2022 award.
The 20-year-old musician has been handed the coveted accolade after she was chosen by a panel of over 130 industry experts, including Billie Eilish, Sir Elton John, Jade Thirlwall, Ed Sheeran and Jorja Smith.
PinkPantheress – who makes her music in her university halls – said: “Thank you so much! I’m honestly gassed, my dad’s going to be so happy! This is kind of the reason I do music – it’s for other people as well as myself.
“It’s a great feeling and it genuinely does keep me going.”
PinkPantheress’ sound has been described as a cocktail of UK garage, two-step, pop and alt-rock.
The young musician already has more than one million followers and more than seven million likes on TikTok, and Jack Saunders, the host of Radio 1’s Future Artists, has hailed her as a “pop prodigy”.
Jack said: “It was a fierce year for talent on Radio 1’s Sound of list this year and that shows you the quality of the winner, PinkPantheress.
“Her rise through TikTok came at a time before everyone else had properly realised the app’s potential and she also applied this foresight to her music. Stirring a smooth melting pot of UKG, Drum n Bass and Emo with a good helping of mystery in her persona; everyone wants to be a PinkPantheress fan at the moment.
“She is a pop prodigy and deserved winner of Radio 1’s Sound of 2022.”
PinkPantheress has built a legion of fans over the last 12 months, including chart-toppers Coldplay, who recently covered ‘Just For Me’ in Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
Previous winners of the award include the likes of Sam Smith, Jessie J and Adele.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Kanye West and Billie Eilish are rumoured to be headlining Coachella 2022.
The world-famous festival is due to return to the desert at the Empire Polo Club in Indio across the weekends of April 15 to April 17 and April 22 and 23, 2022.
And following hints last year that Swedish House Mafia will headline, Variety now reports that the 44-year-old rap legend and the 20-year-old Grammy-winner could be set to close the main stage.
It’s been claimed Billie would headline the first Saturday night, as the North American leg of her ‘Happier Than Ever The World Tour’ wraps just days before the first weekend.
The ‘bad guy’ hitmaker performed on a smaller stage in 2019.
And the ‘Stonger’ hitmaker – who was asked to perform in 2019, but dropped out – would headline on the Sunday night.
In October, an image of house music trio Swedish House Mafia – comprising Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello – was shared on the official Coachella social media pages along with three black circle emojis, prompting speculation that the ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ hitmakers will be performing.
Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion were also previously confirmed for Coachella 2022.
Travis Scott was removed as a headliner in December, following the Astroworld tragedy. The hip-hop artist was set to headline alongside Rage Against The Machine.
Coachella had changed its policy on entry to the festival so that it’s no longer a requirement to be inoculated against COVID-19 to attend.
The update on their website read: “After seeing first-hand the low transmission data and successful implementation of safety protocols at our festivals recently, alongside the rising vaccination rate of eligible Americans, we feel confident that we can safely update our policy for Coachella that allows for [a] negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of the event OR proof of full vaccination.”
However, with the surge in Omicron cases, it’s not known if the festival will continue with its current set of dates and if entry requirements will change.
Coachella hasn’t taken place since 2019 due to the global pandemic.

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OHMYGOSSIP — John Mayer has pulled out of Dead & Company’s Playing In The Sand festival, due to a positive COVID-19 test.
After his bandmate Bill Kreutzmann was forced to miss the upcoming gigs in Mexico’s Riviera Cancún on doctor’s orders relating to a heart condition, the 44-year-old rocker will also be unable to perform at the event, which kicks off on Friday (07.01.22) to January 10, and again, on January 13 until January 16.
Dead & Company wrote on social media: “Today, just prior to leaving for Mexico, per his physician, @JohnMayer tested positive for COVID-19 and will be unable to perform at the upcoming ‘Playing in the Sand’ event in Riviera Cancun January 7-10.”
The supergroup – also comprising Bill’s fellow surviving Grateful Dead band members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, plus Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge – will have ex-Primus drummer Jay Lane, who has previously stepped in for the sticksman, with them, plus Margo Price.
Announcing the lineup changes, they added: “The weekend will now feature Dos Hermanos con Amigos: @MickeyHart and @BobWeir with @JeffChimentiMusic and @Oteil_Burbridge, joined by @LuvrzLane, Tom Hamilton @trhjunior and including special guests and sit ins including @MissMargoPrice and others.”
Bob added: “We came down here to have fun. Unfortunately some of our brothers cannot make it but fun is what we’re going to have.”
Making light of the situation, Bill had joked on Twitter: “After a lifetime of playing special beats, it’s almost no wonder that my heart came up with its own idea of rhythm.”
The 75-year-old musician vowed to return to the stage and insisted he has “a lot of music left in me” yet.
He continued in the statement: “All jokes aside, my doctor has ordered me to take it easy (and stay safe) through the end of January so that I can continue to drum and play for you for many tours to come. I have a lot of music left in me and there’s no stopping me from playing it.
“I’ve never been one to obey orders or play by the rules, but in the interest of longevity, I hope you’ll understand.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Avenged Sevenfold’s new album is “very influenced by Kanye West”.
Frontman M. Shadows has revealed the heavy metal band’s eagerly-awaited follow-up to 2016’s ‘The Stage’ takes inspiration from the 44-year-old hip-hop superstar, as well as soul and jazz music.
In an interview with Metal Hammer magazine, Shadows said: “The thing about Kanye is that he is pulling from such great soul music.
“I didn’t grow up with that stuff – my dad listened to Boston and Alice Cooper, I didn’t get that taste of black music and old soul. So, diving deep into jazz musicians … we’re not trying to do a jazz record, but the chord changes and progressions are so eye-opening to us.”
The ‘Seize the Day’ rocker explained that the group have been sitting on the record for the past 12 months as they have been waiting to add strings, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a spanner in the works.
He added: “The record’s been recorded for a year, but we haven’t been able to put the real strings on it, because we couldn’t fly out to Prague. When an orchestra have to social distance and they aren’t sitting next to each other, they can get out of tune, and we have just finally got to a place where we can use this 70-piece orchestra as we intended.”
The 40-year-old star – whose real name is Matthew Charles Sanders – previously teased that the LP will see them head in “a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done. That’s all I’ll say about it: it’s over the top, and it’s very eclectic and wild!”
The ‘Hail to the King’ band previously hinted at addressing the issues that affect the world on their eighth outing.
Guitarist Zacky Vengeance, 40, said previously: “I think it’s important for us to lend our voice to what’s shaping the world socially and politically.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Westlife’s Shane Filan says he can see Ed Sheeran forming a boy band one day.
The ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker is a huge fan of boy bands and has penned tracks for the likes of Westlife, One Direction and Boyzone.
And the ‘You Raise Me Up’ singer says the 30-year-old Grammy-winner has what it takes to put together a boy band and mentor them to success.
The 42-year-old vocalist also believes the flame-haired pop star could have been in a boy band himself.
Shane told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: “Ed is a huge fan of pop music, particularly boy bands, he would probably love to be in one.
“When Ed was growing up he told me he learned how to play guitar to ‘Flying Without Wings’ and that was one of his party pieces when he was busking.
“He had the ‘Westlife’s Greatest Hits’ on repeat.”
He continued: “He was growing up listening to us and other bands and would probably not have been a solo artist 15 years ago because Ed Sheeran the solo artist may not have worked so well.
“But all the boy bands were gone after that.”
Shane hailed Ed as “one of the best songwriters in the world” and a “true fan of pop music”.
He added: “Now he’s working with a lot of these people and knows how to get the best out of vocal groups because he’s a true fan of pop music and one of the best songwriters in the world.
“He’s such a good storyteller.”
The ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker co-wrote a number of tracks for their 2019 album ‘Spectrum’, and the group insisted he was the “only” man who “could get Westlife out of bed”.
Nicky Byrne – who completes the lineup with Mark Feehily and Kian Egan – said at the time: “When the opportunity came up last year to reunite … who gets a second bite at the cherry, you know? We never knew if the tour would just be a nostalgia one-off – you know, you say hello to the fans, and then goodbye. We thought, ‘We’d love to give it more than that, and try to make a new album’, and that’s when Ed Sheeran, to be fair, stepped up. I think if there’s probably only one man that could get Westlife out of bed, it was Ed Sheeran.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — The Beatles’ legendary 1969 rooftop concert at Apple Corps’ Savile Row headquarters is coming to IMAX.
Following the footage featuring in Peter Jackson’s ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ docuseries for Disney+, a 60-minute Exclusive IMAX Event Screening and Filmmaker Q&A will take place on January 30, 2022, to mark the anniversary of the landmark performance, which became their final public performance as a group.
Director and producer Peter said: “To celebrate the anniversary of the landmark performance, select IMAX® theaters will host the screenings with a filmmaker Q&A and give away exclusive mini-posters. The Q&A will be broadcast via satellite simultaneously to all connected IMAX locations.
“I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen.
“It’s The Beatles’ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”
Megan Colligan, president of IMAX Entertainment, added: “Ever since Peter Jackson’s beautiful and illuminating docuseries debuted, we’ve heard non-stop from fans who want to experience its unforgettable rooftop performance in IMAX.
“We are so excited to partner with Disney to bring ‘Get Back’ to an entirely new stage and give Beatles fans everywhere a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch and hear their heroes in the unrivalled sight and sound of IMAX.”
A press release states that the footage will be “optimized for IMAX screens, digitally remastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Remastering) technology.”
‘The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert’ will then run February 11-13, 2022. The complete docuseries, ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ will also be available on Blu-rayTM in the UK on February 28, 2022.
Meanwhile, Peter recently shared how he restored the sound on the Liverpool legends’ songs for ‘Get Back’.
The ‘Lord of the Rings’ director explained: “To me the sound restoration is the most exciting thing. We made some huge breakthroughs in audio. We developed a machine learning system that we taught what a guitar sounds like, what a bass sounds like, what a voice sounds like. In fact, we taught the computer what John [Lennon] sounds like and what Paul [McCartney] sounds like. So we can take these mono tracks and split up all the instruments we can just hear the vocals, the guitars. You see Ringo [Starr] thumping the drums in the background but you don’t hear the drums at all. That that allows us to remix it really cleanly.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Bruce Dickinson plans to finish up his new solo album after his North American spoken-word tour wraps.
The Iron Maiden frontman already has several demos to tinker with for his follow-up to 2006’s ‘Tyranny Of Souls’, and he might need to “write a few more tunes” for his seventh studio effort once he’s done with his ‘An Evening With Bruce Dickinson’ shows in March.
Bruce explained how once his part is done, he leaves the rest to his long-time collaborator, Roy ‘Z’ Ramirez.
He said: “I am obviously coming over to [America to] do the one-man [spoken-word] show [beginning in late January].
“When I get to the end of the one-man show thing at the end of March, then the idea is I’ve got about three weeks cooling my heels somewhere.
“I’ll lie down in a darkened room for a couple of days and recover from the tour and then put my singing head on and go and have a chat with [longtime collaborator] Roy [‘Z’ Ramirez]. ‘Cause we’ve already got a bunch of material, but we need to organise it a little bit.
“We have demos and everything, but we need to organise it a bit more properly and be a bit more serious about it — maybe write a few more tunes. And then basically leave it down to Roy. [Once] we’ve got what we wanna do, he can go off and start doing backing tracks and things like that.”
He added to Loudwire: “Obviously, I’m gonna be going out on tour with Maiden [later in the year], but we made ‘Tyranny Of Souls’ that way. ‘Tyranny Of Souls’ was done not exactly remotely — well, kind of remotely in that I wasn’t physically present when some of the backing tracks were done but he sent me the backtracks and I listened to them and went, ‘These are cool.’ And some of them I wrote the words to the backtracks, and the tunes and everything.
“And some of them we had already done. So mixing and matching like that sometimes gets great results.”
There was talk of the 63-year-old rocker doing a reworked cut of ‘If Eternity Should Fail’ from the heavy metal titans’ 2015 ‘The Book Of Souls’ LP, which was intended to be a solo cut.
The ‘Run to the Hills’ hitmaker previously explained how he had “a whole concept album, which was gonna be called ‘If Eternity Should Fail’. And ‘If Eternity Should Fail’ was the title track to my new solo album.
“And a bit like [Dickinson’s 1989 solo song] ‘Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter’ [laughs], it got commandeered for Iron Maiden. So if I did do another solo album, which I think I will, I might just stick to my original plan and have that as the title track.
“I mean, I did write it — it was the first track that I wrote for it.
“So, yeah, I’d probably still include that song. But it would be … the feel would be slightly different — not very much, though — from the Maiden version.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Liam Payne says releasing ‘Sunshine’ was the highlight of his year.
In a New Year’s message to fans, the 28-year-old singer reflected on a busy 2021, which saw him celebrate 11 years of One Direction and some solo milestones but his top memory was the release of his single, which featured in the movie ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’.
Writing in his newsletter, he said: “We had lots of anniversaries this year – 11 years of One Direction and 10 Years of ‘Up All Night’ and four years of ‘Bedroom Floor’ that you helped celebrate with me.
“You guys have been listening to my music through the roof this year, we hit 100 million on ‘Midnight’ on Spotify. I will always remember that day recording it in the studio with Alesso on Christmas Eve 2019!! Thanks for showing it love everyone
“My absolute favourite thing I did in 2021 was release ‘Sunshine’ and have it featured in ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’. It’s been amazing to see all the love from you guys, especially on TikTok.”
Liam is also proud of the ‘Here’s To The Future’ live show he put on and launching his first ever NFT collection.
He wrote: “We started the year with my Here’s To The Future show, kicking off with the #TheLPShowAct4 featuring so many incredible artists with Nina Nesbitt, Claire Roskinkranz and Ross Harris. It was so awesome to run these shows and watch so much talent
“This year I launched my first ever NFT collection alongside Zedd and Silly Gabe, and even featuring Gary Vee on the rarest 1 of 1 piece! The response to #LonelyBug was so overwhelming and was great going on that journey with you.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Nandi Bushell wants to work with Billie Eilish.
The 11-year-old drummer – who had a memorable drum-off with Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl – revealed her wish for 2022 is to work with Eilish, 20.
She wrote on Instagram: “My New Years Message to you all is, ‘Keep Trying! Never Give Up! You CAN do anything you put your mind to!’ – it is true,I would LOVE to jam with @billieeilish and one day be #primeminister of #greatbritain
“I am looking forward to writing more songs, jamming as much as possible with as many people as possible and having lots of fun in 2022!
“I have had so many amazing experience this year! Thank you to everyone that made it so special!
“THANK YOU EVERYONE who has supported me! You guys are all INCREDIBLE!!! #thankyou #happynewyear (sic).”
Nandi recently shared a cover of Billie’s ‘Happier Than Ever’, featuring an impressive drum solo.
Meanwhile, Billie recently admitted that she “cried every single day” for a week before hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ in December.
She admitted: “Preparing for ‘SNL’ was nuts, dude. It was literally alien. I cried every single day of the week. No joke at all,” explaining how she loves acting but “that’s not my world.”
Recalling going through a table read beforehand, she added: “I went to the Green Room, cried, and came back. I was just scared. It’s like, it’s ‘SNL’… These amazingly talented actors are surrounding a table where, somehow, I’m the main course.”
The ‘Happier Than Ever’ hitmaker’s nerves caused a physical reaction too as she was sick with anxiety.
She told SiriusXM’s Howard Stern: “I had a full-body reaction. I threw up on a plane coming here. I had crazy s**ts when I got here like you wouldn’t believe… you know, ones where you have to get fully naked on the toilet.
“I’ve been anxious and nervous… just because it’s not my world and I’m so petrified of people thinking I suck.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Tony Iommi is planning more music “in the vein” of his ‘Scent of Dark’ song.
The Black Sabbath legend recently dropped a solo single and perfume of the same name, featuring symphonic strings, and the 73-year-old guitar god has revealed he wants to continue writing music just like that.
In a YouTube video entitled ‘Tony Iommi New Year 2022 Message’, he teased: “A couple of interesting things [have] happened to me in the last year, one being they’ve named a fossil after me — a 480-million-year [old] fossil [called] Iommi, which I’m really proud of.
“It’s brilliant! I never thought that would happen. And the next thing that happened, which again I would never have believed, is I’ve got my own perfume out.
“That’s really great for me because I’ve always been interested for many, many years in different colognes and aftershaves and whatever else.”
He added: “I really enjoyed it, and the response has been fantastic.
“I’m going to continue in that vein of writing stuff like that. It was a great experience. … My wife played the ghost at the end of the video, and [at] the beginning, so have a look!”
The musician also heaped praise on his former bandmate Ozzy Osbourne and teased the track Tony wrote for the 73-year-old rocker’s upcoming solo LP.
Tony gushed: “He’s done some great vocals on it.
“I was really pleased with what he’s done — he’s singing really well.”
Although Tony and Ozzy are in regular contact, they “don’t really speak” directly because the ‘Paranoid’ singer gets confused by different time zones in the US and UK so they largely communicate by text.
Tony said recently: “We’re in touch quite a lot. We don’t really speak because we are useless on the phone, the pair of us. I think we stopped that when he used to phone me at 2 o’clock in the morning and I’d go, ‘Oz, it’s 2 o’clock in the morning.’ ‘Oh, oh, sorry. All right. Bye.’
“He forgets about what time it is in England, and of course when the phone goes at that time of the morning you think, ‘Oh, Christ. What’s that? Somebody’s died or something has happened.’ And of course it’s him going, ‘Oh, oh, oh, oh, sorry. I didn’t know it was that time.’ So we tend to sort of just text now.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sir Mick Jagger loved getting “out in nature” on tour.
The Rolling Stones frontman has revealed he spent more time outdoors during his downtime in between shows on the iconic rock ‘n’ roll group’s most recent ‘No Filter Tour’ in the US, instead of going to dive bars, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He shared: “Each town has something of great interest, whether it’s a beautiful park, or a lovely picture, or a museum that’s interesting to you, or some odd thing that you never thought of.
“Local people tell me that that’s a popular dive bar when I get there. In normal times, I would go into the bar and spend time in there. But, you know, I didn’t want to do that because of COVID. So I just went outside.”
Among the places the 78-year-old singer visited and photographed last year, was the Thirsty Beaver in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In an interview with The Washington Post, he continued: “Touring’s a pretty urban thing, so it’s nice to get out in nature and see a different perspective on things when you go to places like that. It’s wild. I went for some long hikes in some of these other places where I didn’t take any pictures.”
The ‘Satisfaction’ rocker added how bandmate Keith Richards, 78, “has a different approach to how he handles being on tour. I mean, he does occasionally go out to eat. But I think the COVID thing … people quite rightly got worried about what would happen if they ran into a crowd of people.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Lil Nas X says the music industry has “sanatised” LGBTQ artists’ music.
The ‘Old Town Road’ hitmaker came out as gay in June 2019 and has claimed that “anything sexual” from a queer star is often censored.
Speaking on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’, he said: “It’s always been, ‘Okay, if you’re gay, this needs to be sanitised. Let’s not include anything sexual.’ It’s like, ‘Be gay without being gay. We don’t wanna know what happens behind closed doors, or we don’t want you to express that.’”
The 22-year-old chart-topper – whose real name is Montero Hill – previously admitted he was “afraid” of coming out.
The ‘Industry Baby’ star was terrified of telling the world he is gay but knew he had to “stand in [his] truth” for the sake of all the other young people like him.
He said: “I was afraid because I knew the world was watching, and all I ever saw for boys like me was judgment and ridicule, but it was because the world was watching, that I knew I had to stand in my truth.”
And Nas X said he hopes society reaches a point where it is “no longer ground-breaking” for LGBTQ artists to find success.
Speaking as he was honoured at the Native Son Awards last year, he said: “Some people say I am pushing an agenda, and I am. It’s called liberation. There’s no road map when you’re the first to break a barrier, and I hope that one day it’s no longer ground-breaking for queer artists to find mainstream success…. Until that day comes, there’s work to do and I will continue to do my part.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Vampire Weekend are “close” to having an “album’s worth of songs”.
Frontman Ezra Koenig has revealed the indie band have recorded new music in England and Los Angeles for their follow-up to 2019’s ‘Father of the Bride’.
Speaking to Mark Hoppus on his Apple Music Hits show, Ezra said of the time between the release of their last record and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their music-making: “It is crazy that it’s been three years.
“I mean, about a year and a half of it doesn’t count because of COVID.
“But, yeah. We’ve been working on music and we were just recording in England for a while, now back in LA, working with everybody and, yeah, I think we’re … I’m always hesitant to… Sometimes I oversell how close we are with the record because who really knows? But we almost have an album’s worth of songs.”
The 37-year-old rocker admitted that while they have plenty of new material in the works, he’s unable to offer up a release date they are aiming for, because “you could tinker with a song forever.”
He added: “As you well know, you could tinker with a song forever; change the arrangement, change the lyrics, whatever.
“But in that sense we’re close. I have no idea how long it’ll take to finish, but we’re feeling really good about the new material. So yeah, a lot of studio time to come after the holidays.”
The group’s last LP was the first without multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, as he couldn’t commit to the group.
Ezra explained at the time: “We were each other’s first fans.
“But he was clear Vampire Weekend was one of multiple projects for him.”
While the record was the group’s first album in six years, the ‘Oxford Comma’ hitmaker insisted there wasn’t anything particularly negative about it taking so long.
He said: “Well, this wasn’t a six-year arduous journey. The simplest way to put it is: three years not working, a year of dipping my toes in, two of working really hard.”
In 2018, Ezra and his partner, Rashida Jones, welcomed their first child into the world and the singer admitted that was one of the reasons why the record was delayed.
He said: “I’m still getting used to talking about family. We’d prefer never to talk about it, but, without detail, yes, this album could have come out sooner if I cared less about spending time with my family.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Five insisted there was no need to change their name after two members left.
The remaining members of the ‘Everybody Get Up’ hitmakers – which comprises Scott Robinson, Ritchie Neville and Sean Conlon following the departures of Abz Love and Jason ‘J’ Brown – insisted having a different moniker would make them a completely new band and other acts have endured line-up changes without similar comments.
Scott said “If you change the name, you’re essentially a different band.
“Obviously some people might come to a Five show and think we might not be as good as three…”
Richie interrupted: “Then we stick it to them!”
Scott added: “We do find it funny. But the thing is, you’ve got Westlife – Brian [McFadden] left and no one batted an eyelid. Take That became three, no one batted an eyelid. It’s just because we called ourselves Five.
“At the end of the day, it’s something to talk about.”
Richie added: “We embrace it now. Five is the soul. You know what you’re getting when you hear the name Five.”
The trio insisted fans wouldn’t want them to have kept going as a quintet if not everyone wanted to be involved but they won’t try to erase their former bandmates from their history.
Sean added: “It’s our story. We’ll never forget Jay and Abz. They don’t want to be here, but we’re not trying to erase them.”
Scott said: “But we’re the three members of the band that want to be here and we’re flying the flag for Five.
“The fans don’t want someone who doesn’t want to be there.”
Although the group had “amazing times” during their 90s heyday, there were also moments when things got “extremely dark”.
Scott said in a recent interview: “There were some really amazing times – winning awards, selling loads of albums, travelling the world.
“But behind the curtain, you didn’t really see any of the countries, you were suffering from sleep deprivation and no one knew.
“There were some amazingly bright times and some extremely dark times.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Billie Joe Armstrong has pulled out of ‘Miley Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve Party’, due to COVID-19 exposure.
The NBC special to ring in 2022 is set to feature performances from the likes of Saweetie, Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Anitta, and more.
The Green Day frontman was also on the bill but has been forced to axe his appearance, “out of caution”, after he came into contact with someone with coronavirus.
The ‘Basket Case’ hitmaker tweeted: “After the holiday I found out I was exposed to COVID. I’ve tested negative but, I have made the decision not to travel to Miami for New Year’s Eve Party out of caution. Happy New Year and hope everyone stays safe!”
Miley will be joined by co-host Pete Davidson for the star-studded show, which has replaced Carson Daly’s annual New Year’s Eve special.
The network also promised more surprise guests will appear on the show, which will air live from Miami from 10.30pm.
News of the star-studded special was announced last month.
Jen Neal, the executive vice president of live events, specials and E! News at NBCUniversal, said in a statement: “In what is sure to be an exciting and fun evening, we are looking forward to partnering with Lorne Michaels and ringing in 2022 with a night of incredible entertainment, led by Miley and Pete.”
The TV special is being directed by Joe DeMaio and Hopetown Entertainment – Miley and her mom Tish’s production company – will produce the project.
‘Saturday Night Live’ creator Lorne Michaels is the executive producer.
Meanwhile, the hosts revealed earlier this month they used to have matching tattoos but the ‘SNL’ star secretly had his removed.
The pair had appeared in a sketch on ‘SNL’ in 2017 as rapping babies, which ended with them saying the words, “We babies”.
Miley said: “We were dressed as babies, everything seemed fun and fine. For some reason, we looked at each other and were like, ‘That’s a great tattoo… we’re doing this.’”
Pete added: “And then we did…And then I burned mine off, and you still have yours.”
The ‘Wrecking Ball’ singer only realised Pete had had his removed when she saw him beginning the process in an advert.
She said: “He’s drinking Smartwater and getting his tattoos lasered off… and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. That’s right where ‘we babies’ was.”
Pete quipped: “It’s no babies.”

Source: IconInsider.com