Remembering Liam Payne | Popping In, Vol. 7
Being part of a fandom is so special.
Hello, hello, hello! Hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend. My weekend has been almost too pop to handle. I reunited with one of my OG favs yesterday, Joe Jonas, at his Scotch and Soda event here in New York and tonight I’m trekking to New Jersey to see Giggly Squad’s Club Giggly tour. We’ll chat about how hilarious Paige and Hannah were on the podcast on Wednesday.
If you know me IRL or online pre-podcast, you know how deep the Jonas Brothers lore goes with me. One day I’ll do a deep dive into how the Jonas Brothers have played an integral part in my preteen and early 20’s, but that’s for another day.
In case you didn’t listen to this week’s podcast episode yet, you’re in luck! I’ve decided to start publishing podcast notes for each episode to give you guys a new way to stay up to date on everything I yapped about.
But for everyone who’s up to date on their moments from the week that were too pop to handle, let’s dive into the newsletter.
Remembering Liam Payne
It's never a fun moment adding something to the “I remember where I was when _____ died” folder. We all remember where we were when we found out about Michael Jackson (in my childhood bedroom and found out through a post on the Jonas Brothers fan club message board), Cory Monteith (waking up the day after Warped Tour to a text from my best friend Brionna and thinking “this can’t be real”), and now Liam Payne (on the ab machine at the gym).
Needless to say, it’s been a sad week for fangirls and the music industry after news about Liam’s passing broke Wednesday night. Though the news surrounding him the last few weeks has been unfavorable, it’s been nice to see his peers and fans reminiscing on the good memories they shared with him. The official One Direction band account released a joint statement to their Instagram with individual statements from Harry, Niall, Zayn, and Louis to follow.
We also got some heartwarming statements from X-Factor alum Cher Lloyd, who shared a photo of the two of them on her Instagram, saying she’ll cherish the memories they made and the laughs they had. In addition, Maggie Rogers and Rita Ora made statements during concerts they performed this week. During her show in Osaka, Japan stating “I can’t even sing this song right now” about her and Liam’s 2018 duet "For You" from Fifty Shades Freed. Maggie Rogers performed a cover of “Night Changes” at her show in Boston.
“We’re just about the same age. Any time a public figure, especially a musical peer, slips off, it’s really present, and I’ve been sending a bunch of love to my friends and my band the last couple days… I wanted to just honor anyone who has been touched by music or those songs.
Though I was never a huge One Direction fan, I was lucky enough to see them back in 2014 on their Where We Are Tour and know how important they were to so many of my friends. There’s something really special about being part of a fandom and I can’t imagine how this feels for the 1D stans out there.
After reuniting with a member from the band who was my One Direction equivalent this weekend, I’m sending lots of love to everyone who was touched by their music at one point or another. 💖
Cynthia Erivo reacts to fan edits of the Wicked Movie Poster
Our on-screen Elphaba wants to be removed from the AI conversation ‘For Good’. She took to her Instagram to express how upsetting it is to see people creating deepfakes and fan edits of her and Ariana Grande’s Wicked poster.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real-life human being, who chose to to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer ...because, without words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”
Cynthia has been in the industry for years, but never in such a way as big as Wicked. This is more than likely her first time experiencing “fans” manipulating her images with AI, whereas Ariana Grande has been dealing with AI deepfakes for years, so I can totally understand why it’s striking such a chord with her. What I don’t understand is the way fans are reacting to her putting her foot down and expressing how uncomfortable this makes her. When did we start jumping down people’s throats for standing up for themselves and voicing their opinions? I guess after the uproar Chappell Roan received for saying she didn’t want to be stalked earlier this year, I shouldn’t be so surprised.
Is Lady Gaga releasing the LG7 lead single this month?
I feel like I’ve been talking about Lady Gaga’s upcoming album for months (probably because I have been) but now that we’re in October, it’s been at the forefront of my mind more than ever. We all know she teased the LG7 lead single was coming this month on Instagram and I thought for sure we’d be getting the announcement this past Friday after she changed 7 letters in her discography to lowercase letters that spelled “Disease”.
Fans even found a pre-save link for the single on her website. I mean, come on! There’s only one Friday left this month which means it has to be coming on October 25th, right? 😅
Time will tell, but my arms are getting tired from my paws being up.
Before I wrap things up I just need to leave you with some of the INCREDIBLE music releases we received this week.
Dance music is back and I could not be happier. We’ll chat more about these releases on the podcast this Wednesday. Chat with you guys then! 💖