SELENA Gomez and Hailey Bieber risked an awkward run in at a glam Hollywood galaCredit: GettyIt came just hours after the women exchanged swipesCredit: GettySelena attended the event alongside husband Benny BlancoCredit: Getty
The 28-year-old Rhode Beauty founder told WSJ Magazine she “doesn’t feel competitive with people she’s not inspired by”.
On Saturday, Selena, 33, spoke out, penning a post on her Instagram before quickly deleting it.
“She can say what she wants, it doesn’t affect my life whatsoever,” she snapped.
Just hours after Selena’s post, the two women appeared at the 2025 Academy Museum Gala in LA.
“I didn’t ask for that. When people want to see you a certain way and they’ve made up a story about you in their minds, it’s not up to you to change that.”
Surprise! The 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lineup is out and it’s topped by pop stars.
Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G will headline the twin weekends of the festival, which return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio April 10-12 and 17-19, 2026.
Other notable acts include elder statesmen such as Iggy Pop, David Byrne and Devo, rock acts including the Strokes and Turnstile, pop star Addison Rae, Laufey, EDM superstar Kaskade, rapper Young Thug and dozens of others.
The bottom of the festival poster also announces something called “The Bunker Debut of Radiohead Kid A Mnesia.” The British rock band Radiohead recently announced European tour dates.
Also at the bottom of the poster, which has become a place for the festival to announce special engagements, is the world premiere of Anyma’s “Æden.” Anyma, the project of producer and artist Matteo Miller, was the first electronic act to headline Sphere in Las Vegas.
At the top of the poster for Friday, listed between the XX and Disclosure is an act called Nine Inch Noize. German producer Boys Noize joined Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails’ on the band’s recent tour and also labeled a live collaboration as Nine Inch Noize System on Instagram.
Since its inception in 1999, Coachella has included a diverse range of musical styles, but also less-than-expected acts, such as the colorful monsters of the show Yo Gabba Gabba! and the L.A. Phil earlier this year. For 2026, another beloved L.A. institution is on the bill: Bob Baker Marionettes, of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, are listed on the poster for Friday.
Coachella has given a spotlight to some of the world’s biggest K-pop and J-pop acts in recent years and in 2026 acts including Bigbang, Fujii Kaze, and Taemin.
The 2026 edition is also a makeup show of sorts for FKA Twigs, who had to cancel her 2025 North American tour, including stops at Coachella, due to visa issues. Promoter Goldenvoice has traditionally released the festival’s lineup in January, three months or so before the event.
Tickets start at $649 for a three-day pass for Weekend 1 and $549 for Weekend 2. (If you buy a 4-pack of tickets you can save $10 per pass.) VIP passes for Weekend 1 start at $1,299 and are $1,199 for Weekend 2.
New for 2026 is a group camping option, which allows people who want to camp together to arrive at different times. There’s a 10-spot minimum and a 20-spot maximum. Each camping spot is $160.
Passes go on sale to the general public at 11 a.m. Pacific on Friday, Sept. 19 at www.coachella.com.
Stratford in Ontario, Canada, may seem like a world away from the UK but it is filled with nods to British history – and is actually the birthplace of one of the biggest stars of the 21st century
Stratford in Ontario, Canada
This unassuming town in Ontario, Canada, might not feature on your travel bucket list but it boasts some rather remarkable credentials.
Stratford is positioned along the River Avon in Ontario, Canada, having been established by European settlers in 1832 and endearingly christened after Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace in England.
Ever since, the life and literary works of the figure many consider the English language’s finest writer have become woven into the community’s very fabric.
Located just a two-hour journey from Toronto, this frequently overlooked small city offers plenty for visitors seeking an alternative Canadian experience, reports the Mirror US.
The town is filled with the arts
Situated inland and encircled by lush landscapes save for the tranquil river flowing through its centre, it provides a perfect retreat for those eager to delve into both heritage and theatre.
The Stratford Festival, ranked as the area’s top attraction, generates the most excitement by presenting a diverse programme of stage productions honouring Shakespeare’s masterpieces.
One TripAdvisor reviewer said: “Not a bad seat in the house. It was full, but you never really got the feeling that it was overcrowded.
“Beautiful scenery all around the theater as well. We’d recommend giving it a try, and we’re already looking forward to our next show.”
Another essential destination for arts enthusiasts is the Avon Theatre, which dates back to 1901. Today, outside its famous steps sits a golden star plaque honouring pop sensation Justin Bieber, who used to busk on those exact steps as a youngster.
Footage of the singer playing his guitar and performing passionately on those steps became an internet sensation and, amongst other factors, helped catch the attention of Scooter Braun in 2008. He remains incredibly proud of his Ontario heritage and serves as a major source of inspiration for aspiring musicians in the region.
Justin Bieber was born in the town
Beyond the arts scene, Stratford boasts an array of excellent watering holes. Whilst the city has traditionally been celebrated for its thriving food culture, this has expanded considerably in recent times with the arrival of artisan breweries and independent distilleries.
With green spaces to discover, visitors can relax amidst the charming Shakespeare Gardens during their stay. One guest said on TripAdvisor: “The gardens along the water are lovely, and it’s so peaceful. During the summer, you can rent paddle boats, and I think that would be a wonderful experience!”.
Another reviewer added: “It is very small, but there is a fabulous bench hidden away with a great view of the river-perfect to sit and meditate or read a book.”
Whether you’re a Belieber seeking to indulge your fandom, or just in search of a tranquil retreat, Stratford is certainly a destination to consider. Immersing yourself in the works of Shakespeare in a town that echoes his Warwickshire origins, albeit on a different continent, promises a unique and artistic experience.
Every half-decade or so, Justin Bieber sloughs off the callused skin of the pop superstar he became at age 15 to reveal the tender and quirky R&B singer he’s always been at heart. He did it in 2013 with his album “Journals,” then in 2020 with “Changes.”
Neither project did anything like the numbers of his shinier, smilier teen-idol stuff, though each seemed like a crucial reset for a guy battling the pressures of early onset celebrity. Now, at 31, he’s done it again with “Swag,” the surprise LP he dropped Thursday night just hours after revealing that it existed.
Like those earlier albums, the 21-track “Swag” comes after a period of change and tumult for Bieber: In 2022, citing the need to focus on his health, he called off a world tour behind the previous year’s “Justice” album; in 2023, he parted ways with his longtime manager, Scooter Braun; last year, he and his wife, Hailey Baldwin, had their first child together. (Somewhere in there he also sold the rights to his music catalog for a reported $200 million.) More recently, he’s been caught on video in a series of confrontations with paparazzi that got people talking about his well-being.
“It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business,” he tells a photographer in one clip that went viral last month — so viral, in fact, that Bieber excerpts it on “Swag,” which puts his luscious crooning over spacey, cooled-out grooves full of pillowy synths, twanging electric guitars and reverbed chillwave-’80s beats.
What distinguishes “Swag” from “Journals” and “Changes” is that this album feels much rawer and more improvisatory than the earlier ones; the production throughout is murky and smeared, and the record includes a couple of demo-like tracks that suggest Bieber simply AirDropped unfinished voice memos from his phone to whomever was sitting behind the computer in the recording studio. (One of them, a gorgeous little gospel-blues ditty, is titled “Glory Voice Memo.”) The idea that “Swag” puts across pretty sympathetically is that a messy life — let’s not forget that Bieber is also involved in a Christian organization that some have compared to a cult — yields messy music.
“When the money comes and the money goes / Only thing that’s left is the love we hold,” he sings in the thrumming “Butterflies,” which samples another of those paparazzi run-ins; “Walking Away,” a lightly psychedelic soul-rock jam, has him describing the challenges of his highly scrutinized marriage with an endearing frankness about his desire to wise up emotionally. (Braun, whom Bieber is said to have paid millions of dollars recently to settle an old debt, wrote on Instagram that “Swag” “is, without a doubt, the most authentically Justin Bieber album to date.”)
In un-polishing his music, the singer is also adapting to the scrappy and proudly idiosyncratic vibe of modern pop as found on records by the likes of SZA, Charli XCX, Lana Del Rey, even Drake — A-plus stars who’ve achieved domination in the streaming era not by honing a streamlined vision but by pursuing odd impulses and allowing the listener to feel like part of the journey. One of Bieber’s key collaborators here is Mk.gee, the mysterious guitar virtuoso whose 2024 debut made him perhaps the most talked-about musician’s musician of the last few years; “Swag” feels shaped by the way Mk.gee thinks about how a great pop song should balance novelty and familiarity. Other members of the creative team Bieber gathered for loose jam sessions at his home in Los Angeles include Dijon, a frequent partner of Mk.gee’s, and Carter Lang, who’s worked closely with SZA.
Given Bieber’s attentive nature and his good taste — think of his relatively ahead-of-the-curve participation in remixes of Wizkid’s “Essence” and “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee — it probably figures that in 2025 he’d make a record that imagines Phil Collins sitting in with Scritti Politti. Yet as a tinkerer luxuriating in rough edges, Bieber stands alone among his fellow white male pop stars (or at last the few of them who remain near the center of the conversation): Benson Boone is doing well-rehearsed back flips on every awards show stage that will have him, while Ed Sheeran has said his upcoming album represents a return to his old hit-seeking ways after a spell in the folky wilderness. And then there’s Morgan Wallen, whose thematically gloomy “I’m the Problem” is so sonically dialed in that you almost fear what the album’s enormous success will end up doing to the guy.
Does Bieber relish his outlier status? In one of several very cringe interludes on “Swag,” the internet comedian Druski tells the singer that, although his skin is white, his soul is Black — to which Bieber, clearly operating without the guidance of a strong manager, responds, “Thank you.” Still, you can’t argue with Druski’s assessment that he can “hear the soul” on this album: Bieber’s singing has never sounded more instinctual than in songs like the crunchy “Daisies” and the country-soul “Devotion,” and even when they’re bad, his lyrics have an awkward charm, as in “Go Baby,” in which he plugs the iPhone-case-slash-lip-gloss-holder sold by his wife’s beauty brand, and “405,” a song about flirting with Baldwin in the car that rhymes “Hit the gas” with “Spider-Man on your ass.”
Shaggy, disarming, often quite beautiful, the LP argues that swag is not something to be taught (as indeed Bieber once famously enlisted someone to do) — not a skill nor a technique to be perfected and deployed. It’s a state of mind, bro. Is that clocking to you?
Is it finally clocking to you? Justin Bieber is back.
The 31-year-old singer surprise-released a new album, “Swag,” Friday after teasing fans the previous morning with a series of billboards and social media posts. Bieber’s first album since 2021’s “Justice,” the new music prompted an online frenzy and revived a devoted community of Beliebers.
From his marriage to his paparazzi encounters, Bieber has faced incredible scrutiny over the last few months, which he addresses head-on in “Swag.” After listening to all 21 tracks, here are our biggest takeaways.
R&Bieber is back
Bieber has incorporated R&B elements in his music since early in his career and embraced the genre fully on the 2013 compilation album “Journals.” But even after coining R&Bieber in 2019, he’s struggled to be taken seriously.
When 2020’s “Changes” received a Grammy nomination for pop vocal album, Bieber expressed his confusion at not being nominated in the R&B category.
“To the Grammys I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry. I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said I set out to make an R&B album. ‘Changes’ was and is an R&B album,” he wrote on Instagram. “It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me. I grew up admiring R&B music and wished to make a project that would embody that sound.”
“To be clear I absolutely love Pop music,” he added. “It just wasn’t what I set out to make this time around. My gratitude for feeling respected for my work remains and I am honored to be nominated either way.”
On “Swag,” Bieber shows off his R&B chops. From opening track “All I Can Take” and the seemingly SZA-inspired “Yukon” to “Daisies” (which reportedly features Mk.gee on the guitar), he takes a more intimate approach than on previous albums. But still, longtime fans will hear hints of “Journals” and “Changes” throughout the project.
In one of the album’s unconventional moments, comedian Druski comments on Bieber’s more “soulful,” R&B-infused sound.
“I said this album kinda sound, you got some soul on this album too, bro,” he says on the interlude track “Soulful.” “Your skin white but your soul Black, Justin. I promise you, man.”
He’s not ‘Walking Away’ from his marriage
Since Justin and Hailey Bieber wed in 2018, their marriage has been under a microscope. Divorce rumors circulated within months of them tying the knot, and it didn’t help that many fans were still rooting for the singer to get back with ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez.
Bieber’s love for his wife is evident throughout his catalog — from 2020’s “All Around Me” to 2021’s “Hailey.” But in case anyone is still skeptical (they are), Bieber sets the record straight on “Swag.”
On album standout “Walking Away,” Bieber gets candid about his relationship troubles but also reaffirms that he’s committed to his marriage. “You were my diamond / Gave you a ring / I made you a promise / I told you I’d change / It’s just human nature / These growing pains / And baby, I ain’t walking away,” he sings.
Elsewhere on the album, he cheers on his wife. On “Go Baby” (which lyrically echoes 2021’s “There She Go”), he sings, “That’s my baby, she’s iconic, iPhone case, lip gloss on it” — a reference to the Rhode founder’s famous lip gloss-holder phone case.
Recently, Hailey sold her skin-care company, which she launched in 2022, to e.l.f Beauty for $1 billion. There she goes indeed.
Justin Bieber addresses scrutiny over his marriage to Hailey Bieber throughout his new album, “Swag.”
(Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
The pregnancy announcement song
The Biebers’ pregnancy announcement in May 2024 was accompanied by an unknown instrumental track. Now, fans have identified it as “Devotion” featuring Dijon.
On the heartwarming track, Bieber sings, “When your lips and fingernails are all mine / I promise to take my time givin’ you devotion.”
The singer also celebrates being a father to Jack Blues Bieber, born Aug. 23, 2024, on “Dadz Love.” As rapper Lil B declares we need “less hatin’” and “more love,” Bieber repeats the track title (which sounds like “that’s love”) over and over.
There’s no cure for Bieber fever
Soon after the singer announced the surprise album, fans flocked to social media to express their excitement.
“New album – bieber fever hitting like it’s 2010,” TikTok user @jennyboba posted to the will.i.am collab “#thatPOWER.”
“Justin Bieber is back… I used to pray for times like this,” singer d4vd posted on X.
Others reactivated their old X fan accounts and created group chats to celebrate the release. “We’re creating a SWAG group chat to keep up with all the updates! Like or reply so I can add you,” @statsonbieber announced in a post that’s since received almost 6,000 likes and more than 600 comments.
Bieber fever may have been latent for years, but it’s making the rounds once again.
Bieber’s ‘Standing on Business’
Bieber’s had his fair share of viral paparazzi moments over the past year. Most notable was his encounter with photographers while leaving Malibu’s SoHo House, when he declared, “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business.”
The singer’s misuse of African American Vernacular English has turned into an internet meme, but Bieber’s in on the joke. He’s shared several fan edits of the encounter on his Instagram, including one that riffs off the hilarious “I’m a mommy” moment on “Love Island USA.” And on “Swag,” Bieber includes an interlude aptly titled “Standing on Business.”
“I like that you pronounce business. Usually, when I say, ‘Standin’ on business,’ I say, ‘Standin’ on bih’ ’ness,’ ” Druski says after the now-famous audio plays. “I think that’s why he ain’t leave right there. You were pronunciatin’ every word — you can’t pronunciate every word when you doin’ that.”
Bieber samples another paparazzi moment on “Butterflies”: “You just want money. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money. Get out of here, bro. Money, that’s all you want, you don’t care about human beings. All you want is money.”
The song then transitions into an honest reflection on money and fame: “When the money comes and the money goes / Only thing that’s left, uh, is the love we hold,” he sings.
To be clear, Bieber’s contentious exchanges with the paparazzi are nothing new. “[What] do your parents think about what you do?” he asked one in 2012. “You tell them, ‘Yeah, I stalk people for a living’?”
But recently, these encounters — coupled with his sometimes outlandish social media activity — have led to increased scrutiny and speculation about Bieber’s mental health. Many have even drawn comparisons to Britney Spears.
“People are always askin’ if I’m OK, and that starts to really weigh on me,” Bieber tells Druski on the track “Therapy Session.” “It starts to make me feel like I’m the one with issues and everyone else is perfect.”
Following her husband’s surprise album announcement, Hailey reposted the tracklist on her Instagram story with the caption, “Is it finally clocking to you f— losers?”
Despite persistent speculation as footage of the two together has surfaced, Team Bieber said Thursday that nothing happened. Move along, nothing to see here.
The new dad’s marriage is rumored to be in trouble as well, though on Friday the Biebs tagged wife Hailey in an Instagram story showing a male lion lovingly caressing a female lion with its nose and teeth.
Combs, of course, is on trial on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and more. This week in court has seen dramatic testimony from Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie.
But back to Bieber, who was discovered by Scooter Braun in 2008 and quickly signed to a label run by Braun and Usher. Usher was a Combs protégé who was sent by record executive and producer L.A. Reid to live with the mogul in the ’90s and maybe learn a few things. The “Yeah” singer was 15 when he moved to New York. Combs became Usher’s legal guardian.
Reid wrote in his 2016 tell-all memoir “Sing to Me,” via Rolling Stone, “‘Will you take this kid and teach him your swagger?’ I said. ‘Can you just give him some of your flavor?’ And so I sent Usher to New York for what I called the ‘Puffy Flavor Camp.’”
He added, “I was turning him over to the wildest party guy in the country at an age when I still needed to get his mother’s permission, but he went to New York for almost a year. I didn’t know whether I was being irresponsible or having an epiphany.”
Usher would tell Howard Stern in 2016 that he “got a chance to see some things” while living with Combs.
“I went there to see the lifestyle, and I saw it. I don’t know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at,” he said on Stern’s show. “I had curiosity of my own. I just didn’t understand it. It was pretty wild. It was crazy.”
Usher said he was mostly focused on making music at the time, no matter what “curious” things might have gone on around him.
So when Bieber and Usher connected, could a Combs meet be far behind?
Sean “Diddy” Combs, from left, Justin Bieber and Rick Ross at a Ciroc vodka party in Atlanta in early 2014, when Bieber was 19.
(Prince Williams / FilmMagic via Getty Images)
Combs and the “Baby” singer made news with an interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the “Justin Bieber’s 48 Hrs with Diddy” video was posted on YouTube in November 2009.
In the video, Combs showed Bieber a silver Lamborghini and told him, “The keys is yours, you know, when you hit 16.” That was after Bieber pitched driving it right away with Combs in the passenger seat, because he had his permit. After staring at the kid for a moment, Combs simply said, “No.” Then he promised him the mansion when he turned 18. Combs didn’t have legal guardianship of Bieber like he did with Usher, he said, but they would be together for the next 48 hours.
“He knows better than to talk about the things that he’s done with big brother Puff on national television,” Combs said later in the Kimmel interview, adding, “Everything ain’t for everybody.” That was after he described Bieber as “a little brother” and “one of the greatest kids you could ever know” who could always call up and ask him for industry advice.
The two would continue to cross paths, including at parties for Combs’ vodka Ciroc, a brand the embattled mogul cut ties with in January 2024.
Bieber’s camp released a statement Thursday asserting that nothing untoward ever happened between the two.
“Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him,” a spokesperson for Bieber told TMZ. “Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”
The Times was unable to reach a Bieber representative Friday.
JUSTIN Bieber has broken his silence on explosive rumours that he was abused by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Hip-hop star Diddy, 55, whose sex trafficking trial kicked off this week, infamously hosted a teenage Justin at his home in 2009.
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Justin Bieber has responded to rumours he was abused by P DiddyCredit: Getty
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There are concerns that singer Justin is struggling with his mental healthCredit: Getty
And since the rap mogul’s arrest last year, unfounded gossip online has linked the Canadian singer reported mental health problems with his former mentor’s alleged crimes.
Sean Combs – who is charged with sex trafficking and prostitution – strongly denies all allegations of misconduct.
Now, Justin, 31, has released a statement refuting claims he was targeted by the rapper.
A spokesperson told TMZ: “Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him.
“Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”
Last year, video emerged of Diddy and Justin spending “48 hours” together.
Fans online branded the clip “disturbing” considering the 24-year age gap between the pair.
Justin also sang on Combs’ 2023 record The Love Album: Off The Grid which sources now say the pop superstar deeply regrets.
A source told the Mail Online: “He was featured on Diddy’s most recent album, and had he known any of this, there is no way he would have done it.”
The pregnant 38-year-old told a court: “You make the wrong face . . . then I was getting hit in the face.”’
Singer Cassie said she was a sexual novice when she fell in love with Diddy having been won over by his huge wealth and charm.
Within a year, she said she agreed to marathon “freak off” sex sessions with strangers to prove her love and keep him happy.
But Cassie told the court in New York how she began to experience a different side of Diddy — what she called “his abusive side”.
She added: “Very controlling over my life, the things I wanted to do . . . but there’s still love there.
“Control was everything from the way I looked, what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face.”
Cassie testified despite being eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her third child with husband, Alex Fine, a personal trainer hired by Combs to work with her.
She said she was 19 when the rapper signed her on a ten-record deal to his Bad Boy Records label in 2006.
P Diddy, who denies all the charges, faces life imprisonment if convicted.
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Diddy was once a mentor to the pop superstarCredit: Getty
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Cassie Ventura alleges she was in an abusive relationship with Combs – claims he deniesCredit: Getty
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The singer said she feared making Combs angryCredit: Reuters
