Pop Shots – Fortunes Rising

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts receiving a boost, to old rock n roll love letters going up for auction, to the Canadian children’s show that was trending because of Beyoncé, and since this is Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* Olivia Rodrigo’s catalog saw a 24% jump in U.S. on-demand streams after kicking off her Guts World Tour. We’re still waiting to hear what kind of bump was seen for Nickelodeon due to folks mistakenly streaming one of their old game shows when they heard there was a Guts World Tour.

* Justin Timberlake confirmed there will be an *NSYNC collaboration on his upcoming album. He will also be continuing to pretend the Britney Spears book never happened.

* Jennifer Lopez’s movie This Is Me … Now: A Love Story, which was released alongside her ninth studio album, features a plethora of famous faces, but a number of big names turned her down, including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Jason Momoa, and Snoop Dogg, who all either declined to take part, or were unavailable. There’s also still no word on if the snake from Anaconda ever got back to her.

* From March 8th through the 21st Christie’s will host an online auction of items from the personal collection Pattie Boyd, including some of the love letters sent to her by Eric Clapton while she was married to George Harrison. Had their courtship happened today, all Boyd would have to auction off are a bunch of texts saying, “U Up?” followed by an eggplant emoji.

* Chance the Rapper told Seth Meyers he still wants to collab with Peppa Pig – the children’s show character that’s a favorite of his two daughters. If he can make it happen, I’ll start working on my long awaited collaborations with Jessica Rabbit and Holli Would.

* Madonna took Luther Vandross out of her Celebration Tour AIDS tribute after his estate requested she do so. This may have had something to do with the fact that Luther Vandross didn’t die of AIDS, he died after suffering a stroke, which is apparently what Madonna was attempting to induce in his family by including him in her AIDS tribute.

* Daft Punk fans can now see wax figures of the duo at Madame Tussauds New York. Ah yes, that sweet spot in the Venn diagram where EDM fans, and wax museum enthusiasts overlap.

* Ja Rule’s tour dates in the U.K. had to be cancelled after he was denied entry due to his criminal record. This comes as a huge blow to venue owners who’d already taken care of getting all the beverages. Ah … blow to, blow from … whatever.

* Charli XCX announced her sixth full-length studio album, Brat, will be coming out this summer. The news comes as a surprise to most folks, who had no idea Charli XCX has released five full-length albums.

* Some TikTok users felt that an element of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” sounded a bit like the theme of the late ‘90s / early ‘00s Canadian children’s show Franklin. I’m sorry, but if you’re going to lift music from a Canadian children’s show, it should be this …

That’s all for this edition of Pop Shots, but come back next Monday for more shots on all things pop.