Pop Shots – New Faces in Familiar Places

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 Hilary Duff’s latest addition to her family, to Linkin Park potentially bringing in a new member, to who Katy Perry wants to replace her on American Idol, and since this is Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* Hilary Duff and husband Matthew Koma welcomed a new daughter into the world. The child is Duff’s third with Koma, fourth overall. Wait, Hilary Duff has four kids??? Shouldn’t this call for some sort of “very special episode” of Lizzie McGuire about teen pregnancy? Hold on … check that … apparently Hilary Duff is 36. My mistake.

* Ja Rule hosted a Mother’s Day luncheon for 40 families impacted by the criminal justice system. I hope they were given better dining options than the people at Fyre Festival.

* Linkin Park have only been heard from sporadically since the passing of frontman Chester Bennington in 2017, but there are rumblings that the band is contemplating hiring a female vocalist, and embarking on a 2025 tour. OK Linkin Park, if you really wanna do this I have two words for you – Taylor Momsen.

* Billie Eilish announced both in-person, and remote listening parties for her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, with the latter taking place at movie theaters around the country on May 16th, and the album’s release date of May 17th. I gotta say, charging people a premium to listen to an album they were going to stream for free is absolutely f*cking brilliant, and I’m sure Taylor Swift is mad she didn’t think of it first.

* Katy Perry wants Jelly Roll to replace her as a judge on American Idol. This would be mind-blowingly awesome for me, as it would be someone I interviewed before they were famous (2008) being replaced by someone else I interviewed before they were famous (2015 pt. 1, 2015 pt. 2, 2016).

* A security guard was shot outside Drake’s Toronto mansion this past week. Between this shooting, and the shooting of a security guard at the California home of The Weeknd’s co-manager, Amir “Cash” Esmailian, it’s been a really bad couple of weeks for working security for Canadian artists.

* Miranda Lambert announced a benefit concert that will take place on October 5th at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater with net proceeds benefiting her MuttNation Foundation. Genre be damned, she HAS to get Snoop Dogg for this event!

* BLACKPINK’s Lisa waved the checkered flag at the F1 Miami Grand Prix. If you’re wondering, the Venn diagram of “people who love auto racing” and “people who love k-pop” are completely separate circles, further apart than Mercury is to Pluto.

* Charlie Wilson broke his two week long tie with Usher for the most #1s by a male artist on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart (which launched in 1993) when “Superman” became his tenth song to top the list. If you don’t know who Charlie Wilson is, just know your aunt does, and she’s probably done things at his concerts.

* Finally, Amy Winehouse was posthumously honored with a BRIT Billion Award for achieving one billion streams in the U.K. That’s a whole lotta people who know they’re no good.

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