June – July Roundup

You know... I did say in the previous roundup/recap that I plan on doing these once a month, but my schedule cleared up a little bit, so I decided to… I shall say, sneak one out? Anyways, the June-July roundup is here!

First up, last month, we have Ariana Grande dropping The Light Is Coming featuring Nicki Minaj. So far, The Light Is Coming features production from the one and only Pharrell Williams. The Light Is Coming is in fact the second Ariana/Nicki collab to arrive on the week of June 20 and recently, Nicki Minaj shared Bed from her upcoming album, Queen, which of course features more Ariana-pop-hook perfection. The music video is directed by Dave Meyers who directed the No Tears eft To Cry music video. This is part of the Ariana/Nicki collab which started in 2014 with Jessie J’s Bang Bang.

This along with the second single that I’ll be talking about later is set to appear on Ariana Grande’s fourth album Sweetener, due to release on August 17. To be honest, I never like The Light Is Coming and Bed. They both suck. Plus, Nicki Minaj is stupid. On the brighter note, The Light Is Coming is not a single. The second single off of Sweeter will be titled God Is Woman and I’ll be discussing it later. Right now, I’ll discuss last month’s music news that I forgot to talk about called Sober.

Here it is, Sober. Now then, on June 22, we have Sober which is Demi Lovato’s 2018 single. Soon after she featured in Christina Aguilera’s Fall In Line, Demi Lovato opens up about relapse on candid single Sober.

Now according to CNN, “Demi Lovato has released a new single that reveals a heartbreaking setback in her road to recovery from addiction.

In her new single, titled "Sober," a candid Lovato admits to suffering a relapse. Her song comes just weeks after she celebrated six years of sobriety.

"To the ones who never left me, we've been down the road before. I'm so sorry. I'm not sober anymore," she sings in the tune.

Lovato has always been an open when it comes to her mental health and struggles with substance abuse.

In the past, Lovato has spoken candidly in various interviews about her use of cocaine and addiction to alcohol, as well as her struggle with an eating disorder.

"Sober" does not reveal the nature of Lovato's relapse, but she sings, "I'm sorry for the fans I lost who watched me fall again. I want to be a role model but I'm only human."

Lovato released "Sober" on Thursday.

In an Instagram post, Lovato teased the track with a clip of a lyric video and a short caption that read, "My truth."

Despite Lovato's struggles, she put a happier foot forward on Wednesday, sharing a selfie with a caption that assured fans she's "happy and free."

In her song, Lovato adds, "I'm sorry that I'm here again. I promise I'll get help."”

Nice, now let’s talk about Rita Ora’s 2018 single, Girls.

Now let’s talk about Rita Ora’s Girls which is came out on May 11, 2018. The collaboration was announced on 4 May. Rita Ora described the song as an "empowering anthem":

"These past few years I've been so inspired by all the strong women I've seen who aren't afraid to be themselves. For those who aren’t afraid to rule the world, this is our anthem. A celebration of love. And of course, thank you to all the fellow boss women who so kindly graced this song with me — each representing who they are and where they are from [...]"

Girls is a pop song that comprises a hip hop-influenced beat. The music video for Girls was released on 6 June 2018 and it was directed by Helmi. Now with Rita Ora’s Girls were done, let’s move on to Ariana Grande’s God Is A Woman.

Here it is, God Is A Woman the second single off of Sweetener. The single was released on July 13, 2018. "God Is a Woman" was first teased in a scene in the music video for lead single "No Tears Left to Cry", which displayed what appears to be a working track listing for the upcoming album. According to Wikipedia, “Grande confirmed the title on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on May 1, 2018. On June 27, Grande revealed that the song will become the official second single from her upcoming album. She initially announced on Twitter that the song would be released on July 20. However, she later confirmed the release date as July 13.” I absolutely loved that song. God Is A Woman was like the second woman anthem single after 2016’s Dangerous Woman.  I also loved the music video too. The gophers screaming is really funny. I hope the single will reach number 1 on a specific US chart. I mean, No Tears To Cry has reached number 1 on the US Mainstream Top 40 chart. So I was expecting to do the same thing for God Is A Woman.

By the way, the official music video was released later the same day. It was directed by Dave Meyers and features a biblical passage spoken by Madonna. The video pays homage to The Last Judgement, The Creation of Adam, Remus and Romulus, astronomy, female genitalia, and other visual imagery, as well as Greek mythology. Wow, Ariana Grande really loved Dave Meyers. But I was expecting to see another director like Hannah Lux Davis to direct Ariana Grande’s next music video. Oh well. I’d love to see Hannah Lux Davis directing another Ariana Grande music video though. But that’s for another day.

Now that God Is A Woman is out of the way, we’ll have more music related articles including Carrie Underwood, Sabrina Carpenter and much, much more. So stay tuned.