Music News

Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton Moved to Tears Watching Craig Morgan Perform Song About Late Son. "Just like the song, he's not physically here but he's still very present in our lives," Craig Morgan said. Craig Morgan continues to honor his late son, Jerry Greer. During his appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the country singer, 55, brought host Kelly Clarkson and her guests Eva Mendes and Blake Shelton to tears when he performed his emotional ballad "The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost," which he wrote after his son died at 19 in a tragic tubing accident on Kentucky Lake in Tennessee. "I lost my son in a drowning accident three years ago. I tell some of my friends, for them it happened three years ago but for me it was yesterday. And every day is yesterday," Morgan told Clarkson, 37, during his sit-down. Speaking of the songwriting process, the grieving parent said, "It's extremely therapeutic, it's like talking about myself, it's very difficult but it's also a wonderful thing. Just like the song, he's not physically here but he's still very present in our lives." Shelton, 43, also spoke about the impact of Morgan's song after surprising his friend during his interview with Clarkson. "It's easy to connect that song to anything that's happened in your own life. But because Craig has been a friend of mine for so long, and Gwen [Stefani] and I were actually at the funeral," The Voice coach said. "It was his story and it hit me that hard just knowing him and the horrible tragedy, I can't even imagine. It's such a great, great song. And he had sent it to me." In September, Shelton championed Morgan's song by encouraging fans to move "The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost" up the iTunes chart. "I would gladly give up my spot on country radio to get this song on.. Wow @cmorganmusic you blow me away brother," Shelton tweeted, adding a link to the song. "There's nothing easy or fun about writing a song like this but sometimes it's just something you gotta do." On Sunday, Morgan released a new music video for the single, which was filmed in the loft at his family's The Gallery at Morgan Farms in downtown Dickson, Tennessee, according to CMT. "A lot of video shoots seem to go on forever but I was honestly surprised by how quickly it went. It felt like we were done before we got started," he told CMT. "I thought they did an amazing job portraying the message and vision of the song." Morgan added, "Its simplicity embraces the truth of the lyrics of the song. I hope this video lifts people up. For anyone who has experienced loss, I want this song to give them the desire to pursue their faith and to have hope." In September, Morgan spoke with PEOPLE about the song and the death of his son. "It's still difficult. I mean, Jerry is the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I fall asleep," he said. "There are times when I am angry and I don't understand it, and then there are times that I am joyous that we had him for 19 years. You have to let those joyous moments steer you away from the anger. I pray about it all the time. I don't understand it and I probably never will until I get to heaven," he shared. (Eonline)

Selena Gomez's 'I Needed to Lose You to Love Me' is Only One Sleep Away. Selena Gomez is just one day away from dropping her new single. The singer teased the song, "I Needed to Lose You to Love Me," on Monday (Oct. 21) with a spooky new teaser, which finds the song's title in white floating in the middle of a moon-lit forest at night with the word "me" flickering as the camera zooms in. Gomez again tagged Spotify in the post, with the streamer re-tweeting the tease. Selenators have been freaking out over the series of childhood photos and cryptic clues that Gomez has been posting over the past week, which have had captions such as "I gave my all and they all know it," "you promised the world" and "we always go into it blindly," which has led to speculation that they could be lyrics to the song from the singer's upcoming as-yet-untitled album. Gomez hasn't released a full-length album since her sophomore Revival set in 2015 and a spokesperson for the singer told Billboard last week that no additional information was available at press time about the upcoming collection. The singer released the track "Back To You" for the soundtrack to Netflix's 13 Reasons Why series and appeared on Benny Blanco's "I Can't Get Enough" single earlier this year alongside Tainy and J. Balvin. (Billboard)

Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake & More Invest Millions in Virtual Reality Startup Sandbox VR. Hong Kong-based virtual reality startup Sandbox VR has closed an $11 million funding round, bringing the company's reported total to $83 million in 2019 following a Series A round earlier this year. Led by Craft Ventures' David Sacks and Andreessen Horowitz Cultural Leadership Fund, the funding round includes Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Will Smith and Orlando Bloom among a celebrity-packed group of new investors. Also on the list are Hollywood super-agent and CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz; Japanese soccer star Honda Keisuke; Kevin Durant and his manager, Rich Kleiman; and The Dreamers Fund, which was launched by Keisuke and Smith. "We're incredibly honored to be able to work with some of the most talented and influential artists, athletes, and actors in the world," said Sandbox CEO and founder Steve Zhao. "Their support is a vote of confidence that our platform will one day become the new medium for the future of sports, music, and storytelling." Sandbox, which uses motion capture technology to create immersive virtual reality experiences, raised $68 million in a Series A round earlier this year from investors including Andreesen Horowitz, Floodgate Ventures, Stanford University, Triplepoint Capital, CRCM and Alibaba. As the new funds roll in, the company is expanding across the U.S., with a new location in Los Angeles and offices coming soon to New York, Austin, San Diego and Chicago for a total of 16 locations planned by the end of 2020. "We believe that VR is finally ready to take off as a mass-market phenomenon in malls, where it can be optimized for a social experience," Sacks added. "We chose the Sandbox team because of their background in game design; their VR experiences have a level of interactivity -- with both the VR world and other players -- that we couldn't find elsewhere. We believe that Sandbox VR is poised to become the first VR experience for millions of consumers around the world." Sandbox doesn't currently offer any music-focused experiences, but the virtual reality concert industry is growing. Billie Eilish and Post Malone have streamed shows with VR concert series Oculus Venues, London-based startup MelodyVR held its first live broadcast with Liam Payne late last year, and Live Nation has teamed with NextVR to broadcast dozens of concerts in virtual reality. (Billboard)

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