Latest news with #PDiddy
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Kesha review – a triumphant and electric return for pop's comeback kid
'What does freedom feel like?' the singer Kesha asks in voiceover early in her sold-out show at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. The 38-year-old pop star has just opened her 'Tits Out' show with TiK ToK, the sleazy, insouciant, inescapable party anthem that rocketed her to fame in 2009, cradling a model of her own head from that time – blond, dead-eyed, distinguishable as the artist formerly known as Ke$ha by one single glitter tear. She paraded the head while gamely barreling through that first indelible, now altered, lyric – 'wake up in the morning like FUCK P Diddy' – and the IDGAF brag of brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack (Daniels). Then she places it on an altar of empty glasses and candles and bows to a prayer of 'freedom from my past', how the 'truth will set you free'. If this all seems like a lot, somehow both cartoonishly blunt and muddled, hedonism strangely crossed with sanctity – well, that's Kesha, a millennial-beloved artist always on the messy bleeding edge of culture, for better and for worse. Once the 22-year-old from Nashville who rolled in on her gold Trans-Am and glittered-bombed the early 2010s with a ridiculous string of feral, slangy hits, then a cautionary tale stalled by a nearly decade-long legal dispute with her former producer, the artist born Kesha Rose Sebert has finally stepped into her role as a generational symbol on her own terms, much to the delight of a loyal crowd at the Garden, who hollered at every mention of the word freedom – and there were many – like it was a revelation. And it was – for years, Kesha represented not only the bombast, disillusionment and debauchery of youth fucked over by the 2008 financial crash, with attitude so fierce and undeniable it could make diabolical lyrics such as 'don't be a little bitch with your chit chat / just show me where your dick's at' winsome, but also the dark side of the predacious music industry. In 2014, she sued to be released from her contract with producer Łukasz 'Dr Luke' Gottwald, who convinced her to move to Los Angeles at 17, for alleged drugging, sexual assault and emotional manipulation; a protracted legal battle forced her to continue working for him, her music still released under his imprint if not with his input, until last year. . (pronounced Period), her album released this month, is her first output truly independent of Dr Luke. So you can't begrudge Kesha some pointed and grandiose words on liberation, nor for remixing the production of some of her most recognizable hits – Blow, Die Young, Timber – into something a little smoother, more mature, more her. 'I've had these songs taken from me and I want you to help me take them back tonight,' she proclaims during Act I of four murkily defined sections, before she laps the floor to a medley of tracks from Animal and Warrior in a shocking reminder of just how deep her cuts go. The choreography may be pop standard (sharp and suggestive but cold-blooded), the backing track sustaining the more vigorous dance numbers, the more conceptual moments (a straitjacket, dancers in kitty-cat mascot suits) a little too belabored, but it doesn't matter. As a statement of legacy – her Auto-tuned recklessness a clear antecedent of today's Brat-green pop landscape – and as an act of reclamation, the Tits Out tour is a triumph. It's also extremely fun, Kesha's grip on the pulse of a hot banger as tight as her stage banter is loose and breezy. As with her recession pop peer Lady Gaga's Mayhem Ball, the new dance tracks flow seamlessly with the old. Red Flag, a punchy ode to being magnetized for all the wrong reasons, bends smoothly into the cheerleader taunt of Dinosaur. ('D-I-N-O-S-A, U-R a dinosaur!' remains one of Kesha's most deranged and stupidly catchy lyrics). Period's Delusional morphs so easily into the girl-on-girl punches of Backstabber that I thought it was one song. New track Attention! finds Kesha in the pocket of the mode she pioneered – taunting, headstrong, teetering on obnoxious – straight into a sick repetition of 'I'm a bitch!' with a 2010s bass so sticky it basically spells out LMFAO. No one could be still. Except, briefly, Kesha herself, when she paused on multiple occasions to celebrate her freedom with kiss-offs ('hey, look how much money you made off of me!') that would feel overdone if they weren't so hard-earned. At one point, when she mentioned being in 'year eight of litigation' ahead of the self-love track The One., I gasped – her onstage persona is so buoyant, it's easy to forget just how long she endured. She drove the point into the stratosphere with a victorious encore; a note-perfect performance of Praying, her typically on-the-nose #MeToo ballad fantasizing a perpetrator's recognition, her voice honeyed and soaring, led to a five-plus-minute standing ovation. She let her tears flow; I shed a tear too, for a moment more raw than anything I've seen at a pop show in recent memory. 'This love is not only for me, it's for anyone who survived something they never should've had to survive,' she said. And then it's back to business, with early tracks Your Love Is My Drug and We R Who We R, and one final, perfect, very Kesha farewell: 'Have a good night!' she said with that cheeky giggle. 'And I hope … you all … get laid.'
France 24
07-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Deadly floods killed dozens in Texas
00:57 07/07/2025 'Netanyahu wants to perpetuate status quo: No agreement, no political framework, no Gaza withdrawal' Middle East 06/07/2025 Elon Musk launches 'American Party' to challenge GOP lawmakers in 2026 Americas 06/07/2025 Colombia Senator's shooting: Police capture leader accused of coordinating the attack Americas 06/07/2025 Texas flood: Rescuers search for girls missing from riverside summer camps Americas 05/07/2025 'Dire': Kyiv badly hit by relentless Russian attacks after abrupt US halt to Patriot defence support Europe 05/07/2025 Texas flash flood kills 24, search continues for missing summer camp girls Americas 05/07/2025 Trump shows he 'controls Republican party' as it passes tax and spending bill Americas 02/07/2025 United States : P. Diddy acquitted of most serious charges Americas
Irish Daily Star
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Star
Trump's administration will decide where to send P Diddy after verdict if prison time ordered
President Donald Trump's team will determine where Sean "P. Diddy" Combs will serve his sentence for his guilty verdict of two counts. The verdict came out on Wednesday, July 2, for Diddy's federal trial . He was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and not guilty of two counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering conspiracy. The rapper has not been sentenced yet, and it is not known how long he will serve. Transportation to engage in prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A New Mexico-based criminal defense attorney John W. Day spoke exclusively with Irish Star about Diddy's verdict and speculated on where he could serve potential prison time. "Overall, this verdict is a big win for Diddy, and for his star defense team. Most likely, the jury believed Cassie and Jane were there voluntarily, and enjoying being part of Diddy's world, and everything that came with," Day began. Read More Related Articles 50 Cent brands P Diddy 'gay John Gotti' after he's found not guilty on three of five charges Read More Related Articles P Diddy pumps fist as he's found guilty on two of five charges as jury delivers verdict "Diddy is facing 10 years maximum on each count of transportation across state lines, but it's unlikely they will stack all of those counts on top of each other given Diddy's lack of prior criminal convictions," the lawyer continued. The 12-person made their decision on July 2 (Image: AP) "If he does get sentenced to do prison time, then President Trump's Department of Justice gets to decide where to send him, and it might be that he gets sent to a prison near his homes in Miami or LA," he added. Diddy was facing five criminal counts, and he has pleaded not guilty. Additionally, he vehemently denies all allegations of wrongdoing against him, including those alleged in civil lawsuits. Last month, President Trump answered a reporter's question about whether or not he would pardon Diddy amid his sex trafficking and racketeering trial. Diddy has not yet been sentenced for his two counts of transportation of engage in prostitution that he was found guilty of (Image: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) "Nobody's asked but I know people are thinking about it. I know they're thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking," The Republican president said in a news conference on May 30. "First of all, I'd look at what's happening. And I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage." "I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, he sort of, that relationship busted up from what I read. I don't know. He didn't tell me that, but I'd read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden," he continued. "So, I don't know. I would certainly look at the facts. if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me it wouldn't have any impact," Trump concluded. For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .
1News
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- 1News
From Diddy to Trump: The NY courtroom artist who's sketched them all
From Mafia bosses and Hollywood predators to crypto criminals and presidents, New York courtrooms have seen it all. But unlike New Zealand courtrooms, news cameras are not allowed in The Empire State's judicial precincts. That means there are two main ways for the news to report inside the courtroom of some of the biggest criminal and civil cases ever – one of those methods is typing out court reports (or for the old school journos, filling out notepads with shorthand). The other option is creating courtroom art. Kiwis have probably seen a lot of these from our reporting over the years of US court cases. These cartoon-styled images have to do many things at once. Capture a moment. Convey a feeling. Show a story. All with the same journalistic rules of fairness, accuracy, and balance. ADVERTISEMENT A courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg. (Source: 1News) It's a craft that few ever take their hand to, and even fewer perfect. But one of the country's most prolific and well-respected courtroom artists is Jane Rosenberg. I caught up with her after court finished for the day during the trial of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, known as P Diddy. "I did all the big cases there ever were here in New York," she told me. "John Gotti — mafia, Martha Stewart, police brutality cases, all the terrorism cases we've had. And all the MeToo cases. I did Cosby two times; I did Harvey Weinstein. R Kelly and now P Diddy — and Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein," she listed. That list grows longer by the year – Rosenberg has also covered Donald Trump's trials, crypto-boss Sam Bankman-Fried, and Sarah Palin's defamation case against the New York Times. A court sketch from Donald Trump's trial. (Source: Breakfast) ADVERTISEMENT Around 45 years after creating her first piece, she told me it was a career she fell into — almost by accident. "I was always an artist — I was a starving artist, drawing Rembrandt and Vermeer right on the sidewalk with a hat out for money for the 10 years after I graduated college. I didn't know how to make money,' she said. "And then I went to a lecture by another courtroom artist at the Society of Illustrators. And I said 'oh, this looks like so much fun. I'd love to do that. I just don't know if I'm good enough'." A lawyer friend took her to night court – not far from where we chatted – and bombarded the court officers with questions. Where do the artists sit? What do they bring? Eventually they told her to come back in a week, and they'd let her sit with the media. After phoning around – including the new TV startup CNN - she struck gold with NBC. "They said come in and show us what you got – and then they kept calling me and the other stations kept calling me. That's how it all started."
Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
P Diddy's alleged victim 'Mia' lays down more allegations as Cassie 'in labour'
It's now halfway through P Diddy's third week in court, with his alleged victim and former assistant 'Mia' set to take to the stand today. Prosecutors have confirmed that they will also be calling a Los Angeles Fire Department investigator, Denote Nash and a Los Angeles Police Department officer to testify. Sean 'Diddy' Combs, 55, is currently facing a number of serious charges, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. He was arrested in September and strongly denies all allegations made against him. He has been in prison since his arrest, and a number of bail requests have been rejected. On Tuesday, Capricorn Clark, who worked on-and-off as a PA for Diddy for over a decade, broke down in tears on the stand. For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy. For more info visit Cassie Ventura reportedly went into labour on Tuesday after testifying in the sex trafficking trial of her ex P Diddy. The rapper is facing a number of serious charges - including racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie, who is pregnant with her third child, took to the stand last week and according to TMZ, the singer has been rushed to a New York hospital to give birth. Following the jury's departure on Tuesday, the government confirmed that it would be calling an LA Police Department officer, n Los Angeles fire department arson investigator and stylist Deonte Nash to the stand. Diddy's alleged victim and former assistant 'Mia' is also being called to testify. Diddy's defense team raised concerns on Tuesday that call restrictions at his prison do not give them enough time to speak to him after the trial wraps for the day. He is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judge Arun Subramanian said he believes there is a disconnect between the prison and the defence team and he would help come up with a solution. Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former PA Capricorn Clark's testimony took longer than expected to wrap up on Tuesday after she broke down in tears during her cross-examination by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo. The jury were excused by Judge Arun Subramanian almost 30 minutes past the usual 3pm finish time. During her time on the stand, Clark testified that Combs kidnapped her at gunpoint and broke into love rival and rapper Kid Cudi's home in a plot to kill him. Kid Cudi - whose legal name is Scott Mescudi - told the court last week about his relationship with Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. He also spoke about an alleged break-in at his LA home, which he believed Combs orchestrated alongside an incident which saw his Porsche damaged by a Molotov cocktail. While she was cross-examined by the defense, Clark cried as she reflected on emails she sent Diddy in 2014 and 2015, pleading for his forgiveness. She said that she was initially fired in 2012 after taking a holiday, but believed Diddy fired her as he was upset over her knowing about Cassie and Kid Cudi's relationship. Capricorn told the court she felt as though she was a "protector" for Diddy as he had nobody other than her looking out for him. "That email is me pleading like, dude let it go," she told the court. She said she was initially hurt because she believed that Cassie wanted her to be fired.
