Month: November 2020

Rick Fox
Following the tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his young daughter dying in a helicopter accident outside of Los Angeles in January 2020, his Lakers teammate, Rick Fox, was rumored to be among the other seven aboard the craft who perished. “My family went through, in the midst of all this, something that I couldn’t have imagined them experiencing,” Fox told “Inside the NBA.”
Will Ferrell
A fake press release posted on the iNewswire Web site in March 2006 claiming that Ferrell was killed in a paragliding accident in Southern California when a wind gust caused him to lose crash into trees.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake
As a joke, two Dallas jockeys claimed a car accident took the lives of pop stars perished, who were dating at the time. “The first thing I did was call Britney,” Timberlake told ABC News in 2001. “Since the beginning, [when] people knew about our relationship, there’s always been things that have been said that were totally not true, but this just, like, took it to a whole ‘nother planet.”
Avril Lavigne
Rumors began circulating in April 2003 that the “Complicated’ singer killed herself after her grandfather’s death. In recent weeks, Twitter gave new fuel to that fire, igniting a conspiracy theory that the Lavigne known today was actually look-alike singer Melissa Vandella. As the theory goes, the suits at Lavigne’s label cooked up the cover-up scheme so they could continue to release her songs.
Paul McCartney
Conspiracy loving Beatles fans believe that McCartney died in 1966 and everything that’s happened to “him” since then is courtesy of a look-alike and sound-alike. Not only that, they believe clues to McCartney’s fate were revealed in songs written by fellow musicians George Harrison and John Lennon. Like, Lennon’s “A Day in the Life,” where the lyrics “Paul is dead, miss him, miss him”… which can only be heard when the song is played backward.
Kanye West
Social media, again, ran amuck Dec. 2016 with the theory that West’s uncharacteristic behavior at the time was because it wasn’t really him… it was a clone. You read that right. Canceling his tour, dying his hear, having a public meltdown and dissing Beyonce and Jay Z while cozying up to Donald Trump was enough proof for some.
Eddie Murphy
The actor/comedian has been the subject of false reports of his death more than once. On Aug. 30, 2012, has was said to have been killed in a snowboard accident and, most recently, was again the subject of internet buzz after the death of his brother Charlie confused.
Vin Diesel
Facebook was the starting point for a post about the death of the “Fate of the Furious” actor went viral. The post linked to what they said was a video report that requested permission to access the viewer’s accounts. If granted, the “RIP Vin Diesel” post was sent as spam to everyone on that user’s friends list.
Adam Sandler
LinkBeef, which was the breeding ground for several celebrity death hoaxes, reported on Jan. 13, 2017, that Sandler was found dead of an apparent suicide and even cited their source as Marin County Police Department in California and “quoted” Sandler’s “utterly heartbroken” wife, Jackie.
Denzel Washington
Remember that fake news about Eddie Murphy dying in a snowboarding accident? Facebook tried the same story with Washington in Nov. 2011.
Nicolas Cage
Although trafficforgoods.site’s July 2016 headline that “Nicolas Cage passed away because of a serious Motorcycle Accident” and the body of the story said he died when he “lost control of his snowboard and struck a tree,” social media took the bait and ran with it. Another fake news outlet picked up the story, tweaked it and added a Photoshopped pic of a motorcycle crash scene, Cage’s face and a CNN chyron.
Hillary Clinton
Following Hillary Clinton’s appearance at a 9/11 memorial in Sept. 2016 in which she appeared to collapse while getting into a van, ABC News weekend anchor Joe Torres said on that evening’s newscast, “We begin with the breaking news about Hillary Clinton’s death.” The anchor meant to say “health” rather than “death,” but Twitter nonetheless had a field day, sparking speculation that the woman who emerged from her daughter Chelesa’s home a few hours later was a look-alike because the former first lady had died.
Sean Kingston
BBC News shocked the music world when they reported the Jamaican-American singer was found dead at his home weeks after he crashed his jet ski accident in a bridge in Miami. “Today” caught up with the 21-year-old three months later about his near-death experience.
Jackie Chan
“Jackie is alive and well,” read a note on the action star’s Facebook page following internet buzz that he died. “He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking sites and in online news reports.”
Cher
Cher was added to the celebrity death hoax list of victims after a “R.I.P. Cher” Facebook page was created in Sept. 2016. Although the post concluded with the message “Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page,” wasn’t a clue that it was a fake, the reports of her passing went viral and attracted nearly a million likes.
Macaulay Culkin
When the “Home Alone” star was targeted by death rumors in Nov. 2014, he debunked the reports by taking to Instagram and posting a photo parodying a scene from “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
Betty White
People are so in love with Betty White that when her name trends on Twitter, they freak out with worry that she’s met her maker. As recently as May 10, a tweet popped up saying that she was found dead and another one said her publicist confirmed it. Shortly thereafter, someone set up a GoFunMe to protect her from harm.
Eminem
A fake news story reporting Eminem‘s death in a car accident went viral in 2009. The story went as far as to blame the rapper for the crash, saying he swerved into an oncoming truck because he was on his cell phone.
Jim Carrey
And here we go again with that same snowboarding accident report that keeps popping up with the same facts and only the name of the “deceased” changed. Yup, Carrey was said to have died in April 2016. Even weirder, necropedia.org posted his “anticipated” obituary with a May 20, 2017 date.
Celine Dion
Never-ending rumors of Dion’s death on social media do not sit well the singer, in great part because each time one sprouts wings and flies, she has to ease her aging mother’s fears. “The thing that worries me is my mum,” according to Digital Spy. “It makes me a little mad – she’s 86 years old and if I’m not on the phone telling her I’m OK four seconds after it’s on the news… it doesn’t matter what they say, it’s the impact it has on your family.”
Beyonce
Jewelry can kill you, or at least that’s the rumor that started after the singer accidentally ripped out an earring during a Brooklyn concert and blood began running down her face. A Facebook page claimed she had died because she didn’t seek medical attention. The BeyHive was not happy about the hoax.
Jack Black
The Twitter account for Black’s band Tenacious D was hacked in June 2016 and the culprits posted this unsettling message: “It is with a heavy heart I am to announce that Jack Black passed away last night at 3:37 am. The cause of death is yet unknown.” They later cleared up the mess, posting, “WE had our Twitter account hacked. We can assure you that Jack is ALIVE and WELL and that this was a sick ‘prank.’”
Chevy Chase
According to Breaking 13 News, the “Community” actor died in his sleep after suffering a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2016.
Alice Cooper
Fans of the musician got a little confused in the early ’70s after reading Melody Maker magazine’s satirical review of Cooper’s concert in the form of a mock obit. He later issued a statement saying, “I’m alive, and drunk as usual.”
Russell Crowe
The “Gladiator” took matters into his own hands in June 2010 by tweeting, “Unable to answer tweets fell off a mountain in Austria, all over red rover. Don’t know how I got there, but the media are never wrong. G’Bye.”
Miley Cyrus
The “Wrecking Ball” singer has dodged the social medium Grim Reaper more than once. In 2008, she was said to have been killed by a hit and run driver, and in 2009 socialite Peaches Geldolf tweeted that a “friend in the industry” texted her that Cyrus had died. Cyrus’ appearances at the time during a London concert put those issues to rest.
Dwayne Johnson
A Facebook post went viral in April 2014 saying that The Rock died while filming a stunt for “Fast & Furious 7.” He posted a message to his fans on Facebook saying, “Rumors of my death are false – Im still ‘Bringin’ It’ 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – including leap year!” A tweet of his took a more direct approach: “I would love to meet the person who is starting rumors of my death – to show them how a dead foot feels up their ass.”
Michael Jordan
The web site Cronica MX posted an article in Feb. 2015 reporting the NBA superstar died on a heart attack. They took it a step further by producing a video with spliced footage of a breaking news segment and a tearful anchor.
Martin Lawrence
Martin Lawrence was reportedly found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room by a maid named Verna Del Sosa in 2015. Lawrence never mentioned it directly, but he did make his un-dead self known visible on social media in the days following his “death.”
Madonna
A BBC News video uploaded on YouTube on Sept. 24, 2010 announced Madonna was dead. They were, obviously, wrong.
Willie Nelson
The rumors of Willie Nelson‘s imminent demise have been exaggerated, his publicist says, disputing reports the country music icon is on death’s door. “He’s perfectly fine,” Elaine Schock told the Associated Press on Wednesday, attempting to finally shut down rumors sparked by a March 13 Radar Online story that described the 83-year-old as “deathly ill” and said his lungs weren’t strong enough to perform. A “bad cold” forced Nelson to cancel several shows in January and February, but he was back on stage by Feb. 16, when he played at a San Antonio rodeo. And last week he performed at a Houston stadium for 75,000 fans, where he appeared to be in good health and had no problems singing.
Barack Oba
on July 4, 2011, a hacker collective called “The Script Kiddies” took control of Fox News’s politics Twitter feed and posted that the incumbent President had been assassinated during a campaigning event in Iowa.
Sean Penn
News reports popped up on Jan. 12, 2016 that Sean Penn was found murdered in his Malibu home and that authorities were investigating that El Chapo might have ordered a hit on the actor/director who interviewed him shortly before.
Axl Rose
On December 3, 2014, a fake news report circulated on the internet claiming that the singer had been found dead at home. In response, Rose tweeted “If I’m dead do I still have to pay taxes?”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
An Aug. 28, 2015 post on MSMBC.co (not to be mistaken for MSNBC.com) reported that the former Governator died following a heart attack. But this was one time he did not say “Hasta la vista, baby.”
Justin Bieber
If you believe social media, Bieber has been “dead” more times than you can count. There were suicide rumors in 2009, which resurfaced in 2010), along with a shooting in a nightclub and an overdose. Then there was #RIPJustinBieber, which trended on Twitter in Jan. 2011.
Robert Redford
The Sundance Film Festival founder’s publicist stepped in to call reports of his death “a sick hoax.” The fake news initialed from Britain’s Sky News, which said he had fallen off a “golf buggy” in Santa Monica.
Gabourey Sidibe
The “Empire” star was barraged with tweets from concerned fans in March 2016, who were just checking to make sure she was still alive, following post saying she had died from an asthma attack. Sidibe assured everyone she was fine, but joking that maybe she was dead, if her “version of Hell is people believing poorly written articles about me.”
Lindsay Lohan
A tweak to Lohan’s Wikipedia page in July 2011 cited her death and credited E! News as their source – which was false. But the news spread, thanks to a fake Kim Kardashian Twitter account.
Hilary Duff
The former Disney star was said to have fallen to her death on the Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand.
Will Smith
May 2011 was not a pleasant month for Smith, who was reported killed in a car accident, after an overdose and falling off that same cliff where Hilary Duff supposedly perished.
Carlos Santana
A Sept. 2015 tweet from a Canadian journalist reporting that Santana’s body was found in a car sparked immediate denials from his peeps. “He is alive and well and enjoying his morning!” his rep told USA Today. Team Santana add to that message, posting on their Facebook page, “… Thank you all for your concern, but the reports of his passing are false.”
Bill Cosby
After the internet announced the comedian’s death, he tweeted, “To the people behind the foolishness, I’m not sure you see how upsetting this is.”
Paris Hilton
While Paris Hilton was serving jail time in 2007 for a DUI, the internet spread the word that she had been stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. The story was originally posted on-line and made to look as if it was coming from CNN.
Taylor Swift
Apparently, 2009 was not a good year for Swift. She was said to have been in a fatal car accident and then, months later, died from an allergic reaction to sleeping pills, which spread like wildfire on Facebook and YouTube.
Nick Jonas
The pop singer-turned-actor was also the victim of death hoaxes twice in 2009. One report said he died of cardiac arrest due to complications with his diabetes, while another said his heart stopped after a lap dance in a Dallas strip joint.
Morgan Freeman
Although CNN had initially been accused of claiming that Freeman had died, it was actually a Twitter user named @originalcjizzle, who later wrote, “I had no intention of things turning out this way.”
Zach Braff
The “Scrubs” actor was reported dead in 2009 by a fake CNN.Com page. The perpetrator of the “joke” later posted an apology, saying in part, “… Thanks for (apparently) taking it lightly, since I haven’t gotten a letter about a lawsuit yet. Just so you know, I’m a huge fan; that’s the only reason I made this page, believe it or not. Also, sorry for upsetting your mother.”
Bob Hope
Film legend Bob Hope’s death was announced five years prematurely in 1998 when a pre-written obituary was accidentally published on the Associated Press website. Unfortunately, the erroneous report of his “death” was then announced by the United States House of Representatives live on C-Span.
Mark Twain
We couldn’t leave out humorist Mark Twain, who became known for, among many other things, one of history’s most misquoted quotes. In 1897, Twain responded to a journalist’s inquiry about his health by writing, “James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration.”
Jeff Bezos
With an estimated worth skyrocketing to $171 billion during the coronavirus pandemic as homebound people are forced to stay out of stores and shop online, Amazon CEO and president Jeff Bezos became the target of rumors on July 7, 2020 that said he had died, causing #ripjeffbezos to trend on Twitter.
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Legal battles pushed the band to the brink – but they’ve fought back with a fine new record…The Cribs’ performance at Foo Fighters’ gigantic Manchester Etihad Stadium show in June 2018 has proven to be even more instrumental than they realised at the time.
The trio needed and wanted the show. Following a period of inactivity, problems were brewing under the surface, and their future was looking anything but bright. Being dropped by management is bad, but to then have to have legal and business battles to fight, is a different ball game altogether.
It began after the release of ‘24-7 Rock Star Shit’, the darker, more abrasive studio album from 2017 engineered by Steve Albini. Working on the assumption that this was not a commercial record, they released it almost directly to fans, without much of a fuss.
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Reaching number eight in the charts, the record immediately took off in ways greater than anticipated, but despite the band’s continued loyalty to independent music, their approach could have received a warmer welcome. Excitement and celebrations were brought to a halt when they found themselves parting ways with their UK management, an event that would signify the start of the most challenging chapter in their entire career.
“We had been talking”, states Ryan. “There was a point when we were saying even if we did split up, we had pretty much done everything that we wanted to do. When we started as a band for us the absolute, ultimate thing was to play at the main stage at Reading Festival. We weren’t ever aiming for that big rock star lifestyle. We just wanted to make records.”
“Having played the main stage there, as big Queen fans we were always thinking it would be cool to play a stadium”, he adds. “So when we got offered that show with Foo Fighters we thought maybe this was a sign; the perfect last show for us.”
The offer could not have come at a better time, having just scratched the surface, assessing the scale of the challenge they were faced with. Discovering the mess they had been in the entire time, without realising it, Ryan says the band were in a “bad headspace”.
“We were trying to figure out what we were going to do. Should we fight this thing or not? We questioned whether to cut our losses by racking up massive amounts of legal debt that we might never be able to deal with. We were pretty fed up.”
They already knew Foo Fighters personally before the show at Etihad. Following the delivery of a successful set, they were asked if they fancied hanging out. “We played with them a few times before, and we have some mutual friends. After the show they invited us into their compound.”
“We were chatting and telling them about some of the stuff we were dealing with. It was pretty simple with Dave, he was like ‘Forget about all that stuff, just come out to our studio and make the record. That’s what you’re in it for, you’re in it to make music. Forget about the business side, come out and make the record in our studio.”
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What initially seemed like an abstract idea became reality. Having had to cross many hurdles, it gave them something ultra-positive to aim for, there was a feeling of hope and a light at the end of the tunnel. Turning the studio recording offer down was something they would have lived to regret in the subsequent years to come.
“When we were growing up, it was Nirvana that inspired us to start playing music in the first place. Me and Gary would spend pretty much all our spare time in my bedroom listening to their records and watch the videos. So to be at Dave’s studio was basically a dream. It’s like a Nirvana and Foo Fighters museum with a studio in it.”
“It was amazing after going through everything. It gave us an appreciation of how good it was to be there to make our new record. They were around all the time, they are such positive people, such positive influences. It was a great experience, and as far recordings goes, it’s one of the most enjoyable records we’ve ever made.”
“It was restorative being somewhere like that,” enthuses Gary. “Those guys are just such good people, they’ve risen above things that have happened to them as well. Not only was it a fun studio experience, but it was restorative from a philosophical point of view, it’s the good guys helping us out. That was cool.”
The recordings at Sound City in Los Angeles took place in April 2019. A private studio facility unavailable to the public, the band could immerse themselves. Being constantly surrounded by reminders of the legacy of the two bands who influenced their drive and sound provided inspiration as well.
“Bit of pressure as well though when you’ve got Taylor Hawkins walking into the studio, listening to what you’re recording,” admits Ross. “As a drummer I was thinking maybe I’ll play the track while I do all the cool shit, when I was also just focusing on playing super-straight.”
Foo Fighters were very respectful of their recording time. They rehearsed in a small, almost garage-sized space, while The Cribs were recording in the large space next door. With a chance to mix work and leisure, the ten days went quickly, but there was still time for detailed exchanges on Queen and some video gaming.
“There was one song though (In the Neon Night),” remembers Ryan. “We had been playing it for ages. It must have taken us a while to get it right or something because one of them came up saying ‘You’ve been playing that song nearly all day. I’ve had it in my head’.”
The extraordinary studio experience was meant to be. Growing up in Wakefield as teenagers, getting into music and starting the band, Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman got hooked on raw bands with strong ethos, who could influence and encourage them to develop and promote their own set of principles.
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Aged 21 and 17, and they were still self-managing at the time. More principled than many of their band peers, this would also mean that they didn’t pick the more advantageous business or rights setup to secure them and their future.
Coming at things from a DIY perspective, they were suspicious of signing deals, and committing to people they felt were more similar to them seemed like a good option. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, the music rights went to major labels.
“We felt like it was gonna be impossible to try and get the rights reverted back to us”, maintains Ryan. “We were about to sign a new record deal for our entire catalogue, but then suddenly these massive major labels come out of the woodworks claiming that they own it.”
“It was devastating. But we had kept every contract we had signed, we still had all the accounts for any tour we had ever done. As we went through everything, we discovered that there was no mention of anyone ever being allowed to sell our rights without our say so.”
“We were quite anti-major label when we first started out,” states Gary. ”We had actually resisted signing with major labels at the time. Getting our rights back from our former independent home was straightforward, we got that sorted relatively quickly. But then when we got them back we discovered the sub deals with major labels, we didn’t know that that was the way things were set up. Our catalogue was under their umbrella and ownership.”
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With that revelation came the fact that it was Universal, and the irony of where they found themselves kicked in. Determined to go all the way and put in the required effort became a necessity. One healthy part of that realisation though was the activity of melding business matters and writing a new album. Even though Ross is based in Wakefield, Gary lives in Portland, Oregon and Ryan is in Queens, New York, it was possible to meet for regular sessions.
“Me and Gary were flying to the UK all the time to deal with business matters, so because we were all there, it was easy to arrange”, assures Ryan. “We would be creative when we weren’t having meetings, and we would just get together and start writing. The actual writing of the songs seemed like sanctuary from all the other stuff we were having to deal with. It was such a contrast that it felt like the fun side of being in a band, writing and playing again.”
“We knew we had been writing stuff, but we were so bogged down in business stuff, more than we were on the arts side”, says Gary. “Not only is that challenging from the point of view of writing a record, but it’s psychologically difficult as you can lose that positive association that you have with making records, and that can be demoralising.”
Rediscovering the positive association with music in times of darkness made everything feel better. And The Cribs’ eight studio album ‘Night Network’ is their most joyous, uplifting record. Sounding free and easy, it offers romantic and innocent vibes, and it also represents an honest return to basics for the band. It goes back to what inspired them when they started out as musicians. Never neglecting a strong melody or a hook, melodic whispers of classic rock and roll, pop and various girl groups echo throughout.
“It’s almost like a recoil where you go so far one way, and then you snap back”, observes Gary. “When we first started out as a band, outside Sonic Youth and Nirvana, it was The Beatles and Motown; good, poppy and soulful music. But over the years, the longer we were on that treadmill, it kept building up and building up to the point where things got louder and more aggressive until we hit a peak with ’24-7..’”
“We didn’t leave ourselves anywhere to go from there. We recoiled back to where we came from. I think that was partly due to the fact that we had to put a distance between ourselves and the band because of this enforced hiatus. We could see it and realised where we were. We remembered who we were when we first started out, we embraced that again.”
“Even before we made this record we had conversations about wanting to move away from some of the more fierce stuff that we had done”, reveals Ryan. “We’re in different places in our lives now, and it’s just ironic that we were dealing with things that were dragging up a lot of negative, emotional issues. At the time we were writing the record we did want it to be more positive. I think we just enjoyed playing a lot more as a result, it was a break from acting pseudo lawyers and pseudo accountants.”
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With a lengthy career, experience and knowledge, self-producing continues to make sense. Having worked with some of the biggest industry names in music, Ryan feels that they have enough knowledge to be self-sufficient. “I think when it comes to a producer, we didn’t really feel like we needed one. Even in the past when we’ve brought people in, it’s more about them bringing their vibe and perspective. At this point, we’re experienced and we’ve worked with so many good producers that we’ve learnt from.”
“From a production point of view, we‘ve been so autonomous in this period of time in trying to get our rights back, and we’ve been self-managing”, adds Gary. “We’ve done so much work on our own that it made sense to take this opportunity to self-produce, so we were in control of everything our side. It’s nice to just feel self-sufficient and solely responsible.”
As hard as it is to come up with a counter-argument, it does seem to beg the question of how it feels to look back on their achievements. Having been around for more than two decades inevitably does provide you with a substantial legacy and pride.
“Having longevity and the degree of success that we have whilst doing stuff on our own terms, turning things down and being principled has all been important”, considers Ryan. “There were certain times where we were always told that our principles were holding us back, but that was not something that we were going to compromise on.”
“We’re proud of what we’ve remained that way and stuck by our values first and foremost and still achieved a level of commercial success that a lot of bands don’t experience. Plus, the record we made with Steve Albini was the first top ten record that he has had since ‘In Utero’, that’s pretty cool.”
Dave Grohl gave them encouragement too. “He said ‘don’t ever sell your rights again, make sure you always keep hold of them’. That’s quite an obvious thing to say, but not everyone’s privileged enough to do so. And it was salient to us because we were in the process of getting them. Those words were ringing in our ears.”
Gary chooses to touch on the psychology of it. “When you make the record, there’s an element of catharsis. You’ve with dealt with everything you were dealing with at that time and compartmentalised it in that album. When you make the next one, you don’t have that baggage anymore.”
“It’s not something we ever sit down and discuss, but we always tend to push against the previous record, and it’s because we’ve dealt with it. It means that I’ve explored that element of my personality. It’s there now, it’s done and I’ll move on to look at something else.”
Almost certainly their finest work yet, and that is saying a lot, there is no doubt that The Cribs tackle a different compartment on ‘Night Network’. It is going to be fascinating to see how they “push against” it on their future projects, having proven that psychology has a part to play in the process.
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‘Night Network’ is out now.
Words: Susan Hansen
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The 52-year-old musician revealed that he has recorded music with the legendary Beatles star and he hopes to use it on an upcoming album from Gorillaz
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The legendary Beatle John Lennon is known for living in the iconic Dakota. But a penthouse in an East Side building where he lived has become available. Claudine Zap , provided by Comments The legendary John Lennon of the Beatles loved the anonymity of New York City and kept a residence in the iconic Dakota…
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These vacuum devices stood guard during the Cold War, advanced particle physics, treated cancer patients, and made the Beatles sound good
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9 PM, October 31st will be our first opportunity to accept the invitation of Nadine Lustre and Careless Music to lay our heads on our digital pillow, and open our minds to this ‘dreamscape’ that Nadine has carefully created, cultivated, and curated. It’s the official launch of Nadine’s Wildest Dreams, a visual album that promises to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our local recording industry. No stone has been left unturned in gifting us with a showcase that’s more than just a musical journey. It’s an attestation to Nadine as a triple-threat – singing, dancing, and acting; in what has to considered her career’s opus magnum.

The teaser alone (posted by former boyfriend James Reid, who heads Careless), had both show biz commentators & her legion of fans searching for superlatives – as it previewed what we now know will be a 32-minute short film that intertwines the six new, self-penned Nadine tunes, with a storyline, dialogue, stunning visuals, and choreography. Directed by Dominic Bekaert for his Zoopraxi Studio, he also wrote the story, and the dialogue was written by Dominic and Quintin P. Cu-Unjieng, adapted to Tagalog by Sarge Lacuesta.

The concept of a visual album is not in itself new. The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night could be seen as a precursor of the format; and Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Black Is King are more recent examples of the genre. With Nadine’s Wildest Dreams, the intent was to mix international production value, with Filipino culture and imagery: from the Albularyo, to Agimats, and a take on the Maria Makiling legend.

Had the chance to talk to the album’s Director, and Dominic (who directed James Reid in Fiend, which was MYX’s 2020 Best Urban Video of the Year) had this to relay, “Careless had originally contacted us for one or two Dreams music videos, but seeing the richness and message of self-empowerment that connects all the songs, we offered to do a visual album. The craziest thing is they loved the concept, and were down to do it. They gave us total creative freedom.”

“Each song/video presents a new stage in Nadine’s interior journey, helping her realize things about herself. We move from a dark and doubtful mood in the first video, towards a brighter sense of discovery and self-appreciation. Nadine has many talents, and we used them all throughout the shoot… we wanted to show the full scope of her capabilities. She would herself bring in ideas and variations that would add color and flavor to the scenes. Editing her performances was a real pleasure, because of all the options she gave us during the shoot.”

Shot in the midst of our pandemic months, the album is a mix of location and studio with sets shoots. Safety and health protocols were always a major concern, and was factored in for bringing this album to reality. Zoopraxi is all about multi-tasking, and working with a minimal number of crew, and Dominic laughed recalling how he took on the tasks of Director, Director of Photography, Editor, and handled some of the VFX.

Careless Music is the label that produced the music, which is by James Reid, Marcus Davis, Bret Jackson, and Isagani Palabyab. As mentioned, the lyrics were by Nadine, with the help of Bret Jackson, Massiah, James Reid and Marcus Davis.

Oh, and it’s no coincidence that the visual album ‘drops’ on the 31st, as it’s Nadine’s 27th Birthday. In a neat reversal, it’s her birthday; but she’s the one giving all of us a very special gift. Head to your favorite Careless and ABS-CBN YouTube platforms to celebrate Nadine’s Wildest Dreams.
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Pop superstars The Beatles were handed MBEs at Buckingham Palace. (Oct. 26)
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The Beatles legend collaborated with his former bandmate on his 1997 solo album after the Electric Light Orchestra musician
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The Beatles enjoyed a royal premiere of their movie “Help!” in London. (July 29)
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