How to Watch the Oscars Pre-Show, With Performances of All Five Best Song Nominees

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened Ukraine – and the world – with nuclear weapons, as he bids to bring back the era of the Soviet Union.But it now appears that Soviet infrastructure could be saving the lives of thousands of innocent Ukrainians.In a tweet from Ukrainian front-line journalist Illia Ponomarenko, it is now clear that many of Kyiv's metro stations are actual nuclear war vaults.Posting a picture of one of the entrances from the Akademmistechko Station in the country's capital city, he tweeted: “In case you were interested, this is how a sealed subway station look like in Kyiv.“The Soviets designed them as potential nuclear war vaults. Now our metro protects us form the new Soviets.”Mr Ponomarekno is the defence reporter with The Kyiv Independent newspaper.Around 47 of the city's 52 stations have features enabling them to be used as bomb shelters, and they have been used as such during the current invasion.The system is the oldest and largest underground network in the country, and has become the main source of protection as Russian bombs and missiles rain down on the country.The Arsenalna station, located in the Pecherskyi district is thought to be the safest station to go to, as it is the deepest of all of them.It goes down underground by around 346ft, or 105.5 metres.

Lionel Messi is bemused by criticism in the media after a below-par start to his time at Paris Saint-Germain, according to reports. Many pundits and fans expected the Argentine, 34, to pick up where he left off following his dramatic switch from Barcelona last summer.Despite Barca's on and off the field issues last term, Messi still managed to find the back of the net 38 times in all competitions - his 13th consecutive season scoring 30+ goals.It will take a monumental effort for the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner to extend that run to 14 seasons following a wretched first few months in Paris.

viral, racking up hundreds of likes.Despite the somewhat comical review, the shopper still gave the bodysuit a five-star review.Another was startled by just how high-cut the item was in real life, as they wrote: "This is much more high cut than it looks. very sexy though."A third even admitted they bought the item as a joke, as they wrote: "Bought as a gag gift looks exactly like the picture.

Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone claimed three years ago that he would like to see Russian President Vladimir Putin “running Europe” because “he’s a good guy”. Putin has been widely condemned for ordering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has brought terror to the eastern European country over the past six days. Russia has ignored calls to de-escalate violence, instead pouring hundreds of thousands of troops across the border while firing missiles into residential areas of Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt’s safe to say that the music industry was stunned on Friday when the Recording Academy almost completely eliminated the controversial “secret” committees that for decades have decided the final list of Grammy nominees in most categories, including the “Big Four” General field of Album, Song, Record of the Year and Best New Artist.The committees (which worked from a shortlist from the main body of approximately 12,000 voting members) were comprised of industry executives and experts whose names were not publicly revealed.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe track records of Bonnie “Prince” Billy — a.k.a. former Palace frontman Will Oldham — and guitarist-singer Matt Sweeney reach back some 30 years and create a dense discographical tangle that takes as long to read as most of the albums take to listen to.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBillie Eilish announced earlier this week that her second full-length album, the sarcastically titled “Happier Than Ever,” will be dropping in July, and has followed with a new single from it, “Your Power.”“this is one of my favorite songs i’ve ever written,” she wrote in an all-lowercase statement accompanying the song. “i feel very vulnerable putting this one out because i hold it so close to my heart.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorColdplay will return with their first new music since 2019 next Friday with “Higher Power,” a new single produced by Max Martin — the most successful songwriter-producer of the last 25 years.It would not be unreasonable to expect that an album will be following sometime in the coming months as well.The group posted on social media: “Higher Power is a song that arrived on a little keyboard and a bathroom sink at the start of 2020. It was produced by Max Martin who is a true wonder of the universe.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJust days after Downtown Music sold nearly 150,000 publishing copyrights to Concord, the company has laid off an unspecified number of staffers in its Nashville office.  Among the affected employees was executive VP Steve Markland, the highest-ranking member of the Nashville team; the news was first reported by Billboard.Following Concord’s acquisition of Downtown Music’s 145,000-song publishing copyrights on Monday, Downtown has let go a number of its Nashville employees, including executive vp A&R Steve Markland, who was the highest ranking staffer in the office.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThirty six hours or so after he finished his stint as the Academy Awards’ first DJ-as-orchestra, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the show’s musical director, has posted a 144-track playlist including every single song he played during the three-plus-hour-long Oscars ceremony this year. Unfortunately, it does not include the music that he and the Roots recorded paying homage to great Hollywood composers (which he described to Variety in an interview last week), but it’s an amazing 10-hour-plus jam nonetheless.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter dropping a brief video on Monday sporting her new blonde look, Billie Eilish apparently has announced that she will release her second full-length album, titled “Happier Than Ever,” on July 30.The news was not officially announced on Tuesday but billboards began appearing in various cities.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHasbro announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Entertainment One Music (widely known as eOne Music) for an aggregate price of $385 million in cash.The transaction has been approved by Hasbro and Entertainment One Canada’s board of directors, and is subject to customary closing conditions and receipt of regulatory approvals. The property has been on the market for several months.eOne Music will be acquired by entities controlled by Blackstone, which also owns the performing rights organization SESAC.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith livestreamed concerts, their “Big Bang Con” virtual festival and lots more, BTS has kept busy during the pandemic — and clearly they’ve been at work on new music, as the septet will release a new single called “Butter” on May 21.Information about the song is scarce, as usual for the group: “21st century Pop Icons BTS will release their new single “Butter” at 0 AM EDT on May 21,” the announcement says simply. “‘Butter’ is a dance pop track brimming with the smooth yet charismatic charm of BTS. This song is the second English single following ‘Dynamite’ released in August last year.”Although no announcement has been made, it seems likely that an album or EP from the group is likely to follow.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFrom Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” drowning out an announcer to Rita Moreno walking on to the theme of “The Electric Company,” the ‘70s childrens’ TV show in which she starred, there was never any question who was behind the ones and twos at the Oscars on Sunday night: Questlove, Roots co-founder and drummer, musical director of both the Oscars and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” director of the forthcoming “Summer of Soul” documentary and a walking music Wikipedia.While his thumbprint was obvious in virtually every music cue on the show, his influence was also obvious in at least one point of the show.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn the latest blockbuster music-catalog deal, Downtown has sold its 145,000 owned and co-published copyrights to an affiliate of the Concord music company.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEven in the context of the Who’s odd catalog, ”The Who Sell Out” is an oddity.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“It was fifteen years ago, and I still don’t believe it,” says DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia, possibly the most shocking Oscar winners in history. The Memphis-spawned hip-hop group won Best Original Song in 2006 for the theme track from the Terence Howard-starring film “Hustle & Flow,” which bears the spectacularly unsubtle title of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”It’s safe to say the Academy Awards had never seen anything like the group’s performance on the show, either.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs teased earlier this week, the Weeknd has dropped a remix and video of “Save Your Tears,” one of the standout tracks from his blockbuster “After Hours” album, featuring Ariana Grande.Watch the official animated video, featuring renderings of both artists, was directed by Jack Brown and produced by Blinkink.The collaboration marks at least the third time the Weeknd and Grande have worked together, previously on his 2014 song “Love Me Harder” — which also marked his first collaboration with Max Martin, the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years — and her track “Off the Table.”Even before this remix, “Save Your Tears” was one of the most successful songs from one of the most successful albums

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRapper, actor and activist Common has signed with YM&U management of his music endeavors, the company has announced. He will be represented and managed by Kevin Wolff, who signed him to YM&U, alongside Anthony Rodol.Common is the only rapper to win Grammy, Academy and Emmy Awards; he has also won a Golden Globe.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorResorts World Las Vegas has been making big comeback plans in recent weeks, announcing summer residencies for Zedd and Tiesto at its nightclubs — and it is apparently ramping up those plans significantly with the release of an elaborate video starring Katy Perry, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan as well as Zedd and Tiësto, suggesting that residencies by those artists are soon to come as well.No concrete details are provided beyond the hotel opening on June 24, but the company clearly has big plans afoot and will be ready to pull the trigger when it deems the time is right.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNormally, for an interview like the one Variety did on Tuesday with Oscars musical director Questlove and show producer Jesse Collins, the reporter can ask at least somewhat informed questions. But so little about the show has been revealed in advance that the interview ended up being almost an investigative piece — and a fascinating one.The conversation below reveals a great deal about how the show’s music will work, but the basics are this: Questlove is both the show’s musical director and, as he was last year, the in-house DJ.