Kobalt Sells Fund II, With Songs by the Weeknd, Lorde and More, to KKR Venture for $1.1 Billion

Development plans are in the pipeline for a continuous trail along the Solway coast.

Fans of ITV's The Masked Singer were not happy after Natalie Imbruglia was unmasked as Panda, taking the chamionship of the Saturday night finale.

Young Dolph, the two men indicted for his murder have pleaded not guilty.Upon their respective arrests in January, Justin Johnson (23) and Cornelius Smith (32) faced charges of first-degree murder and theft of property between $10,000 and $60,000. Smith was also charged with attempted first-degree murder – it’s alleged he tried to shoot Dolph’s brother during the same incident that killed the rapper – unlawfully carrying or possessing a weapon, and employment of a firearm with intent to commit a felony.As reported by the Associated Press (via Billboard) Johnson and Smith pleaded not guilty to the charges last Friday (February 11), with both pleas being entered by their lawyers in Memphis’ Shelby County Criminal Court.In a statement obtained by AP, Johnson’s lawyer, Juni Ganguli, said he’d met with the suspect after Friday’s hearing.

A tree planting project in Kirkcudbright has passed an important milestone.

A model who has spent $150,000 (over £100,000) on her bum as she tries to achieve ‘the world’s biggest’ has revealed her struggles around finding the perfect man.

Jim Goodwin is determined to steer his side to the Scottish Cup semi-finals this season.

ALEXANDRA Burke has revealed she is pregnant with her first child with her boyfriend Darren Randolph. The X Factor winner - who rose to fame in 2008 - took to Instagram to reveal the exciting baby news with a sweet video. Alexandra, 33, revealed to fans how her first baby was "due June 2022" as she posted a series of clips of her family.

THE Only Way Is Essex star Frankie Essex has shared the exciting news she is pregnant with twins. The the 34-year-old revealed she was expecting the double bundle of joy with fiancé, Luke Love, 32, and they were both in tears when they found out. “I was just so shocked!” Frankie told new!.

MAYA Jama has given fans rare insight into her engagement to basketball player Ben Simmons - by posting a cryptic Valentine's message about 'obsessive love.' The TV presenter, 27, jetted off to New York to be with her basketball star fiance last weekend. Maya, who has been famously coy over her engagement, even swerving Mo Gilligan's questions about her massive engagement ring at the Brits, made a rare comment on her romance on her Instastories.

GOOD Morning Britain's Ranvir Singh fought back tears as the team paid tribute to a crew member who passed away over the weekend. Ranvir, 44, announced the death of GMB's long-serving programme organiser, Paul Dorrian.

Amanda Owen has issued a touching update from Ravenseat Farm after the sad stillbirth of one of her calves. A cow named Lily suffered a tragedy when her calf died during labour, but she has now become a mum again after a genius move from Amanda.The shepherdess shared the “gory” process as she explained she had removed the dead calf from Lily and covered another baby cow, named Stormy, with its skin.This, she explained, made Lily believe Stormy was actually hers, and she began to let her suckle.One week on, the two gentle creatures are now “inseparable”, according to Amanda.Alongside adorable photos of the mother-daughter duo, she wrote: “Lily & Stormy.“It’s nearly a week since the calf was fostered onto the cow that had the stillborn calf.“Now they are inseparable.”The adoption process with cows is not an easy one, and Amanda previously admitted she was grappling with how much to show her 190,000 followers."The best way of persuading Lily [cow] that Stormy the calf is her own is to use stillborn calf’s skin to disguise her,” she tweeted."It’s not an easy task to skin as wet & slippery with birth fluids but this should make it more successful."The 46-year-old continued: “Removal of the dead calf’s [sic] is not as gory as might be the expectation but nevertheless I’ve refrained from showing too much detail."Most important is that the tail remains complete as this is what the mother sniffs when the adoptee suckles.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTravis Scott has unveiled the lineup for his third annual Astroworld Festival, taking place in his Houston hometown on Nov. 5-6, and like the rapper himself, it’s far-reaching and full of surprises, ranging from Lil Baby and SZA to Bad Bunny and Tame Impala to Earth Wind & Fire.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBeyonce musical director/bassist Divinity Roxx (pictured above with Yani Marin), blind artist Lachi, deaf activist Mervin and more were winners at the first Wavy Awards, presented on Saturday by Blonde Music News and intended to celebrate “women, LGBTQ+, non-binary, artists of color, talent who identifies as having a disability and allies.”Sophia Chang gave a memorable speech at the event, which was supported by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and was focused on “historically excluded” artists who appeared on Blonde MusicNews.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has announced that a special “Homecoming” Edition” of its annual ASCAP Women Behind the Music event will take place virtually on Wednesday, October 27 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEven though they now share management, a collaboration between the Weeknd and dance-music titans Swedish House Mafia didn’t seem obvious or even that natural of a fit.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGrammy-nominated songwriter Ali Tamposi and artist-music industry vet Tamar Kaprelian have launched a new digital education video and podcast series “Song Start,” which is available on Spotify for Artists’ recently launched Noteable platform today — check it out here.The series debuts with ten video episodes with artists including John Legend, Camila Cabello, Charli XCX, and Phoebe Bridgers (pictured above), and ten corresponding podcast episodes explore and explain into the topics of Songwriting, Production, Business, Music & Mindset, featuring singers Sam Smith and Hayley Williams and producer-songwriter Take a Day Trip.Introducing #SongStart from @noteable and @song__start ✍️

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt hardly came as a surprise, but Kobalt’s second giant catalog sale in less than a year made headlines on Tuesday morning when the company announced that KKR, together with its co-investor, Dundee Partners, purchased the KMR Music Royalties II portfolio for a whopping $1.1 billion — even more than the billion the company was said to be seeking. Included in that 62,000-copyright catalog are hits by the Weeknd, Lorde, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Diplo, Max Martin collaborator Shellback, Kid Cudi and more.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the first time in 10 years, Red Bull’s long-running SoundClash is back with a line-up in four cities that includes Rico Nasty, Danny Brown, Shelley (formerly known as Dram), Tang and the Bangas and more. The four shows will take place from November 30 – December 15 in Atlanta, Houston, Nashville and Chicago, and feature two artists competing across two opposite stages, with the audience deciding the winner.Red Bull SoundClash 2021 U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile outdoor concerts and medium-sized tours have more or less returned after 18 months of pandemic shutdown, the bread and butter of the concert industry — the arena tour — has been slowest to come back. The Weeknd’s “After Hours” tour, which was originally scheduled to launch in June of 2020, was to relaunch in January of next year.But owing to several factors, the trek has been escalated to a stadium tour and bumped to the summer of 2022, with dates to be announced in the coming weeks.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave has acquired a stake in the catalog of Gerry Goffin, lyricist for dozens of classic songs with his former wife Carole King: “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman,” “Up on the Roof,” “The Loco-Motion,” “One Fine Day,” “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Wasn’t Born to Follow,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “I’m Into Something Good” and many, many other songs that epitomized the “Brill Building” sound that dominated the hit parade of the early ‘60s.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLong-running footwear brand Dr. Martens has announced their 2021 “Dr.