Music News with Taylor Swift and Alicia Keys

TAYLOR SWIFT HELPS KEEP SMALL NASHVILLE RECORD STORE AFLOAT DURING CRISIS CLOSURES: Taylor Swift has supplied retailer Grimey’s New & Preloved Music, an independent record store in her hometown of Nashville, with a generous contribution to help out their employees during the shop’s pandemic closure. The owners confirmed that Taylor has gifted the store money for each employee and three months’ worth of health care.

DJ KHALED & NICOLE TUCK’S ‘WE THE BEST FOUNDATION’ DONATES $10,000 MASKS, GLOVES & SUPPLIES TO NEW YORK AND MIAMI HEALTHCARE WORKERS: DJ Khaled and Nicole Tuck’s We The Best Foundation has teamed up with Direct Relief and simplehuman to supply over 10,000 masks, gloves and dozens of PPE kits for healthcare workers in New York and Miami. Khaled said in a statement, “Helping our local community when and where we can has always been our mission since we started the We The Best Foundation back in 2018. By partnering with Direct Relief, Nicole and I are able to reach the medical staff who are most at risk in local hospitals in New York and Miami. It’s important to us to take care of those who take care of us.”

ALICIA KEYS REVEALS WHY SHE WANTED SWIZZ BEATZ’ KIDS TO CALL HER UMI INSTEAD OF STEPMOM: In her new book, More Myself: A Journey, Alicia Keys revealed why she asked Swizz Beatz’s kids call her Umi instead of stepmom. According to Madamenoire, she said, “When KJ was little he started referring to me as his stepmom, which didn’t feel like the right vibe to me, especially when Egypt began mimicking KJ and also calling me stepmom. So Swizz and I came up with an alternative: KJ would call me Umi (pronounced OOH-me), a beautiful word that means mother in Arabic. Egypt and Genesis now also call me Umi, in addition to Mommy.” She also talked about Swizz’s ex-wife Mashonda, who she says “has her own relationship with our boys, independent of Swizz and me, and she sometimes even picks up Genesis from school, as well as brings the boys little gifts. None of this has to be planned. The blending, at this point, is fluid, relaxed, and second nature.”

PUSSYCAT DOLLS RELEASE CASH CASH REMIX OF ‘REACT’: The Pussycat Dolls have debuted the new remix of their current single, “React,” featuring Cash Cash. “We hope this helps you get up and dance even at home,” the band wrote on Twitter. The girls released their visual for “React” in February.