are the jonas brothers broke?

Welcome to BRIT POP! Every Friday, I round up some of my favorite bits of pop news from the week. You can follow along with my favorite songs of 2026 on Apple Music and Spotify Thank you to my paying subscribers who keep this newsletter running!

Hello!!! This month has been hot and now smoky and so packed. I have a couple profiles coming out in August that I’m really excited for you all to read!! And another in September that I just started reporting out and am pinching myself I got assigned.

Since Taywedding weekend, my evenings have been filled with concerts and movies. I saw Stop! That! Train! and Maddie’s Secret last week (loved both) and an early screening of I Want Your Sex (maybe my favorite of the year?). I attended a Kelela listening party at COLORSxSTUDIOS in Bushwick last Friday which was dreamy then Club Confessions on Saturday. Club Confessions was absolutely perfect. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life to be in a packed party dancing to “Hung Up” with Madonna head-banging behind the DJ booth. Completely surreal.

This week, I caught Belle & Chain at Hart Bar1, and Jack did a solo gig at Nightclub 101 on Wednesday, where he covered “Amelia” by Joni Mitchell. On Tuesday, the Spotify team brought me to one of Ariana Grande’s shows at Barclays Center. I’m so happy I finally got to hear the Eternal Sunshine tracks live! I still really love that album.

Next Wednesday, you can catch me and Julia Wolf in conversation at the Greene Space! Make sure to grab a ticket! I would also suggest RSVPing for Celebrate Brooklyn’s Aaliyah Day on August 8th. I can reveal more later but for now can tease that I’ll be playing a little part in the celebration…

ICYMI Ethan Sawyer interviewed me for his newsletter Ethan from Human Pursuits! You can check it out here. I also just realized I never properly shared some of my recent stories in the last post so rectifying that now:

• An interview with MUNA for Playboy!

• A report on the Black women making alt music for Teen Vogue!

• And a Travis Scott cover story for L’Officiel! (No better way to celebrate The Odyssey this weekend than to read a little bit about the bard).

Now on to this week’s news….

A Letterboxd for Concerts Is Finally Here!

I was so stoked when BRIT POP reader Adam Offitzer reached out to me earlier this summer to test out Encore. The site allows you to log concerts you’ve attended while also checking out what your friends are seeing! You can also discover what’s coming up at venues near you, too.

I’ve been dying for something like this. For the past several years, I’ve been trying to keep my own log in my Notes App, but this is way more fun. I love the way it integrates my most-read site, Setlist.fm. I think this can be huge for music lovers and a great tool of discovery, especially for smaller touring acts.

The waitlist is now open for people who want to test Encore out for themselves. You can use the code britpop to skip the waitlist and get early access! And make sure to follow me on there, too2 :)