the ariana grande conversation

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!

Hi friends! I had a great birthday last weekend. Jack and I got omakase then we met up with my friends at the Magician, a bar I already go to probably once a week. On Sunday, I met up with some of my college friends for tacos at Nene’s in Park Slope. Very sweet few days I could not have survived without the emergency Zbiotics1 I bought last week.

It’s been an incredible first week of my early mid-thirties! On Monday, I published TWO cover stories! First was an interview with JENNIE for Cosmopolitan! There are six beautiful covers that will be available, all so colorful and classic Cosmo. I interviewed her back in April over Zoom about her next solo album and the run of festivals she was about to begin. We talked a lot about expectations and this fresh start she’s getting just as her group Blackpink celebrates their tenth anniversary TODAY.

I also interviewed Kelela for Highsnobiety!2 We met up in a Brooklyn studio she recorded some of her album New Avatar at. The convo explored the making of her new album and the mix of rock nostalgia and dire world circumstances that inspired it. In person, she is as effortlessly cool and brilliant as you would expect her to be.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of being part of The Shit Show, hosted by Lucy Blakiston of shit you should care about! The game show took place at Joe’s Pub and had us matching Notes App apologies to celebrities, guessing quotes and discerning extremely zoomed in corners of photos3. We did an I Don’t Think So, Honey-esque segment on things we hate; I waxed poetic about game nights at people’s homes! Don’t invite me over to play a board game ever!

This Saturday, come to the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park for Aaliyah Day! I’m hosting! And it’s FREE!!! L’Rain is the music director and put together and iconic slate of artists to cover Aaliyah’s songs. There will be DJs, speakers and a raffle for three Karl Kani motorcycle jackets! Doors open at 3pm, music starts at 4, and I’m on hosting duty from 5pm until the end of the night. You won’t want to miss this!

If you’re looking for something fun to listen to, check out my appearance on Big White Elephants this week talking about Camp Rock! The podcast is teeing up the release of Camp Rock 3 this month, and while I probably won’t be tuning in to that film, I’ll definitely be checking out their recap instead.

As I shared last week, I’m running a little birthday subscription special! Today is the last day to nab it! But I kinda love running these specials so I’ll prob do another this fall hehe.

On to this week’s news!