The Daily Lowdown: Janelle Monae comes out as non-binary

Welcome to your Daily Lowdown podcast from HELLO!. Today, we're talking about Janelle Monae coming out as non-binary and Calvin Harris' comeback just in time for summer.

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Not only that, we reveal the MTV VMA's official date and location and discuss round two of Coachella which is kicking off on Friday. Tune into your Friday episode of The Daily Lowdown below to hear more…

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Here's a transcript of today's podcast:

Janelle Monae has come out as non-binary. The Grammy Award nominee revealed the news on the brand new episode of Jada Pinkett Smith's Facebook show Red Table Talk, explaining she doesn't see herself as a solely a woman. The Pynk singer added she sees everything beyond the binary of 'he' or 'she' but that she will always stand with women. After a previous interview with Rolling Stone, a representative for Janelle Monae said the singer uses 'she' or 'they' pronouns.

It's been five years since his last release but Calvin Harris is set to be the sound of the summer with his new album. The DJ and producer announced on Twitter that the highly-anticipated Funk Wav Vol. 2, a follow-up to 2017's first volume, will be out this summer. Calvin's last record was a huge hit with fans and featured a whole range of guest artists including Frank Ocean, Katy Perry and Pharrell on a number of tracks such as Feels and Slide.

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janelle-monae
janelle-monae

Janelle Monae has come out as non-binary

Ed Sheeran has released a new remix of his track, 2Step, featuring Lil Baby – and the singer has announced all proceeds from the song will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Humanitarian Appeal for Ukraine. Ed revealed in a statement that he filmed the video for the track in Kyiv before the conflict began, adding Ukraine is a proud and resilient country and that the people have his full support.

ed-sheeran-new
ed-sheeran-new

Ed is donating proceeds from the new remix of 2Step to Ukraine

MTV has confirmed a date and location for this year's Video Music Awards. The annual event, which is one of the biggest in the music industry's calendar, will take place at New Jersey's Prudential Centre in Newark on Sunday 28 August 2022. The awards took place in Brooklyn last year and the year before was a much-more scaled down event due to the pandemic. Executives at MTV explained in a statement that this year's event will still remain stringent on protocols and precautions to ensure the safety of artists and fans.

And festival fans are heading back to Indio California for the second outing of Coachella. Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd will once again act as headliners and will no doubt bring with them some big surprises. The previous performance saw Harry bring out Country music legend Shania Twain, while Billie welcomed Damon Albarn on stage and The Weeknd teamed up with Swedish House Mafia for his gig.

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