Taylor Swift can propel people into stardom with the push of the SEND button … and her latest beneficiary is rising country star Kelsea Ballerini.
Taylor was in Nashville Saturday night to celebrate the the birthday of her best friend — Abigail Anderson. A bunch of friends were along for the ride, including Kelsea.
Now behold the power of Taylor. On March 9th, she tweeted how much she liked her new song, “LoveMe Like You Mean It.” The song then took off like a rocket, in no small part to Taylor.
BTW, there are other famous people in the pics, including Hayley Williams from Paramore and supermodel Lily Aldridge.
Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift appeared to confirm their relationship in the early hours of Friday morning when they were snapped holding hands – but a sneaky picture of the pair going PDA-mad inside has got fans VERY excited about the budding romance.
And as if that wasn’t enough proof, Calvin was then snapped leaving Taylor’s house the next morning. Could this be the final confirmation?
Rita Ora’s ex Calvin had his arms wrapped around the singer as she sat back on his knee during a Haim gig in West Hollywood hours before.
Twitter @ShakteitTay13
One fan caught THIS incredible moment
The pair looked like the perfect couple as they watched the performance together, and fans captured the moment from inside the venue – more than a bit excited by it all.
Posting the snap on Twitter, one fan wrote: “They look so good together and what’s better than @taylorswift13 being all happy with @CalvinHarris only that matters.”
Hours later Calvin left her home alone and headed back to his own property.
X17online.com
The morning after the night before
There’s been speculation that they have been dating ever since they were seen getting close at the Brits afterparty.
And the musical duo appeared to confirm they ARE an item when they were pictured leaving The Troubador nightclub in the early hours.
The couple were surrounded by a flurry of snappers as they left the swanky nightspot, but seemed completely oblivious to anyone but each other as they made their way to their car.
X17online.com
Something to tell us Calvin?
Dressed in a black lace bodycon dress, Taylor looked like she’d made a real effort for her date night, and Calvin, who looked dapper in a matching black tee and jeans, couldn’t take his eyes off her.
The Scottish DJ followed closely behind the Shake It Off hitmaker, making sure she got to their vehicle unharmed.
After holding the door open for her, Calvin slid into the car behind her, and was seen placing a protective hand on her knee as they drove away.
Splash
Both stars were all smiles as they exited the car park together.
And it makes us VERY excited.
It seems the pair have been spending a lot of time together of late.
Yesterday Amber Rose put up an emotional post on instagram saying she still loved her estranged husband Wiz and wanted him back.But the raper seemed to have moved on as he throws fresh shades at her ex wife amber rose.
During a recent episode of her show, Wendy Williams tried something most people don’t do…she came for Oprah Winfrey. Careful, Wendy! Speaking about Karrueche’s interview on Oprah’s Own Network, Wendy called Oprah out for going against her own promise to never do reality shows
“Oprah, what has happened to you. Now look Oprah, not for nothing. When you first got OWN, you said you weren’t going to do reality TV and meanwhile, you have nothing but ratchetness. Oprah, welcome to the basement. It’s nice down here, huh?”
Then Wendy Williams went on to discuss how pointless she thought Iyanla VanZant’s interview with Karrueche was and ended up calling Karrueche a ‘thot’ and a gold digger. See that after the cut…
“We know why Karrueche was with Chris Brown. She claims she was with Chris because of his nice personality or whatever. She was with Chris because she was a THOT who was after a dollar. Are you serious? Right? I mean, this is not exactly a girl who has her own business and her own coins. That’s the stupidest question to ask a girl of this nature. Like why is she with a celebrity who is wealthy…duh…for a come-up!
My thing with Karrueche, and we can’t blame her, there aren’t enough rooms at Harvard for everybody. There are some girls who have to date to come up.
Karrueche, you’re 26 years old and it’s time you work on yourself because she’s a cutie but ‘cute’ only last for this long. Cute girls are a dime a dozen and there are girls in the audience cuter than you
The stripper is probably tired of messing around since she divorced her husband of less two years wiz khalifa.She took to instagram to show her emotions and how she wants her man back.We are yet to hear from wiz khalifa.The stripper is possibly still in love.
Chaka Khan takes a pause, then, at a volume barely above a whisper, says: “I can’t say I was shocked… But I was definitely hurt, disappointed.”
The big-voiced, big-haired, larger-than-life disco diva is feeling very raw.
It’s not the gloss of showbiz sympathy in her voice, it’s a very real pain.
The cause is her late friend Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, who’s been on life support in a coma for two months after being found face down in a bath – a chilling echo of her mum’s death at a Beverly Hills hotel three years ago.
Chaka has known Bobbi Kristina, 22, since she was born and has been a close friend of Whitney, her ex-husband Bobby Brown and her mum Cissy for decades.
She even let Whitney cover her own hit song I’m Every Woman.
Reuters
Anguish: Chaka Khan says she feels late pal Whitney Houston’s pain
Like Whitney, Chaka has fought drug addiction and has seen her family suffer the same fate – explaining why her first reaction to police finding drugs at Bobbi Kristina’s home was one of being let down.
“I’ve been in conversation with the family,” Chaka says.
“Everyone’s devastated, everyone. I love Bobbi Kristina, I love Whitney, I love Bobby Brown. I love Cissy – I love them all.
“But we just have to wait for what happens next. All I want to do is be there for them. I just need to pray.”
Chaka, 62, was among the mourners at Whitney’s funeral after she died in 2012, aged 48, and she knows how her close friend would feel about the tragic situation.
“Whitney would be devastated. I wish she was here,” says Chaka, quietly.
“You really don’t know what this is like for a mother until it happens to you.
“I think I’m pretty close to feeling what she would have felt and what she’s feeling right now, wherever she is.”
Chris Walter/WireImage
Struggle: Chaka, pictured in 1975, has fought a battle with drink and drugs
In public, Chaka is the loud, brash, don’t-mess-with-me queen of funk.
She boasts 10 Grammys, 42 years in the business, 18 albums, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has produced anthem after anthem, including I’m Every Woman, I Feel for You and Ain’t Nobody.
But away from the limelight, Chaka has been fighting a long battle with drugs and booze. Her dad Charles used heroin and Chaka openly indulged in drugs until the 1990s.
She once almost died after accidentally mixing cocaine and sleeping pills. Then she later struggled with alcohol abuse before going sober in the early 2000s, only to get hooked on painkillers after an injury.
Chaka – real name Yvette Stevens – has been trying to stay off all kinds of stimulants since June 2013.
Giving her only British interview ahead of her appearance at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival in East Sussex this summer, she says: “I call myself an ex-addict. For years I was having fun and it all made fun more fun for me. But life changes.
“As entertainers, we are highly sensitive people and there’s no way things can’t get to you. But you have to find ways to protect yourself from that crap.
“I’ve cut back on a lot of friends because they’ve got problems. You have to hand pick your situations.”
One accidental slip up came a few weeks ago at rapper Snoop Dogg’s party.
She laughs: “The place was filled with marijuana smoke. I was there for four hours and it took me two or three days to recover just from breathing in there!”
Part of her determination to stay sober is granddaughter Daija.
Her son Damien, 36, was cleared of murder after accidentally shooting a friend in 2004, but went on to face more personal struggles, meaning Chaka was given custody of his daughter, now 14, in 2011.
“I just look at it like I’ve got another chance to do a better job at raising a child,” beams Chaka.
“To pass on my wisdom.”
She raves about Daija wanting to be a doctor, her high grades and the shih tzu toy poodle she bought for their shared birthday last week.
What’s more, she’s confident Daija won’t fall foul of the family curse of addiction.
“She’s seen enough addiction at her young age,” says Chaka.
“There’s more than one addiction in my family and she’s seen the worst of it, even when she didn’t know what it was. She’s aware, astute and her eyes are wide open. She’s totally anti.”
Yet Daija has never heard her gran sing. Chaka laughs: “She does give me advice though. She’ll be like, ‘Nanna, I think you should do something with this guy!’”.
It’s advice Chaka’s taken. One surprising new friendship is with man-of-the-momentSam Smith, who she met after he described her as his icon. The pair now plan to collaborate.
“Sam and I have become pretty fast friends,” smiles Chaka.
“We text every day. I send him motherly advice. He’s filling an important slot since we lost Luther Vandross. He’s got a long career ahead.”
Chaka has warned him about the “tough industry” but it’s with matters of the heart that she’s most concerned about newly-single Sam, and she speaks from experience.
By the mid-1980s, Chaka had already racked up two failed marriages to Hassan Khan and Richard Holland.
While she had her children Indira, now 41, and Damien, she struggled to find someone she could really trust – for a long time, love and fame seemed incompatible.
“Now that Sam’s a big star it’s going to be even tougher to find love,” she warns.
“One never knows if a person loves you, or the artist. It’s awful, ghastly.”
Another close friend in the same situation is Lindsay Lohan. Chaka was wrongly accused of feuding with the actress when they met in rehab in 2013, but they were actually very close.
“She’s one of the most beautiful, eloquent people I know,” says Chaka. “It makes me very sad people are horrible to her.
“Her heart is looking for love, that’s all. Maybe she’ll find somebody to be good to her – I pray for that.”
Born in Chicago to a beatnik dad and the eldest of five siblings, there’s not much Chaka hasn’t seen. And she feels no need to pretend she’s something she’s not.
She confesses she’s not much of a fan of modern music, except for Sam.
“I don’t play music in my house. I don’t listen to music in my car unless I have to,” the singer says frankly. “A lot of music today, I can’t stomach.”
Getty
Mother’s love: Whitney Houston with daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown
Instead, she loves locking herself away watching crime shows in her Los Angeles home – a “sanctuary” that’s not decorated with any of her 10 Grammys.
“They’re at my mum’s house,” she says. “I’m not a flaunter. I want comfort in my home. I don’t want to look at flipping Grammys.”
And don’t get her started on celebs who glamorise gun crime.
“Anybody who has a gun tattoo or wears a gun necklace is someone who wants to be something they’re not,” she states. “A real gun carrier, nobody knows he has his gun on him.”
She knows what she’s talking about. Chaka was part of the militant civil rights group the Black Panthers in the late 1960s – until the day she was given a gun.
“The Black Panthers was all about self-defence and defending yourself against the powers that be,” she says.
“I was just a kid, so I guess it made sense to me and it still does. But it made me sick carrying a gun. If you have a gun you have to decide you’re going to use it.”
Chaka threw the weapon in a lake, quit and started singing in clubs. That decision led to a phenomenal career, but also that certain loneliness. “Is it hard to find to find good friends? Absolutely,” Chaka admits.
“I have two or three friends. Just two or three. It’s about being around the right people – the people you feel love you for who you are.”
One good friend is fellow legendary singer Joni Mitchell, 71. Chaka’s even making a tribute album next month.
“She’ll come round my house and we just talk s***,” laughs Chaka.
“She’s a great teacher and philosopher, it’s mostly about the state of the world. I’ll sing her songs to her that she’s forgot. It’s funny.
“We don’t talk men though, she ain’t interested and I ain’t interested.
“Would I change anything in my life? I don’t think so. I’ve no regrets. The good and the bad, the cuckoo and the uncuckoo has made me the amazing woman I am today
