Lorde, the New Zealand singer with one hit in twelve years, has underscored her previous antisemitism.

She’s seen her music pulled from iTunes in Israel after shouting “Free Palestine!” at a New York show.

She won’t be missed.

Lorde already said several years ago she wouldn’t do shows in Israel. This was met with a collective yawn.

Her one hit, “Royals,” came in 2013. Since then, her record sales are minimal. No one in Israel, or most countries, was clamoring for her music.

This year, according to Luminate, Lorde has had sales of just 115,1999 in downloads, CDs, and vinyl.

Adding in streaming, she has 742,581. Most of the sales from “Royals.”

How Lorde even has a US record label is a mystery. She hasn’t sold a record here in a decade.

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor has made herself a pariah. Frankly, she should have all her music removed from iTunes ASAP.

What is going on here?

“The Life of a Showgirl” album by Taylor Swift — released at midnight — is number 1 on amazon and iTunes.

But on iTunes and Spotify there’s no action. On the former, no individual tracks have revealed themselves. On the latter, one song — “Ophelia” — is registering.

How can all these things exist at the same time?

More interesting: the “Showgirl” tracks take up the top 20 of Apple streaming. Nothing on Apple’s iTunes, where albums are made or broken by individual tracks catching fire.

As of 4:23pm, Swift has nothing on the iTunes top 100.

And then there’s Rolling Stone. The long venerated rock and roll bible has given over its entire home page to “Showgirl” as if it were “Sgt. Pepper.” They are all in, bestowing a ridiculous five star review.

The fans don’t seem to like the album. Twitter X is full of comments saying the album is “mid” Swift, nothing new, and a disappointment.

On Metacritic, the rating is at 62%, not exactly a run away hit.

And let’s not forget my previous story about the title track sounding awfully similar to the Jonas Brothers’ 2019 song, “Cool.”

Stay tuned…

Rolling Stone (Taylor's Version)

To celebrate #TSTheLifeofaShowgirl, we launched our first-ever homepage takeover. For 24 hours, Rolling Stone transforms its digital presence into an immersive experience complete with reviews, lists, takes, and more.https://t.co/TaxO73ksla pic.twitter.com/GCD19Ze9a5

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 3, 2025

I can’t take credit for this.

Sean McNulty, who writes the excellent The Wake Up newsletter at The Ankler — I guess he’s a Jonas Brothers fan — noticed the similarity right away.

The title track of Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” and the Jonas Brothers’ 2019 “Cool,” sound very similar.

Last night I praised Swift’s track, from her new album, because it sounded so different from the rest of the record.

I am not much of a Jonas expert, but when I heard “Cool” I really liked it — as if I’d heard it before.

The Swift song is written with Max Martin and Shellback. The Jonas Brothers song comes from the Ryan Tedder house of songs.

I see some Grammy nominations predictions starting to pop up.

This was not a great year, folks. There was “Flowers” or “Birds of a Feather.”

A lot of the material sounded the same.

But if the Recording Academy is smart, they’ll go back to a legend and current star’s duet album as a rallying point.

That would be Elton John’s “Who Believes in Angels?” with Brandi Carlile. Not only is it a great album, but there’s a potential Best Song candidate in “When This Old World Is Done With Me.”

Too often these days people forget what a ‘song’ is, it’s written by one or two people at most, it’s got a melody and a hook, can be covered by others, and has some meaning. It’s not Record of the Year, which is the whole package.

That honor would rest with Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra.” Now, that’s a record of the year. It comes from Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” collection, the strongest album of pop, dance, and rock this year. “Mayhem” and “Angels,” let’s face it, are crafted by composers.

Runners up are certainly Laufey’s “A Matter of Time” and Jon Batiste’s “Big Money.”

Batiste already has an Album of the Year. “Big Money” doesn’t really have a hit, but it’s consistent. Laufey is easily the breakout artist we need, but she still has a small following. Just the nominations would widen her appeal.

There’s always room for Kendrick Lamar. “GNX” is a solid contemporary R&B classic. The track, “Luther (with SZA,” is going to be a big Grammy player.

I’ve seen some suggestions about Miley Cyrus — who won deservedly two years ago — and Justin Bieber. The latter’s “Daisies” is catchy enough for a Record of the Year nod. Unfortunately, Miley’s “Something Beautiful” album just didn’t catch on. And nothing on is as good as “Flowers.

Best new artist is going to be a dogfight between Sombr and Alex Warren. The former lodged to big indie hits with “back to friends” and “Undressed.” Warren had the biggest hit of the year in “Ordinary.”

Other players in the noms, which are announced in November: Sabrina Carpenter, and Leon Thomas. Let’s also see some love for Samara Joy, Bill Strings, Suzanne Vega, Rob Thomas, and Hayley Williams.