By Ray Kirsch
While we wait to see what new jaw-dropping controversies the government has in store for us, Weekly Debrief has returned for the spring semester! UW–Madison students probably want to stay at home and avoid the snow, and we have the perfect thing for students to read while doing so: the most recent pop culture news.
Cynthia Erivo to receive the Stephen F. Kolzak prize
Cynthia Erivo, star of Wicked, is set to receive the Stephen F. Kolzak prize at the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards for promoting LGBTQ+ visibility.
The 36th annual GLAAD Media Awards will take place on March 27, 2025 in Los Angeles. The full nominations list was announced on January 22 and can be found here.
BLACKPINK is in your area… again!
Iconic Korean-Pop group Blackpink recently teased their 2025 world tour. Fans are quite excited, despite dates not being announced yet and the group not releasing group music since 2022.
The four members have been booked and busy individually, though.
South Korean member Jisoo has been pursuing many acting projects, recently starring in Newtopia, and she just released her album ‘Amortage' on February 14. The mini-album features four singles, including lead single ‘Earthquake.'
Thai member Lisa released ‘NEW WOMAN' with Rosalía following her hit single ‘ROCKSTAR.' She just dropped a new single, ‘BORN AGAIN,' with Doja Cat and RAYE, hinting at her solo album, ‘Alter Ego,' that is arriving on February 28. Lisa also recently made her acting debut in season three of The White Lotus.
South Korean member Jennie released hit single ‘MANTRA' in the fall and has been hinting at the release of her solo album, ‘RUBY.' She most recently released ‘Love Hangover' with Dominic Fike and ‘ZEN,' which is the album teaser to the release date of March 7. Her debut album will feature Childish Gambino, Dua Lipa, Doechii, FKJ and Kali Uchis. Jennie will also be receiving the Global Force award at Billboard Women in Music 2025 in March.
New Zealand, South Korean member Rosé broke several records with her December album ‘Rosie,' which featured ‘number one girl,' ‘toxic till the end' and ‘APT' with Bruno Mars. Since the release of her album, she's been performing her songs and appearing in various interviews.
Fans are patiently waiting for the tour to be announced, with excitement about the reunion of the members! Will they release a new album? Will the tour be focused on their solo music? We'll have to wait.
Kanye West dropped by talent agency after controversies
Kanye West has been dropped by his talent agency 33&West after his Super Bowl ad was aired and fans discovered what merch he is selling on his website. His Super Bowl ad directed viewers to go to the Yeezy brand's website, which is noticeably only selling one thing, a t-shirt with a swastika on it.
The website has since been taken down by Shopify, with the platform stating that the merchants violated Shopify terms.
West also faces a lawsuit from a former staff member. The staff member, who is Jewish, alleged that he once texted her “Hail Hitler.”
West's X (formerly known as Twitter) account was also taken down, with Elon Musk stating that his account should be classified as NSFW due to “posting literal porn.” Prior to this, West had posted a variety of controversial takes on X, such as stating “IM A NAZI,” pleading President Donald Trump to pardon Sean “Diddy” Combs who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and claiming that Kendrick Lamar was being “used by white people and Jews” for his Super Bowl performance.
That's not all West has been in the news for recently, though. He and his wife Bianca Censori walked the red carpet at the Grammys, where Censori's nude body could be seen. He also made the claim that his bipolar diagnosis was a misdiagnosis and that he really has autism spectrum disorder, and he then blamed his autism for his “strange public behavior.”
It could just be me, but I don't think autism explains the merch…
Google Calendar removes some cultural events, sparking backlash
Google Calendar has removed several prominent cultural events from its site. Specifically, it has removed Pride Month, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Indigenous People Month.
When questioned, a Google spokesperson said that “maintaining hundreds of movements manually and consistently globally wasn't scalable or sustainable.”
Duolingo's owl Duo is found dead
Duolingo's app mascot Duo was announced… dead? The language-learning company said in their post, “Tbh, he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what do we know.” Companies like Halo, the World Health Organization, Netflix and ketnipz have all posted about his death, as well as Dua Lipa.
Duolingo posted that the cause of death was Duo being hit by a Cybertruck. R.I.P. Duo, I guess.
