NEWS
Kim Kardashian has shared that Kanye West played Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the exact moment their daughter North West entered the world.
Speaking this week on her sister Khloé’s podcast Khloé In Wonder Land on January 21, she looked back on how Ye took control of the music while she was in labour with her first child in June 2013.
“She knew what she wanted since the moment she was born,” Kardashian said. “Getting born to the song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Kourtney and I talk about this all the time. Kanye was DJing, so he put on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for the moment she came out.”
“And isn’t it so her?” she added. “Kourtney and I cry laughing thinking of this moment and how it’s just so like her, you know? That’s such a weird fact. When I listen to it, I just, like get [emotional].”
North West’s musical journey continues to gather pace. Last week, she teased a new collaborative track with her father titled “Piercing On My Hand (Ye Version)”, which features her delivering lines including: “No friends, just filter, you wouldn’t understand / Shopping in Japan, that’s where I always stand / Went to school for two days, then I got banned / Skipping school, yeah, I do it on the daily.”
She also appeared on FKA Twigs’ ‘Childlike Things’ from last year’s album Euxesua, where North can be heard singing in Japanese. Twigs explained that she wanted North on the track because her “energy is so inspiring”, adding: “It needs someone who has that tenacity, who has that strong point of view that you have when you’re 11.”
The youngster also took to the stage in 2024, performing ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ at the live production of The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl. Later that year, she revealed she was working on her debut album, titled ‘Elementary School Dropout’, a nod to her father’s 2004 record The College Dropout, which has yet to see an official release.
North has also added a verse to ‘Talking’ and ‘Vultures’, songs from Ye’s 2024 joint album Vultures 1 with Ty Dolla $ign, and joined her father on stage in Paris that February for a live performance of the former.
As for Ye, he is preparing to release his 12th studio album BULLY on January 30, following a surprise announcement made during a comedy show at the Hollywood Improv last month. His team have also recently addressed rumours surrounding potential AI involvement on the record.
Morrissey has written an emotional tribute to his former manager Peter Katsis, remembering him as “a very unusual star” and declaring that “a world has ended”.
Peter Katsis passed away last Thursday, August 6, aged 69. His death was reportedly caused by complications linked to congestive heart failure.
Born in Chicago, Katsis became a respected name within the music world, working as a manager for artists such as the Smashing Pumpkins, Backstreet Boys, Snoop Dogg and Jane’s Addiction. After news of his death emerged, the former Smiths singer initially responded by posting a picture of Katsis.
Morrissey has now published a more detailed remembrance, accompanied by an image showing Katsis dressed in drag while attending a New York Dolls concert in Chicago in 1973.
Looking back at the picture, Morrissey said: “He certainly got into the spirit of things. Given his bustling masculinity, he would roar with laughter to know that I have used this shot in summation of his life.”
“I am justifiably glum this week, and it has taken me several days to even face writing this because PK was a very unusual star: an adventurer who enjoyed biting off more than most people could collectively chew,” he continued. “He was very much liked – which was unusual in a music manager. In a way, a dreamy-eyed romantic, but when necessary, a trick octopus.”
Sharing more memories of Katsis and his larger than life personality, Morrissey added: “All liberties were taken; all fun encouraged and consumed. He knew how and when to give momentum another good shove. Sometimes his Chicagoan knuckle-district dialogue was slightly comic strip, but it was all part of his self-destructive charm… taunting an overdose of Dom Perignon because… well, why not?”
The singer also recalled how the pair viewed the music industry in much the same way. “We were similar in that we were both correct too early – on all predictions. He knew that most modern bands contained neither danger nor mystery, but he gritted his teeth and dealt with the platitudinous industry gabble of Los Angeles.”
Turning to a deeply personal moment in their friendship, Morrissey continued: “When my mother died in 2020, he raced to my side. He knew I couldn’t deal with it. He immediately introduced me to Andrew Watt and we recorded “Bonfire Of Teenagers” faster than the speed of sound – an undreamed-of rescue at a time when another day, for me, might not have come.”
Morrissey ended his message by writing: “The future is now merely the remainder of life. Dead brother buried. A world has ended.”
“Bonfire Of Teenagers” was created across 2020 and 2021 with Watt handling production. The record features appearances from Miley Cyrus, Iggy Pop and musicians from Red Hot Chili Peppers, although the album has still not received an official release.
Several other music figures have remembered Katsis since his passing, including Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan. Corgan described him as “a dear friend and extended member of our family” and praised his role in helping to “usher in the alternative revolution of the ’80s and ’90s and beyond”.
More messages honouring Katsis can be viewed here.
