Halsey’s long awaited addition is here! The singer announced the arrival of her first child with boyfriend Alev Aydin today on Instagram. Ender Ridley Aydin was born on July 14 and the duo shared two sweet black and white snapshots to welcome him.
Captioned, “Gratitude. For the most ‘rare’ and euphoric birth. Powered by love” the announcement followed Halsey’s recent album news, a concept album on “the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.” The cover image fittingly celebrates the beauty of pregnant and postpartum bodies.
A healthy baby is welcome news for the 26-year-old new mom, who’s publicly shared her struggle with endometriosis as well a miscarriage while touring. She announced the pregnancy in late January on Instagram and has documented her growing bump throughout the process.
Halsey’s boyfriend, Aydin, is a producer, director and screenwriter. He’s praised her as “the baddest woman on the planet” when the couple made their baby news public earlier this year. Congratulations to the happy family!
—Sarah Shebek
Featured image courtesy of Featureflash Photo Agency via Shutterstock
Calling all Beatle fans! Whether you’re an OG fan or starting out as a baby Beatle lover, this special collection from Magna-Tile is a must for your collection.
The Beatles Collection Magna-Tiles Structure Set comes with everything you need to create a Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Magical Mystery Tour Bus, a record player, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Kaleidoscope, The Beatles Album Collage, two different bass drums and display the Beatles Song Titles!
The set is an official Magna-Tile product and is compatible with all other sets. Each piece is made with SuperColor® Technology on both sides that equals bright colors and a scratch-resistant coating.
The Beatles Collection Magna-Tiles Structure Set comes with 28 small squares, 10 small rectangles, six quarter rounds, six small triangles, one hexagon and two chassis. You can pre-order the set for $134.99 on CreateOn or Amazon.
If you’ve been to a Chuck E. Cheese in the last 40 years, chances are you’ve rocked out to the tunes of Chuck E. and Munch’s Make Believe Band. Now for the first time the iconic musical group is hitting the road for a live concert series, starting Jun. 5!
You’ll be able to catch the band live in Tampa, Nashville, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas. All concerts are free to attend and will be outdoors, following local and state safety guidelines. If your family can’t make it to a show, the new album “Summer of Fun” is available now to stream on all music platforms. The music spans a range of family-friendly music from pop, punk rock, country, hip hop and Latin inspired beats.
The album and concerts are part of the restaurant chain’s new Summer of Fun celebration, which officially kicks off May 31. You’ll be able to purchase three different levels of a Summer Fun Pass, which include game play, e-tickets, pizzas and VIP access to concerts. The Bronze Level starts at just $39.99 and offers a total savings of $124.
Currently you can find Chuck E. Cheese in 47 states and 15 foreign countries, so it’s easy to join in on the upcoming festivities. Get ready for a pizza-tastic summer!
PJ Masks is celebrating National Superhero Day with a brand-new album! The new release is the fourth album to drop from your pre-k kiddo’s fave.
Hasbro’s global entertainment studio eOne and producers Pure West are the musical geniuses behind the episodic album “PJ Power Up.” This new addition joins “Heroes Forever,” “Here We Come,” and “Time to Be a Hero!”
photo courtesy of eOne
In honor of National Superhero Day, PJ Masks is releasing the first track from “PJ Power Up”—”Shine on Everyone.” Your littles can look forward to more tracks, with one released every Wednesday. Each track adds to the story, creating episodes for your child to follow. The final track, “Shout Hooray,” will debut Jun. 9.
The “PJ Power Up” tracks and release dates are as follows:
Apr. 28: “Shine on Everyone”
May 5: “Time to be a Hero”
May 12: “Go Cat Co”
May 19: “Let’s Fly”
May 26: “Lizard Machine”
Jun. 2: “Steal the Night”
Jun. 9: “Shout Hooray”
Choose your preferred music service to stream the first track from the album here!
Are you looking for a way to get your kiddo into gardening this spring? Lowe’s has an answer! The home improvement store has Garden-To-Go Kits that feature new activities each week.
Even though in-person events are out for the time being, Lowe’s new kits are a way to entertain and educate your children—all in one one convenient place.
The kits change by the week, featuring different fun, family-friendly themes. Kits that are soon to come include a Mystery Garden Pinata Kit with a biodegradable piñata filled with mystery seed bombs, a Tree Giveaway with a real sapling and a Butterfly Quest Kit that comes with the wood needed to assemble a butterfly house, paint, a paintbrush and seeds.
To get your kiddo’s free (yes free!) kit, visit Lowe’s website here. Families must “register” for the free kit online, with one kit given out per family. You must sign-up for the kit at least one week before the kit distribution date. Parents can pick up the kits curbside at their local participating Lowe’s store between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. on Apr. 15, Apr. 22 or Apr. 29.
KIDZ BOP is the number one music brand for kids and its about to turn 20! In celebration of two decades of kid-centric cover songs, the brand is dropping a brand new album.
“KIDZ BOP All-Time Greatest Hits” is a collection of its most popular hits from the past 20 years, with a few new re-recorded versions of classic tracks. Did we mention its available today?
photo: Kidz Bop
So what tracks can your kiddos tune in to? The top 20 includes:
All Star
Get The Party Started
Sk8er Boi
Hey Ya!
Since U Been Gone
Beverly Hills
Umbrella
Party Like A Rockstar
I Gotta Feeling
Party In The USA
Firework
Call Me Maybe
Thrift Shop
Happy
Shake It Off
Uptown Funk
Can’t Stop The Feeling
Havana
Sucker
Old Town Road
Head to Kidz Bop to find all the places to stream, purchase and watch the newest album!
The Wiggles are celebrating a major milestone. With 30 years of magical music behind them, the band is looking towards the future with a new “Greatest Hits” album, featuring the awesomely inclusive song “We’re All Fruit Salad.”
Fans of the kiddo version of the fab four can get moving to the 40-track album. Available right now, the “Greatest Hits” compilation features songs spanning the crib-rock band’s three decades of music-making.
The 30-year anniversary compilation includes faves such as “Hot Potato,” “Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga Big Red Car,” “Do the Propeller!,” Rock-A-Bye Your Bear,” “Fruit Salad” and so much more!
Along with the OG (that is “Original Guys”), the “Greatest Hits” album also includes a diverse cast of guests, such as James Harkness, Jawan M. Jackson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Rakete, Taylor Symone Jackson and Victor Valdes. Not only do the guests perform with the “Guys” on the album, but they also appear in an all-new Wiggles video for the track “We’re All Fruit Salad.”
Lucky fans down under can check out the band in a new tour. The Wiggles have already pre-sold 41,000 tickets in New Zealand as part of their Australian tour. Even though the band hasn’t announced U.S. dates, according to a press release, “As soon as it’s safe, the Wiggles plan to greet their legions of fans across North America in person.”
While you wait for the Wiggles to come to this side of the globe on tour, watch their new music video for “We’re All Fruit Salad” here and download the album here.
It was only a month ago that The LEGO Group and Universal Music Group (UMG) announced an exciting new product: LEGO VIDIYO. Now, the brands are revealing even more details, including the first range of minifigs!
LEGO VIDIYO, a unique music video maker experience, is the perfect outlet for kids to express themselves creatively through music and play. The app uses a collection of BeatBoxes, Bandmates, BeatBits and augmented reality for endless combinations of kid-created music videos.
First in the lineup of products are BeatBoxes. To start, LEGO has launched six unique portable BeatBoxes that each hold a minifigure that coincides with a specific music genre, a scanning-stage, two special BeatBits and 14 random BeatBits.
Each BeatBox can hold up to 16 BeatBits and comes with a building plate that can be customized with LEGO tiles. The first six sets include:
43102 ‘Candy Pop’ in the Candy Mermaid BeatBox (Pop)
43103 ‘Pirate Punk’ in the Punk Pirate Beatbox (Punk)
43104 ‘Alien DJ’ in the Extra Terrestrial Dance Music BeatBox (ETDM)
43105 ‘Party Llama’ in the Party Llama BeatBox (Tropicon)
43106 ‘Unicorn DJ’ in the Unicorn DJ BeatBox (K-pawp)
43107 ‘Robot Break-dancer’ in the HipHop Robot BeatBox (HipHop)
You can also shop 12 Bandmates in a range of Mystery-Boxes! Each one comes with one special BeatBit and two random BeatBits. Bandmates can be added to your VIDIYO band and include:
43101 Bandmates: Red Panda Dancer; Cotton Candy Cheerleader; Shark Singer; Bunny Dancer; Discowboy Singer; Genie Dancer; Samurapper; DJ Cheetah; Ice Cream Saxophonist; Alien Keytarist; Banshee Singer; Werewolf Drummer
So what are BeatBits? They are 2×2 tiles that resemble album covers and bring an endless combination of audio and visual effects to your video making experience. Amp up your music video by scanning the BeatBits and change up your dance movies, background, effects and more. For the first year, there will be 130 BeatBits to collect and use.
When it comes to adding the tunes to your experience, you will have around 30 songs to choose from UMG’s global artists. Select from chart toppers, classics and your fave dance numbers from within the app, then seamlessly add to your video. The best part? Each song has been programmed to work perfectly with all the BeatBits!
You’ll need the LEGO VIDIYO app to get started creating videos. Head to the LEGO website to access options for both Android and Apple, and download it for free.
Once kids are in the app, they can choose the music, scan their LEGO minifigs and BeatBits and then bring them to life. From clothing, band names and album covers, each step is fully customizable and can result in a 60 second video. With over 1,400 unlockable elements, there is no end to your kids creativity.
Last but not least UMG label, Astralwerks, announced the signing of a new artist: a live action, human version of the DJ Llama minifigure from the Tropicon BeatBox. L.L.A.M.A is not tied to any one type of music genre and his debut single “Shake” will be released on Fri. Feb. 19. It features three-time GRAMMY winner NE-YO and Carmen DeLeon.
LEGO VIDIYO products launch on Mar. 1 on lego.com and at LEGO retailers. BeatBoxes will retail for $19.99 and Collectible Bandmates for $4.99 each.
We know that building with LEGO can put you in the zone, but have you ever noticed the sounds the bricks make? It’s quite soothing apparently, and so, in hopes of bringing adults even more ways to destress, the LEGO Group has released LEGO® White Noise, an album of sounds made solely with bricks. Curious? So are we, and here’s what we found out.
The LEGO Group
Research shows that almost 73% of adults are looking for new ways to de-stress. To offer up something unique, LEGO designers experimented with over 10,000 LEGO elements, and they found the most soothing sounds possible.
The soundscape has seven different tracks, each one is 30 minutes long and a completely different sound: clicking two bricks together, sorting through a pile of LEGO to find “the one,” a waterfall of thousands of bricks being poured out, and more.
Released to accompany the new LEGO Botanics line—which includes a flower bouquet and a Bonsai tree—the playlist can be accessed on over 15 different music streaming platforms, including Spotify and iTunes or for free on LEGO.com.
Have you been keeping up with Disney+ Marvel Studios’ WandaVision? If you can’t seem to get enough Walt Disney Records just released WandaVision: Episode 1 Original Soundtrack and WandaVision: Episode 2 Original Soundtrack. This is (almost) enough to tide us over while we anxiously await new episodes each Friday.
The digital soundtracks feature score by composer Christophe Beck (Frozen 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp) and the original theme songs are by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Frozen). The Oscar-winning songwriters penned unique songs for several episodes in the series, spanning from the 1950s to the early 2000s.
Beck composed and produced all score tracks on each WandaVision album. He said “For each era, the music is a loving homage to the sitcom scores typical of the time period. This involved not only the instrumentation, but also the composition style.”
Anderson-Lopez and Lopez not only wrote the theme and songs but they also produced each song. When speaking of the theme for the first episode Anderson-Lopez said, “We wanted to have an optimistic group of voices singing jazzily (though not too jazzily!) about the love between these two — and the main question of the first episode, whether two Avengers in love can pass for normal in a typical American suburb.”
For the second episode Lopez said, “We decided to put lots of raunchy trombones commenting and in one part we also used my favorite ’60s keyboard sound, the RMI Rock-si-chord—a sort of electric organ harpsichord sound.”
The WandaVision Original Soundtrack album producers are Kevin Feige, Matt Shakman and Dave Jordan. The albums for Episodes 1 and 2 will be followed by WandaVision: Episode 3 Original Soundtrack available on Jan. 29, with subsequent albums to follow one week after each episode of the series airs.
WandaVision Original Soundtrack release dates follow:
