While Anna Sawai has been busy conquering TV and film, the Emmy-winning “Shōgun” star first got her start in show business as a member of the J-pop band FAKY. Now, Sawai is going back to her musical roots in the role of Yoko Ono in Sam Mendes’ forthcoming “Beatles” biopics.

“It was my dream to tell her story and I didn’t think it would come this quick,” Sawai told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere of Apple TV’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 on Thursday night. “There’s a version of her I feel people still don’t understand. And in this film, I think we’re going to be able to tell that side of the story.”

To prepare, Sawai has been busy reading everything she can about the artist and musician. “So much reading, oh my gosh,” she said. “So many books, so many videos, so many articles…She has so much artwork that also shows her personality.”

While on set in London, Sawai teases it’s been fun to hear the cast — Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr — play the iconic band’s music. “They’re not even looking at the sheet music anymore. They can just play it off and sing it, and it really sounds like the Beatles to me. It feels surreal.”

Source: variety.com/Payton Turkeltaub

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The Irish actor opened up about the effect of the harsh comments.  Barry Keoghan has said he ‘doesn’t want to go outside’ after remarks about his looks. The Irish actor, who will play Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles' biopic, has been faced with harsh comments about his looks over the past couple of years.

Keoghan has opened up about the harmful effects such comments has had on him personally, admitting it has made him 'shy away'. Keoghan firstly acknowledged the 'good side' of fame, highlighting his 'incredible fanbase', however he added that 'there is also a nasty side of it'.  He said he has received 'a lot of abuse' over his looks and tried to remove himself from online.

"I think I removed myself from online, but I'm still a curious human being that wants to go on and, if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it's not nice," he said. The Saltburn star continued: "There's a lot of hate online. It's a lot of abuse of how I look.

"It's made me really go inside myself, not want to attend places, not want to go outside. "And I say this being absolute pure and honest to you. It's becoming a problem."In 2024, following his split from pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter, Keoghan deleted his Instagram account due to what he dubbed 'disgusting commentary' about his appearance.

At the time, he wrote: "I need you to remember he has to read ALL of this about his father when he is older.
Please be respectful to all. Thank u x."

Source: joe.ie/Ava Keady

John Lennon's songwriting and Beatles legacy form the foundation of his cultural impact.  "Strawberry Fields Forever" tops recent rankings, praised for its production and experimental sound.  The song’s inspiration stems from Lennon’s Liverpool childhood and personal struggles.

John Lennon is famous for many reasons. His songwriting genius, his activism, his enduring cultural impact. But his rise to fame with The Beatles is the foundation on which everything was built.

In 1956, Lennon founded the Quarrymen, described as a skiffle group. Four years later, the band composed of Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, solidified their core, changed their name, and never looked back.

With Harrison contributing to the Fab Four‘s songwriting further into their meteoric career, and two songs coming from Starr, most of the writing was shared by Lennon and McCartney. But for our purposes here, we’re focused on the masterworks that sprung from the heart, mind, and soul of the bespectacled, shaggy-haired rock pioneer.

In a recent roundup published by Uncut, the team, including Paul Weller, guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of The Jam, picked 30 songs from the music legend’s discography, and the results range from “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” “Dear Prudence,” and “Across the Universe,” to “Revolution,” “Imagine,” and “Give Peace a Chance.”

Source: parade.com/DeAnna Janes

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Getting to the top of the charts is easy compared to the second challenge waiting just on the other side of this accomplishment: staying there. The Beatles were discovering how difficult this follow-up hurdle was in 1964, months after “I Want To Hold Your Hand” hit No. 1 in the States. Beatlemania might have been in full swing, but the band was responsible for keeping that fire going.

Eager to recreate their success and linger on the charts a little longer, The Beatles followed up with “Can’t Buy Me Love”. With George Harrison on a jangly twelve-string guitar, the song fit perfectly in the musical zeitgeist. And indeed, it was a hit. “Can’t Buy Me Love” topped charts worldwide, cementing itself among the most ubiquitous early Fab Four tunes.

Interestingly, producer George Martin played a significant role in the writing process, adding the intro and outro tag and essentially framing it as a 12-bar blues number. But lyrically, neither Martin nor anyone else involved thought to double-check the track for any double entendres. No, “Can’t Buy Me Love” Wasn’t About That.

The “my love is free” trope has become commonplace in modern pop music, but even a seemingly innocent idea like that could be taken the wrong way in the ultra-conservative world of 1964. Some critics accused The Beatles of singing about sex work in “Can’t Buy Me Love”, despite the very nature of the line “money can’t buy me love” directly negating that business model (but we digress).

Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis

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While he will forever remain a music icon and part of the legendary Beatles, George Harrison is, perhaps, the most subtle of the quartet of musicians. While John Lennon and Paul McCartney were wailing on lead vocals and writing most of the band's songs, and Ringo Starr was jamming on the drums, Harrison played lead guitar and stood somewhat apart, often being referred to as "the quiet Beatle." But this didn't mean that he was any less talented than the others, in fact, it was Harrison who wrote the acclaimed "Here Comes the Sun" on the album "Abbey Road." And Beatles fans certainly didn't love him any less. In fact, when his American fans learned that Harrison loved the British sweet called Jelly Babies, they literally showered him with the confection...sort of.

Because they couldn't find actual Jelly Babies in America at the time, Beatles fans reached for what they thought was the next best thing: jelly beans. At concerts, they began to throw this popular candy on stage, pelting the band mates from all directions (and if you know how jelly beans are made, the hard-coated shell probably didn't feel great). Wouldn't one of these gummy bear brands have been a better choice? Of course, Harrison also received plenty of the Jelly Babies candies in the mail from fans, which was far less perilous for the Fab Four.

Source: yahoo.com/Erica Martinez

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Paul McCartney says his late wife Linda encouraged him to embrace freedom and let go of being uptight
Linda’s phrase “It’s allowed” helped the former Beatle overcome self-imposed limitations and inspired him to take risks
The pair were married from 1969 to Linda's death in 1998

Paul McCartney had a lot to learn from his late wife Linda.

The legendary musician, 83, offered rare insight into the effect that Linda had on his life in a new clip from his Words + Music installment with Audible, which PEOPLE is exclusively premiering.

In the episode — which is an expansion of his recent documentary Man on the Run — McCartney says Linda was a “freeing influence” when they first got together in the 1960s.

“She had grown up in a posh bit of New York. She was on track to become the sort of company wife. But she didn’t like that. She liked rock ‘n’ roll,” McCartney says. “And she would do things like sneak out of the house late at night and drive into New York with a boyfriend. So there was a lot of freedom in her thinking. So I think that really was good for me.”

When Linda and Paul met, she was a divorcée with a 7-year-old daughter, Heather. The pair married in 1969, and went on to have three more children together: Mary, 56, Stella, 54, and James, 54. They remained together until Linda’s death from breast cancer in 1998 at age 56.

Source: people.com/Rachel DeSantis

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