Paris Hilton is returning to music with a new single, called “I Blame You.” The heiress, DJ and pop star teamed up with producer Lodato to create her first track of 2020.

“So excited to announce that my new single ‘I Blame You’ produced by @DjLodato comes out this Friday, October 16th,” Hilton said on Instagram, teasing its stunning, topless artwork.

All the proceeds are going to Breaking Code Silence, programs that present themselves as therapeutic treatment centers for children with trauma and PTSD. The network of survivors and advocates work together to raise awareness of abuses in the troubled teen industry.

Since breaking into pop in 2006 with her LP Paris, the icon has released several singles throughout the years. She’s even teamed up with the likes of Lil Wayne, Birdman, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike for a number of bops.

Stream Paris’ “I Blame You” on October 16 and revisit her debut album, below.

Source: papermag.com

To hear her tell it, nobody’s more in on the joke than Paris Hilton. The heiress first rose to stardom in the early aughts, cementing herself as a baby voiced, velour tracksuit-wearing take on the dumb blonde trope — with her own catchphrase (“That’s hot”) to boot.

“I invented this character and I knew exactly what I was doing,” Hilton tells Bustle of the persona she adopted in the public eye and proudly embodied on her 2003 reality show The Simple Life. “So I was always laughing all the way to the bank.” Which is why when she dropped her single “Stars Are Blind” off her debut album Paris in 2006, people were so… surprised. Unlike the music released by reality stars who came in her stead — think Kim Kardashian’s “Jam,” or Heidi Montag’s “Higher” — it wasn’t a forgettable vanity single. “Stars Are Blind” was well produced and felt authentically Hilton. It was also a bonafide bop. “For the music it was never really about the character, it was more about me as an artist. When I do my music, I take it seriously,” she explains.

As a critic for Complex put it, Hilton’s reggae-infused song “was like a tropical escape from her tabloid headline persona.” It was “a flash in the pan, a fluke, but an incredible one.” The production was so perfect, the writing so spot-on, it made you feel like your crush was rubbing suntan lotion on your back.

Written and produced by Fernando Garibay, who went on to work with Lady Gaga on Born This Way, “Stars Are Blind” rose to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2006. Nearly 15 years later, the song’s legacy endures, with pop star Kim Petras performing a viral cover earlier this year and Urban Outfitters releasing limited edition LPs of Paris.

“That song is such a huge part of me, my brand, and my life,” Hilton says. “Any time I walk into a club or anywhere, the DJ always puts it on. If I was a song, that would be me.” Below, Hilton reflects on the cult classic track, from its “too sexy” for American audiences music video to the role it plays in her current relationship.

What made you decide to get into music with “Stars Are Blind”? How were you feeling about your life and career at the time of the song’s release?
I always loved music ever since I was around 3 years old. I played the violin, the piano, and I sang my entire life. Then when I was shooting The Simple Life, I got approached by a lot of different record labels and it was always my dream to be a singer. So I went in the studio and did that album and it was so much fun.

At what point in the process did you start working on “Stars Are Blind?” Did you know you had a hit on your hands when you were recording it?
[At first] Warner Bros. wanted me to do a rock album. So I remade “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. I remade this Kim Carnes song, “Bette Davis Eyes,” and it was a lot of pop/rock music. Then I ended up changing the direction of the album completely. I went to Miami and met with [producer] Scott Storch, and then I started redoing the album and doing more pop and hip hop. Then during the middle of the album they sent me “Stars Are Blind,” and I immediately knew that I had a huge hit on my hands.

During the first week of Paris’ release, Banksy replaced 500 copies of the album with an alternative version that included satirical songs like “Why Am I Famous?” and an updated cover that was a photo of you topless. Do you remember how you found out about it? How did you feel at the time when you did?
Banksy is an iconic artist and I thought it was really cool that he would take that time to go and get 500 of my albums and do that to them. I’ve actually been trying to buy one. [They] keep on going up for auction and I’m trying to wait for another one [to become available] because they’re very limited edition. But I thought it was awesome that he did that.

So you weren’t offended?
I’ve always been in on the joke. So anytime anyone would ever [talk] about that character, it didn’t bother me because I knew that I was putting it on.

By all accounts, the song was a commercial and critical success. How did it feel to be validated in that way, especially given the less positive response to your other projects like The Simple Life?
It makes me feel really proud. Even to this day, especially during the summertime, everyone is like, “Oh my God! That’s my summer song.” So many people have come up to me, even Madonna, just saying how they love that song. Lady Gaga and so many people say it’s one of their favorite pop songs. It makes me feel so happy when I hear that.

Let’s talk about the music video. In interviews about This Is Paris, you’ve discussed how hard it was for you to cede creative control of the documentary because you’re so used to controlling everything. How much of a hand did you have in the artistic vision for the “Stars Are Blind” video?
With every single music video I’ve done I’m there making the mood boards, basically just coming up with the whole concept, and I’m involved like 100%. [With this], it was very sexy. I was really inspired by George Michael’s [“A Different Corner”] video — the black and white one — and we just had just a lot of really iconic photos up on the mood board like Madonna pictures.

You later recorded a second version of the video where in the end you end up stealing your lover’s car. Why create an alternative version?
Because they said it was too sexy for America. So we ended up making [the original] the European version. [At first] the whole video before was just basically us on the beach. So we had to kind of tone it down and make a little bit more of a storyline.

How did you feel about that criticism?
I’m used to it. The same thing happened with my Carl’s Jr commercial when that came out. It was a Super Bowl commercial and they banned it because they said it was too sexy for TV. So I don’t know. I didn’t think it was too risqué, either of those, I thought they were really beautifully done.

What’s your favorite cover of “Stars Are Blind?”
Miley Cyrus sent me one that she did, which was so beautiful. It wasn’t released, she just texted it to me. [She played it] on the guitar and she was just singing it in her beautiful voice. It made me cry. I was like, “This is so sweet of you to send this.” Then Kim Petras posted one recently that I thought she just did a beautiful job with it.

Between the Kim Petras cover and the original’s presence in the upcoming film Promising Young Woman, there’s a cultural resurgence brewing around the song. What does that mean to you?
I am just so proud of the woman I am and everything I’ve been through and just happy to finally get the respect that I deserve.

Have you gotten to see an early screening of the film? Bo Burnham serenades Carey Mulligan with the song, it’s iconic.
I met the director [Emerald Fennell] at a party and she came up to me and said, “Thank you so much. I didn’t think we would get this song and it’s just the perfect song for the movie.” She invited me to the premiere, but then COVID happened so everything got pushed so I haven’t seen it yet. But everyone who’s seen it has said that it’s the part they remember the most in the movie.

Do you ever include “Stars Are Blind” in your DJ sets?
I always end the whole set with “Stars Are Blind.” I’ll get on top of the DJ booth and sing it live for everyone, and everyone in the whole room is just singing all the words and knows it by heart.

No matter where you are in the world?
Yes. It’s pretty crazy.

Do you listen to the song in your personal life?
I listen to it all the time and every morning when I’m getting ready, my boyfriend [Carter Reum] plays the whole album and that’s the first song he plays. So I listen to it every day.

Oh my god.
That’s our favorite song to make out to, it’s just like our love playlist.

So you consider it a good hookup song?
It’s a really good one.

Source: bustle.com

At this point, reflexively dismissing Paris Hilton’s credibility as a DJ is just lazy. The multi-hyphenate mogul has been clubbing for nearly 25 years, immersing herself in the world of dance music first as the scantily clad party child you saw dancing on nightclub tables via Perez Hilton circa 2008 and then, in time, as the DJ behind the decks at said nightclubs.

First learning her skills from the late DJ AM — who ran in the same crew as Hilton, her Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie (to whom AM was once engaged) and a then largely unknown DJ named Steve Aoki in the LA/NYC nightlife scenes of the late aughts — in the last decade Hilton has played venues around the globe, held down a five-year residency at the Ibiza clubbing institution Amnesia and played the world’s biggest dance music festival, Tomorrowland, twice. In her 39 years, she’s attended more Electric Daisy Carnivals, Burning Mans and other sundry raves than most artists on Spotify’s Mint playlist. This status as a professional party person exists as a tangent of the Paris Hilton “brand,” a much-discussed documentary topic that encompasses all of her business pursuits and the high-voiced, sequin-covered persona she plays in the public in pursuit of her ambitions.

And while the criticism she’s received as a DJ has come from both the public and from within the dance industry itself, Hilton really doesn’t care. She just loves the music, calling her time behind the decks a respite from an otherwise relentlessly fast-paced life.

So she says in the recently released documentary This Is Paris, a candid look at how Paris Hilton came to be Paris Hilton™. The doc focuses on the abuse Hilton says she experienced while she was a teenage student at Provo Canyon School, a Utah institution for troubled teens at which Hilton and other former students allege that they were beaten, drugged, put in solitary confinement and subjected to other emotionally and physically abusive behavior. (Since the film’s release, celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D has also addressed the abuse she experienced at the same school.) In This Is Paris, Hilton says partying was her way of dealing with the trauma. Eventually, what started as a coping mechanism became a pillar of her empire.

On the heels of this doc, Hilton spoke to Billboard about partying away her pain, her love of Avicii and Daft Punk, what she really wanted her DJ name to be and what she wore to her first rave.

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?
I am home in L.A. I actually just moved back into my house that I have been renovating for over a year. Getting settled in the house.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
The first music I ever purchased was a Madonna CD. She has been my idol since I was a little girl.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do they think of what you do for a living now?
My father has always been a businessman, and my parents are incredibly proud of me for becoming the businesswoman that I am and for creating the empire I have built.

4. What was the first song you ever made?
The first song I ever made was a remake of “Heart of Glass” by Blondie when I was with Warner Bros. Records. The original concept of the album was supposed to be pop-rock. I also recorded a remake of David Bowie’s “Fame.”

5. If you had to recommend one artist for someone looking to get into electronic music, what would you give them?
Avicii. He was such a legend in the EDM world, and his music is a perfect embodiment of the genre.

6. What’s distinctive about the place you grew up, and how did it shape you?
I was my parents’ first child, so they were very protective and strict with me. I lived such a sheltered life growing up in L.A., but then moved to New York at 15 and rebeled because of their strictness.

7. What’s the last song you listened to?
I have been listening to my new single, “I Blame You,” produced by DJ Lodato, on repeat. I am so in love and proud of this new love ballad that I am releasing later this month.

8. What’s the biggest misconception about you?
There are so many misconceptions about me I don’t even know where to begin, but I think one of the biggest misconceptions is just because I come from a privileged family and my last name is Hilton, some people assume that I never worked a day in my life and everything is just handed to me. In reality, it is the exact opposite.

Full interview: billboard.com

You’ve never heard Paris Hilton like this before. She’s our guest on CNET’s I’m So Obsessed podcast to discuss the new documentary about her, This Is Paris.

Paris Hilton is a name many people know, even if they don’t know much about her aside from the fact that she’s famous. The new YouTube documentary This Is Paris aims to change that by showing the woman and entrepreneur behind the “that’s hot” persona. When the film begins we see her in a sound booth recording a voiceover and going in-and-out of her signature Paris personality and voice. It’s amazing and surprising to witness.

On CNET’s I’m So Obsessed podcast, Hilton explains why she agreed to participate in the documentary and what she hopes people will take away from it.

“I felt like it was the perfect time in my life. I’ve been through so much. And there’s a lot of misconceptions about me,” said a candid Hilton. “People have never known who I truly am because I’ve never shown it before. And I was ready to tell my story. I finally, especially during shooting that film, figured out so much about about myself.”

One of the most compelling parts of This Is Paris is watching Hilton talk about lifelong trauma that stems from abuse she suffered in her teens while at the Provo Canyon boarding school in Utah. Hilton joins other survivors in the Breaking Code Silence movement to shed light on for-profit schools billed as treatment and behavior modification programs for kids. Code Silence refers to a technique by which students are forced to not talk with a targeted student, thereby socially isolating them until they hit a breaking point. Hilton hopes that opening up about her abuse will help remove the shame and stigma and encourage others to do the same.

“It’s important to know that you can tell your story,” said Hilton. “When you’re young and you’re growing up, you don’t realize who you are yet. It’s easy to get manipulated by people and to feel ashamed to discuss things like that. If you’re going through something and it’s difficult and it’s hard and it’s abusive, it’s important to open up to someone who can help you, and not stay in a situation like that because you want love. It’s not love if someone is abusing you, whether it be emotionally, verbally, physically. Nobody should ever be treated like that.”

During our interview, Hilton discusses This Is Paris and talks about how participating in the film helped her deal with her abuse and how she hopes to empower others to do the same. We also discuss her 19 different product lines, The Simple Life and how she handles privacy in her life.

One of my favorite moments during our conversation was around her “that’s hot” persona. She explains the origin of her “Paris” voice.

“It came when I was at Provo, and I was thinking about my life when I got out of there. I just wanted to become something else,” said Hilton. “I was really inspired by Marilyn Monroe. I know that she also had two voices. When she was on camera, she would do the kind of higher pitch-like sexy baby voice. And then I heard when she was off camera, she would speak in her normal tone of voice.”

Listen to my entire conversation with Hilton on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. This Is Paris is available to watch on YouTube. Also, you can subscribe to I’m So Obsessed on your favorite podcast app. In each episode, I catch up with an artist, actor or creator to learn about work, career and current obsessions.

Source: cnet.com

NEW YORK – There’s a scene in a new documentary about Paris Hilton, where the so-called socialite is speaking with former classmates from a Utah boarding school. They joke about how on her reality series “The Simple Life,” Hilton pretended to be clueless over many things- including how to perform any sort of manual labour.

One bluntly described it as “some straight-up (expletive),” as they all laughed.

“I don’t think you had like a high-pitch voice back then,” was another observation.

None of this is a surprise to Hilton. What’s revealed in “This is Paris,” which debuted for free Monday on Hilton’s YouTube channel, is that the ultra glam, baby-talking young woman whose standard line was “that’s hot,” was a manufactured caricature not just for fame but self-protection, too.

Hilton says as a teen she got into the nightlife scene and would sneak out and go to clubs while her family lived at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Her exasperated parents sent her away to various programs to straighten out. There was an outdoor wilderness camp where Hilton and another girl tried to escape. Hilton claims they were caught and beaten in front of others as punishment.

When she was 17, Hilton was finally sent to what she describes as “the worst of the worst”: Provo Canyon School in Utah.

“This is the only place where it’s impossible to run away. So it’s basically like that one place that they all talk about at the other places saying, `If you run away or you’re bad, you’re going to be sent to Provo,”’ said Hilton.

She stayed at Provo for 11 months and says while there, she was abused mentally and physically, claiming staff would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment.

The 39-year-old says the treatment was so “traumatizing” that she suffered nightmares and insomnia for years.

“We are aware of a new documentary referencing Provo Canyon School (PCS). Please note that PCS was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to that time,” the school said in a statement on its website.

Attempts to find the previous owners for comment were unsuccessful.

Hilton says when she agreed to be the subject of “This is Paris,” it was never her intention to speak about past abuses, but she opened up as she became more comfortable with director Alexandra Dean.

Hilton said while she was at Provo, she decided she wanted complete control in her life and image. That meant she would never tell anyone about what happened to her there. She also wanted to be very, very wealthy.

“I saw success as freedom and I just imagined this glamorous life. .. I made all these plans of what I wanted to be. And all I cared about was being successful and independent.”

For someone who has been criticized for being famous for no reason, Hilton has built a multi-billion dollar company around her image. She has branded stores in the Middle East and Asia, is a successful DJ, and has released 27 fragrances, among other products.

“It turns out that whole machine, all that attention she got, the paparazzi, the insta-fame, it was all a creation of this traumatized girl trying to figure out how to climb her way out of this hole she was in,” said Dean. “She attracted it all. In some ways she created it all. What I want people to know is that they should give her credit for being immensely innovative, but they should also understand that what they watched was not the person, but the shield that she constructed to protect herself.”

Hilton says since speaking out about what happened at Provo, she feels free. She’s now sleeping through the night and no longer has nightmares. She also says she’s happy and in a healthy relationship with businessman Carter Reum.

Her life has slowed down in the past six months due to the pandemic, and she’s no longer travelling for work. Hilton says she likes it this way and plans to continue to be more choosy about leaving home. “I’m moving on to the next phase of my life,” she said.

She’s also hopeful that speaking out against programs like Provo will deter parents from sending their kids to similar situations.

“I would never recommend that to any family ever, because I think it just causes more drama and more issues than anyone would ever have.” She’s now a part of the Breaking Code Silence movement, a network dedicated to raising awareness about the “troubled teen industry.”

“The parents are manipulated and lied to and told a completely different story,” she said. “I think it’s important to do your research.”

Source: cp24.com