Justin Timberlake was in Israel to perform a gig in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But, like any tourist in the Holy Land, he had to check out some major religious destinations in Jerusalem before getting to work. Among them was the Western Wall, (also known as the Kotel) the holiest site in the city for followers of Judaism.

“The Holy Land… What an experience,” Timberlake said in an Instagram post featuring a photo of him touching the wall in a reverent stance. “I will never forget this day. #Israel.”

The snap has gotten more than 250,000 Likes so far, with many Israeli fans expressing love and gratitude for the singer’s visit and some others taking issue with Justin’s inadvertent step into the long-simmering Palestinian-Israeli conflict over territory by hashtagging his picture “Israel”. One fan wrote, “the land belongs to Palestine,” while another said, “WOWWWW people can be so mean the holy land originally belonged to Palestine I am from Palestine and will NEVER consider myself from Israel.”

Jerusalem is one of the key points of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, with Palestinians calling for a division based on pre-1967 borders and Israelis arguing for a unified city for security purposes.

At press time, many of the comments on the photo were still heated, though one poster made a plea for cooler heads to prevail. “I think you should stop this fight,” wrote Mahboubaz. “We are living on One Earth. Let’s try to establish #Peace.”

Pope Francis visited the same site the day before JT.

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Forget what you’ve heard about the millions that Lana Del Rey reportedly got paid to play Kim Kardashian and Kanye West‘s pre-wedding party at Versailles.

Was $2.8 million worth it for performing “Young & Beautiful” with a 50-piece orchestra, along with her hit “Summertime Sadness”?

“I’d it for free just like I did this one,” Del Rey told a TMZ cameraman on Wednesday when asked how much it would cost him to have her sing at his wedding. “I would never let a friend pay me to sing at a wedding.”

That’s what friends are for, after all. Kimye have loved Del Rey, 27, like, forever. You might recall that ‘Ye had an orchestra play “Young & Beautiful” at San Francisco’s AT&T Park in October when he proposed to Kim.

Gil Kaufman

It’s taken wayyyy longer than we expected to get our hands on Mariah Carey‘s 14th studio album. And we know we don’t have to tell the Lamb Nation that the wait was worth it, but, trust us: the wait was worth it.

After the misstep of 2009′s Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Carey clearly took her time crafting this effort featuring assists from Fabolous, Mary J. Blige and R. Kelly among others, and, well, here’s seven reasons why you should be psyched:

1. The Title
Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse might just be the most Mariah-iest title of all time. More than Rainbow, more than Butterfly, even more than E=MC₂.

2. The Back Cover
She might be elusive, but Mariah gives us a rare peek into her private world in the album’s artwork by including a precious sketch on the back cover that she made when she was 3 years old. She’s described it as a self-portrait in which she’s holding a pack of smokes (c’mon, baby Mariah, don’t you know that stuff is terrible for someone with a five-octave vocal range?)

3. ‘Cry’ Me A River
Talk about starting off with a bang. Tear-jerker ballad “Cry” kicks off the album and has a rare quality for a Mariah weeper: restraint. Instead of going for the highest heights right off the bat, Carey lays back a bit in the unadorned piano ballad with a gospel touch before taking it to church.

4. #Beautiful
The hook-up with Miguel has been out for a ...

Maybe our invitation is still lost in the mail. But whether or not she actually ends up performing at the Kimye wedding this weekend for big bucks as rumored, Lana Del Rey is in the right place at the right time.

The Ultraviolence singer posted a picture Thursday night from the amfAR benefit near Cannes, France, which, last time we checked was just a five-hour flight from Paris, and then a short car trip to Versailles. And, oh look, there’s Justin Bieber.

Lana and Robin Thicke performed at the 21st annual gala, whose guest list also featured Leonardo DiCaprio, Kylie Minogue, Paris Hilton, John Travolta and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst.

Gil Kaufman

When you fall down, or screw up your vocals on national TV, there are a few people you can count on. One of them is your grandfather. Just ask Iggy Azalea, who got some support from her grandpops on Thursday, two days after an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” on Tuesday when her earpieces weren’t working. In case you missed it, Iggy started the song and then stumbled over the lyrics, apologizing to the audience at the top of her “Fancy” performance.

Iggy addressed the issue head-on just after the show with a “s— happens” tweet, and on Friday morning (May 23) her grandpa weighed in.

“I have the sweetest grandfather of all time,” she wrote next to a note from ‘pops, who goes by “GrayHam” in his post. “He used to work in television so he understood my ear phone problem which makes everyone who didn’t not matter anymore.”

Awww.

Gil Kaufman

Pharrell Williams was not enthused when six young Iranians were arrested for uploading a video of themselves dancing around Tehran to his global smash “Happy.”

On Tuesday, he wrote, “It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness.”

Then, early Thursday morning (March 22), he challenged Iranian president Hassan Rouhani by reposting the Rouhani’s tweet from June 2013 about the importance of happiness.

When a self-described fan responded that “we all have a right to be happy … but dancing in public its against Islamic norms” — Skateboard P had to respectfully disagree.

He added, “It comes from a pure space; not a perfect place. For those loving life and want to express the gift of the present.” The debate continued with another fan who chimed in about the power of social media.

According to CNN, the six dancers have been freed, but the director of the video is still in custody.

Gil Kaufman

We kind of freaked out a couple days ago when we saw the video Jaime Maldonado shot of three guys who busted out into an awesome impromptu jam session outside a grocery store.

At the time, we were like, ‘dude, get these guys into the studio right now to record this off-the-top heat!’ Well, on Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel did us one better by inviting the trio (and Maldonado) onto his show to reprise their street hit… with a little help from some friends.

With Jimmy on sax, the trio were joined by Trey Songz, Juicy J and Aloe Blacc. Don’t believe us? Check it out:

And here’s the original, in case you forgot.

Gil Kaufman

Let’s be honest: “American Idol” needed this one. Real bad. The once-unconquerable reality singing franchise is entering its twilight years (and not the hot, sexy vampire kind) and Wednesday night’s (May 21) bloated two-hour finale was the perfect chance for America to pick a winner that might re-energize the show whose average viewer was born three years after the Beatles formed.

It was the usual hurry up and wait for the results, filled with nearly a dozen duets, medleys and, once again, eyebrow-singeing thunder from Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Kiss.

But instead, America went the other direction and chose 23-year-old classic rock lover Caleb Johnson. The thickly maned southern man muscled his way through the season with a series of performances that brought back the heyday of 1980s hair metal and 1970s hesher rock and clearly America was ready to get down and boogie with him.

That left 17-year-old Jena Irene — whose mix of crowd-pleasing EDM beats and Paramore-style pop rock seemed primed for top 40 radio — in second place and “Idol” with a tough hill to climb finding a spot for meat-and-potatoes lung-buster Johnson in a market where straight-up rock is a dying breed.

The finalists, who are supposed to go to Jena’s prom together, hugged it out and Caleb could only say, “This is crazy. This is crazy.” He celebrated his win by singing a bit of his head-banging coronation anthem “As Long As You Love Me” in between a group hug with his top 10 compatriots.

Here’s what else ...

There were a number of things we were expecting/wanting from “Pills N Potions,” the first single from Nicki Minaj‘s upcoming third album, The Pink Print.

We wanted “Monster” level bars, an incredible cameo and a hook that would haunt us in our sleep. Well, the Dr. Luke-produced song co-written by Ester Dean kind of gives us all those things, yet not in the way you’d expect.

That Voice
After opening with a spare, haunting drum beat, Minaj comes in singing in a feathery, near-whisper about “Pills and potions/We’re overdosin’/I’m angry but I still love you.” The vocals are among the prettiest (and poppiest) we’ve heard from Nicki to date, especially when they get blown up with an echo effect in the second pass, where Nicki adds, “I still love, I still love, I still lu-uh-uhhhv.”

Still Hard
Once the verses start, Nicki has the urgency she promised in her bars, but she holds things at a simmer at first. “They could never make me hate you/Even though what you was doin’ wasn’t tasteful,” she says about someone who did her wrong. “Even though you out here looking so ungrateful/I’mma keep it movin’ be classy and graceful.”

Nicki doesn’t name names, but someone clearly messed her over. And she won’t forget it.

Still Mad
The haunting chorus comes back around, and then Nicki gets back to reminding whoever it is that she’s going to forgive and forget the backstabbers, even though she knows they’re jealous now that she’s had her success. “But I spin off in a ...

Season 13 of “American Idol” limped to its (near) conclusion on Tuesday night (May 20), in a final showdown that capped a season where the producers finally seemed to get the judge’s panel right, but ratings dipped by more than 20 percent yet again as a forgettable group of finalists failed to win back America’s hearts and eyeballs.

The final two contestants said it all. In one corner you had odds-on favorite Caleb Johnson, the 23-year-old Asheville, North Carolina, classic rock traditionalist whose blustery, feathered-hair and jean jacket style went out with the first Bush administration. He faced off against 17-year-old Farmington Hills, Michigan, high schooler Jena Irene, the only hope left for the aging franchise to put forward a singer whose Paramore-meets-EDM style is within spitting distance of relevance on the charts.

The show consisted of three rounds: the first featuring songs picked by show creator and producer Simon Fuller, a reprise of the singer’s favorites from the season and the debut of their winner and runner-up songs.

Jena Makes The Judges Fall In Love All Over Again
Accompanied by a quintet of drummers, Irene charged out first with a powerhouse cover of Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over.” After she ended the song on her knees, Keith Urban said “the way that you own that stage is so good… that’s a sign of a real pro.”

Reprising the song that inspired Jennifer Lopez to jump up and kiss her, Irene was back behind the piano for Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling ...