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08 Feb 2023

Ozuna Ties J Balvin as Artist With Most Videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club

Ozuna’s “Síguelo Bailando” music video has entered YouTube’s Billion Views Club, becoming the Puerto Rican’s 12th title as a lead, featured artist, or collaborator. 

With the new milestone, he now ties with fellow Latin superstar J Balvin as the artist with the most videos in the club. Last year, the Colombian act reclaimed his crown after his Black Eyed Peas-assisted “Ritmo (Bad Boys for Life)” video entered the club. He broke the tie he had with Justin Bieber, who currently has 11 titles with more than a billion views. 

The music video for “Síguelo Bailando ” — part of Ozuna’s album Odisea, which spent 46 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart — was published on Nov. 8, 2017, highlighting the fun vibe between Ozuna and his mascot, a teddy bear, in the middle of the buzzing streets of Tokyo.

Ozuna is No. 22 on YouTube’s Global Top Artists, according to the video platform. 

The video now joins his previous Billion Views Club clips, following the Natti Natasha-assisted “Criminal” (2.4B); DJ Snake’s “Taki Taki” featuring Selena Gomez and Cardi B (2.4B); “Te Bote Remix” with Casper, Nio Garcia, Darell, Nicky Jam, and Bad Bunny (2.3B); “China” with Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, Karol G, and J Balvin (1.9B); his Romeo Santos-assisted “El Farsante Remix” (1.7B); “Se Preparó” (1.6B); the Wisin-assisted “Escápate Conmigo” (1.5B); Chris Jedi’s “Ahora Dice” featuring J Balvin and Arcángel (1.3B); “Vaina Loca” with Manuel Turizo (1B); “Me Niego” with Reik and Wisin (1B); and “Adicto” with Anuel AA and Tainy (1B). 

Revisit the vibrant clip below:

08 Feb 2023

Frankie Staton Makes Her Long-Awaited Grand Ole Opry Debut

On Tuesday evening (Feb. 7), singer, songwriter and trailblazer Frankie Staton celebrated a career highlight more than four decades in the making: her Grand Ole Opry debut performance.

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“I never thought this moment would happen, but it did,” Staton told Billboard prior to her debut. Since moving to Nashville from her native North Carolina in 1981, Staton has been a champion for Black country artists and songwriters, in addition to forging her own career, and was instrumental in launching the Black Country Music Association alongside Cleve Francis in the 1990s.

As she has done for decades, Staton used her Opry moment to once again uplift those around her, welcoming longtime friends and artists Valierie Ellis Hawkins and Jonell Mosser, as their voices intertwined in superb harmonies during Staton’s brief set.

“To God be the glory,” Staton told the audience in the Opry House Tuesday evening, standing in the spotlight of country music’s most venerable stage.

As part of her Opry debut, singer-songwriter Staton performed her own music: “Your Dream” and “Forever Loretta,” the latter a tribute to the late Country Music Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn. For that song, she asked the audience to hold their cell phone lights high in the air. “We are going to light up the Opry House up for Loretta,” she told the audience, as the Opry House was quickly lit aglow.

Prior to her Opry debut, Staton told Billboard, “Loretta was one of my icons. I’m excited about singing my own music and about singing a song that is very personal to me about somebody that I cared a lot about.” Staton also recalled meeting Lynn — a story she later also shared with the Opry audience.

“I was waiting tables at the Cooker by Centennial Park,” Staton told Billboard. “Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn came in the day that they buried Owen Bradley, who had produced Patsy Cline and Loretta. I went up to her and said, ‘Loretta, I’ve thought about you a lot…I thought if I could have anything in the world for you, I’d have your daddy know what happened to you.’  In that instant, she started crying, and then Crystal started crying. I thought, ‘Oh no, I made Loretta cry!’ Then she said, ‘Look, honey, it’s a good cry, because we love our Daddy.’”

It was Lynn’s own hardscrabble story and unflinchingly honest music that inspired Staton to chase her music dreams to Nashville in 1981, after watching the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter.

Speaking to Billboard, she recalled one of her earliest performances in Nashville: As Staton was on her way to a jam session in the Printer’s Alley area of Nashville, a police officer stopped her and questioned where she was headed. He then followed her to the venue, where Staton was one of the earliest singers to sign up to perform. Then, while other performers who signed up after she did were called onstage to sing, Staton had to wait until nearly 2:30 a.m. for her turn to perform.

“I knew when they wouldn’t let me up there, this would be a defining moment of my life,” Staton recalled. “You don’t run from this. There are times in your life where you have to stay and fight for what you want. Things that have come normally to other people, Black people have had to bend over backwards to get the opportunity. I knew if I left, they would never know the potential I had. I said, ‘I don’t care if I have to stay here all night long, I’m not leaving.’”

Her determination led to her being called back to perform the next evening, which resulted in an audition at another nearby restaurant and her first paying gig in Nashville. In 1997, after reading a newspaper story that included a record executive claiming they could not find Black country music talent, Staton was again determined to challenge the inequity she was seeing.

“I read the story over and over and thought, ‘That’s not true. There are some real talented Black country singers here.’”

In February 1997, she launched the first country music showcases for Black artists at Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the venue famous for helping to accelerate the careers of artists including Garth Brooks. “I was trying to open a door for more diversity in country music and bring to this American art form a whole new page of light that they know nothing about,” Staton told Billboard.

The group quickly swelled to over 60 artists, but Staton recalls that among those who attended that first showcase was Hawkins, who last night stood beside Staton on the Opry stage. “She had an incredible country voice and story,” Staton recalled of first meeting Hawkins. “She loved Don Williams and Vern Gosdin. She sang at Loretta Lynn’s ranch all the time, but I couldn’t get anyone on Music Row to listen.”

Ellis Hawkins had a potential artist development deal with a major label, but it soon fizzled out. “It made me sick to see that level of real country talent just be dissed and ignored,” Staton stated. “It made me sick because I knew she was the real deal. We dreamed together and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Staton forged ahead, writing songs, performing music and becoming a staple in Nashville’s live music scene. During her career, she has spent a decade as a performer on Ralph Emery’s morning television show and made appearances on Nashville Now. She’s spent years as a regular pianist and performer at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. Behind the scenes, she has also spent considerable time as a champion, supporter and mentor for scores of Black artists, songwriters and other creatives within Nashville’s music community.

Her work in launching the Black Country Music Association laid the groundwork for organizations and individuals spearheading current diversity and inclusion efforts, as well as platforms highlighting Black country musicians, including the Black Opry, the Black Opry Revue, the Rosedale Collective, Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country Radio program on Apple Music and Color Me Country artist grant fund, as well as the Country Music Association’s diversity and inclusion fellowship.

Meanwhile, a whole new generation is learning of Staton’s career journey, through Amazon Music’s documentary, For Love & Country (“Your Dream” is featured in the documentary’s playlist). Staton’s work alongside Francis with the Black Country Music Association is also featured as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s current exhibit, American Currents: The State of Music – Unbroken Circle, which will open March 8 and run through February 2024.

“My mantra has always been to be the change I wanted to see,” Staton said.

08 Feb 2023

Drake’s New Wax Figure Unveiled at Madame Tussauds London

Drake has officially arrived to London — Madame Tussauds London, that is. On Wednesday (Feb. 8), the “Jumbotron S–t Poppin” rapper’s newest wax figure has taken residence at Madame Tussauds London location and largest museum, joining the likes of Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and more.

The rapper’s wax figure wears an outfit fit for a star. So fit, in fact, that the clothes are styled after his outfit from the 2021 surprise appearance at the Wireless Festival in London: a camouflage shirt and matching pants, a bright green puffer jacket and fresh white Nike Air Force 1s. Drake’s tattoos and ear piercings are included on the wax figure, as is his signature facial hair and the heart-shaved into his hairline. According to Madame Tussauds, his likeness also sports replica pieces of Cartier and Van Cleef jewelry.

“Drake has shown his love for London on numerous occasions with his surprise appearance at Wireless Festival being just one example of this. With reports that he’s soon to call London home, we wanted to make sure we were able to give him a warm welcome to our streets and show that the love is reciprocated the only way we know how by immortalizing him in our famous attraction,” Tim Waters, general manager at Madame Tussauds London, said in a press release.

Drake at Madame Tussauds London

Drake at Madame Tussauds London

Madame Tussauds/Jonathan Short

Waters continued, “There is no denying that the Canadian rap superstar is a music icon, with countless awards and numerous nominations under his belt, including at this year’s Brit Awards. We know that our guests will be sure to ‘Take Care’ of Drake as he becomes ‘A Keeper’ at Madame Tussauds London.”

Fans looking to pay Drake’s wax counterpart a visit can find him in the museum’s Impossible Festival music zone.

08 Feb 2023

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION on New ‘BORUTO’ Theme Song ‘Karma’ & Modern Sense of Entrapment Reflected in the Series

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION recently released their 30th single, “Karma.” The band wrote the song as the opening theme for the latest season of the TV Tokyo-produced animated series BORUTO – NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS, which began last month. The theme of the song is how the two protagonists are buffeted by fate, but the lyrical world of the song is also a reflection of how we all feel in this age of uncertainty and confusion. The heavy but constrained melody and the sound production are new territory for the band.

Shortly after their major-label debut in 2003, their song “Haruka Kanata” was chosen as the opening theme for the second season of NARUTO. “Karma” marks their fourth musical tie-in with the NARUTO series. NARUTO has been inextricably intertwined with the fate of AKFG. Billboard Japan spoke with the band about the song’s appeal, the highlights of their new single’s B-sides and more.

Gotoh: NARUTO really means a lot to us. In particular, our 2002 release “Haruka Kanata” was a major turning point in our careers. At the time, there wasn’t really an established culture of using music from rock bands as the theme songs of animes. I’m sure it must have seemed strange to some rock fans. However, Japan was producing high quality animation that was gaining attention around the world. We thought that when NARUTO was put out on the world stage, we’d be able to go right along with it. I remember feeling “this is a wonderful opportunity” when we got the offer.

Kita: Yeah, now that you mention, I feel like we approached it really carefully. Like, we set aside time for all of us members to discuss it. At the time, we didn’t know what kind of image this would create for the band.

Yamada: When we’ve played “Haruka Kanata” or any of our other NARUTO songs overseas, the reaction has just been immense. Everyone sings along so loud it feels like they’re going to drown our our actual performance. It’s made us realize how well our music has been received overseas. In a sense, it’s like NARUTO has been our partner through the years.

What is the appeal of NARUTO and BORUTO?

Ijichi: I’ve been a long-time reader of the two series, and they’ve been consistently good the whole time. One of the things I like about them is that there are elements that are fun for kids and elements that adults can enjoy.

Gotoh: With BORUTO, Masashi Kishimoto has passed on the baton of illustrating the comic to Mikio Ikemoto, but the characters still have the same appeal, and the comic is packed with ideas. BORUTO starts with a heartbreaking scene, and through the story it’s hard to find any signs of hope. NARUTO was also a pretty hardboiled comic, but I feel like BORUTO draws you in even more. Either way, the story is far more complicated than when we first started reading NARUTO in Weekly Shonen Jump (laughs).

When you’re asked to write a song for a show, how do you reflect the show’s world in the song?

Gotoh: For any show, not just NARUTO, I always do a ton of research. That’s because I want to read the original comic and write a song that’s truly inspired by it. As for our latest song, “Karma,” the comic isn’t finished yet, so we had to write the song without knowing what would happen next in the story. My hope is that the main characters can overcome these obstacles being thrown at them by “fate,” as it were. As I touched on a second ago, in the first episode, Boruto and Kawaki face off and fight each other as enemies. The story is going to circle back to that at some point. I racked my brains about what kind of story would lie beyond that face-off between the characters that the comic opens with.

Do you think there’s a message in there for modern society?

Gotoh: Yes, I do. In the modern world, it isn’t easy to set down your burdens and try to shoulder new burdens. I feel like you can really see the growing disparity in wealth, and that wealth disparity is becoming even more entrenched. Parents’ economic situations are being passed on to their children. The “winners” keep on winning and the “losers” keep on losing. There’s a feeling of disgust with the state of the world, and at the same time a desire to break through these barriers and overcome these problems. I think the feeling of entrapment in the world of NARUTO and BORUTO shares a lot in common with the sense of entrapment I feel in our own modern world. We’re living in a society with that same antagonism and division as in that first episode of BORUTO.

I feel like that sense of “entrapment” is also reflected in the heavy but constrained melody and sound of “Karma.” The part that really sticks out to me is the four lines of the bridge: “The reason we’re alive/Must be part of that modest dream/If it gets crushed underfoot/It plays right into the hands of those that have cursed our world.” What are you trying to express through these lyrics?

Gotoh: Right now, everybody is just all looking down on each other and ridiculing each other. When I see that, I just think, “Is this really enriching our lives?” The people that held the World Cup made more than the athletes that played in it. Over 6,000 people lost their lives in Qatar in the construction of the stadium and surrounding infrastructure. I just keep thinking, “Can’t we make a world a better place?” I’m not blaming anyone. I just wonder why we can’t praise each other and encourage each other. If we don’t, we’re just “playing into the hands of those who have cursed our world.” One of the things that’s incredibly reassuring is that I have people who stand with me. It’s wonderful that I’m in a band. From my position as a member of a band, I feel like if everyone could just get together on weekends and enjoy each other’s music, we could make it in this world without losing hope. I want everyone to realize and appreciate the value of the relationships they have with each other. That’s what I was thinking about when I wrote the lyrics.

The B-side of “Karma” is “Weather Report,” which was written and sung by you, Kita. It’s a refreshing song, but the lyrics are quite serious. It’s about interpersonal relationships that never progress.

Gotoh: “Karma” is a song about the relationships between us, no matter where life may take us, so in “Weather Report” we wanted to sing about relationships that are in a rut, never coming together. When I wrote the lyrics, I was thinking about how tire tracks never cross unless you make a U-turn. Ken (Kita) would be singing, not me, so I thought it might be good to have a sweet love song, which is different than the kinds of songs I sing. We’ve had other songs like that, too. When I’m not the one singing, we can be a bit more free in deciding what the theme of the song will be.

“Nissaka Down Hill” feels like a followup to your 2008 album Surf Bungaku Kamakura. What led you to go back to that approach?

Gotoh: It’s a power-pop song with power chords, octaves, and unison, but there are also some unusual chord progressions here and there. It’s a really fun song to play with the band. I wanted the feel to be like Weezer’s “El Scorcho.” With Surf Bungaku Kamakura, we were thinking about Weezer’s first album. The title, after all, came from “Surf Wax America.” This time, we want an album that has that Pinkerton sound. It’s like half parody of the 1990s, but half sincere. That’s what pop music should be like, right? We’ve basically applied that style, but matched it up our own sensibilities and made changes to update it for our times.

What were you all trying to set out to do with your sound design approach?

Ijichi: We recorded all of “Weather Report” in a single take. Lately we’ve been trying to finish our songs in as few takes as possible. Up until the day before the recording, we spend a lot of time thinking about it. But then, on the actual day of the recording, we want to get takes that are as fresh as possible. Our goal when we recorded this song was to get it in three takes or less.

Yamada: “Karma” is a tie-up that we wrote on request, so we wanted to make a song that had the AKFG feel we’ve established over the years, but the B-side songs were all very challenging. “Nissaka Down Hill” is a power-pop song, but it has a different feel than any of our past songs. There are only three songs on the single, but I think there’s really a lot there.

Kita: Going back to the “Karma” lyrics for a second, Gotch had already pretty much nailed down those four lines from the demo stage. The bridge evolved over the course of a jam session by the four of us, and Gotch changed up the melody along the way, but that core remained all the way through the finished song.

Gotoh: You said the song had a “constrained” melody, and, you’re right, we tried to avoid having a really soaring chorus. If it had that kind of chorus, we wouldn’t want to perform it live. It would just be too hard (laughs). With “Karma,” we were traying to create a “sustainable emo sound” that simmers and builds up, not one that really takes a physical toll. We’re almost in our 50s, after all (laughs).

A lot of people passed away in 2022, the pandemic continued unabated, and every time you thought the world situation couldn’t get any worse, it did. Hopefully 2023 is a good year.

Gotoh: I really hope so. So many terrible things happened in 2022. For example, if the World Cup had been a less corrupt event, Messi’s win would have been so much easier to celebrate wholeheartedly, but the information that came to light made that impossible. I just want to always try to live a better life. Every time I meet someone, I remember that, and we try to create a better mood wherever we go. We’ve got a lot of concerts coming up, so we’ll keep trying to do our best in 2023.

—This interview by Takanori Kuroda first appeared on Billboard Japan

08 Feb 2023

Here’s Who Was Behind That Beyoncé ‘Made Music History’ Message in the Sky

Thousands of people saw an optimistic message written to Beyoncé in the Los Angeles sky following the 2023 Grammys. But it wasn’t until Wednesday (Feb. 8) that fans learned who, exactly, was behind the note.

Billboard can confirm that The Recording Academy and CBS jointly gifted Queen Bey with the skywriter message, which read “BEYONCE, YOU MADE MUSIC HISTORY” in all caps.

Additionally, the two organizations also conjured up the Grammys-themed drone light shows spotted over Los Angeles in the days leading up to the awards show.

“We (RA/CBS) did do a drone activation,” Sean Smith, executive vice president of The Recording Academy, confirmed to Billboard. “We couldn’t fly Sunday due to high winds so we did one last pass Monday.”

The glass half-full approach to Beyoncé’s night at the Grammys could make more than a few members of the Beyhive raise a collective eyebrow, considering the superstar’s 2022 studio set, Renaissance, lost out the award for album of the year to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.

While Beyoncé now holds the record as the most-awarded artist in the Grammys history, she’s still 0 for 4 when it comes to The Recording Academy’s top prize, having been nominated for 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce, 2013’s Beyoncé and 2016’s Lemonade in addition to Renaissance. In fact, when it comes to the Big Four categories, she’s won only song of the year in 2010 for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).”

Bey’s husband Jay-Z was among those who thought her latest house-inspired opus deserved to win in the crowded race for album of the year, telling TIDAL ahead of the ceremony, “They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”

08 Feb 2023

Makin’ Tracks: Alana Springsteen Contemplates What an Ex Doesn’t ‘Deserve’

People who are extremely guarded about their private lives — particularly their love lives — would do well not to get involved with an ace songwriter. Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” left music fans speculating for decades about the narcissist at the core of her venomous takedown, and Taylor Swift rather famously built a big part of her catalog on a string of disappointing relationships, dropping clues about her subjects’ identities but declining to name them.

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Alana Springsteen delved into her own real-life bouts with heartbreak in her first full-length album, 2021’s independently released History of Breaking Up (Part One), and again in 2022’s Part Two. Now signed to the New York division of Columbia, her first release for the label — “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song,” issued last month — reflects her efforts to purge the emotional residue after the split that informed those prior projects.

“Coming off History of Breaking Up (Part One) and (Part Two), it made a lot of sense to start the year off with this song,” Springsteen reflects. “If they found my music through that period, this is going to feel really familiar to them.”

The room was crowded when “Deserve” came into the world in fall 2021. Springsteen already knew three of her four male co-writers — Michael Whitworth (“Break It In”), Geoff Warburton (“Best Thing Since Backroads”) and Will Weatherly (“Thinking ’Bout You,” “Lose It”) — and was introduced to Mitchell Tenpenny, who subsequently made her an opening act during a 2022 tour. Her willingness to put her emotions on the line in that room impressed him.

“You can tell that she was vulnerable about it,” Tenpenny says. “She’s opening up in a room full of dudes to tell us how she feels, and I respect the s–t out of that. She’s a badass.”

Springsteen possessed the musical catalyst for the day’s work at that writing session. She introduced a stuttered, descending acoustic guitar line played at an aggressive pace in an open tuning, and it sifted into a sort of cluttered conversation. In the middle of it, Tenpenny offered a title that he had logged in his phone, “You Don’t Deserve a Song.” It resonated with Springsteen’s recent breakup.

“When things were good between us, we would actually have conversations and talk about me being a songwriter, and maybe writing something about our relationship or him getting to hear his name on the radio,” she recalls.

They tweaked Tenpenny’s title to accommodate the genre — “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” — and set out to write a tune that refuses to acknowledge a relationship, even if writing it undercut the actual message.

“I thought it was cool to say you don’t deserve it while you’re giving them a country song,” Tenpenny says. “I’m writing it about you, but I just love the irony in saying you’re not going to do it. You’re doing it because that’s what we [as songwriters] do.”

They wrote the chorus first, with the singer vowing not to do the standard things that jilted lovers do in broken-hearted country songs: no drinking alone at the bar, no stalking the ex’s house. All the writers knew her emotional situation, regardless of whether they knew her ex.

“I actually have no idea who this person is in Alana’s life, but I have that person in my life,” says Weatherly. “That’s what makes the entire thing more universal. Everyone knows that person in their life.”
But with each of those five creatives contributing their viewpoints, “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” has a certain orderliness to it. Every stanza serves a different purpose, structured in a way that makes chronological sense to the listener, even though the room itself was a bit disorderly.

“It is chaos when everybody’s tossing out ideas, but everyone in their own mind has an idea of what they think it should be,” Whitworth notes. “Five people’s ideas amalgamate into the final product, but every one of us could have written our own version of that song.”

They first explored the details of writing a song — putting pen to paper, rhyming and forming chords — while vowing not to waste the effort on the ex. Verse two invoked other classic country songs that mined the same subject: “What Hurts the Most,” “You’ll Think of Me” and “Neon Moon,” the latter written by Ronnie Dunn for Tree Publishing (now a part of Sony Music Publishing) when Tenpenny’s grandmother, Donna Hilley, was one of the company’s leading executives. The titles appear in the story with surprising subtlety.

“Maybe it doesn’t catch you on the first listen, but it still services the song and the hook,” says Whitworth. “There’s a backstory no one would ever know listening to the song, but we kind of put in songs that got us into country music.”

Weatherly oversaw the demo, using layers of guitars over a pulsing, synthetic bass to create a near-constant sense of forward motion. He built the sound to a crescendo at the end of the bridge, where Springsteen proclaims, “You don’t get to hear your name on the radio.” He followed it with a down chorus, designed for a short respite before raising the intensity once again at the close.

“As a listener, I don’t want a kick drum hammering my ear the entire time,” Weatherly explains. “So you either do a down bridge and an up chorus, or you do an up bridge and a down chorus. You give the listener a moment to breathe.”

Weatherly’s demo was so well-executed that producer Chris LaCorte (Sam Hunt, Cole Swindell) gave him co-producer credit after using the bass and some of the percussion parts from that demo for the master recording. They were only cutting one song at the time (as opposed to three or four songs in a session), so to keep costs down, they built it with the musicians recording individually in their home studios. The cast included drummer Aaron Sterling, guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield and keyboardist Alex Wright, with LaCorte playing bass.

LaCorte lowered the key a half step, beefed up the basic foundation with a few extra tracks and recast the bridge, making that the part where the song’s intensity drops. As a result, the line “You don’t get to hear your name on the radio” stands out.

“A lot of times, I look at how the songs would be performed live,” he says. “This is a moment here where it’s just you and a spotlight out there on the catwalk, you throw the guitar behind your back, you grab the mic, and you’re just singing these lyrics. It’s super intimate, and that was kind of the moment I wanted it to feel like.”

Springsteen’s final vocal had all the intimacy that was required — and all the bite, finding that part of the spirit by listening to her now-disgraced former boyfriend’s voice on an old phone message “Her pitch is crazy good,” LaCorte says. “She has such an ear for pocket or the timing of her words. And she’s so in tune with it, too. So we’ll record a bunch of passes and piece together our favorite stuff. And she’s right on top of me for getting the timing right. I love an artist that’s particular about their vocal.”

“You Don’t Deserve a Country Song” teases Messing It Up, a collection due Mar. 24 as the first installment in a three-part album, Twenty Something. “It’s for everybody who’s decided that they’re done putting somebody else’s happiness first and they’re deciding to choose themselves,” Springsteen asserts. “I think there’s a lot of power and competence that comes from that.”

08 Feb 2023

Lea Michele Jokes She Has ‘265 Days to Learn to Read’ Before Barbra Streisand’s Memoir Comes Out

You gotta admit, Lea Michele is a funny girl. Following the announcement that her idol Barbra Streisand is publishing her long-awaited memoir this fall, the 36-year-old Glee star posted a hilarious TikTok sharing her excitement for the book while poking fun at a persistent, bizarre rumor that she’s illiterate.

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“265 days to learn to read!!!!” Michele captioned the Wednesday (Feb. 8) TikTok, in which she clasps her hand to her face excitedly in front of a screenshot of Streisand’s book announcement.

The memoir, titled My Name is Barbra, is set to arrive on Nov. 7 after being in the works for years. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2017, but Streisand hadn’t finished writing about her life, career, relationships with Marlon Brando and James Brolin and activism in time, and its release was delayed until now.

Michele is currently playing Fanny Brice, the character originated by Streisand onstage and in film, in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. Since she took over the role from Beanie Feldstein last year, a strange conspiracy theory that dates back to 2018 has been recirculating on the internet, speculating that the Scream Queens alum isn’t able to read or write and that she learns all her lines for acting projects by ear.

She’s previously made jokes about the rumors, and even addressed them head-on in a New York Times profile back in September. “I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day,” Michele told the publication. “And then there’s a rumor online that I can’t read or write? It’s sad. It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case.”

Meanwhile, Babs has been very supportive of Michele during her tenure as Fanny, and even left her a sweet message to open backstage at one of her shows. “She wrote me this beautiful letter,” Michele shared on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “She was like, ‘It’s really wonderful when your dreams come true, isn’t it?’ And I just, like, fell to my knees and I called Ryan Murphy, my mom, Jonathan Groff and Michael Mayer.”

See Lea Michele joke about those illiteracy rumors in her new TikTok about Barbra Streisand’s memoir below.

08 Feb 2023

No, You Are Not Getting Beyonce Presale Ticket Codes If You Buy Her ‘Cuff It’ Remix

If you’ve been trying to figure out the best strategy to score some tickets to Beyoncé‘s upcoming North American tour, don’t believe the hype. Specifically, don’t buy into the rampant rumors on Twitter from fans claiming that you can nab presale codes by buying a “Cuff It” remix from Bey’s official website.

“This is categorically false,” the singer’s longtime spokesperson, Yvette Noel-Schure tells Billboard.

“I JUST BOUGHT BOTH VERSIONS OF CUFF IT WETTER REMIX ON [link] AND I GOT THE PRESALE CODE TO THE RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR. BUY TO GET YOURS TOO!,” tweeted one fan, while another claimed they uncovered a similar cheat code in a tweet that read, “People who buy the cuff it remix are most likely to get a presale code and get chosen for lottery at the Renaissance tour. Go hive!!”

At press time it was unclear where the rumor came from or who started it, but it makes sense that the singer’s superfans would be searching high and low for any angle on tickets to the Renaissance Tour.

The first 40 dates of the tour were announced last week, followed by an additional seven shows in Toronto; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Houston; Los Angeles; and East Rutherford, N.J. If you want to be in the building for one of the most anticipated tours of 2023 the first step is to register for Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan, though registering doesn’t automatically secure you a spot.

According to Ticketmaster, a “lottery-style” process will be used to determine which Verified Fans will receive access codes to purchase tickets while others will be waitlisted. Citi cardmembers can get exclusive access to presale tickets upon registering here until Thursday (Feb. 9.); the first group of Verified Fan presale tickets went on sale on Monday.

Because of the new dates announced last week, the Verified Fan registration for Group A ended at noon last Friday. Registration for Group B will be open until Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Group B registration includes shows in Boston, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Tampa. Group C registration ends Feb. 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET and includes shows in Charlotte, Detroit, Phoenix, St. Louis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Kansas City, Mo. Tickets to the Renaissance Tour are also available on Vivid Seats.

Now the bad news.

“Fan demand already exceeds the number of tickets available by more than 800 percent based on the registration numbers in the Group A cities,” read a statement from Ticketmaster after the initial presale. “It is expected that many interested fans may not be able to get tickets because demand drastically exceeds supply.”

08 Feb 2023

Beyoncé Poses With Her Grammys & Dances With Jay-Z After Historic Win: Watch

Beyoncé is the most awarded artist in Grammy history as of Sunday (Feb. 5), and she’s taking a moment to celebrate. As she should.

In a triumphant video posted to her Instagram Wednesday morning (Feb. 8) that features a remix of her song “Cuff It,” the 41-year-old record-setter poses with the four Grammys she picked up over the weekend for best dance recording, best dance album, best traditional R&B vocal performance and best R&B song. Stunning in form-fitted black gown with matching opera gloves, she dances hand-in-hand with Jay-Z and a group of friends.

In another clip, Bey holds hands with her husband as she and her team appear to be leaving the ceremony, victoriously pumping her fist. The video also features shots of the “Break My Soul” singer accepting her historic 32nd Grammy award, tearing up onstage as she surpassed Sir Georg Solti’s 31 trophies and became the top Grammy winner of all time.

Bey previously celebrated her wins on Instagram right after awards night, sharing photos with her new trophies, wearing a matching gold headpiece, and writing, “To my Hive, thank y’all so much for all of your love and loyalty… I feel very grateful and filled with joy!”

She isn’t the only one who’s pumped up over her big night. Lizzo and Adele — both documented Bey superfans — posed for a selfie together with the “Formation” musician onstage in the background giving her thank you speech. “Selfie as Beyoncé casually makes herstory,” Lizzo captioned the snaps, posting them to Twitter.

Watch Beyoncé celebrate her historic Grammy wins below:

08 Feb 2023

Scorpions‘ ’Wind of Change’ Video Enters One Billion YouTube Views Club

The Scorpions‘ iconic video for their 1990 power ballad “Wind of Change” has officially entered the YouTube billion views club. The black and white clip that opens with a haunting whistle over images of fans holding up sparklers is credited by some with helping to hasten the end of the decades long Cold War between the U.S. and former Soviet Union.

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In between footage of singer Klaus Meine crooning and a massive crowd holding up lighters, the video sprinkles in images of tanks rolling, economic disasters, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park/ Listening to the winds of change/ An August summer night, soldiers passing by/ Listening to the winds of change,” Meine sings on the track from the band’s Crazy World album that is the band’s first video to pass the billion mark.

The power ballad that peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 tally and became the best-selling single by a German artist was written during a 1989 visit to Moscow; the previous year the band became the second-ever Western rock band to play in Russia when they performed in Leningrad on their Savage Amusement tour.

They returned in August 1989 for that summer’s Moscow Music Peace Festival — which also featured Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Skid Row and headliners Bon Jovi — where they said they were inspired by seeing thousands of young Russian fans cheering for a West German rock band. When the Berlin Wall fell in Nov. 1989, “Wind of Change” became a kind of unofficial anthem of German reunification.

The song was the subject of an eight-part 2020 podcast of the same name hosted by Patrick Radden Keefe that looked into the rumors that American intelligence officers were secretly behind the writing of the tune as part of an effort to end the Cold War. And while the band has never confirmed or refuted the rumors on the record, in the series an unnamed former spy told journalist and author Keefe that it was not out of the question that the CIA dabbled in subversive songwriting.

“In fact, I’d be somewhat surprised if they weren’t still doing that sort of thing today,” the source said in the podcast. “I’ll leave it to you to wonder which acts that might be.”

Check out “Winds of Change” below.