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After less than a year of marriage, Tory Lanez’s wife, Raina Chassagne, has filed for divorce. Keep watching to find out more. Narrator: Tory Lanez’s wife has filed for divorce and is seeking legal and physical custody of their child. Raina Chassagne is divorcing Tory Lanez after less than a year of marriage. Their separation […]
We caught up with some of your favorites at the GLAAD Media Awards 2024, and we found out which artists made them realize they’re queer. Keep watching to see who they were!
Tetris Kelly:Who’s somebody you can think of from a young age where you were like, “Oh, wait, am I? I’m queer.”
Jojo Siwa:Am I gay? I mean from a young age, Lady Gaga.
Snow Wife:Lady Gaga.
Mark Hoying: For me, it was Lady Gaga.
Dylan Mulvaney:Gaga.
Tetris Kelly:It’s Tetris with Billboard News. We’re here at the GLAAD Awards finding out which artists represent the community the best, and what are some of your favorite queer artists, queer awakenings? What’s an artist that you can think back to your childhood that made you say, “You know what? I might be queer.”
Scott and Mark Hoying: Ohhh.
Jojo Siwa:Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus. Currently, G Flip. Love them so very much.
Tetris Kelly:When you think of other queer music icons, who comes to your mind?
Chlöe:Oh, Kim Petras. I really love her.
Tetris Kelly:Like, her music is, like, perfection — pop perfection.
Chlöe:So definitely she’s top for me.
Michaela Jaé Rodriguez:The only people that I really saw were probably Janet Jackson. The Michael Jacksons and the Beyoncés and the Tina Turners and the Anita Bakers. I could go on for days. The rolodex is going on in my head as you ask this question.
Frankie Grande:Madonna. Absolutely, hands down, no question. Me dancing in my bedroom and my living room to Madonna on VHS. The Immaculate Collection VHS with all of her music videos, and me just doing everything that she did and being like, “Huh, this feels too good.”
Keep watching to learn more!
Did you know the impact that Black artists have had in creating country music? Black artists have played a crucial role in shaping country music, from the early 1920s to the present day, with artists such as Lil Nas X and Beyoncé amplifying the genre even further. Tetris Kelly:It doesn’t get more black than country […]
Are you ready for Normani‘s debut album to drop this week? Because she definitely is.
Dopamine is set to arrive this Friday, June 14, via RCA Records. Normani knows her fanbase has been clamoring for her first full-length album for the last few years, which obviously came with “pressure. Everybody not necessarily knowing what is going on within the process or within my personal life. … I’m just grateful that everybody is just really excited still for this album and for this body of work. They’ve waited on me, which I don’t really take for granted,” she tells Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly.
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Dopamine is meant to reflect Normani “finally stepping into who I’ve been called to be. There’s been so much adversity and so many roadblocks just in the process of putting this body of work out, you have no idea. I could actually probably write a book,” she claims, adding that “shifting teams… has honestly been one of the greatest blessings.” The former Fifth Harmony member parted ways with her former management company, Brandon Silverstein‘s S10 Entertainment, and signed a new management deal to Brandon Creed and Lydia Asrat through his Good World Management and her Q10 in August 2023.
Ahead of Dopamine‘s release, Normani has dropped two singles: “1:59,” featuring Gunna, and the hotly-anticipated “Candy Paint.” After she dropped the Cardi B-assisted “Wild Side” single three years ago, “1:59” “bridged the gap from ‘Wild Side’ to where I am now. It feels cohesive, it felt like it made sense but it felt like an evolved version of me,” Normani says in her Billboard News interview, adding that working with Gunna felt “organic”. “We met at a football game, and we just talked about working together. And management was just like, ‘Yo, what about “1:59″?’ ‘Cause we wanted to do a record together, and he loved it. It was just immediate. I remember playing it for him, and then I also have a record on his project.” Gunna also featured Normani on “$$$” from his latest album One of Wun.
As for “Candy Paint,” fans had been eating it up since Normani teased it more than a year ago and then featured a snippet of it during a Bose commercial. “As soon as it comes on, it’s infectious. It doesn’t sound like, to me, anything that’s out right now, but it kind of has that nostalgia,” she explains. “Any record that I’m creating or whether it’s even a visual, I love the early 2000s. Everybody knows that, like late ’90s, early 2000s. I’m heavily influenced and inspired by artists during that time. And even the sonics and the production, so you’re gonna hear that a lot throughout the album.”
Specifically, she named Janet Jackson as one of the “most influential artists” in her life, which she’s made very clear in the past: She performed “The Pleasure Principle” at the 2018 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, when Jackson received the BMI Icon award, and she paid tribute to Jackson’s iconic “Would You Mind” performance during her All For You tour during her “Wild Side” performance at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. “She’s definitely paved the way, and when I think of the women that I aspire to follow the footsteps of, she’s definitely up there. And she’s had so much impact on me, so sonically, you’ll be able to hear the inspiration,” Normani adds.
Watch Normani’s full Billboard News interview above.
Normani dives into her debut album, and gives us a dose of ‘Dopamine.’ After years in the making, the singer is ready to deliver what fans have been eagerly awaiting from her. She shares what her ‘Dopamine’ era will sound like, why she wasn’t a fan of her hit single “Motivation,” a possible Fifth Harmony reunion, working with Gunna & Cardi B and more!
Normani:
I know that it’s been such an extensive journey and process, but the wait, for sure, I feel like it’s definitely gonna be worth it. Hey, what’s up guys? It’s Normani and you’re watching Billboard News.
Tetris Kelly:
Let’s talk about the first single “1:59.” Why was that the one you were ready to introduce this new era?
Normani:
For me, it’s simply just feeling and it’s crazy, too, because I feel like the evolution between records is just, it’s crazy. To me. It’s just like, I love seeing the beauty and I love like the process and being able to just see it in each stage. And so I remember the first time I ended up playing it, everybody was like, ‘OK, yeah, this is cool. This is cool.’ And then once it was finalized, once it was done, once we got Gunna on it, like, it felt like a record, it felt like just completion. I try not to overthink it too much, which I know that sounds crazy, probably coming from me. We’ll talk about I know, we’ll get there. It felt like it bridged the gap from “Wild Side” to where I am now. Like, it feels cohesive. It felt like it made sense. But it felt like an evolved version of me.
Tetris Kelly:
You said “finalized it and threw Gunna on there,” so tell me why did you feel he was the artist to be on this track? And what was it like working with him?
Keep watching to learn more!
The 2024 Governors Ball Music Festival was in full swing in New York over the weekend. Sabrina Carpenter, SZA, P1Harmony, Rauw Alejandro and many more heated up the stage. Keep watching for more! Narrator: The Governors Ball always bring some of the top names in music to New York City. From R&B legends like SZA […]
Ángela Aguilar, Camila Cabello, Gloria Estefan, La India and more iconic Latina artists were honored and performed at Billboard’s Latin Women in Music 2024. Narrator: Last night was a celebration of women in Miami. Billboard’s Latin Women In Music honored some of the biggest names in Latin music, from Billboard cover star Camilla Cabello, who […]
Evan Burke:Can Eminem make magic with “Houdini” and dethrone Post and Morgan for the top spot? This is the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for the week dated June 15. Zack Bryan falls to 10. “Beautiful Things” holds on to No. 9. Teddy Swims drops a spot to No. 8. “Too Sweet” is up to […]
Howard University’s board of trustees voted unanimously on Friday to revoke the honorary degree awarded to Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2014, saying he is “no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor.”
Howard, a private, historically Black research university in Washington, D.C., will also return Combs’ $1 million contribution and terminate a $1 million pledge agreement from the Sean Combs Foundation, the board said in a statement.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the board said in its statement. “The University is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”
The rebuke is especially significant given Combs’ longtime ties to the university. Combs was a business major at Howard, but left after his second year. In 2014, he received an honorary doctorate in humanities from Howard and delivered the commencement address.
Last month, CNN first aired a 2016 surveillance video showing Combs physically assaulting his former girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, in a hallway at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the video, dated March 5, 2016, Combs appears to shove Ventura to the ground, kick her twice, drag her down a hallway and throw glass vases at her.
The video of the attack was graphic and disturbing – one of the few times the public has actually seen, and not just read or heard about, an incident of domestic abuse.
Combs released a video posted on Instagram days after the video’s release, saying, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
But no apology can make people un-see that video. “We find the images extremely disturbing and difficult to watch,” the office of L.A. District Attorney George Gascón wrote in a statement on Instagram on May 17. But the D.A. added that “if the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately, we would be unable to charge.”
Established in 1867, Howard offers undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in more than 120 programs. Notable Howard alumni from the arts include actors Chadwick Boseman, Phylicia Rashad, Anthony Anderson, Roxie Roker and Taraji P. Henson; comedian and TV personality Nick Cannon; novelist Toni Morrison; novelist and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; and writer and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Ariana Grande released a music video for “the boy is mine” starring Penn Badgley, Monica and Brandy. She delivered some out of this world promo and more! Tetris Kelly: “the boy is mine”! Ariana Grande has released an epic video for the track with an iconic cameo and props from a cat queen, all after […]