State Champ Radio

by DJ Frosty

Current track

Title

Artist

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

12:00 am 12:00 pm

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

12:00 am 12:00 pm


Culture

Page: 14

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. There’s little to compare to the feeling of joy you get when you see a fully stuffed stocking. Besides stocking up […]

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, if you’ll be spending the day with friends and family eating turkey and watching plenty of NFL action, then Sling TV has got a deal for you.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

NFL Thanksgiving 2024 happens on Thursday, Nov. 28 at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT.

How to Watch the NFL Thanksgiving on Sling TV

A subscription to Sling TV Blue — which comes with Fox and NBC for NFL Thanksgiving — gets you access to live TV, local and cable channels, starting at $22.50 per month for the first month of service ($45 per month afterwards).

You can watch local networks such as ABC, while you can also watch many cable networks, including NFL Network, FS1, Lifetime, FX, AMC, A&E, Bravo, BET, Cartoon Network, Fuse, CNN, Food Network and many others. However, CBS isn’t available on Sling TV.

Trending on Billboard

Please note: Prices and channel availability depends on your local TV market.

What NFL Teams Are Playing on Thanksgiving?

There are three games scheduled for Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, Nov. 28. Scroll down for the matchups, below:

Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan (12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT, CBS)

New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT, Fox)

Miami Dolphins vs. Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin (8:20 p.m. ET/5:20 a.m. PT, NBC)

NFL Thanksgiving 2024 broadcasts on CBS, Fox and NBC, while most of the games are also available to livestream with Sling TV on Thursday, Nov. 28.

Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, why not give some thanks to some of your favorite queer artists this week? Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

From Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande’s long-awaited Wicked songs to Lil Nas X’s latest single, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below.

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande “Defying Gravity”

Sure, we could put the entirety of the new Wicked soundtrack on this list, but there is something to Cynthia Erivo’s performance of the undisputed queer anthem “Defying Gravity” that just deserves some special recognition here. Her voice is incredible, her acting is off the charts, and she sells every second of this song alongside Grande’s gorgeous supporting vocals. Especially in the song’s famous final minute, Erivo gives her all for “Defying Gravity,” making this an absolute must-listen for theater fans and skeptics alike.

Trending on Billboard

Lil Nas X, “Need Dat Boy”

As he proved on Montero standout “Sun Goes Down,” Lil Nas X is phenomenally good at stripping things back to get to the personal core of a song. “Need Dat Boy” starts out in that exact contemplative mode, with Lil Nas showing off his consistently-growing vocals as he croons about looking for inspiration. And when the bridge kicks in, Lil Nas turns the heat up as he lets the object of his desire know exactly what he’d like to do to him. It’s a fitting amalgamation of the rapper/singer’s multitude of talents, packed into a 3-minute track you’ll want to hear.

Omar Apollo feat. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, “Te Maldigo”

Give Omar Apollo a guitar and a microphone and he will make sweet music for you. On “Te Maldigo” (which translates to “I Curse You”) from the upcoming Luca Guadagnino film Queer, Apollo sings a lonesome ballad of heartbreak and betrayal, asking why his former flame couldn’t show him the love he deserved. “My heart, without you, does not beat,” he sings in Spanish on the song’s second verse. “What a cruel world/ Where you don’t love me.”

Various Artists, Transa

In a time when trans people everywhere are scared for the future, Red Hot decided to give the community something hopeful. Transa, the organization’s expansive new compilation album, pairs trans icons and allies throughout its massive three and a half hour journey, reflecting on the nature of transness itself. With featured stars like Adrienne Lenker, Moses Sumney, Anohni, Sam Smith, Beverly Glenn Copeland and dozens more, Transa makes sure to never boil down the trans experience into a single, simplistic message — just like the community it serves, this album is as expansive as the universe itself.

Rahim Redcar (Christine and the Queens), “It’s Okay to Cry (Hôtel Pour SOPHIE)”

It would have been easy for Rahim Redcar (the newly-adopted stage name for Christine and the Queens) to offer a simple, largely-unchanged cover of legendary producer SOPHIE’s classic song “It’s Okay to Cry.” But that wouldn’t be like him, after all. Instead, Redcar takes the affirming track and strips it down to its molecular level, building it back up into something completely new that still manages to honor the legacy of the iconic artist who brought it into the world in the first place.

Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:

11/22/2024

Family friendly tunes from Rudolph, the Grinch and more.

11/22/2024

Eleven days. More than 300 shows. The 20th annual New York Comedy Festival offered a Golden Corral-style buffet of laughs. It was impossible to see them all, but here are the top seven performances — in no particular order — that Billboard witnessed.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

1. Zarna Garg

Garg, who closed the festival with a sold-out show at Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan on Nov. 17, took an unlikely path to stand-up comedy. Raised in Bombay, she escaped an arranged marriage by leaving home, immigrating to the United States and attending law school before becoming a multi-hyphenate in the comedy business: stand-up, screenwriting, podcasting and a memoir. She first headlined at Caroline’s on Broadway in 2020 and, according to her manager, the Town Hall appearance was one of her biggest headlining shows to date.

A lot of Garg’s comedy is steeped in Indian culture and stereotypes — “You are Indian, your pronoun is doctor!” she said during her performance —but judging from the composition of the crowd on Nov. 17, she has clearly crossed over. Garg got big laughs saying her bindi was the same kind of sticker that Macy’s uses to mark down clothes, and implied that she occasionally uses hers to snag a bargain. “You know I’m doing it!” she said. And she elicited a huge roar from the crowd after telling a story about keeping her comedy work from her parents. When her mother found out, instead of disowning her daughter, she told her that if it would help with her career, “May you tell your audience that your father likes to do it doggy style.”

Trending on Billboard

2. Jeff Arcuri

The Michigan-raised, Chicago-based comic opened the festival on Nov. 7, when he brought his Full Beans Tour to the Beacon Theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and proved how he has blown up over the past year: with crowd work, which has gone viral on social media. Arcuri is so lightning-quick and scalpel-sharp that attempting to take notes of his back-and-forth banter with audience members — done with a big, wicked smile — is a fool’s errand. So, check out this video and note that, unlike other comics who single out members of their audience, Arcuri practices largely cruelty-free comedy.

3. Jordan Jensen

The Ithaca, NY-born former contractor — she called her company Lady Parts Carpentry, because her name was often misconstrued as male — Jensen is a tattooed bomb cyclone of funny, who became the first woman to win the festival’s New York’s Funniest competition in 2021. Her act is seeded with the wins and losses of womanhood and dating, growing up with a lesbian mother and an estranged weed-loving father, and her battles with OCD and intrusive thoughts. As one of Jeff Arcuri’s openers at the Beacon Theater, Jensen had the crowd screaming with laughter over a wild bit on the realities of menstruation.

4. New York’s Funniest

The winner of the festival’s annual joke-off — which catapulted the careers of Jensen and Michael Che, among other comics — was New York-based stand-up Jamie Wolf, who delivered a polished set that closed with a killer, seemingly new bit on why he’s pretty sure God is a woman. “Picture dicks and balls,” he said. “They’re so first draft.” It got better from there but go see Wolf to hear it firsthand. As they say in the business, it’s all in the telling.  

Wolf was one of 10 comics who competed at the Hard Rock Hotel on Nov. 16, and two in particular brought to mind a comment Chris Distefano made in an interview with Billboard last week, in which he talked about his comedy originating as a “defense mechanism” that arose from his parents divorce.

The competition’s opener, Soo Ra, who is Korean, was born missing fingers on one hand and adopted as an infant after she was found in a box that had been left outside a police station. A devastating story, but Ra, whose delivery is could be described as cheerfully deadpan, got a lot of laughs out of it, telling the crowd she might have been abandoned when her real mother looked at her unformed hand and decided, “This baby cannot fix Samsung phones.” She also said that when people ask her which Korea she is from, she replies, “The one you can get out of.”

Next up was Nick Viagas, who used his stutter to land a lot of laughs. He told the crowd that if he didn’t make it in comedy, “I can always get a job as a turn signal.” And that when he was put in charge of the countdown at a New Year’s Eve show, “That was the longest year.”

5. Ricky Velez

One of Judd Apatow’s favorite comics — he even made Velez a producer on The King of Staten Island New York City in which he co-starred with best friend Pete Davidson — the Queens-bred smart-ass repaid the kindness with a charged set for Judd Apatow and Friends at the Beacon Theater on Nov. 9. In addition to compelling storytelling — check out his Dominican drug dealer in the bit online — Velez likes to rile up the politically correct, and in his addressing the influx of migrants into New York, he told the audience, “I like migrants a lot because they’re fucking up the white-woman agenda. That makes me very happy. [In] 2017 white women canceled cat-calling in New York City. Well, guess what. Venezuela never went through a #MeToo Movement. So, good luck telling Papi that ass ain’t fine, Mami.”

He also welcomed more crime in the city, which he said was “the war on gentrification,” adding that he recently saw “three men eating croissants on the corner.” Declaring such a brazen act of refined tastes “crazy,” Velez had the crowd wheezing when he said, “This is New York City. That can’t happen. Those men need crime,” adding: “Croissants and tote bags. If you’ve got a tote bag as a man. Time to move, bro. We back.”

6. Chris Distefano

Distefano did back-to-back-to-back shows at three outposts of the New York Comedy Club, which is owned by his manager, Emilio Savone — in part to re-record classic bits he did on Netflix and other comedy platforms so that he could reclaim ownership. He dubbed them “Chrissy’s Version” in homage to Taylor Swift. But he also riffed on the results of the presidential election and some of his successful friends’ reactions to it. “I will say this. If you made a post crying about the president, you’re a p—y” Distefano said. “You gotta be an adult here.”

He further explained that a number of friends he met through comedy “do big things. They host TV shows. I took the bus here.” Some of those famous friends “are crying,” he said. “I’m like, relax. You’re a multimillionaire making believe. You live in America. Shut the f—up. Everybody’s just got to take a deep breath. It’s gonna be fine. Now, do I know for sure? No. I went to Nassau Community College.”  

7. Stand Up For Heroes

Year after year, this benefit for military veterans brings out top-shelf talent to raise tens of millions of dollars. This year, Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones, Jon Stewart, Jim Gaffigan, Jerry Seinfeld and Mark Normand put on a really big show, which you can read more about here (and watch a video of The Boss performing “Long Walk Home”).

Cynthia Erivo had some gratitude to share on Friday morning (Nov. 22) as she and Wicked co-star Ariana Grande reached the end of an exhaustive, full-court-press media tour promoting the first part of the Broadway-to-big-screen musical.
“This journey has been long, and paved with bright, yellow brick. We have laughed and cried, held hands and walked side by side, our lives intertwined, and because of that, we were irrevocably changed for good,” the Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning singer/actress wrote in an Instagram post about the yearslong process of bringing the beloved Broadway re-telling of The Wizard of Oz onto movie screens.

With the film finally opening on Friday, Erivo opened up about the transformative experience of slipping into Elphaba’s green makeup and round glasses, confiding that this was more than just a role for her. “We gained more than a movie. We gained a love letter to love, friendship, the celebration of the things that make us different, special, and beautiful, and the bravery it takes to change your mind,” she said before offering targeted shout-outs to the movie’s key players, including her own character.

Trending on Billboard

“Elphaba, Thank you for the gifts you have brought me,” she wrote before heaping praise on Grande’s Glinda. “Galinda/ Glinda/ Ariana Grande-Butera, I love you. You are the truest, kindest, human being. It has been an honor to share this experience of a lifetime with you,” she added; Grande is credited with what she’s called her “little girl name” in the movie’s credits, which is how she was referred to when she first saw the Wicked musical on Broadway as a 10-year-old.

She also thanked her “dear captain,” director Jon M. Chu, for “your trust and your belief, your heart and imagination. You lead us with love and it is all over that screen.” And, as for the many fans who’ve been waiting three long years for the movie — which has been in development with a variety of directors and actors attached to it for nearly 15 years — to open after several delays, including one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Erivo wrote, “Wicked is now yours, from us with love. Your Elphie.”

The post included a number of photos from set, a time-lapse video of the intensive Elphaba makeup process, choreography rehearsals and moving behind-the-scenes snaps, including one of Erivo laying her head on Grande’s shoulder.

The second part of Wicked is slated to open on Nov. 21, 2025 and a Wicked sing-along is slated to his theaters this Christmas.

Check out Erivo’s post below.

In honor of Wicked finally arriving in theaters, Ariana Grande is thanking the millions of people who have truly changed her for good.
In a heartfelt message on her Instagram Story Friday (Nov. 22) — the same day Part 1 of Wicked premiered worldwide following months of buildup — the 31-year-old pop star expressed her gratitude for her “sweet, sweet fans.” “you have held my hand and helped mend my heart time and time again over the past ten years, and i would never be here without you,” she wrote. “i mean that in every way you can interpret it.”

“thank you for your patience with me,” Grande continued. “i know i disappeared into this project for a long, long time (i believe you all called it ‘the drought’!) and i know that was hard for you all. i want to thank you for your fierce protection, your passion, and your ability to see me and love me as i evolve alongside all of you.”

“til i am old lady Peaches, i will love you this same way,” added the Grammy winner, referencing the alter ego she created amid her Eternal Sunshine album era earlier this year. “thank you for growing with me. it’s one of the greatest joys and gifts of my life.”

Trending on Billboard

Grande also commemorated the occasion by sharing a collection of behind-the-scenes snaps from the set of Wicked. In one photo, co-leading lady Cynthia Erivo leans her head on the “Yes, And?” singer’s shoulder between takes of the Ozdust ballroom sequence; in another, Grande cuddles up next to costar Jonathan Bailey while filming a classroom scene.

The Victorious alum shared a separate post that included a video of her learning the “What Is This Feeling?” choreography as well, plus a clip of herself — pre-blonde hair — and the Pinocchio actress cracking up during a rehearsal. “like a handprint on my heart,” Grande wrote. “happy Wicked day to all.”

Also starring Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh and Marissa Bode, Wicked arrived in theaters Friday after more than three years in the making. From the moment Grande’s casting was announced in 2021 to the film’s two-year production in London and the monthslong promotional campaign that has unfolded this year, the “We Can’t Be Friends” musician has been open about how much the opportunity has meant to her.

“It just feels like this experience was such a homecoming for me,” she said in a recent radio interview with Australia’s Hit 104.7 Canberra. “I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways, through what I learned from Glinda and Elphaba.”

But just because Wicked is finally out — one year ahead of Part 2’s release in 2025 — doesn’t mean Grande is done gushing about it. “this will be Ozian photo dump one out of one million,” she added on her Story. “i apologize in advance. i am nowhere near done oversharing.”

Erykah Badu is returning to a screen near you.
The singer has deeply immersed herself in the upcoming film The Piano Lesson, taking part in producing the score as well as joining the cast as bandleader Lucille at the Pittsburgh Hill District’s famed jazz club the Crawford Grill. In a clip shared exclusively with Billboard, the superstar curates a high-energy jazz performance, with patrons flooding the dance floor to groove along to the melody.

Badu has previously acted in films and TV series, including What Men Want, The Land, Hand of God and more.

The Malcolm Washington-directed film, adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, stars Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins, in addition to Badu. The story, set in 1936 following the Great Depression, follows the Charles family as they clash over an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. As a result, they find “haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy,” per the film’s logline.

Denzel Washington and Todd Black are The Piano Lesson‘s producers, while the music score was created by Alexandre Desplat. 

In addition to her portrayal of Lucille, Badu also wrote an essay for The Piano Lesson‘s accompanying Assouline book that features exclusive artwork celebrating the making of the film. “Ain’t no such thing as a wrong note. That’s the first thing you gotta understand,” she begins, sharing her personal journey with her own musical family heirloom, a piano from her grandmother. “Every time I pressed down [on the keys], even when the sound wasn’t ‘right’ by some textbook standard, I felt the vibrations of truth. Those so-called wrong notes? They were the universe whispering secrets, showing me paths that nobody else could see.”

The book will be available to order here starting Friday (Nov. 22), the same day The Piano Lesson hits Netflix. Watch the exclusive clip from the film above, and read Badu’s full essay via Billboard below.

Ain’t no such thing as a wrong note. That’s the first thing you gotta understand. When my grandmama gave us a used upright piano, made of wood with gold accents and keys yellowed and slightly out of tune, she wasn’t just giving us a musical instrument. She was passing on a portal to another dimension, a way to speak with the ancestors.

I was just a little girl of seven, with tiny hands stretching to reach those ivory bones. Every time I pressed down, even when the sound wasn’t ‘right’ by some textbook standard, I felt the vibrations of truth. Those so-called wrong notes? They were the universe whispering secrets, showing me paths that nobody else could see.

Fast-forward to the set of Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Initially, I’m there to produce music for the score, but next thing you know, I’m acting in the club scene, feeling August Wilson’s words pulse through me like they did back in my days as a theater major at Grambling State. And there’s this scene that was really heavy. Berniece is faced with this haunted piano, a sort of family heirloom with its carved figures, carrying generations of joy and pain. She’s scared and refuses to touch it, like it might burn her fingers with all that history.

But eventually, she relents. In order to exorcise the ghost, she bands on those keys repeatedly, wailing, ‘Help me, ancestors, help me!’ That’s when the magic happens. It ain’t pretty. It ain’t polished. But it’s real. It’s raw. And in those ‘wrong’ notes, in that discord of sound and emotion, both Berniece and the trapped spirit find release.

Jason Kelce stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday night (Nov. 21) to talk about his new ESPN talk show, though the conversation naturally ended up pivoting to his younger brother Travis and Trav’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
After some perfunctory talk about the former Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl-winning center’s salad days with the team and how he keeps himself busy now that he’s retired, the pair got down to the really important stuff: what gifts is Jason getting Travis and Taylor for Christmas?

“At Christmastime will you buy individual gifts for Travis and Taylor, or will you buy them a couple’s gift?” Kimmel wondered. “And what do you get them?”

Trending on Billboard

“It’s tough to shop for people that can have anything that they want,” Jason admitted. “So you gotta go to handmade gifts, something sentimental maybe that is near and dear to them?” When Kimmel asked if Jason was crafty enough to make his own hand-made gifts, the former baller said he never has, but that it might work “really well” this holiday season.

“I’ve got something up my sleeve year… a macaroni necklace would be [a good gift]. It works on me with my kids,” said Kelce. “It would be funny if you make Taylor a macaroni necklace and then all of a sudden millions of girls are wearing macaroni necklaces,” Kimmel joked as Kelce coined the sure-to-be-viral-soon phrase “friendship macaroni necklaces.”

Jason Kelce will debut his new ESPN talk show, They Call it Late Night, on Jan. 3, with the post-season series slated to air every Friday during the playoffs. “I’ve always loved [late night shows]. I remember sleepovers watching Conan O’Brien with my friends,” he told Kimmel. “For me, the biggest thing players say they miss when they leave the sport is being around the guys, the locker room, the banter.” Which is why the new show will feature a rotating cast of legends, friends, celebrities, former teammates and a live band, all in Philadelphia, of course.

When Kimmel asked if Travis might be on the show, Jason said the Kansas City Chiefs tight end will “probably” be busy — the Chiefs are 9-1 and are on track to cruise to the playoffs again this year — but “hopefully” he can’t make it because he’s tied up trying to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl.

“If he says he can’t make it on a Friday and then we see him at one of girlfriend’s concerts on a Friday, we’re gonna have a problem probably,” Kimmel joked about Travis’ frequent trips around the world to catch Swift on her soon-to-conclude Eras Tour. “We all know who the priority is,” Jason said.

Watch Jason Kelce on Kimmel below.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
The 2024 MAMA Awards is going international with ceremonies in Los Angeles and Japan for its 25th anniversary. The three-day event will air exclusively on Samsung TV Plus.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

This year’s MAMA Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday (Nov. 21) and the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan from November 22-23.  

Performers include TOMORROW x Together, Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars, BOYNEXTDOOR, ILLIT, J.Y. Park, Young Posses and ENHYPEN.  

Trending on Billboard

Keep reading to learn more about Samsung TV Plus and how to stream the MAMA Awards from anywhere.

What Is Samsung TV Plus?

Not familiar with Samsung TV Plus? It’s free, ad-supported streaming service available on Samsung Smart TVs, Samsung Galaxy devices, smart monitors, Family Hub refrigerators and online at Samsungtvplus.com.

Samsung TV Plus features over 400 live channels, thousands of movies and K-POP by CJ ENM. Launched on Nov. 6 in celebration of it’s 10th anniversary, Samsung TV Plus’ K-pop channel offers exclusive access to artist interviews, performances, music videos and behind-the-scenes footage.

Samsung TV Plus features over 4,000 hours of Korean programming including movies and TV series.

You can stream Samsung TV Plus by navigating to the app on a Samsung TV, Smart Monitor or Family Hub refrigerator. If you have a Samsung Galaxy Device, download the app from the Galaxy Store or Google Play app store.

2024 MAMA Awards: Start Time, How to Stream Live from Anywhere

The 2024 MAMA Awards kicks off on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT (12 p.m. KST on Friday). The show will be available on FAST channel #1535.

Coverage of day two will air on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT (11 a.m. KST on Saturday). Day three airs on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. (8:00 a.m. KST on Sunday). 

Fans streaming internationally can use ExpressVPN on Samsung Smart TVs. To access, install Express VPN to a compatible Wifi router and being streaming. VPNs let you access certain channels, streaming platforms, websites and more from outside of the U.S.

ExpressVPN’s Black Friday deals gets you two years of service, plus six months free for $4.99/month (reg. $12.95/month).

See below for a list of performers at the 2024 MAMA Awards.

2024 MAMA Awards Performance Lineup

Nov. 21 (U.S.)

Anderson .PaakILLITJ.Y. ParkKATSEYERIIZETWSYoung Posse

Nov. 22 (Japan)

BOYNEXTDOORENHYPHENIVEIznaLee Young JiME:IPLAVETREASURETOMORROW X TOGETHER

Nov. 23 (Japan)

AespaBIBIBYEON WOO SEOK(G)I-DLEG-DRAGONINIMEOVVSEVENTEENZEROBASEONE