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Mariah Carey has been taking over Las Vegas during her Celebration of Mimi residency, but along with joining the legendary artists performing in Sin City, she’s giving the Lambily an in-depth look at her songwriting process in a new audiobook series titled Portrait of a Portrait.
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Fans can now listen as the “Obsessed” singer delves into her songwriting process and the stories behind songs like title track “Portrait” and other fan-favorites — and all from Carey herself. Plus, you can hear it for free thanks to Amazon’s current Audible promo that can get you the audiobook service for free for 30 days.
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You have to be a Prime member in order to gain access to the deal, but Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial to Prime for new users who sign up here. If you’re already a Prime member, you are still eligible for a 30-day free trial of Audible. All you have to do is click “listen now” and you’ll be able to hear the “Emotion” singer’s audiobook for free.
Keep reading to learn more about how to listen to Mariah Carey’s ‘Portrait’ audiobook online free.
Portrait of a Portrait: Words + Music, Vol. 40
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“Portrait of a Portrait” is the latest episode of Audible’s “Words + Music” series, which interviews artists about their influences and career.As an Audible original, you can only listen to Carey’s audiobook episode through the service. The episode was released Thursday (May 23) and gives Lambs a preview of the Grammy-winning artist’s upcoming new project “The Butterfly Lounge” as well as provides an “intimate journey into her wondrous musical world,” according to the official description.
This marks the second release that the popstar has put out through Audible, with the previous being her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah, which was a New York Times bestseller, a Goodreads Choice nominee and has earned more than 13,000 reviews on Amazon.
Carey’s “Words + Music” episode comes on the heels of her latest Vegas residency, which you can still score last-minute cheap tickets to through Ticketmaster, StubHub, Vivid Seats (score $20 off $200+ orders when you use the promo code BB2024 at checkout) and Seat Geek (first purchases can earn you $10 off orders of $250+ when you use the code BILLBOARD10).
For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best female musician memoirs, Taylor Swift books and music books.
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Public Enemy and Ghostface Killah will be on the star-studded lineup for DJ Cassidy’s upcoming Las Vegas residency.
For those aiming to attend DJ Cassidy’s “Pass The Mic Live!” residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada, the lineup just got more impressive. It was announced that Public Enemy and Ghostface Killah would appear along with Raekwon, Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat, Too $hort, and Warren G as rotating guests. The legendary Hip-Hop group from Long Island is slated to appear for one of the three nights of the residency. They will be part of the show along with Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Fat Joe, and Ja Rule. “Pass the Mic Live!” will take place on July 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20 at Planet Hollywood’s Bakkt Theater.
“This will be unlike any other show you’ve seen, and a show that people want to continuously come back to see more than once and night after night,” DJ Cassidy said in an interview, “because every show is a unique experience with one-of-a-kind collaborative moments, which is part of why the special guests are such an important piece to the puzzle.” He also discussed the significance of Public Enemy’s appearance on the bill. “They’ve done one other show in the U.S. in the last seven years, and so this is quite a big deal for them, and it’s quite an honor to have them, as it is to have everyone. And Flavor Flav lives in Las Vegas, so he’s now a hometown hero.” Public Enemy will be a part of the show on July 6.
Caesars Entertainment and Live Nation are producing the events, along with Loud and SRC Records founder Steve Rifkind. DJ Cassidy hopes to channel the spirit of Las Vegas’ storied entertainment history going back to the days of The Rat Pack and Elvis Presley for these concerts as another landmark for Hip-Hop culture. “There is not a lot of hip-hop in the Las Vegas residency space, and I am very cognizant of that,” says Cassidy, “and I take this responsibility very deeply. It’s really important to all of us to create something not only that represents Hip-Hop in a special way, but from a broader perspective, to create something that can be talked about in the future in the same sentence as the other performers and shows that I mentioned.”
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There’s a reason some people refer to Celine Dion as the “queen of pop.” Her gravity-defying vocals have inspired a generation of singers on the way to selling more than 200 million albums worldwide churning out such iconic hits as “My Heart Will Go On,” “The Power of Love,” “Because You Loved Me” and “All By Myself,” among many others. But in 2022 the indomitable power vocalist shared that she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder Stiff Person Syndrome.
The rare neurological disorder that can cause uncontrolled muscle spasms that make it hard to move forced Dion to cancel her planned 2023 tour as her sister revealed that the singer had “no control” over her muscles. Her difficult journey navigating the disease is the subject of the moving documentary I Am: Celine Dion, whose first trailer was unveiled on Thursday morning (May 23).
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The two-minute teaser opens with Dion, 56, in her prime, belting out one of her patented power ballad notes in the studio as she playfully worries if the sound man survived the vocal onslaught. “My voice is the conductor of my life,” Dion says in voice-over over footage of her on stage throughout the years. “When your voice brings you joy, you’re the best of yourself… I need my instrument.”
Then, the Canadian singer — who has been wowing audiences around the world since she was a teenager — delves into being diagnosed with SPS as an unseen voice is heard calling 9-1-1 to report a medical emergency. “I wasn’t ready to say anything before… but I’m ready now,” Dion says exhaling deeply with a pained look on her face in one of the first prolonged glimpses of her since the diagnosis took her out of the public eye.
Walking through her costume archive, Dion says, “I see my life, and I love every piece of it. When a girl loves her shoes, she’ll always make them fit,” as she stands in front of racks of her stage gear. The rest of the trailer jumps between live footage of a vibrant, electric Dion on stage at various times in her career as she describes the “magic” she’s created in concert over four decades in the spotlight.
“It’s not hard to do a show, you know?,” she says over footage of her taking her daily regimen of pills, doctor’s appointments and a catch in the backyard with one of her three sons. “It’s hard to cancel a show.” Dion says she’s working hard every day to get better, as evidenced by film of her practicing ballet moves in a studio. “But I have to admit,” she says tearily, “it’s been a struggle. I miss it so much, the people. I miss them. If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl.”
The trailer ends with Dion in the studio belting an unheard song as she promises, “I won’t stop” over the strains of one of her most beloved power ballads, 1996’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” The Amazon MGM Studios film was directed by Irene Taylor (Beware the Slenderman) and will debut on Prime Video on June 25.
Watch the I Am: Celine Dion trailer below.
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Nearly 20 years after its release, Nintendo re-mastered the classic GameCube game, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
For Nintendo Switch, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is priced at $59.99 at Walmart. During a search for treasure, Princess Peach gets abducted by the X-Nauts aliens. Mario then goes out to rescue her in a storybook role-playing adventure.
And since its from Walmart, you’ll get the game shipped to your home for free as soon as it’s available if you’re a Walmart+ member.
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Not a member? You can sign up for a 30-day free trial to take advantage of everything the retailer’s rewards program has to offer, including free delivery; fuel savings at Exxon, Mobil, Walmart or Murphy gas stations; streaming access to Paramount+ to watch hit originals such as Halo, Fatal Attraction and Star Trek: Lower Decks; early access deals and other member’s benefits. Learn more about Walmart+ here.
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Below, you’ll find all the different retailers, including Target and Amazon, to buy Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo
‘Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’
As for gameplay, it’s a turn-based role-playing game where you can play as either Mario, Princess Peach or Bowser. The game emphasizes timing and strategy for battles and progression. The Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door re-master has updated graphics that are vivid, brighter and modern, while audio is richer and deeper — specifically designed for the Nintendo Switch.
Available at Walmart, Target and Amazon, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is priced at $59.99 and out now.
In the meantime, watch the game’s launch trailer, below:
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Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
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One thing to know about former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland is that she is not the one—or the two, three, four or five. In fact, you might as well just stop counting.
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On Tuesday, the Mea Culpa actor—who let it be known in February that she won’t be hosting any network’s little TV show if her dressing room isn’t up to par and her needs aren’t being met—also let it be known that she won’t be treated any kind of way by a security guard at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
Here’s what happened, according to HuffPost:
Unverified video showed what apparently riled up the “Mea Culpa” actor. Rowland, beaming in an eye-catching red dress, smiled, waved and played to fans and photographers.
She’s motioned by one crowd-control person to move on and Rowland continues to enjoy the attention. Again the guard motions for her to move forward.
Rowland climbs the stairs and takes the hand of a companion and turns back to wave to fans again. Two other security guards close in to hasten her ascent and Rowland appears to touch the shoulder of one of them as if to tell her to back off.
She then points at her and continues to reprimand her. Another security guard intervenes as Rowland appears to talk firmly and point. Finally, she enters the Palais.
On one hand, security guards do have a job to do, and if the crowd is getting moved along, celebrities shouldn’t be exempt. On the other hand, they probably wouldn’t have tried to do Beyonce like that while she was interacting with fans, and there are certainly a lot of—how should I say it—melanin-deficient celebrities who security also would have likely been more accommodating for.
Also—come on y’all—look how fine she was in that red gown.
Nah—go on and let Kelly strut, security.
Now, some people might be debating whether or not Rowland was out of line, but when it comes to the collection of digital Black voices formerly known as Black Twitter, there really is no debate. Kelly Rowland is just one of those people we don’t play about.
Here are some of the best responses in support of Kelly. Yeah, we rock with Kelly over here. Y’all better stop trying her.
The trailer for the upcoming Hulu four-part music documentary series Camden features a number of A-listers singing the praises of the influence the London neighborhood has had on their music and careers. The 1:44 trailer for the show — executive produced by Dua Lipa — features the “Houdini” singer, as well as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher, the Libertines’ Pete Doherty and Nile Rodgers describing how inspiring the Camden scene was.
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“Camden, so full of life and music,” Martin says over images of graffiti, punks hanging out and sweaty rock clubs. “It’s got a heartbeat, it’s got a vibe, it’s got an energy to it,” adds former Oasis co-founder and High Flying Birds frontman Gallagher.
Dua shows up as well, walking into a record store and doing the time honored flipping-through-vinyl-in-a-bin bit as she says, “I don’t think you’ll find a single record store in Camden that doesn’t have an Amy [Winehouse] record.” The teaser also features Doherty describing spotting Noel Gallagher’s estranged brother, former Oasis singer Liam, in the city and wanting to play him some of his band’s music.
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“There’s so much legacy here,” Dua says in the trailer of the place she says has a vibe of “radical acceptance,” as the Roots drummer Questlove adds, “It’s the place where stars are born.” Martin also tells the story of his band’s first-ever gig as Coldplay in Camden on a bill where they opened for a headliner who took their drum kit away, forcing the band to play the stage as the bass drum.
“We were celebrating women’s lib, gay lib, Black power, through our music, it all happened in Camden,” Chic leader Rodgers says.
The series that premieres on Hulu on May 29 was directed by Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna) and also has contributions from Mark Ronson, Little Simz, Carl Cox, Madness, Boy George, the Roots’ Questlove, Yungblud, Black Eyed Peas, Public Enemy’s Chuck D and more.
In a post sharing the trailer cued to the Libertines’ “Don’t Look Back Into the Sun,” Dua wrote, “CAMDEN!! this is a big full circle moment for me and i’m so proud to be an executive producer and to have worked on a new original documentary series that celebrates the very place I started everything!!! Camden will always have a special place in my heart and I’m humbled to share that with some of my absolute musical heroes.”
Watch the Camden trailer below.
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Jennifer Lopez is used to fielding questions about her relationship with husband Ben Affleck any time she steps in front of a mic. But in the midst of unsubstantiated tabloid speculation that the couple’s two-year-old marriage is going through a rough patch, JLo was not interested in talking about her private life during a promo […]
Spoiler alert: This story contains the identity of the winner and runner-up unmasked on Wednesday night’s (May 22) season finale of The Masked Singer.
It was a fierce scramble for the golden mask on Wednesday’s (May 22) season 11 Masked Singer finale in an action-packed battle that pitted powerhouse male vocalist Gumball against season-long favorite Goldfish.
When the confetti fell at the end of the night, though, it was veteran singer/actress Vanessa Hudgens who triumphed over her former Bandslam co-star Scott Porter (aka Friday Night Lights‘ Jason Street).
To recap, former High School Musical movie star Hudgens got her perfect run off to a killer start early on in the season with a fierce take on fellow High School Musical universe alum Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” throwing down the gauntlet that this was a performer with killer pipes and casually cool stage moves. The singer, who released two albums on Hollywood Records early in her career, showed off her performance chops throughout by expertly ruling the stage in the peach-colored costume with a towering mohawk and diaphanous gills.
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She continued to swim upstream all season with a smooth-as-butter cover of Player’s 1977 AM radio classic “Baby Come Back” and further proved her arena-ready bona fides with a Broadway-worthy take on Queen’s “The Show Must Go On.”
The flawless march kept going with a showstopping run through Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” — which again showed off her impressive range — as well as last week’s fierce rumble through Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” that had Robin Thicke jumping on the judges’ table for a standing ovation.
On Wednesday, before her reveal, Hudgens, 27, confessed that she was never good at expressing herself as a young girl, but has lately been on a “journey of self-discovery” that allowed her to express herself “so freely” on the show. And while she said music has taken a “back seat” as she’s focused on film for the past 15-plus years — appearing in Second Act, Bad Boys for Life and Tick, Tick… Boom!, as well as the upcoming Bad Boys: Ride or Die — her victory-sealing covers of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” proved her pipes are as strong as ever.
The judges were close in their guesses but didn’t quite nail it, with Rita Ora suggesting former Glee star Lea Michele or Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev; Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg guessing Selena Gomez, Vampire Academy star Sarah Hyland or Julianne Hough; and Thicke going with Hilary Duff. Always-wrong Ken Jeong missed it by a mile once again, tossing out such wildly disparate suggestions as Carly Rae Jepsen, Kristen Stewart and former panelist Nicole Scherzinger.
Billboard spoke to Hudgens before her elimination about why this was the right time to dip back into singing, how she managed to move like such a pro in her costume, and why her “witch” powers were the key to giving the expectant first-time mom something special to share with her baby. Check out her answers below.
You’ve been a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance and RuPaul’s Drag Race, but never really a contestant on a singing show. Why now?
This opportunity came up at a really interesting time when we [actors] were on strike and this was a category I could actually work in and my fans had been asking for more music, more singing, anything of that sort. I was like, “This would be a really fun and interesting opportunity to give my fans what they want and see who the real ones are.”
People complain about the size and sweatiness of the costumes, but you seemed to be able to move with no problems. What was your secret?
Reckless abandonment? [Laughs] It definitely had its own challenges because I couldn’t see straight ahead because the eyeholes were so far apart. If I wanted to see straight ahead, I had to turn my head one way or another and I was really using a live mic and holding it up to the little opening in my mask. So I had to split my vision and look sideways out of one eye and then look down with the other in the mic hole to see the ground. I just went for it and left it all out there. They would be like, “You’re kind of here and then walk over there and if you want to maybe do a verse there and move over here.” I just really let it fly and they gave me the freedom to play, and play I did.
Which performance meant the most to you and why?
I feel so lucky in that I got to work really closely with my producer and pick songs that meant something to me, from the cheeky nod to High School Musical singing “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo to “Baby Come Back,” which I sang at 16 as a cover song for my first single [2006’s “Come Back to Me”]. “The Show Must Go On” for a vulnerable, special performance to “Unforgettable,” which I’d wanted to sing from jump because I just want to sing jazz all the time, to a female empowerment moment with Alanis Morissette.
Did singing “Vampire” make you long for the good old days?
I just think [Rodrigo]’s really great and I really vibe with her. It’s always great to support a fellow Filipina, and it was just a cute, cheeky nod to how things always end up being connected.
It looked like you came to play from jump. How badly did you want to win the golden mask?
You know, it wasn’t really about winning, honestly. I am my own worst critic and I will always be my hardest critic in the room at all times. I just wanted to have fun, and it was a really freeing experience for me to be anonymous and have nothing to do with my name or fame or celebrity. It was a really special experience.
You said your run surprised you and allowed people to really see you for who you are and what you do. Might you go back to music after this?
No. I always say life is about priorities, and that is not a priority right now. I feel like it’s something I will always have in my back pocket.
You said winning would be the “ultimate pat on the back” and really mean a lot to you because you always thought of yourself as an actor first and singer second. Did you give people the “music moment” you hope for?
I think I got to give myself the music moment I was hoping for and in turn my supportive fans got to enjoy it as well. I got to show up every day and put my best foot forward, and I was so uplifted and supported by such an amazing team over there and I got to work on my voice every day with someone who helped me expand my horizons.
On tonight’s show, you said you couldn’t wait to have kids so you could tell them, “Look at mommy go!” Did you know when you taped the show that you were expecting? [Hudgens revealed in March on the Oscars red carpet that she’s expecting her first child.]
No! I’m just a witch! [Laughs] I’ve always worked in a way that kept people guessing and gave me something to show my kids at every stage of my life. That’s always been important to me.
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If you are looking for a workout dress, you’re in the right place. For those searching for ways to expand your fitness wardrobe, consider adding this Halara Active Dress staple to your closet. It offers versatility and comfort, allowing for ease of movement during exercise routines.
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Finding workout clothes can be challenging, but once you discover the best fashion that will let you sweat in style, there is no going back. Adding a workout dress to your closet is not only stylish, but can make transitioning from the gym to other activities seamless. Whether you are attending a dance class or playing tennis, you can do it all in this active dress.
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If you have been scrolling through your For You Page, you might have come across various Halara dupes on TikTok. Lucky for you, you can snag this Halara Active Dress at a 36% discount right now!
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Halara Active Dress Easy Peezy Edition
This one of a kind 100% cotton dress is described as stretchy. Its breathable fabric and sleeveless design will help you stay cool while breaking a sweat. With its built in shorts, you will feel secure and safe. Plus, it’s easy to put on and take off. From running errands to hopping to dance class, you can’t go wrong with this active dress. You can get this dress in all different colors from Fuchsia Purple to Warm Mid Blue.
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Sam’s Club Active Tank Dress
For those looking for a dupe consider this Sam’s Club Active Tank Dress. It features built-in biker shorts with side pockets and an inner shelf bra for support. Its sporty design makes it perfect for any outdoor or indoor activity. You can get this one in four different colors: Rosebud, Black, Bright White (Out of Stock), and Deep Ultramarine.
For more product recommendations, check out these TikTok viral skorts, this bestselling workout set on Amazon, and these gym bags to upgrade your travel essentials.
Ohio and Michigan are setting their rivalry aside as Detroit’s Eminem and Akron’s LeBron James are producing a documentary about music piracy together for Paramount+. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The two-part series premiered at SXSW earlier this year and “details the fascinating, and often funny, inside […]