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System of a Down and Deftones are set to perform the first after-dark performance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco this August. Promoter Another Planet Entertainment announced the groundbreaking event Tuesday (April 9), alongside Live Nation; it will also feature performances from The Mars Volta, Viagra Boys and VOWWS. Explore See latest videos, charts […]
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Last year it was rumored that Marvel was planning on bringing back the OG Avengers team of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor to help revive the popularity of their struggling MCU and though Marvel boss Kevin Feige poured cold water on the notion, Robert Downey Jr. would be more than happy to return as Tony Starks in future Marvel projects.
In a recent interview with Esquire, the Oscar award-winning actor was asked about reviving his dearly departed Marvel character and much to the surprise of many, Downey raised some eyebrows when he said “Happily. It’s too integral a part of my DNA. That role chose me. And look, I always say, Never, ever bet against Kevin Feige. It is a losing bet. He’s the house. He will always win.”
Unfortunately it seems like Feige isn’t looking at an Iron Man return anytime soon as everyone knows that such an event wouldn’t happen until Avengers: Secret Wars which is slated to hit theaters in 2027 or 2028. Until then Marvel Studios will be building up anticipation for the historic crossover event which is said to feature Marvel superheroes from films past such as Tobey McGuire’s Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and even rumors that Nicholas Cage will revive his role as Ghost Rider for the upcoming spectacle.
Even though both Ghost Rider films were struggle, it would be pretty cool to see Cage as the Spirit of Vengeance. Just sayin.’
There’s even word that Hugh Jackman told Kevin Feige that he’d only do Secret Wars if he got screen time with both Tobey McGuire as Spider-Man and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. More reason for Feige to move forward with Iron Man’s return.
But again these are all rumors as Marvel needs some solutions to build interest in the future of their hugely profitable cinematic universe that’s seen a drop in both popularity and box office receipts in the past few years.
What do y’all think? Should Marvel bring back Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man sooner than later? Should they leave the character alone and move on? Let us know in the comments section below.
In the final elimination week of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16, the top four queens were given a crash course in an important part of their post-show lives — the art of branding.
On Friday’s episode (aired April 5), the remaining contestants showed off their personalities by creating covers and excerpts from their own faux memoirs, before giving a series of interviews with Las Culturistas’ Matt Rogers about their books.
For Nymphia Wind, the challenge turned into a triumph, with the judges praising the star’s vulnerability in her interview, as well as her stunning look she wore for her book cover — the queen earned her long-awaited third challenge win and a spot in the finale. Meanwhile, after much hair-splitting from the judges, queens Plane Jane and Q found themselves in the bottom after performances that didn’t quite stack up to those of Wind and Sapphira Cristál.
Lip synching to Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me,” the queens used every weapon in their respective arsenals to try and win the last spot in the show’s grand finale. Ultimately, Plane Jane landed without too much turbulence, leaving fashion queen Q on the tarmac.
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Below, Q chats with Billboard about her time on the show, her approach to making some of the best runway looks on the show, speaking about life with HIV on national television, and how she’s taking online hate from the fanbase “one day at a time.”
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You made it all the way to the top four! How does it feel, looking back on your run, knowing you made it as far as you did?
It felt really great — it’s always been a dream to be on the show. Now, you know what happened, and here I am now, and I guess we’ll see what comes from it in the future.
I did want to check in with you — I know the fanbase was pretty rough on you, and you ultimately decide to deactivate your X account a few weeks back. How are you feeling since making that decision?
Honestly? I’m fine. I’m sort of trying to take all of this one day at a time. I have days where it’s not so great, and then other days where it’s truly not bothering me at all. But it definitely has not been nearly as bad since I left X, and deactivated that account. I don’t know, it definitely has … the online part of all of this has definitely shaped a large part of this experience for me.
People really have to learn to stop taking this show so seriously.
Yeah, for sure, I agree. Here’s hoping.
On the show, you got to show off your capability as a seamstress. Your approach to fashion, and more importantly style, feels really refreshing for the show — what do you think makes your skills stand out?
Well first, thank you. I guess, what I see as fashion and style is definitely a lot more theatrical than what somebody else would see as fashion and style. It definitely comes from my background in the theater, and so sometimes, I really try to lean into that, and try to make my costumes that much more grand and costume-y. And that’s where a lot of my taste level comes from, I think.
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Did you have a favorite look you wore down the runway this season?
Oh, man. Yeah, I really, really liked my floral runway. I think that was my absolute favorite I did all season.
This was a very different kind of challenge for this season, where you essentially were tasked not only with branding yourself, but with being really open and vulnerable. How challenging did that feel in the moment?
Honestly, it didn’t feel that challenging — I thought I did good until I hit the stage and got my critiques. But, because there were only four of us left, we literally all thought that we did really great this week before heading to the main stage. When you get there, that’s really the first time that you actually get a gauge on how you did when it’s that late in the competition.
You also had already shared a lot with your sisters already up to this point in the season — how did it feel speaking publicly about living with HIV back in episode 11?
Yeah, it felt really good! I did that because, I figured if I could help one person who felt the way that I felt when I was going through my diagnosis, then it would absolutely be worth it. Having people come up to me now, saying that it helped them, really helped me realize that speaking up about that on the show was really worth it.
What did you think of Plane’s now-viral response in the moment?
It really didn’t seem like as big of a thing in the moment as it has since become, to be honest. At that point, we had heard a lot more surprising things come out of Plane Jane’s mouth, so that felt like nothing!
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Before we let you go, I wanted to ask — is there any music you’ve found yourself listening to lately?
I mean, I am always the one with Artpop on replay all day since it came out. I’m big on “Venus,” personally.
Season 25 of NBC’s The Voice has entered the cutthroat business of the Knockouts.
It’s time for the contestants to get the job done or get out. And decision time for the coaches, who have to make the hardest of cuts, or choose when to steal.
“It gets so hard to make a decision in the Knockouts,” coach John Legend said on Monday night’s episode (April 8). “Everybody’s so good, everybody survived the Battle. Nobody deserves to go home.”
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If it’s tough for the cast, it’s a blast for viewers at home.
On night one of the Knockouts, newbies Dan + Shay learned that they had some tough calls to make. Teammates Anya True (singing “Runaway” by Aurora) and Kyle Schuesler (“Say You Won’t Let Go” by James Arthur) went toe-to-toe, with True getting the win.
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The country artists had to make a decision on Frank Garcia, who sang El Triste” by José José, and Olivia Rubini, who covered “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John.
Rubini took the Rocket Man’s classic song to another level, by singing it in a higher key, a suggestion of mega mentor Keith Urban. With it, she delivered a one-two. “There’s something special about what Olivia did,” Shay Mooney remarked, “she showed us that she was very coachable, that she was ready to go to that next level.” Her voice, added Dan Smyers, “just inherently has a bit of a retro thing to it. She was spot-on with all of her notes.”
Olivia, remarked Smyers, “I feel like that came such a long way from rehearsals.”
Rubini cruises through.
Dan + Shay served as mentors in season 20, and make their coaching debut on the show this season, where they’re joined by returning coaches Reba McEntire, John Legend and Chance the Rapper.
New episodes of The Voice air Mondays on NBC.
Watch below.
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American Idol is down to its top 24, and with his confident performance in Hawaii, Triston Harper did his chances no harm of going deeper in the competition.
The teen took Idol to church on Monday night (April 8), with a performance of Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country”.
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Aged just 15, Harper possesses a beefy voice, with twang, swagger and command that could — should — belong to a seasoned pro.
The McIntosh, AL school student had the Disney Aulani stage hollering, and, at various moments, judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and guest mentor Jelly Roll on their feet and dancing.
Earlier, Billboard spoke with Jelly Roll about the young competitor. “He walked in with the spirit of a 75-year-old man that had been through a lifetime of pain. Just wise beyond his years, with that deep Southern drawl,” he told Billboard’s Fred Bronson. “He has you eating out of the palm of his hand the first two seconds you talk to him, and the coolest part is he has no clue that he’s charming. It’s just naturally kind of who he is and then for him to be so moved by me was really cool.”
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Hawaii week is an Idol tradition that began in 2018, which sees the top 24 perform over two nights at Aulani, a Disney resort and spa in Ko Olina.
Harper performed on the second of those nights.
The youngster melted hearts with his Idol audition, when he performed a cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up,” shared the tough tale of surviving homelessness with his mom, and landed the golden ticket.
The top 20 will be revealed this Sunday, April 14 on ABC, when, as previously reported, Teddy Swims, Lauren Spencer Smith and Paul Russell will take the stage for a special three-hour episode. Voting on the top 20 closes Tuesday at 6 am ET.
Watch Harper’s performance below.
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On a day when America looked up at the heavens, late night TV kept our eyes glued to the screens for an all-heart performance. Late Monday, April 8, Heart, the Rock Hall-inducted band, teamed up with Jimmy Fallon for a performance of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘80s hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” an amusing, hearty tribute to the solar eclipse that captured the attention of millions across North America.
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“We have a special show tonight, Heart is out musical guest and today is, obviously, the solar eclipse. So we thought we have to do what we have to do, we have to sing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’” Fallon says at the top.
The musical performance was captured from the rooftop at 30 Rockefeller Center as the Moon passed between the Earth and the Sun, and briefly blotted out our star. Fallon, flanked by the Wilson sisters, wore the appropriate shades and a throwback public school uniform from Russell Mulcahy’s official music video for “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which originally led the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks back in 1983.
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The late night host teased the spot and shared a behind-the-scenes photo Monday afternoon, ahead of the rare cosmic moment.
At up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, the total eclipse was lengthier than the one that caught the eyes of Americans back in 2017, which maxed out at 2 minutes and 42 seconds.
On this occasion, New Yorkers witnessed a partial solar eclipse peak at 3:25 pm, according to NASA.
Fallon is celebrating his own special moment, the 10-year milestone as host of his very own late night show. To celebrate, NBC will broadcast a two-hour primetime anniversary special on Tuesday, May 14.
Watch below.
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Heart wasn’t done with pumping up the audience. The rockers returned, this time in the NBC studios for a rendition of their 1977 classic “Barracuda.” The north American Royal Flush tour will follow, kicking off April 20 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena Greenville, SC. Watch the “Barracuda” performance below.
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American Idol is down to its top 24, and next week’s episode will feature a star-studded list of performers. Teddy Swims, Lauren Spencer Smith and Paul Russell are all set to take the stage on the three-hour April 14 episode of the singing competition series, where the top 20 will be revealed. Swims is fresh […]
At this point in his career, Keith Urban is a singing competition pro. He was a vocal coach on three seasons of the Australian edition of The Voice, and spent four seasons as a judge on American Idol.
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That’s why he was the perfect selection for a mega mentor on season 25 of NBC’s The Voice, helping the contestants prepare for the Knockout Rounds starting on April 8. “It’s such a family vibe on The Voice,” the “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer tells Billboard, noting that he loved working with coaches Chance the Rapper and John Legend, as well as his fellow country stars Reba McEntire and Dan + Shay.
As a veteran of the singing competition space, he knows that mentorship is personal, opting against “blanket advice” for the contestants. “You have to meet each artist where they’re at. What’s consistent is knowing what advice to take or to discard,” he explains. “I’m sure the coaches would agree that nobody has all the answers. Particularly, if you’re doing something unique, chances are that nobody understands yet. A lot of artists get a lot of ‘You have to change this and change that.’ Sometimes, you don’t have to change anything at all. You have to keep working and make a better version of what already is.”
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Navigating advice from all directions is a “challenge” Urban himself experienced throughout his career, adding that it’s important to be selective with your inner circle. “You can be really stubborn and immovable on certain things but that’s going to keep you stuck. Then, other times, you’d hear someone’s advice and think maybe that’s what you should do and you do it and then you find yourself to be lost and that the advice didn’t work for you,” he says. “For me, the most important thing was having people around me that I trust. Honestly, even family and friends will often have a little bias — positive or negative. You can have some friends that are super jealous or they might have a bias and they’ll give you advice that’s actually not very good. Having people around me that I really, really trust their opinions helped the most in my career.”
As for McEntire and Dan + Shay’s country takeover on The Voice, Urban isn’t surprised. “It’s reflective of the growing popularity of country music as a genre, not just nationally but all around the world,” he says proudly. “It’s extraordinary watching it take off like it’s doing.”
While he’s helping aspiring artists at the beginning of their careers, the four-time Grammy winner is continuing his own illustrious career, as he’s slated to soon release a new album, which will include the songs “Straight Line” and “Messed Up As Me.”
“It’s always fun for me,” he says when asked how he stays passionate about making music after all these years. “I know it sounds crazy, but I get more excited now to write a song than I ever did. Even making the current record was a crazy mix of fear, excitement, discovery, curiosity, passion — just everything. I went through everything with this record, because I’ve never made this record. I’ve never seen this day. We’ve had plenty of fun but we’ve never had this one. And that’s just how I live my life. Every single day is a brand new blank canvas.”
He also stressed the importance of staying in touch with how he felt when he was first beginning his journey in music. “A quick example is when I went into the record company to play my new album the other day for about 50 people,” he recalls. “I wanted to print out the lyrics to every song and while it was a lot of work, I didn’t want to have somebody do it and I wanted to do it myself. So, I stapled all the lyrics together and put together this massive presentation. It felt like putting up my own posters at the beginning of my career. If you lose that feeling, you do start to become jaded and you get bored and your passion just disappears. For me, my passion stays so long as I keep doing the things I did at the beginning and it keeps it exciting.”
Catch Urban during The Voice Knockouts, which begin on Monday (April 8) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, before it streams the following day on Peacock.
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Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion, a new documentary taking viewers behind the scenes of the popular Brandy Melville clothing brand, premieres Tuesday (April 9) on HBO.
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According to a press release from Warner Bros. Discovery, “Candid interviews with former employees and fashion insiders, as well as troubling accounts from former executives, reveal a troubling toxic work environment and discriminatory recruiting methods at the company and shed light on the inner workings of a business that flourished by setting impossible beauty standards on social media and in real life for its customers and employees.”
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Brandy Melville rose to fame during the 2010 Tumblr era and become one of the most popular brands for teens and young girls with nearly 100 stores in over 15 countries and over 80 cities worldwide. With the help of a “calculated social media presence,” the brand promoted an “unattainable aesthetic” using employees and shoppers known as “Brandy Girls,” per the news release.
Former Brandy Melville employees and executives, investigative journalist Kate Taylor, and former Teen Vogue fashion editor Alyssa Hardy are featured in the documentary directed by Eva Orner.
Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion is produced by Jonathan Chinn and Simon Chinn. David Kraemer is line producer, Nick Higgins is director of photography and Claire Didier edited the documentary, which features original music by Cornel Wilczek.
Read on for more ways to watch and stream online without cable.
How to Watch Online
Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion will premiere Tuesday, April 9, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and stream on Max.
If you don’t have cable access, you can stream HBO shows, documentaries and more on Max and other platforms such as DirecTV Stream, Prime Video and Hulu.
Max costs $9.99 per month for ad-supported streaming on two devices, plus content from HBO and other cable networks such as TLC, TBS, TNT, HGTV and OWN.
Join today and save over 40% off when you subscribe to a Max annual plan and prepay upfront. The discount cuts the price to approximately $5.83 per month. This limited offer ends on April 9.
Looking for a free trial to Max? You can land one through third parties such as DirectTV Stream, which offers Max, Paramount+ with Showtime and other channels for free when you subscribe to DirecTV’s Premier plan.
DirecTV subscribers can add Max to other streaming plans for an additional fee. Plans start at just $69.99 per month after a free trial for five days. Click here for more ways to land a free trial to Max.
Some of the shows and documentaries streaming on Max include Quiet on Set, Mean Girl Murders, 90 Day Fiance: Happily, Ever After and HBO originals such as, The Regime, Succession, Euphoria, Barry, Hacks, And Just Like That and The White Lotus. You can also stream movies on Max including Wonka, The Zone of Interest, Mean Girls and Priscilla.
Watch the trailer for Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion below.
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Azealia Banks is playing matchmaker, and she wants to see Tyler, the Creator and Lil Nas X become music’s newest power couple.
Banks posted a lengthy message to Instagram on Sunday (April 7) explaining why she hopes the two talented creatives join forces romantically.
“I really think Tyler the creator and lil nas x should get over their obsession with broke white bussy and become a power couple,” she wrote. “I think the sensationalism of successful black gay men toting trailer a– rent man hookers as arm candy is played , predictable and they’re both obviously being objectified and plotted on by these boys for hire.”
“It would be way more monumental to see [two] young black gay men as an item. Even just for aesthetic reasons,” she added.
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The Harlem native continued to harp on why Tyler and Lil Nas “would shift culture so hard”: “Tyler can teach lil nas x how to rap so he can stop doing his Azealia Banks impression and fire all these weird white creative directors who obviously have no point of references or respect for the nuance, sheer musical opulence and political groundwork laid out for him to inherit.”
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Tyler hopped into Banks’ comment section laughing at the whirlwind of emotions from AB. “lmfao what the hell,” he wrote seemingly caught off-guard; the comment has earned more than 6,000 likes as of press time.
The Grammy-winning rapper has long been coy about his love life, but comedian Jerrod Carmichael recently opened up about how Tyler rejected his advances during an episode of his new reality show Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show.
“I fell in love with my best friend. one out of 10, don’t recommend,” Carmichael said on the program. “I knew I had to tell him. Things started getting kind of weird between us. I had these feelings… So I texted him. I remember saying, ‘I know you didn’t ask for this, but somewhere down the line I developed feelings for you and I don’t know what to do with that.’ Then I immediately turned my phone off and went into therapy. [Tyler] sent me a voice note. I was so nervous. It was like six seconds … He said, ‘Hahahaha, you stupid b–h.’ And I don’t really know what that means.”
Carmichael wanted Tyler to be his date to the Emmy Awards, but the California native declined the invitation. However, they hashed things out publicly during an interview together on the show. “It’s because I told you I had feelings for you, and we didn’t talk about it, ever,” Carmichael explained. “I feel like you left me hanging out there a little bit.”
Tyler replied with a laugh. “I did. Yeah, I did. And I think I just, like, brushed it off,” he said. “Getting news like that and then avoiding it is a way to avoid change.”
The IGOR rapper said he looks at Carmichael — who narrated on Tyler’s 2019 album — as “truly family” and a “brother.”