Music News

14 Dec 2022

Watch Blake Shelton & Kane Brown Team Up for a Duet During ‘The Voice’ Season Finale

Kane Brown and Blake Shelton turned in an intense duet, complete with fire and pyrotechnics, when they performed the live debut of their collaboration “Different Man” on the season finale of NBC’s The Voice on Tuesday evening (Dec. 13).

“Different Man,” which serves as the title track to Brown’s 2022 album, features lyrics all too relatable for anyone pursuing a career in music: “What if I was made for the stage/ What if I was made for the lights/ What if I was chosen to write the stories, wasn’t built to work the line.”

“I was driving to the gym — that’s where I really have time to think and listen,” Brown previously told Billboard of bringing Shelton in on the track. “I wanted one more feature on the album, and Blake was the first person I thought of. The song just reminded me of the ‘God’s Country’ kind of Blake Shelton, so I felt like it made sense.”

Shelton has served as a coach on The Voice since its launch in 2011, and previously brought in Brown as an advisor for Team Blake in 2020. Brown has frequently included a cover of Shelton’s “Ol’ Red” in his concerts. Brown previously said that serving as an advisor on Team Blake was a full-circle moment for him.

“I always wanted to go on The Voice and try out for Blake,” Brown previously told Parade. “I think I said that on the show. I always wanted to go and sing ‘Ol’ Red’ in front of Blake and see if I could get him to turn around. And then, it was just a full circle moment getting to come and be his advisor.”

The season 22 finale of The Voice also featured performances from OneRepublic, Breland, Maluma and Adam Lambert. Meanwhile, Team Blake earned a ninth victory with this season’s win, as country singer and Team Blake member Bryce Leatherwood emerged as the competition’s victor.

Shelton recently announced he will step away from The Voice after next season.

Watch Shelton and Brown’s performance above.

14 Dec 2022

Lady Gaga, Rihanna & Taylor Swift Are 2023 Critics Choice Awards Nominees for Best Song: See the Full List of Nods

All five songs that were nominated for Golden Globes for best original song on Monday were nominated for Critics Choice Awards on Wednesday (Dec. 14). This means that three of the top female music stars on the planet – Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga – are vying for best song at both shows.

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LCD Soundsystem’s “New Body Rhumba” from White Noise, which was passed over for a Globe nod, rounds out the nominees for best song at the Critics Choice Awards.

Four of the five scores that were nominated for Globes for best original score are also nominated here. The difference is that Carter Burwell’s Globe-nominated score for The Banshees of Inisherin was passed over for Critics Choice, with two scores that were not nominated at the Globes earning nods: Michael Giacchino’s The Batman and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Tár.

Hildur has two nominations for Critics Choice best score. She is also nominated for Women Talking.

Alexandre Desplat is also a double nominee. He is nominated for best score for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and also best song for that film’s “Ciao Papa,” which he co-wrote with Roeban Katz and Guillermo del Toro.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is the most nominated film at the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards with 14 nods. At the Globes, it was the year’s second-most nominated film, behind The Banshees of Inisherin.

Everything… is followed at Critics Choice by The Fabelmans with 11 nods; Babylon and The Banshees of Inisherin with nine nods each; and Elvis and Tár with seven each.

“We are so proud to be recognizing this incredible group of films and the people who made them possible,” said Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin. “This recognition comes from a diverse group of more than 600 critics and entertainment reporters who share their opinions about film and television with millions of people every day, all year long.”

There are 11 best picture nominees this year due to a tie. Additionally, the CCA expanded the best director category to include 10 nominees.

The winners will be revealed at the Critics Choice Awards gala hosted by Chelsea Handler, which will broadcast live on The CW from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, from 7 to 10 p.m. ET, delayed PT.

Actor Jeff Bridges will receive the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award. Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment will executive produce this year’s show.

The Critics Choice Association was established in 2019 with the formal merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best picture

  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Babylon
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • The Fabelmans
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • RRR
  • Tár
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Women Talking

Best song

  • Taylor Swift, “Carolina” – Where the Crawdads Sing
  • Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo del Toro, “Ciao Papa” – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Lady Gaga, Bloodpop, “Hold My Hand” – Top Gun: Maverick
  • Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, “Lift Me Up” – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Kala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj, “Naatu Naatu” – RRR
  • LCD Soundsystem, “New Body Rhumba” – White Noise

Best score

  • Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Michael Giacchino – The Batman
  • Hildur Guðnadóttir – Tár
  • Hildur Guðnadóttir – Women Talking
  • Justin Hurwitz – Babylon
  • John Williams – The Fabelmans

Best actor

  • Austin Butler – Elvis
  • Tom Cruise – Top Gun: Maverick
  • Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Brendan Fraser – The Whale
  • Paul Mescal – Aftersun
  • Bill Nighy – Living

Best actress

  • Cate Blanchett – Tár
  • Viola Davis – The Woman King
  • Danielle Deadwyler – Till
  • Margot Robbie – Babylon
  • Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
  • Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best supporting actor

  • Paul Dano – The Fabelmans
  • Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans
  • Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway

Best supporting actress

  • Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Jessie Buckley – Women Talking
  • Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best young actor/actress

  • Frankie Corio – Aftersun
  • Jalyn Hall – Till
  • Gabriel LaBelle – The Fabelmans
  • Bella Ramsey – Catherine Called Birdy
  • Banks Repeta – Armageddon Time
  • Sadie Sink – The Whale

Best acting ensemble

  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • The Fabelmans
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • The Woman King
  • Women Talking

Best director

  • James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Damien Chazelle – Babylon
  • Todd Field – Tár
  • Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
  • Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Sarah Polley – Women Talking
  • Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Woman King
  • S. S. Rajamouli – RRR
  • Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

Best original screenplay

  • Todd Field – Tár
  • Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner – The Fabelmans
  • Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Best adapted screenplay

  • Samuel D. Hunter – The Whale
  • Kazuo Ishiguro – Living
  • Rian Johnson – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Rebecca Lenkiewicz – She Said
  • Sarah Polley – Women Talking

Best cinematography

  • Russell Carpenter – Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Roger Deakins – Empire of Light
  • Florian Hoffmeister – Tár
  • Janusz Kaminski – The Fabelmans
  • Claudio Miranda – Top Gun: Maverick
  • Linus Sandgren – Babylon

Best production design

  • Hannah Beachler, Lisa K. Sessions – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Rick Carter, Karen O’Hara – The Fabelmans
  • Dylan Cole, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole – Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Jason Kisvarday, Kelsi Ephraim – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn – Elvis
  • Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino – Babylon

Best editing

  • Tom Cross – Babylon
  • Eddie Hamilton – Top Gun: Maverick
  • Stephen Rivkin, David Brenner, John Refoua, James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Paul Rogers – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Matt Villa, Jonathan Redmond – Elvis
  • Monika Willi – Tár

Best costume design

  • Ruth E. Carter – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Jenny Eagan – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Shirley Kurata – Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Catherine Martin – Elvis
  • Gersha Phillips – The Woman King
  • Mary Zophres – Babylon

Best hair and makeup

  • Babylon
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • The Whale

Best visual effects

  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • RRR
  • Top Gun: Maverick

Best comedy

  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Bros
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Triangle of Sadness
  • The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Best animated feature

  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
  • Turning Red
  • Wendell & Wild

Best foreign language film

  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Argentina, 1985
  • Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
  • Close
  • Decision to Leave
  • RRR

14 Dec 2022

Official HIGE DANdism Stays at No. 1,  Nogizaka46 Debuts at No. 2 on Japan Hot 100

Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, logging its sixth week atop the chart dated Dec. 14 after returning there last week. 

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“Subtitle” extends its streaming record to eight consecutive weeks at No. 1 (from 18,006,563 to 18,087,047 weekly streams) and five weeks at No. 1 for downloads (from 15,611 to 19,176 units), while rising 3-2 for video (from 2,696,956 to 2,751,338 views), 6-4 for radio airplay and 8-6 for karaoke.

Nogizaka46’s “Koko niwa nai mono” debuts at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100. The girl group’s 31st single is also the last for graduating member Asuka Saito, featured in the center of the choreography. The CD launched with 830,384 copies sold in its first week, up by about 110,000 copies from the group’s previous single, which sold 720,302 copies in its first week. The track was fueled by sales and downloads (No. 4), but came in at No. 8 for radio, No. 87 for streaming, and No. 97 for video — not enough to overturn the difference between “Subtitle,” which scored high in all metrics in a well-balanced way.

The CDs of King & Prince’s former No. 1 single “Tsukiyomi” are still selling well each week, with 81,053 copies moving this week and coming in at No. 2 for sales. The total has now surpassed the 900,000 mark, reaching 919,358 copies. The track also continues to perform well in video, increasing slightly from 3,363,622 to 3,367,885 views, and holds at No. 1 for the metric to log its fourth week at the top. “Tsukiyomi” slips a notch to No. 4 on the Japan Hot 100 this week.

The hit Netflix series First Love starring Hikari Mitsushima and Takeru Sato has propelled Hikaru Utada’s “First Love” to No. 7 on the Japan Hot 100 with 6,801,720 streams (No. 6 for the metric). Meanwhile, 10-FEET’s “Dai Zero Kan,” the ending theme for the animated movie The First Slam Dunk, jumps to No. 2 for downloads with 15,209 units and soars 50-9 on the Japan Hot 100. Both songs will probably maintain their popularity thanks to the drama series and movie they accompany, and are expected to move up the ranks in the coming weeks.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.

For the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Dec. 5 to 11, see here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.

14 Dec 2022

Post Malone’s ‘White Iverson’ Video Hits 1 Billion Views on YouTube

Post Malone has secured one more achievement before the end of the year. The rapper’s video for “White Iverson” has officially entered YouTube’s Billion Views Club, the platform announced on Wednesday (Dec. 14).

The Van Alpert-directed visual sees Malone singing the sultry rap track in the middle of the desert. The other major character in the video is the flashy white Rolls Royce Ghost EWB, which does several doughnuts around the sparse and dusty terrain. At various points, Malone is joined by a friend who rides atop a Mercedes Benz G Class — also in white — throughout the expansive desert.

The video is the fourth in Malone’s catalogue to hit the billion views mark. “Rockstar” entered the billion views club in June 2022; “Sunflower” with Swae Lee (1.9 billion) and “Congratulations” featuring Quavo (1.4 billion) were the other videos to previously enter YouTube’s billion views club.

“White Iverson” — the debut and lead single from Malone’s first studio album, Stoney — served as his 2015 breakout hit. The song spent 30 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, where it made its debut in September of 2015, and peaked at No. 14 on the all genre chart in January 2016. The tune enjoyed further success on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at No. 5 and and spending a total of 26 weeks on the tally. The track was originally released through Malone’s SoundCloud, also in 2015.

Revisit Malone’s “White Iverson” video above.

14 Dec 2022

Glass Animals, Harry Styles & Taylor Swift: Billboard Hot 100 Records That Were Broken in 2022

Every year brings its share of historic Billboard Hot 100 achievements, but 2022 was particularly special.

From Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” breaking the record for the most weeks spent on the chart to Harry Styles’ “As It Was” scoring the longest stay ever in the survey’s top two (and three!) to Taylor Swift locking up the entire top 10 in a single week, there was no shortage of unprecedented feats between January and December.

With firsts still being established 64 years into the Hot 100’s history, let’s look back at key records broken on the chart in 2022, in chronological order.

(Note: We excluded records that artists extended this year, instead focusing only on those that were broken.)

14 Dec 2022

The 50 Best Dance Songs of 2022: Critics’ Picks

It’s perhaps hard for all of us entrenched in the dance universe to bear in mind what a small world it ultimately is, statistically speaking. In the United States, dance and electronic music made up just 3.3% of total recorded music volume in 2021, which means that all of our efforts — all of our emails, all of our late nights and all of our sweat expelled on the dancefloor — are contributing to a scene that’s perhaps easy for other sectors to write off as humble, hard to see, “not the commercial juggernaut it once was.”

But inside it doesn’t feel that way, does it? Inside, it seems that new genres are developing, new markets are opening and new stars are breaking through while veterans are finding success in reinvention. Meanwhile, dance clubs and festivals are doing “amazingly well,” after an existentially fraught two years from which other realms of live events are still struggling to return. And when two of the biggest musical icons in pop history looked for reinvention this year, they came to clubland.

Indeed, while the commercial viability of dance music isn’t making waves like it did during the EDM heyday, the scene has in ways never felt healthier. The genre made an imprint in most realms of recorded music in 2022 — via fusion with sounds from pop to hip-hop to Latin, with creativity and quality at a high and with the sorely-needed diversification of the scene finally starting to happen — though with much work still to be done here and in relation to how we better protect the people and places in the scene that are its founders and foundation.

Driving it all, of course, was the music. It’s cliché at this point to say that dance/electronic is really just a blanket term for dozens and dozens of other genres — many of them wildly different and fairly laughable to compare — but that fact remains true, with this dizzying sonic taxonomy synthesizing a world that feels not just massive, but culturally significant and ultimately unstoppable.

These are our 50 favorite dance tracks of 2022.

14 Dec 2022

Slipknot, Tool & Avenged Sevenfold Lead Welcome to Rockville 2023 Lineup

Welcome to Rockville announced the lineup for its 2023 festival on Wednesday (Dec. 14), including Slipknot, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold and Pantera.

Next year’s iteration of the hard rock festival will take place May 18 to May 21 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Slipknot will headline the first day of the event with Rob Zombie, Queens of the Stone Age, Puscifer, Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides and more are also on the roster.

Joining Avenged Sevenfold on day two will be Evanescence, Hardy, I Prevail, Motionless In White, Asking Alexandria and Sleeping with Sirens while Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Chevelle, Alter Bridge, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening, Knocked Loose and others will hit the stage on day three ahead of Pantera’s headlining set.

Finally, Tool will round out the headliners on day four with Deftones, Incubus, The Mars Volta and Coheed & Cambria also on the slate.

“We are so excited to be bringing this fantastic lineup to Welcome to Rockville,” said festival producer Danny Wimmer in a statement. “Our fans have been wanting Pantera and along with one of Avenged Sevenfold’s first live shows in five years, crowd favorite Slipknot, AND one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Tool, we are delivering a jam-packed weekend to the ‘The World Center of Rock.’ Can’t wait to see everyone in May!”

Both weekend passes and single-day tickets to Welcome to Rockville are now on sale to the general public via the festival’s official website. Layaway options are also available for attendees through the end of the year.

Check out Welcome to Rockville’s 2023 lineup announcement below.

14 Dec 2022

Ellen DeGeneres Is ‘Heartbroken’ Over tWitch’s Death: ‘I Loved Him With All My Heart’

Following the tragic news that Stephen “tWitch” Boss died at age 40, Ellen DeGeneres took to social media to mourn the loss of her longtime friend and coworker.

“I’m heartbroken,” the host tweeted on Wednesday (Dec. 14) alongside a photo of her hugging the dancer and DJ. “tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children – Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”

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After joining DeGeneres’ popular daytime talk show as the guest DJ in 2014, he soon became a permanent part of the crew and was promoted to co-executive producer in 2020 until the show wrapped in May 2022. The beloved dancer first rose to fame on MTV’s The Wade Robson Project in 2003 before earning the runner-up spot on So You Think You Can Dance in 2008.

The news of his untimely death was revealed by his wife of nine years, fellow dancer Allison Holker Boss. In a statement sent to People, Holker Boss said, “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to share my husband Stephen has left us. Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him. He was the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans.”

tWitch’s cause of death is still unconfirmed at press time.

14 Dec 2022

Will Smith Talks ‘Dehumanizing’ Experience of Being Called The N-Word ‘A Hundred Times A Day’ on ‘Emancipation’ Set

Will Smith took over Red Table Talk Wednesday (Dec. 14) to talk about his new Apple TV+ film Emancipation, and things got pretty heavy when he opened up about the almost traumatic effects of portraying Peter, a character based on a real life man who escaped slavery in the 1860s and later posed for a now infamous photo of the whip scars on his back.

“I was getting called the N word a hundred times a day by very good actors,” he said on the latest episode of RTT, also hosted by his three children, Trey, Jaden and Willow. “It’s rough, it twists your mind up.”

The King Richard star went on to recall a moment onset that helped him fully transform into Peter: When he was trying on neck chains, used by slaveowners to control enslaved people’s movements, and a crew member suddenly discovered that he was unable to get the chains off of Smith.

“He goes to take it off, and it doesn’t work,” Smith said. “It’s locked on and my heart jumps. He’s running around looking for the keys, and for 15 minutes I’m stuck there in the chains. I’m like ‘Will, do not freak.’”

“I’m sitting there and I got it,” he continued. “I’m Will Smith with people running around looking for keys, and my heart is still pounding and I’m still scared. Imagine what it was like for Peter to have that stuff on, barefoot, and nobody cares. It was like, yeah, I got it. I haven’t been able to articulate why, but I felt embarrassed. It was emasculating, dehumanizing, all of that.”

Smith also confessed to his children that he almost went too far during his mental preparations to play Peter, nearly losing himself in the process. This is because the brain stores memories of his time acting as a character as if they were real memories, meaning they still have a real-life effect on Smith even though filming for the movie is long over, he said.

“I wouldn’t say I went too far with Peter, I’d just say I lost track of how far I went,” he said, explaining that he has nightmares from his time on the Emancipation set. “When you go that one click too far, Will Smith disappears. Psychologically, you go farther and farther into Peter and you don’t realize that you are slipping away.”

Emancipation was released on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9.

14 Dec 2022

Kelly Clarkson Gives Hawaiian Vacations to Her Entire Studio Audience: ‘This Is What Oprah Felt Like!’

Aloha! Kelly Clarkson got into the holiday spirit on the Wednesday (Dec. 14) of her Kelly Clarkson Show by giving everyone in the studio audience an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.

With some help from Grumpy Elf, the talk-show host has been running viewers through her Holiday Gift Guide all week long, and the episode’s presents were all themed around the outdoors — from portable gas grills, cozy loungewear and backyard fire pits — all of which she also gifted the audience.

Then Clarkson finally introduced the Hawaiian vacation package courtesy of Outrigger Resorts and Hotels, though she couldn’t help toying with the audience in the process. She warned, “Now slow your roll, everybody, ’cause this ain’t Oprah’s Favorite Things, OK?

“So, everybody, you got excited about the last ones,” she continued, “but, umm … this is The Kelly Clarkson Show gift guide, so you’re all getting a Hawaiian vacation!”

As the ecstatic audience broke out into shrieks and cheers, Grumpy Elf revealed a giant card confirming they’d get three nights and four days for two at any of Outrigger’s many Hawaiian getaways. “I feel like this is what Oprah felt like — I like this feeling!” Clarkson quipped before shouting, “Mele Kalikimaka!”

During the episode, the three-time Grammy winner also performed her 2021 holiday track “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You)” for the day’s Kellyoke number, and interviewed both Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink.

Earlier this week, the eight-time coach on The Voice stopped by the NBC singing competition’s season 22 finale to sing a solo rendition of her Ariana Grande duet “Santa Can’t You Hear Me.”

Watch Clarkson give away vacations to Hawaii above, and perform her Kellyoke below.