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Alice Tan Ridley, who competed on America’s Got Talent in 2010 after decades of performing in New York City subway stations, died on March 25 at age 72, according to an obituary from her family. Ridley — who was also the mother of Precious and American Horror Story actress Gabourey Sidibe — pursued her dreams […]
So far this season on The Masked Singer, viewers have seen the fuzzy heads come off of Honey Pot (Cedric the Entertainer), Fuzzy Peas (Oscar De La Hoya), Ant (Aubrey O’Day), Bat (Scheana Shay), Space Ranger (Flavor Flav), Griffin (James Van Der Beek), Cherry Blossom (Candace Cameron Bure) and Stud Muffin (Method Man).
Through it all, the show’s judges have consistently given one contestant major props: Yorkie. She first came out, tail swinging, on her spirited cover of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” during week 7, getting the audience in on the shout-along chorus and then having all the right moves on a cover of New Kids on the Block’s “Step By Step” on Boy Band Night.
Yorkie proved it again on Wednesday night’s (April 9) group C finals Decades Night, when she joined Nessie and Mad Scientist Monster to bop through iconic tunes from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. She jammed out in the episode’s kick-off bop through The Knack’s iconic “My Sharona” as the night’s stars tried to secure the last two spots in the Lucky Six lineup.
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The sparkly pink pup was up first, noting that she chose the ‘60s because the decade reminded her of her “ultimate protector”: her mom. She sounded confident on The Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love,” nailing the song with her alluringly husky voice while adding just the right amount of tail-wagging sass.
In a Battle Royale showdown for the last spot in the Lucky Six, Yorkie took on Mad Scientist Monster during a run through Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” with the towering Nessy knocking it out of the park to secure the elusive final spot.
Ken Jeong had high praise for the dogged performer, saying she proved herself to be the “funniest, most charismatic” contestant so far this season, just before she was sent to the doghouse. After a clue noted that she’s on a huge TV show and has had some legal problems, Robin Thicke guessed Full House star and college admission scandal conspirator Lori Laughlin. After guessing Real Housewives of New Jersey star Theresa Giudice last week, always-wrong Ken Jeong pivoted to another Real Housewives star, Beverly Hills’ Kyle Richards.
He was, as usual, wrong, while self-appointed Bravo superfan Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg knew she had it in the bag, doubling down on her previous guess of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne.
The reality icon who has landed nine No. 1 songs on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart spoke to Billboard before her elimination about why Yorkie was the perfect choice for her, how much less stressful the show was than Housewives and why, like Roan, she’s definitely hot to go.
The pink sparkly Yorkie costume seemed like a slam dunk for you. Were there even any other options?
You touched on it immediately. I saw the sketch for Yorkie and I was just, “That’s it! I know this character, it’s perfect for me. I’m in love with this little character.” And that’s why every time I performed, I lived her personality to the fullest. Listen: If you can’t have fun in a pink miniskirt and crop top with sunglasses and pink-tipped ears and pink Ugg boots, there’s something wrong with you. This was just made to have a good time.
You said you chose the Supremes song tonight because it reminded you of your mom. Was that an emotional song for you to sing?
Any time you bring something up about family or you dedicate something, your emotions are in it and yes, of course. I talk about protecting my heart. We’re all emotional beings and, listen, the Yorkie is too! Little Yorkie has feelings too.
You also seemed to really get into you Chappell Roan cover. What appealed to you about that song?
It’s a great little fun song to perform. It has tons of personality. It fit just beautifully and you can get out there and really have a good time. And I’m hot to go, so there you go!
Were you psyched when Jenny channeled Donny Wahlberg to praise your “Step by Step” cover? That’s the ultimate thumbs-up!
I love that compliment. I never get to sing a boy band song, so this was a really nice step out of the norm and I really had a good time with it.
You’ve had nine No. 1s on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, with songs like “Roller Coaster,” “Stars,” “Give You Everything” and, of course, “How Many F—s,” so why not pick a more upbeat dance song to perform?
The themes are set so it would be Boy Band night or Classics night, so I really had to work in the theme of the night, so I picked the material I thought I could do the best with.
Given you chart success, were you bummed that you didn’t make it longer on the show?
No, those things are beyond my control. I just went out there every night and performed to the best of my ability and had a great time doing the show.
So much of Real Housewives each season is about where your relationships stand with the other women, but on The Masked Singer, you’re completely isolated from the rest of the cast. Were there any similarities between this reality competition and your typical experience on reality TV?
No. [Laughs] Let me say this in the best way possible: Housewives can be very uncomfortable at times. Masked Singer was a dream. Few things are more stressful than Real Housewives.
Your son Tommy is a cop. Did he use his detective skills to suss out what you were up to?
My son is a sergeant with the LAPD. And no, absolutely not.
Did any of your Real Housewives castmates directly ask if it was you or recognize your voice?
My voice is quite recognizable, so my DMs are flooded with “I know that’s you, I know that’s you!”
You’ve had so much chart success, but was Masked Singer a way to continue that but with less pressure since nobody knew it was you?
Absolutely. 100%. The Masked Singer was a wonderful way to hide behind a mask and just get out there and perform and really inhabit the character and entertain and I enjoyed every moment of it.
You’re in your 10th year on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Is there any world where you thought you’d be on the show for a decade when you signed on? And what do you see for your future on the show, given the rumors that you might not be coming back?
Another decade? Is that what you said? Oh my God, certainly not a decade. I’ve had the great pleasure of being on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for almost a decade. I don’t know what’s happening the next year or beyond… certainly not another decade.
Tell me about how you’re prepping for your upcoming performance at Mighty Hoopla in the U.K. on June 1.
I’m super excited about the Mighty Hoopla and then Koko [in London] on June 3. I’m super excited to take the show over. I haven’t been to the U.K. in a very long time.
The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” has hit another milestone, as the music video for the viral hit reached one billion YouTube views. The milestone marks the Australian singer-rapper’s first entry to the Billion Views Club and the Canadian superstar’s 12th as a lead, featured artist or collaborator. In the clip, which was released […]
With Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival just around the corner, things are heating up in Indio, Calif. Lady Gaga, Green Day, Travis Scott and Post Malone are headlining the main Coachella stage at the festival taking place over the next two weekends, April 11-13 and April 18-20. Missy Elliott, Benson Boone, LISA, GloRilla, Tyla, Artemas […]
When Poolside stepped onto the Ocean Stage at San Diego’s waterfront CRSSD festival on March 2, it was unlike any show the longstanding SoCal outfit had ever played. The performance marked Poolside’s first since frontman and co-founder Jeffrey Paradise lost his Altadena home and all of his possessions in the Los Angeles wildfires two months […]
Alma Joselin Holguín, a 48-year-old lawyer from the Dominican Republic, went to the Jet Set nightclub on Monday (April 7) with her husband to watch Rubby Pérez in concert. She details the venue’s ambiance inside and the exact moment its roof collapsed. Both Holguín and her husband survived the tragedy. Here’s her story, in her own words, exclusively on Billboard.
It was a very joyful night. Rubby Pérez gave his 100%; I had never seen him perform before, and I wanted to see him because he has several songs that remind me of my teenage years. It was my second time, after almost 30 years of not going to Jet Set, and my husband’s first. The club started filling up around 10:40 p.m., and at one point there were up to 700 people. The truth is, that night Rubby had the crowd happy, dancing, singing. Everyone was enjoying the moment, taking selfies. The crowd was very happy.
I didn’t see anything unusual from where we were sitting. We were opposite of the stage, near a bar by the entrance and about 35 meters from an emergency exit. In fact, they offered us a VIP table near the stage, and we declined to avoid the large groups of people. We were just enjoying the concert from where we were. We didn’t feel the need to go near the stage or onto the dance floor because it was too crowded.
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The orchestra started playing around 11:38 that night, and after an hour, it was all over. Around 12:40 a.m., I was one of the first people to call 911. I got through right away, and I said, “The roof of the Jet Set just fell. It’s crushing everyone. Send all the ambulances you can!”
All in all, we weren’t hysterical at the time.
Jet Set Club survivor, Alba Holguín and her husband, at the Rubby Pérez concert moments before roof collapse.
Alba Holguín
I remember there was a deathly silence, like a void in the air. The ceiling collapsed with a single blow, the entire roof fell with the irons, with the lights, it collapsed with everything! It landed at the same level as where we were sitting. It fell almost at our feet. I remember the dust rising, I remember that silence, and then the people screaming. The only thing I thought at that moment was, “My God, the ceiling fell on people!”
We had to unblock the emergency exit because they had chairs and tables blocking it—when they moved all that, a group of about 30 people managed to get out with us. I had no feelings at that moment; it was a mechanical thing: protect ourselves, sort things out, and leave.
Today I feel tired and burdened because I slept very poorly. Emotionally, I feel a certain gratitude, a certain peace for being alive. Sadness for everything that’s happening. I’ve tried not to watch too much news so as not to expose myself further emotionally. Yesterday and today I went to work, trying to make more sense of the fact that my husband and I were blessed with a protection that we believe is divine, and we came out without a scratch, without anything.
We’re trying to carry on with life as normally as possible because at the end of the day, it’s like feeling like I have a mission in life. I was blessed with the opportunity to bear witness. I survived a tragedy, and it was because of God’s love, a divine protection.
Keri Hilson has expressed regret over dissing Beyoncé on 2009’s “Turnin Me On (Remix).” The R&B singer stopped by The Breakfast Club on Wednesday (April 9) when she clarified what exactly went down with the remix to her top 15 hit and reflected on how the detrimental situation impacted her career.
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“It’s a regret,” she said matter-of-factly. “But not in the way people think. That’s a song I actually didn’t write. Those are not my words.”
When Hilson flew in for the studio session with producer Polow Da Don, whom she was signed to in a joint venture with Timbaland through Interscope Records at the time, he already had her impending verse penned by another writer (Ester Dean).
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“Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best/ You can dance, she can sing/ But she need to move it to the left, left,” Hilson sings on the 2009 remix while referencing Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.”
“Automatically, I was like, ‘I’m not saying that,’” she said when she first heard the Bey-dissing verse. “That was my position. I’m an athlete. I am competitive. But I’m not nasty, I’m a finesse player. I don’t look at things like that.”
Hilson claims that Polow Da Don threatened to sabotage her career as her In A Perfect World.. debut album was yet to be released.
“I tried to fight him on it and I began writing my own,” she added. “But he — I want to be careful with the word I use — it was quite forceful… The mistake that I made was not continuing to fight. But I was in tears, I was crying, I was adamant that I did not want to do that.”
The “Knock You Down” singer continued: “My album wasn’t out yet, I was told it’s not coming out if you don’t do this. I was super young. I felt I had no choice. I’m still protecting everyone involved. I’ve been eating that for years.”
“Turnin Me On” featuring Lil Wayne reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 as her debut album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
Ester Dean came forward and issued an apology on Wednesday (April 9) for penning Hilson’s verse on the “Turnin Me On” remix, which she called “childish.” She wrote: “I see how it hurt people, especially women, and I take full accountability.”
In 2021, Hilson had a weight lifted off her shoulders when the singer revealed that she had a positive conversation with Beyoncé surrounding the track and finally cleared the air.
“I feel like she understood what happened, what had transpired and there was a bit of healing in that moment when we met,” Hilson said to host Persia Nicole. “I take her as a very intuitive kind of soul, as am I. She’s amazing. I’ve always felt that way, that’s the truth of the matter, but no one will believe that.”
Hilson is entering a new era and coming off the release of her “Bae” single. Look for her We Need to Talk album to arrive on April 18.
Watch the Keri Hilson interview below. Talk of the Bey diss begins around the 25-minute mark.
What is Frank Ocean up to? The multi-hyphenate man of mystery recently sent fans into a tizzy with what the kids are calling his supposed finsta account (@kikiboyyyyyyy), which features a profile picture of Michael Jordan holding up three fingers that can be interpreted as Ocean hinting at his third album (and before you react, […]
Weezer bassist Scott Shriner’s wife Jillian Shriner, a.k.a. Jillian Lauren, was involved in a police shoot-out after an unrelated Los Angeles car chase, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Wednesday (April 9). A preliminary LAPD statement indicated that around 3:25 p.m. PT Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol requested backup for a hit-and-run incident, in which three […]
Over the course of his first three albums, Morgan Wallen has notched Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits and crafted projects with sprawling, 30-song-plus track lists. He’s notched hit collabs with Eric Church (“Man Made a Bar”), Post Malone (“I Had Some Help,” from Post’s F-1 Trillion album) and Ernest (“Cowgirls”). But he has yet to release a collaboration with a female artist.
That seems likely to change on his upcoming album, I’m the Problem, out May 16.
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On X, Wallen responded to a comment from Patrick R Thomes, who wrote, “@MorganWallen, please, please, PLEASE confirm ‘What I Want’ is a duet. You haven’t yet sang with any female artists on any of your first three albums, so PLEASE tell me this is the case.”
Wallen responded simply, “Indeed sir,” seeming to confirm there will be a collaboration with a woman artist on the project, though Wallen offered no other details. Fans swarmed the comments section, speculating on the possibility of a range of artists, including Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley and Megan Moroney. Another name mentioned was Miranda Lambert, with whom Wallen co-wrote the One Thing at a Time standout “Thought You Should Know.” The pair performed the song together as a duet for the first (and so far only) time at Wallen’s Knoxville, Tennessee, concert in September.
During a previous story with Billboard in 2023, Wallen said that though he hadn’t released a coed duet yet, he had made attempts at such a collaboration, saying, “I’ve reached out to a couple of people, and they’ve turned me down. … I just really want certain people, and I haven’t gotten the chance to do it yet. I’m going to keep trying to write songs for it or write with them.”
He also added at the time that he “would love” to write with more women artists and songwriters, but noted that he most often revisited his “little squad” of frequent co-writers “because I’ve just been slammed, and when I’m not on the road, I’m spending time with my son or hunting. I haven’t really wanted to branch out much just because I needed to keep myself sane.”
Indeed, the writers on some of the songs he’s already released from the upcoming album — “Love Somebody” and “Lies Lies Lies” — are many of his longtime collaborators, including HARDY, Hunter Phelps, ERNEST, Ashley Gorley and Ryan Vojtesak.
