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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.
Ariana Grande Sashays Her Way Back to the Judges’ Panel of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15
No, you’re not “Imagine“-ing things — Ariana Grande is returning to one of her favorite “Positions” as a guest judge on a popular reality TV show.
On Wednesday (Dec. 14), MTV announced that Grande would return to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race to serve as the inaugural guest judge for season 15. In a short clip posted across the Drag Race social media accounts, Grande struts down the runway sporting a pearl-covered cone bra and a long pencil skirt. Blowing a kiss to the camera, she says in a voiceover, “Season 15 is here, and so am I.”
This won’t be Grande’s first time judging on Drag Race. Back in season seven of the show, the pop superstar appeared as a guest judge for the now-infamous “Death Becomes Her” runway, where she watched queens Jaidynn Dior Fierce and Kandy Ho lip sync to her iconic Zedd collaboration “Break Free.”
The news of Grande’s upcoming appearance on the show comes just one day after the show’s 15th season was officially announced, alongside a cast of 16 queens competing for the coveted title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, as well as a doubled cash prize of $200,000. Along with bringing in more queens in one season than ever before, season 15 will also mark RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s first season on MTV, after the show spent its last six seasons on VH1.
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 premieres on MTV Friday, Jan. 6, at 8 p.m. ET. Check out the official teaser for Ariana Grande’s guest judge appearance above.
The 26 Best Winter Songs for the Season
The days are shorter, the nights are colder and the trees are bare. Inside, fireplaces are crackling to shield loved ones from the chilly air. When winter makes its way back around, sunny days can sometimes feel like distant, made-up memories.
While the gloom can lead to long hours inside as you avoid muddy snow and frostbitten fingers, those languid evenings can transform into quite the cozy affair, given the right soundtrack. That’s why Billboard has put together a list of 26 essential tracks for your wintertime listening pleasure.
We know December marks the beginning of celebrations for “the most wonderful time of the year.” But a good winter playlist goes beyond Christmas trees and jingling bells. The mix should be one you’d listen to all season long — weeks and months after unwrapping your final gift. So no, you won’t find Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” nor any of your holiday favorites below (for that, you can check out Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 list based on our charts).
Keep reading to discover tunes consistent with the mood shift that — for many of us — rolls in with the cold front. The increased time spent with our own thoughts brings on a brooding self-reflection that can feel as comforting as it can feel overwhelming. Artists from Taylor Swift to Bob Dylan to The Weeknd have captured that feeling, crafting riveting wintery melodies ideal for introspection, whether you’re curled up with your favorite blanket or venturing out into the snow.
Blake Shelton Explains Why Gwen Stefani Was ‘Literally Sobbing’ During ‘The Voice’ Finale
That’s a wrap! Season 22 of The Voice concluded on Tuesday night (Dec. 13) and saw contestant Bryce Leatherwood Tuesday night’s (Dec. 13) finale marked Stefani’s last appearance on the show. and add yet another victory notch to Blake Shelton‘s belt. But when the cameras stopped rolling, fellow coach Gwen Stefani — who is married to the country star — was inconsolable, and not because she lost.
“I walked over to Gwen’s chair after the cameras went off and she’s over there literally sobbing,” the country singer told Entertainment Tonight of the No Doubt singer, who has coached on and off since season seven. “She was like, ‘This is our last time that we’re going to do this together.’”
Shelton added, “It will be the last time she and I do this together, and it is crazy to think of how the show changed my life.” The couple met on the show in 2014 during season seven. “I was so wrapped up in this that I didn’t even think about that.”
Earlier in the month, the “Hollaback Girl” singer spoke with ET about how bittersweet it has been working with Shelton on season 22 of The Voice has been, as the upcoming season 23 will be the country star’s last as a coach. “It’s just been a really amazing season, too short,” the 53-year-old said on Dec. 6 just before the show’s semifinals, getting teary-eyed. “It’s mine and Blake’s last season … I can’t even get the words out of my mouth ’cause it sucks.”
Following the show wrapping on Tuesday night, Stefani took to Twitter to celebrate the end of season 22. “Aaand that’s a wrap!!! forever thankful to @NBCTheVoice, this show has changed my life in more ways than i can count. szn 22 forever !!!! ❤️ gx #TheVoice,” she wrote, later adding “tonight is so bittersweet” in a massage to a fan.
See Stefani’s tweets below.
Trending Up: ‘White Lotus’ Theme Gets Finale Bump, Mac DeMarco Fans Lose ‘Heart’ Over His Rumored Retirement & More
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Viewer fascination with HBO’s White Lotus spills over onto streaming, one TikTok user’s cosign changes a band’s commercial fortunes and Mac DeMarco fans get emotional over his (extremely unconfirmed) retirement.
Listeners Not Ready to Leave White Lotus Theme
One of the year’s most buzzed-about television seasons wrapped on Sunday (Dec. 11), as the much-anticipated finale of season two of HBO’s intriguing destination drama The White Lotus aired. Though none of the show’s many syncs — largely consisting of older Italian pop songs appropriate to its Sicily location — found viral success over the course of the season, the show has shown steady gains for its fan-favorite theme song, an elegant, lush and unexpectedly pulsing work from Chilean-born Canadian film and television composer Cristobal Tapia De Veer.
In the four weeks leading up to the chart week ending Dec. 8, weekly official on-demand U.S. streams of the striking theme (officially titled “Renaissance (Main Title Theme)”) rose from 82,000 to 283,000, according to Luminate — a 244% hike. After Dec. 11, viewers rushed to play the song like Lucia played Albie in the finale, with the song seeing a daily jump of 83% (from 53,000 to 97,000) on Monday. And though the White Lotus season is now over, interest in the theme may not be; it just received a new house remix from producer Enamour.
“Musta Been” a TikTok Endorsement Causing Próxima Prada to Go Viral
For all the random reasons a song can explode on TikTok, it seems pretty rare that it happens as a virtue of one user telling their followers, “Hey, listen to this song.” But that’s basically what happened with San Luis Obispo, Calif. band Próxima Prada and their unexpectedly viral song “Musta Been a Ghost,” which user Matt Firestone featured a short clip of in a video titled “Songs You Never Would Have Found Because Life Gets Really Busy Sometimes Part 2.” The video, posted on Dec. 9, ended up being over nine million times — leading to “Ghost” spiking from under 3,000 daily on-demand official U.S. streams to over 178,000 on Dec. 12, according to Luminate, a whopping 5,884% gain.
“I love how @fuego.stine (a guy we had never met or spoken to) made this short, simple video about our song and it went viral,” the band wrote on their Instagram page of the feel-good surge. “Real people sharing our music with other real people is how we’ve been able to slowly but surely grow. SO THANK YOU!”
Fans Have a “Heart to Heart” Over Mac DeMarco Retiring (Or Not)
Mac DeMarco has always performed well on streaming, but recently the indie singer-songwriter-guitarist’s 2019 track “Heart to Heart” (from Here Comes the Cowboy) has proved particularly explosive — doubling its weekly official on-demand U.S. streams over the last two weeks to 939,000, according to Luminate, and even making its way onto Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart for Dec. 12 and 13. Look for the song on TikTok, and you’ll find thousands of videos of emotional conversations being set to the song, many with captions (or users in the comments) bemoaning rumors of DeMarco’s retirement from music, whispers of which have swept through social media the past few weeks.
Is there any truth to them? Probably not — at least not officially, as DeMarco hasn’t announced anything besides some postponed tour dates while he works on his upcoming album, and there’s little sourcing on the internet for news of his supposed music-industry departure beyond anonymous quotes. But the whisper-down-the-lane effect of social media appears to have helped him score another viral hit, which should make for a nice early retirement gift if and when he does decide to hang up his six-string.
Kate Hudson Opens Up About ‘Taking Accountability’ After Matt Bellamy Breakup
Kate Hudson has learned a lot about herself thanks to her relationships with others. That especially goes for her difficult breakup from Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, which the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery actress opened up about in a recent appearance on Josh Smith’s Reign podcast.
Things got deep when Smith asked Hudson about the ways she is similar to an onion, a funny reference to the title of her newest film, which arrives on Netflix Dec. 23 following a one-week theatrical release in November. “I’m still peeling back those layers,” she laughed.
“I think we all are,” continued the actress, who landed a spot on Billboard‘s Digital Song Sales chart in September 2012 when her feature on the Glee cast’s song “Americano/Dance Again” peaked at No. 61. “We all have to figure out what’s at the core of our own little onion. I think that’s when things started changing for me — when I started taking far more accountability for my own s–t.”
When Smith pressed the Almost Famous star for a life moment that prompted her to start taking accountability — something she said is “liberating” — Hudson brought up her split from Bellamy, with whom she shares 11-year-old son Bing.
“After my second failed baby-daddy relationship,” she said. “That moment for me was like, ‘Now I have to figure this out.’”
Hudson welcomed her first child, now 18-year-old son Ryder, in 2004 with The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, to whom she was married from 2000 to 2007. She was engaged to Bellamy from 2011 to 2014.
“That was really hard for me because I didn’t want that to end,” she said of her relationship with the Muse singer. “I need to figure out what this is in my life, this pattern I keep repeating, and take accountability for it. I think the issue is when people blame everybody else for any challenges or hardships. I don’t want to be friends with that person.”
The Bride Wars star is now engaged to Danny Fujikawa, and the two share 4-year-old daughter Rani.
The Exploited Cancel Remaining 2022 Dates After Singer Wattie Buchan Collapses on Stage
Veteran Scottish punk band The Exploited have canceled their remaining 2022 tour dates following an onstage health incident that affected singer Wattie Buchan during a show in Bogota, Colombia on Saturday. “Yesterday, December 10th, 2022 during the end of the set Wattie collapsed on stage in Bogota, COL and was rushed into hospital by ambulance,” the band wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“Thankfully Wattie is feeling better now and is resting in a hotel in Bogota… Due to doctor’s orders all remaining shows for 2022 have been cancelled, including tonight’s performance in Cali, COL,” the band continued, noting that they were preparing to return home to the UK while also offering an apology to fans and promoters for the sudden cancellation; the group’s planned show on Friday (Dec. 16) in London has also been scotched.
“We are sorry about this but Wattie is exhausted and told to cancel all upcoming gigs for this year,” they added alongside a video from the Bogota show in which Buchan, 65 — rocking his signature towering liberty spike hairstyle — is seen doubling over with his hands on his knees before collapsing to the stage and being attended to by stagehands. An Instagram post featured pictures of Buchan in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen tube in his nose.
Back in Feb. 2014, Buchan collapsed on stage during a show in Lisbon, Portugal after suffering a heart attack and was hospitalized in Belgium in 2017 after suffering a heart issue while on tour. A band spokesperson reportedly told Scottish broadcaster STV that, “Wattie had another suspected heart attack. He tried playing on but had to actually stop a couple of songs until he eventually collapsed. He got taken away to hospital in an ambulance but over 900 people refused to leave the venue until he heard he was alright. The Exploited are held as idols over here, and Wattie is seen as the king of punk. He has kept the punk movement alive when everyone in the press said it was dead. He is actually a living legend.”
Back in March 2020, the hard-touring band steadfastly refused to cancel their planned 40th anniversary tour in the midst of the then-exploding COVID-19 pandemic. “F–k coronavirus! I have had five heart attacks, a quad heart bypass and a heart pacemaker fitted,” Buchan told tour promoter DRW Entertainment, who shared the rocker’s thoughts in a Facebook post at the time. “Cancel gigs for a virus? We ain’t f–king Green Day — we are the real deal. No danger will we be canceling our upcoming gigs. Punk’s not dead!”
The beloved punks formed in Edinburgh in 1979 and released their full-length debut, Punks Not Dead, in 1981; Buchan is the sole remaining original member.
See the band’s post below.
Puerto Rican Salsa Singer Lalo Rodriguez Dead at 64
Salsa singer Lalo Rodríguez, known for the 1998 hit “Ven devórame otra vez,” has died. He was 64 years old.
Rodríguez was found dead on Tuesday (Dec. 13) at a public housing project in his native Puerto Rico, police said, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities stated that there were no visible signs of violence, and that an autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death. The singer had struggled for years with drug and alcohol problems and had been charged with cocaine possession, the AP reported.
Born on May 16, 1958, in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the artist — whose legal name was Ubaldo Rodríguez Santos — began singing as a child at festivals and radio and television shows in Puerto Rico. At age 15, in the ’70s, he joined Eddie Palmieri’s band. He recorded Palmieri’s Grammy-winning albums Sun of Latin Music and Unfinished Masterpiece as lead vocalist before launching his solo career in 1980.
“It is with deep sadness that I learn of the death of Lalo Rodríguez,” Palmieri wrote on Twitter along with a photo of the two. “I don’t need to tell you how much he has meant to me, our music and culture, and the global community. He was a giant in so many ways. We will miss him dearly and treasure his memory.”
In 1988, Rodríguez released his biggest hit, “Ven devórame otra vez”, which was part of his album Un Nuevo Despertar. Written by the Dominican Palmer Hernández, the song became a classic of romantic salsa with its famous chorus: “Devórame otra vez, ven, devórame otra vez / Ven, castígame con tus deseos, más / Que el vigor lo guardé para ti, ay, ven / Devórame otra vez, ven, devórame otra vez / Que la boca me sabe a tu cuerpo / Desesperan mis ganas por ti”.
On the Billboard charts, the song reached No. 10 on Hot Latin Tracks. In 1990, a version by Spanish female duo Azúcar Moreno also made the list, peaking at No. 9. And in 2004, the song reappeared in the voice of Charlie Cruz, who reached No. 10 on the Latin Tropical Airplay.
In 2018, “Ven, devórame otra vez” was included among Billboard’s top 15 salsa songs of all time.
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