State Champ Radio Pop
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Beyoncé may be notoriously elusive, but she always has an ear to the streets. On Wednesday (May 8), the Grammy winner shared two Instagram posts commemorating her visit to this year’s Coachella festivities, from supporting protégé Chlöe Bailey to joining in on the “II Hands II Heaven” dance challenge.
The first post, which Queen Bey used the official “II Hands II Heaven” sound for, consisted of a single reel that finds the “II Most Wanted” singer wearing a black cowboy hat, sparkly blue daisy dukes, a Willie Nelson T-shirt, platform boots and a fringe jacket doused in the print of the American flag. Both the Cowboy Carter banner and promotional hauler that were present during both weekends of Coachella also appear in the clip.
To top it all off, Beyoncé tried her hand at the viral “II Hands II Heaven” dance challenge, which began when a fan (X user @cuddapotato) posted a clip of Drea Kelly’s burlesque rehearsals with the Cowboy Carter standout in place of the original music (April 1). The video quickly went viral because of how well Kelly’s choreography fit to the “II Hands II Heaven” lyrics, “Pull my fit over these hips/ You grip, I grind/ Then taste this wine, I’ma taste what’s mine/ ‘Cause I’ma take what’s mine.”
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The video’s virality kicked off a string of other Drea Kelly-meets-Cowboy Carter clips, including hilarious takes on album cuts such as “Desert Eagle,” “Riiverdance” and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” (with Shaboozey). Queen Bey’s addition to the challenge, which she presumably shot during Coachella, is more stop-motion than a proper video, which only adds to its humor.
In her other post, Beyoncé flaunted her outfit some more and shared sweet pictures with Kelly Rowland and Bailey, who performed an electrifying Coachella set in anticipation for her forthcoming sophomore solo studio album, Trouble In Paradise. On April 20, the “Have Mercy” singer shared her own take on the “II Hands II Heaven” challenge via TikTok, which she shot backstage at Coachella.
Drea Kelly, choreographer, dancer and ex-wife of disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, has already given the “II Hands II Heaven” challenge her approval.
“I have been doing that choreography almost two years now (and it) has been on my page,” she told Vibe. “But you know, I want this to be a testament to people. Your gifts will make a way for you. And I don’t care what anybody thinks. Don’t think you’re too old. Don’t think your content is too old. Something that you put on your page years ago, somebody can discover and it has a new life.”
Beyoncé dropped her Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter album March 29, scoring simultaneous No. 1 debuts on Top Country Albums and Top Americana/Folk Albums in the process. Led by the historic Billboard Hot 100-topping “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the album features appearances by several country music icons and rising stars, from Dolly Parton to Hot Country Songs chart-topper Shaboozey.
Watch Beyoncé take on the “II Hands II Heaven” dance challenge below.
Lady Gaga‘s dynamic Chromatica Ball Tour is getting a second life on HBO’s Max streaming service, where a concert film capturing one of the trek’s final performances is set to premiere later this month. As announced Wednesday (May 8), Gaga Chromatica Ball will debut exclusively on the platform May 25, giving fans another chance to […]
Taylor Swift runs a tight ship. Following their surprise Dead Poets Society mini-reunion in the pop star and Post Malone’s “Fortnight” music video in April, both Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles opened up in separate interviews about keeping their cameos a total secret from everyone — including their kids.
First, Hawke appeared on The Late Show Monday night (May 6), where host Stephen Colbert wasted no time in asking the actor about his collaboration with Swift. “I think she wanted to hide a little Easter egg about Dead Poets Society,” the Before Sunrise star explained. “Josh and I, we laughed ourselves silly the whole day. We felt like the biggest rock stars in the whole world.”
“You can’t imagine what it’s like to walk through an airport with a friend you’ve known for 35 years, who you grew up with, and watch all the young people in the airport with their Eras sweatshirts on … and we got something on them,” he continued, recalling his and Charles’ voyage to Swift’s top-secret filming location. “We’re going to meet the queen ourselves.”
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Hawke also revealed he signed an NDA prior to shooting the project, meaning he couldn’t tell either of his young daughters — Clementine and Indiana, whom he shares with his wife, producer Ryan Shawhughes Hawke — about the endeavor.
“You tell my teenage daughters that I’m going to meet Taylor, and everybody at school’s going to know,” he told Colbert. “When they did find out, the look on their face was one of profound disappointment. [They were like,] ‘Don’t pay attention to my dad, my dad’s an idiot, you should be calling me.’ Taylor belongs to them. I can’t have that on them.”
Stopping by The Tonight Show the next day, Charles told Jimmy Fallon that he also kept the video hidden from his children before it dropped April 19, the same day Swift’s Billboard 200-topping album The Tortured Poets Department hit streaming services. “They’re just blabbermouths and they’ll go talk about it at school,” he said, laughing.
“Finally, right before it aired, I did tell my son because he’s so full of hot air,” added Charles, who shares two kids with his wife, author Sophie Flack. “He makes up so much stuff, I knew no one would believe him anyway. He said, ‘Dad, I actually told someone. They didn’t believe me, you were right.’”
The Good Wife alum also revealed that Swift had first reached out to Hawke’s oldest daughter, Stranger Things star Maya Hawke — whom he shares with ex-wife Uma Thurman as well as 22-year-old son Levon — in order to connect with the two Dead Poets Society leads. The actors co-starred in the Peter Weir-directed classic in 1989, nearly 30 years before they would reunite to play mad scientists conducting experiments on Swift’s character in “Fortnight.” The Post Malone-assisted track has since spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Taylor knows Ethan’s daughter Maya and reached out to her,” Charles recalled. “I think it’s a little tip of the cap to Dead Poets Society, other tortured poets. Once I got over thinking [Ethan] was punking me when he first called me — I said, ‘Dude, are you bulls–ting me right now?’ It just seemed like such a fun idea.”
“I will tell you this, [Swift’s] an incredible director,” Charles added. “My favorite kind of director ’cause she knows what she wants. I was already a fan of her music, but if any of you ever get to meet her, your fandom for her will just go up through the roof. She’s just such a genuine, cool, approachable person.”
Watch Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles open up about their “Fortnight” cameos below.
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North West has landed a high-profile gig as part of the cast of the upcoming Disney+ original special The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl. The 10-year-old eldest child of Ye and Kim Kardashian was announced as the latest addition to the star-studded line-up of the live concert special that will be filmed over two […]
The Billie Eilish multi-media blitz in advance of the upcoming release of her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, will kick off in earnest on Friday (May 10) with the launch of Billie Eilish Radio on SiriusXM. The dedicated streaming channel will debut at noon E.T. with a mix curated by the “What […]
Cyndi Lauper never considered another option. The flame-haired singer whose colorful sartorial flare and Betty Boop voice had music writers desperately searching for synonyms for “quirky” in the 1980s will tell her life’s story in the upcoming biopic Let the Canary Sing.
The feature-length film that debuted at last year’s Tribeca Festival in New York was directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Alison Ellwood (Laurel Canyon) and will debut on Paramount+ on June 4. “Over the years I’ve been asked to do a documentary about my life and work, but it never felt like the right time,” Lauper, 70, said in a statement about the film. “Until now. When I first met Alison Ellwood, I knew right away I could trust her to tell my story honestly, which was incredibly important to me, and she succeeded in that. I’d like to thank Alison, the producers, and all of the amazing documentary participants who agreed to be interviewed!”
The trailer for the doc dropped on Tuesday and it opens with a scene from the video for Lauper’s 1983 ballad “Time After Time,” in which the singer is seen schlepping her giant duffel as she leaves a trailer park. “Everyone always said, ‘what will you do if you fail?’ And all of a sudden we all heard it,” Lauper says in voiceover over the irresistible strains of her 1983 breakthrough hit, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
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The 90-second trailer takes us all the way back to little Cyndi’s Catholic school days, during which it became apparent, she says, “how stubborn I could be.” Singer/actor Billy Porter weighs in on Lauper’s embrace of queer culture in the sneak peek, noting that at that time, “queer people weren’t allowed to be queer and out. It was our allies having the conversation.”
The trailer also features Culture Club singer Boy George praising Lauper for doing whatever she wanted to and legendary R&B singer Patti LaBelle calling “Time After Time” one of her “favorite songs ever.”
Legacy Recordings will release a career-spanning companion album that takes listeners from the singer’s early days in the group Blue Angel (“I’m Gonna Be Strong”) through the global breakout success of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and other iconic hits such as “True Colors,” “I Drove All Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” “She Bop,” “All Through the Night” and more.
Watch the trailer for Let the Canary Sing below.
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There’s a lot of fresh blood in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 this week, with Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” debuting at No. 2, Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” rising to No. 3, and Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Espresso” rising to No. 4 (all behind a second week at No. 1 for Taylor Swift’s […]
Even rockers are Swifties! Pearl Jam’s frontman Eddie Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament joined Bill Simmons on his self-titled podcast this week, where they praised Taylor Swift — especially since Vedder attended Swift’s Eras tour with his wife and two daughters. “She’s an artist who’s respectful of her audience and I know from my daughter […]
Hey now, this is what dreams are made of! Hilary Duff announced Tuesday (May 7) that she and husband Matthew Koma welcomed their new daughter last week, sharing photos from the singer-actress’ home water birth and revealing the little girl’s unique name on Instagram. In the pictures, an emotional Duff sits in a tub while […]
Billie Eilish has something special planned for fans counting down the seconds until her third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft arrives May 17. To couple with her recently announced listening parties scheduled for May 15 and 16 in New York City and Los Angeles, the singer revealed Tuesday (May 7) that fans who […]
