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Hoda Kotb has a secret. Actually, the Today Show co-host revealed to Andy Cohen on Tuesday night’s (July 9) Watch What Happens Live that during her recent sit-down with Celine Dion to discuss the singer’s terrifying battle with Stiff-Person Syndrome the Canadian superstar almost spilled the beans about a potential return to the stage.
Answering a fan question about an interview teaser for the prime time NBC special that aired on June 11 in which Kotb appeared to suggest that Dion would be “performing soon” after years off the stage due to the neurological condition, the caller wondered if Kotb was suggesting that Celine might make her triumphant return by performing at the upcoming Paris Olympics.
“That’s a good question,” Kotb said, explaining that when the two were walking around Dion’s property she asked the singer when she planned to perform again after cancelling a planned world 2023-2024 world tour due to her battle with the rare neurological disorder that causes severe muscle spasms; Dion had earlier cancelled the 2022 dates on her North American Courage world tour before revealing her medical condition. With Dion’s manager off camera and out of range, Kotb said Celine asked her team, “can I tell her?” At that point Kotb said Dion’s manager yelled “no! no!”
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“So I was like, ‘so there’s something?’,” Kotb recalled thinking about the possibility that Dion would play her first show since March 2020. “Whether it’s the Paris Olympics, wouldn’t that be spectacular? Celine Dion at the Paris Olympics… that would be amazing, but I don’t know. I know she’s going to be performing live again.” The opening ceremonies of the summer games are slated for July 26 and, for the first time, they will kick things off not in a stadium but on the scenic River Seine, with the march of the athletes and a roster of performers who’ve not yet been announced.
WWHL host Andy Cohen threw cold water on the speculation, saying that Dion’s ailment is unpredictable, which would likely render a firm-date show difficult to nail down. “She’s gonna perform again. There is always going to be a date and time to perform,” Kotb responded, noting that Dion’s current regimen of medications is more balanced and, unlike before, is not focused on just relaxing her muscles and keeping them from uncontrolled spasms.
In the prime time chat, Dion said she was so desperate to alleviate the pain from the severe muscle spasms during her nearly two-decade long battle with the rare neurological/autoimmune disease that she took nearly fatal doses of Valium.
“I did not know, honestly, that it could kill me. I would take, for example before a performance, 20 milligrams of Valium, and then just walking from my dressing room to backstage — it was gone,” Dion told Kotb of the pain relief the medication offered at the almost toxic levels she was taking. “At one point, the thing is, that my body got used to it at 20 and 30 and 40 [milligrams] until it went up. And I needed that. It was relaxing my whole body. For two weeks, for a month, the show would go on… but then you get used to [and] it doesn’t work anymore.”
Kotb also praised Dion for her tenacity while answering the question about what she learned during her NBC special on the singer. “She is an incredible fighter. I had no idea what she had been through, how close she came at some point to actually not surviving it,” Kotb told Cohen. “Yes here she is and she’s singing again and all those things.”
Though the performance exchange Kotb described to Cohen did not make it into the special, Dion has left the door open during the interview to a stage return this year after battling the disease she said causes spasm so intense they caused broken ribs and sometimes made it feel like “somebody is strangling you.”
In addition to teasing her performance reboot to Kotb, Dion also seeded hope in her recent Prime Video doc I Am: Celine Dion, in which she said of her determination to play for her beloved fans again. “If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl… I won’t stop,” she said.
Check out Kotb talking Dion’s return to stage below (Dion talk comes in at 2:50 mark).
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At every Eras Tour concert, thousands of Swifties cross their fingers that Taylor Swift will play one of their favorite songs during the acoustic section. But at the singer’s first night in Zürich Tuesday (July 9), she played some of her own top picks.
The extra special surprise song section came in honor of the global trek’s 113th show. As Swift’s lucky number is famously 13, the benchmark couldn’t go without being mentioned.
“This is actually our 113th show of the Eras Tour, and that’s my favorite number, which I never mention,” she quipped, according to Entertainment Tonight. “I just thought since it was my favorite number, I’d do some of my favorite songs for the acoustic section.”
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The 14-time Grammy winner went on to play a mashup of “All You Had to Do Was Stay” and “Right Where You Left Me” on guitar. “You were all I wanted, but not like this,” she sang from the 1989 track before seamlessly transitioning into the Evermore bonus song: “Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen?/ Time went on for everybody else, she won’t know it.”
But Swift’s first show at Letzigrund Stadium marked more than one noteworthy occasion. July 9 is also a longtime Swiftie holiday, as it’s the date mentioned in her Speak Now ballad “Last Kiss” — so of course, the musician played that one next.
“You can plan for a change in the weather and time/ But I never planned on you changing your mind,” she crooned while playing piano, blending in lyrics from her Red lullaby “Sad Beautiful Tragic.” “‘Cause we had a beautiful magic love there/ What a sad beautiful tragic, beautiful tragic…”
The “Anti-Hero” singer will take the stage in Sweden once again Wednesday (July 10), after which she’ll move on to Milan for two nights at San Siro Stadium July 13-14. The Zürich shows follow three Eras performances in Amsterdam, where Swift seemingly celebrated the one-year anniversary of boyfriend Travis Kelce’s first time attending an Eras Tour show — aka the genesis of their love story — by performing a lovey-dovey mashup of “Mary’s Song,” “Everything Has Changed” and “So High School,” which fans believe the Kansas City Chiefs tight end inspired.
Watch Swift play her favorite songs in her discography below.
Everyone has that wacky aunt (or uncle) who love to tell jokes or do weird impressions at Thanksgiving. But not everyone has an aunt who also happens to be one of the most famous cartoon voice actors of all time. And for sure not everyone in that family also happens to be a chart-topping pop […]
Is the 2024 Song of the Summer race already over or just getting started? On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about who will end this summer atop our Songs of the Summer chart. Post Malone‘s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, has ruled Songs of the Summer since […]
Entertainment icon Paris Hilton and pop sensation Meghan Trainor have announced they’ve joined forces for a new single, titled “Chasin’” set to release on July 26.
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Speaking to Rolling Stone, Hilton and Trainor announced the news of the collaborative track, which will feature on Hilton’s upcoming album Infinite Icon and is co-produced by the talented Sia.
“I started working on this song years ago and knew I had to save it for someone very special. Paris brought it to a whole new level,” Meghan told the publication, adding, “I can’t believe I get to be friends with her.”
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Paris added, “[Meghan] put into words an experience that was so true for me; that time in your life when you find the confidence, power, and self-love, to walk away from toxic relationships and move forward with your life.”
Trainor said of Hilton, “She is the sister I always needed and when she calls me sis, I die of happiness inside. We made something truly iconic together and it was a bucket list dream come true for me.”
This announcement comes after Hilton’s cameo in the music video for Jason Derulo and Trainor’s song “Hands On Me,” a nostalgic nod to her early 2000s reality show The Simple Life.
In a recent interview with Billboard, Paris gushed over the “All About That Base” singer. “One of my favorite features is with Meghan Trainor. She’s just so sweet and amazing. We met years ago during New York Fashion Week. She just came up to me, like, ‘I’m the third Hilton sister.’ Then I immediately just loved her so much and we became best friends.”
Hilton’s musical comeback has been hinted at since December 2022, when she re-released her debut single as “Stars Are Blind (Paris’ Version)” and performed it alongside Miley Cyrus and Sia at Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve concert in Times Square.
Her upcoming album, Infinite Icon, slated for release on September 6 during New York Fashion Week, will mark her first full-length project since her 2006 debut album Paris, which featured her biggest hit to date, “Stars Are Blind.”
BLACKPINK in your area — and a theater near you! The superstar girl group unveiled the trailer on Tuesday (July 9) for their upcoming concert film celebrating their eighth anniversary, BLACKPINK WORLD TOUR [BORN PINK] IN CINEMAS, which is set to hit screens worldwide on July 31. In the 30-second clip, the girls are seen dominating global stages, executing flawless […]
In between being hit hard and soft — but mostly hard — by varying levels of spiciness on First We Feast’s latest Hot Ones Versus episode Tuesday (July 9), Billie Eilish and Finneas opened up about disagreements they had while making the former’s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft together.
“He’s a lot of times barefoot, a lot of the times in very filthy shoes,” the 22-year-old singer began, miming how her older brother would put his feet up on the sound board right in front of her. “My face is right there. And actually we filmed so much in making the album that almost all the footage is his feet and then me.”
That said, the 26-year-old producer revealed that another conflict during the album-recording process takes the cake. “I think the longest, biggest argument was during a period of transition in maybe both of our lives where we were just trying to be kind of honest,” he shared as his younger sister nodded in agreement. “To give [Billie] credit, I was very much high and mighty about, like, ‘You’re not being honest or authentic enough.’”
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“So I learned a lot from being too egocentric in that process,” Finneas added.
As the duo braved increasingly spicy vegan chicken wings — which caused them both to get progressively sweaty and tear up — Billie and Finneas also took turns answering questions about their childhood fears (Star Trek‘s Salt Monster and parents turning into pigs in Spirited Away, respectively) and their love for their Barbie soundtrack contribution “What Was I Made For?” At one point, the elder sibling revealed which star he never wants to produce for ever again — although the name was bleeped out — while the “Lunch” singer rated some of her old outfits but refused to rank her idols Tyler, the Creator, Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber and Childish Gambino.
The pair have previously opened up about butting heads while making their third studio album together, telling Apple Music 1‘s Zane Lowe in May that they clashed over how vulnerable Billie was willing to be in their songwriting sessions. “I was like, ‘Subject-wise, I’m not being led into what you’re actually feeling, and I think that there are real guards up,’” Finneas recalled telling his sister at the time.
They also reached a boiling point when Finneas temporarily felt like he no longer wanted to make music. “It was very interesting because I saw myself in that,” Billie added to Lowe. “I was like, ‘I have felt that way and you have always been the thing that keeps the ship moving, and now you feel that way. What does that mean for us? And what are we going to do?”
Watch Billie and Finneas on Hot Ones Versus above.
Heather Morris paid loving tribute to her late Glee co-star Naya Rivera on the fourth anniversary of Rivera’s tragic death. In a sweet Instagram post featuring a black and white snap of the two women cuddling on a bed, Morris wrote, “I can’t believe it’s been 4 years..boy how time flies. Yet every year I’m taken by surprise how much it still hurts. We grow up together, fell apart, and came back together in such a beautiful way.”
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After going missing for six days, Rivera, 33, was found after taking a boat ride with her then four-year-old son during which she drowned while swimming. The two women worked together on six seasons of the Fox musical comedy, with Morris starring as cheerleader Brittany Pierce, whose romance with Rivera’s closeted fellow cheer teamer Santana Lopez was a fan favorite storyline. “God you’re missed so much… except I can’t shake the feeling you never left… you’re still here with us..guiding us to our highest potential,” Morris, 37, added. “I miss you Nay Nay.”
Rivera starred on Glee from 2009-2015, winning a Screen Actors Guild Award and an ALMA Award for her work on the show, as well as sharing two Grammy Award nominations with her cast mates. In addition to Glee, Rivera appeared in a number of films, including her debut in 2002’s Dana Carvey comedy The Master of Disguise, as well as 2014’s At the Devil’s Door and a posthumous voice role in 2021’s Batman: The Long Halloween.
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The singer/actress married former flame Ryan Dorsey in 2014, and they had a child together in September 2015, a year before filing for divorce; the couple reconciled, but then she refiled for divorce in December 2017. Rivera was reported missing on July 8, 2020 after the couple’s son was found alone on a rented boat in the Lake Piru reservoir in Ventura County, CA. The child told investigators that his mom went swimming and was unable to climb back on the boat before she disappeared. Rivera’s body was found by divers in the lake on July 13.
During Rivera’s disappearance, Morris helped organize search parties to help with rescue efforts, later posting an emotional tribute to her friend and former co-star that included pics of their sons playing together.
See Morris’ post below.
Looks like Ariana Grande‘s Eternal Sunshine is going to shine a little longer. On the latest episode of the Shut Up Evan podcast posted Tuesday (July 9), the 31-year-old pop star confirmed that an extended version of her Billboard 200-topping seventh studio album is for sure on its way — but fans will have to be patient as they wait for its release.
When asked about the possibility of a deluxe version — something she first teased in June on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast — Grande told host Evan Ross Katz that it was “definitely” in the works. “I definitely thought this album was perfect as it was, and I still kind of feel that way,” she said. “With time, I’ve been inspired to write more songs and inclined to do this deluxe. I’m really tempted to put a creative button on this storytelling, and I have a lot of ideas.”
“It’s an idea that’s become something I can’t not do,” she continued before teasing, “The final song on it is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.”
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The downside, however, is that the Eternal Sunshine deluxe won’t be coming in the near future — Grande is still busy promoting the upcoming Wicked films, in which she stars alongside Cynthia Erivo, after all. “I don’t just want to slap the music onto what I already think is a perfect version of the album,” she explained. “I want to let it live in this current state a little while longer, take my time to execute my vision for this deluxe and make sure that it’s worth the wait and as special as I think it can be.”
“I’ll let it be a surprise, but I wouldn’t say any time super soon,” the Grammy winner added. “I’m also trying to navigate the timing of the Wicked of it all, because I really want to give my entire self to that when it’s time to shift gears. I’m working on it constantly, and I’ll have more information on timing soon.”
Grande had a similar answer when asked whether she’s planning to do live shows in support of Eternal Sunshine, another topic she previously spoke about on The Zach Sang Show. “I still want it too,” she reiterated to Katz. “It would be a really lovely idea to be able to trickle in some shows in between the two Wicked films. It’s for a multitude of reasons not going to be a tour in the way that I used to tour.”
“It would be a mini little sampling of shows, I think,” she added. “It’s something that my team and I are working on coming up with options for.”
K-pop fans who are in the Los Angeles area between Aug. 2 and Sept. 15 will want to make their way to the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live. The interactive exhibit HYBE: We Believe in Music, A Grammy Museum Exhibit chronicles the history of HYBE, which is home to the likes of BTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN and LE SSERAFIM. The exhibit will kick off on Aug. 1 with “Global Spin Live: TWS,” a program featuring a conversation with K-pop group TWS, followed by a performance. Exhibit tickets are available on the Grammy Museum’s website.
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The exhibit traces HYBE’s evolution and influence by showcasing artifacts from its roster of artists. The displays feature original outfits worn in music videos such as “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)” by BTS, “MAESTRO” by SEVENTEEN, “Sugar Rush Ride” by TOMORROW X TOGETHER, “Sweet Venom” by ENHYPEN and “EASY” by LE SSERAFIM. HYBE: We Believe in Music also boasts accessories and performance gear worn by ZICO, fromis_9, BOYNEXTDOOR, TWS, &TEAM and ILLIT. The exhibit is said to mark the first time these artifacts will be on display together in one location.
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Other highlights include interactive sing-along and dance rooms, a dedicated Fan Section that celebrates the support between HYBE artists and their fandoms, a Mono to Immersive room featuring BTS’ 2022 Grammy telecast performance of “Butter,” a Photoism Booth that allows visitors to pose alongside their favorite K-pop artists, in addition to exclusive video content with producers, artists, music videos and more.
“HYBE and their artists represent the present and future of the global music landscape, and our goal with this exhibit is to deepen the appreciation and respect for its creators and performers,” said Michael Sticka, president/CEO of the Grammy Museum, in a statement. “HYBE has contributed to creating a playground of innovation that inspires fandoms that transcend age, gender, geography and beyond. The Grammy Museum is thrilled to provide a space where fans can express their love for K-pop and feel closer to their favorite idols.”
HYBE COO Taeho Kim added, “Putting out an exhibition that captures HYBE’s journey is a new experience for us. We’re very excited about this partnership with Grammy Museum, and we look forward to welcoming music fans who visit the museum to enjoy and connect with our historical pieces.”
Nearly a decade after K-pop became a global pop phenomenon, the Recording Academy has yet to add a separate Grammy category for K-pop recordings. (And there won’t be one next year, either. No categories will be added for the 2025 awards.) BTS has received five nominations in existing categories, including three for best pop duo/group performance, for “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “My Universe,” the latter a collab with Coldplay.
For more information on the exhibit, visit the Grammy Museum’s website.