Pop

08 Oct 2024

Troy Aikman Calls Taylor Swift ‘The Mrs.’ During Chiefs’ ‘Monday Night Football’ Game: ‘I’m Sure I’m In Trouble For Saying That’

What is it with these former Cowboys quarterbacks? Last year it was Tony Romo erroneously referring to Taylor Swift as Travis Kelce‘s “wife” while calling Kansas City Chiefs games — she is not married to the tight end she’s been dating for a year. Then, on Monday night (Oct. 7) another former Cowboys QB, Troy Aikman, referred to Swift as “the Mrs.” when the camera cut to the 34-year-old star after a second-quarter play by Kelce.

“The Mrs. likes it,” Aikman said as the camera flashed on Swift’s celebration in an Arrowhead Stadium VIP suite, where she was joined by her dad, Scott Swift (as well as Travi’s dad, Ed Kelce). His broadcast mate, Joe Buck, quickly corrected the error, saying, “You know they’re not married?”

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“Oh, I know,” Aikman replied. “I’m sure I’m in trouble for saying that.”

After skipping two games, Swift was back in the suite on Monday night in a plaid dress paired with knee-high boots and glitter freckles. Whether is was celebrating his 35th birthday over the weekend, or having Swift back in the house, Kelce seemed energized during the 26-13 win over the New Orleans Saints, putting up his second best stats of a so-far lackluster season with nine catches for 70 yards to help the Chiefs go to 5-0.

Travis wasn’t the only one glad to have Taylor back on Monday. His older brother, retired NFL legend Jason Kelce, took a moment out of his commentary during the pre-game to acknowledge Swift’s fashionable arrival at Arrowhead. “Hey, look at that now… that looks good,” Jason Kelce said as the camera cut to the singer making her entrance.

Swift celebrated the Chiefs’ fifth straight win to start the season — they are one of two undefeated teams so far this season — by taking a picture in the VIP suite with Chariah Gordon, fiancée of Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. According to People, Gordon asked Swift “How do you feel after this win?” while the pair were standing in front of a framed poster from Taylor’s Eras Tour.

Noticing her picture on the wall behind them, Swift joked, “Sorry for photobombing myself.” Swift is gearing up to go back on the road on Oct. 18 with the first of three gigs at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

07 Oct 2024

Watch Kelly Clarkson Effortlessly Belt Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey’s ‘The Middle’

Kelly Clarkson asked fans to meet her in “The Middle” on Monday (Oct. 7) as she took on Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s 2018 hit.

Dressed in an aqua blue skirt suit set, the star belted the high-pitched hook flawlessly, adding her own theatrical flair. “Baby, why don’t you just meet me in the middle?/ I’m losing my mind just a little/ So why don’t you just meet me in the middle?/ In the middle,” she sings in the chorus.

Upon its release, “The Middle” skyrocketed to the top of Billboard’s Pop Songs and Hot Dance/Electronic Songs charts and to the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. “Maren is so much more than just country,” Zedd previously told Billboard of the cross-genre collaboration. “And I’ve hated how people have put me in boxes my whole career, like, ‘Hey, you’re an EDM guy doing pop.’ No, I’m a musician who enjoys making music. I made metal for 10 years, and before that I made classical music. Literally, the first time I ever heard Maren’s voice was on the demo for ‘The Middle.’ But to me, this was just about who sounds the best.”

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The Kelly Clarkson Show, which launched its sixth season last month, has been the top-rated afternoon talk show since its premiere. Since its launch in 2019, The Kelly Clarkson Show has won 22 Daytime Emmy Awards, including multiple wins for outstanding daytime talk series and outstanding daytime talk series host. 

Watch Kelly Clarkson perform Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s “The Middle” below.

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07 Oct 2024

Halsey Looks Exactly Like Dolly Parton in First ‘The Great Impersonator’ Teaser

Halsey is quite literally the greatest impersonator.

As the star gears up to release their album, The Great Impersonator, later this month, she took to Instagram to reveal that leading up to the drop, she’ll be “impersonating a different icon every day and teasing a snippet of the song they inspired.”

The first icon is Dolly Parton, as Halsey is seen recreating Parton’s 1987 Rainbow album cover. The resemblance is uncanny, as Halsey rocks a big, curly blonde wig as they lounge on the ground in the same outfit and makeup look as Parton.

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See the recreation here. Halsey also noted that Parton inspired the track “Hometown” on her upcoming album, a stripped-down acoustic track that you can hear a teaser of here.

Arriving Oct. 25, The Great Impersonator will mark Halsey’s fifth studio album. It follows 2021’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The star has described the project as deeply personal, saying, “I made this record in the space between life and death, and it feels like I’ve waited an eternity for you to have it.” The album also features previously released singles “The End,” “Lucky” and “Lonely Is the Muse.” 

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Halsey previously confirmed that the album will traverse different decades and musical styles, with the “Closer” singer revealing multiple variants of The Great Impersonator‘s cover inspired by different time periods through a fan scavenger hunt earlier this month.

07 Oct 2024

Sabrina Carpenter Has a ‘Short n’ Sweet’ Reaction to Her Album Returning to No. 1 on Billboard 200

Sabrina Carpenter just climbed back to the top of the Billboard 200, and her reaction to the milestone was aptly short and sweet.

After debuting atop the chart in September and spending its first three weeks at the summit, the 25-year-old pop star’s sixth studio LP, Short n’ Sweet, is once again No. 1 on the ranking dated Oct. 12, 2024. The project’s return to the top follows one week spent at No. 2 under Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo and another week spent at No. 3 under Future’s Mixtape Pluto and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Reposting the news of her newly secured fourth week at No. 1, Carpenter simply typed out five quaking emojis on her Instagram Story Monday (Oct. 7) to show that the feat has her shook: “? ? ? ? ?.”

Boosted by the success of Billboard Hot 100-topping single “Please Please Please” and fellow top 10 hits “Espresso” and “Taste,” Short n’ Sweet is by and large the Girl Meets World alum’s most commercially successful album yet. It’s her first LP to ever reach the top 10 — much less No. 1 — on the Billboard 200.

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“can’t express my gratitude. My first #1 album!!!!” Carpenter wrote on Instagram when Short n’ Sweet first debuted at No. 1. “thank you for believing in me all these years! couldn’t do any of this without you ?:’) this feels really special. love you all.”

Just over a month after the album’s Aug. 23 release, Short n’ Sweet was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. That means the 12-track project has moved more than 1 million units total, including the 362,000 equivalent album units it sold in its first week.

Carpenter is currently supporting the album on her first-ever arena trek, which kicked off Sept. 23 in Columbus. The star will continue traveling around North America through mid-November before heading overseas for a European leg in March.

07 Oct 2024

TOMORROW X TOGETHER Prepping 7th Mini Album, ‘The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY’

K-pop boy band TOMORROW X TOGETHER are gearing up to release their seventh mini-album, The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY. The latest release from Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and HueningKai is due out on Nov. 4, seven months after the group’s previous mini, minisode 3: TOMORROW.

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According to a release, The Star Chapter will usher in “a new phase of their artistic journey as K-pop‘s visual storytellers.” That promise was teased further in a 20-second promo video that dropped on Sunday (Oct. 6) which features a flaming cartoon version of the star X logo from minisode 3 transforming into a celestial diamond shape floating in space as the pieces come together and zip through the cosmos before a series of three twinkling stars unite above the band’s name and the album title.

“The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY will open a new chapter in Gen Z Icons’ one-of-a-kind narrative, building upon the intriguing saga established throughout The Dream Chapter [2019] The Chaos Chapter [2021] and The Name Chapter [2023],” reads the release in reference to three of the group’s previous studio albums.

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Earlier this year, the innovative group announced their first-ever virtual reality concert, HYPERFOCUS : TOMORROW X TOGETHER VR CONCERT, an immersive event that found the five singers offering superfans a more up-close-and-personal view during screenings in California and Texas; the final run of shows will continue through Oct. 13 in Chicago with the experience winding down its run from Oct. 17-Nov. 10 in New York.

The group also cooked up an anthem to soundtrack Samsung’s latest Galaxy series, “Open Always Wins,” this summer, with lyrics penned by members Sobin, Yeonjun, Taehyun and HueningKai.

Check out the album logo animation below.

07 Oct 2024

Mariah Carey Reacts to Ariana Grande Calling Her the ‘Queen of My Life’

Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande have nothing but endless love for each other.

Not only did the pair team up on the 31-year-old pop star’s February remix of Billboard Hot 100-topping single “Yes, And?,” but Grande also recently gushed about her love for the Songbird Supreme in an on-camera Vanity Fair lie-detector test — a few days after which Carey responded via Instagram Stories.

“Love you @arianagrande,” MiMi wrote Sunday (Oct. 6), sharing a clip of the video in which Grande calls her the “queen of my life” amid a line of questioning from Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo.

“Can’t wait for the movie!” Carey added, referencing the first of the two upcoming Wicked films, the first of which arrives Nov. 22.

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In the full clip from the lie-detector test, Erivo tells the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer to name her favorite past collaborator before sliding a photo of Carey across the table. “Was it this person?” the Harriet star asks.

“Mariah is the queen of my life,” Grande responds in the video. “I think I have to say you. [Wicked] is a very unique thing that we got to do. Singing face to face together, and hearing your voice in my ears … it’s like the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. Obviously, Mariah, but obviously, you! Can’t we have a tie?”

Carey was one of a few people with whom the Victorious alum has collaborated amid her Eternal Sunshine era. Brandy and Monica fittingly joined her for a June remix of “The Boy Is Mine,” while Troye Sivan jumped on a revamped version of “Supernatural” in March.

Grande recently repackaged all of the Eternal Sunshine remixes into a deluxe edition of the album, which arrived Oct. 1 and also features brand new live performances of seven tracks on the LP: “Intro (End of the World),” “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again,” “Eternal Sunshine,” “Supernatural,” “Imperfect for You,” “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).” Videos of the live performances rolled out on the vocalist’s YouTube channel one by one this past week.

Meanwhile, Carey has been gearing up for her yearly Christmas festivities, which in 2024 will include another holiday tour. The “Obsessed” artist teased as much while speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the American Music Awards red carpet Sunday, shortly before performing at the ceremony in celebration of the award show’s 50th anniversary.

“It is going very well,” she told ET. “We just finished up working on my setlist, getting the whole stage together, the ensembles, the fits — all of it.”

07 Oct 2024

Director Says Lady Gaga Same-Sex Kissing Scene Cut From ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Because It ‘Got in the Way of the Moment’

Chances are you didn’t see Joker: Folie à Deux over the weekend because the much-hyped sequel to the Oscar-winning 2019 Batman-adjacent film vastly underperformed expectations with an estimated $40 million opening frame; by comparison the original raked in more than $96 million and ended up grossing more than $1 billion.

But even if you were one of the brave who ventured out to watch Joaquin Phoenix’s demented Arthur Fleck fall in love with his equally felony-minded paramour Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), what you didn’t see was a same-sex kiss between Gaga and a random woman. According to EW, paparazzi photos from the film’s shoot appeared to show a scene where Gaga and an unnamed woman shared a tender moment.

Director Todd Phillips told the magazine that he had to cut that bit for a very good reason. The scene was supposed to take place just before Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck arrives for a court appearance attended by his former Arkham State Hospital ward mate Lee. While walking up the steps, Gaga does a musical number as she makes her way to the courtroom.

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The original shot had Gaga passing some protesters and laying her lips on a woman in the crowd — a move she improvised — but Phillips said it just didn’t work. “It had dialogue in it, and, all of a sudden, I wanted it to be more of a music and vibe moment,” Phillips said. “For that moment to have played, it needed dialogue behind it. Meaning, the woman said something, and then Gaga stopped and did this thing, and it just kind of got in the way of the moment.”

The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Joker: Folie à Deux a “bomb,” saying the film that became the first Hollywood comic book movie ever to earn a D CinemaScore from audiences while vastly underperforming expectations despite costing almost three times more to make ($190) than the original. The expected global debut for the opening weekend of the sequql is in the $121 million range.

Check out an image of the cut kiss below.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is seen on the set of the ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ is seen on March 26, 2023 in New York City.

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07 Oct 2024

Charli XCX Confirms All-Star ‘Brat’ Remix Album Tracklist Featuring Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Robyn, Tinashe & More

Charli XCX is flipping the calendar from Brat Summer to Brat Fall. The singer whose Brat album became the event of the summer has finally revealed the full list of guest stars slated to appear on her cameo-packed Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat remix album.

The collection due out on Friday (Oct. 11) has been teased on billboards around the world featuring the signature Brat font and lime green color palette with the guest’s names written backwards. Then, during a show this weekend in Orlando on her Sweat tour with Troye Sivan, Charli fan video showed the singer saying, “This is the tracklist with all the features. I need somebody to take a picture of it and put it online, okay?” She then appeared to toss it to a fan and what is rumored to be the full roster for the album was swiftly posted online.

On Monday morning (Oct. 7), Charli posted the full tracklist herself.

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XCX and Grande confirmed their anticipated “Sympathy Is a Knife” remix on Sunday (Oct. 6) when Charli wrote on X and in her Instagram Story, “It’s a knife when they dissect your body on the front page/ It’s a knife when they won’t believe you/ Why should you explain?” both with links to pre-order/pre-save the album.

According to the tracklist, the album kicks off with a new version of “360” with Robyn and Yung Lean, followed by “I Might Say Something Stupid” with the 1975 and Jon Hopkins, as well as the previously issued remix of “Talk Talk” with Sivan and Dua Lipa and the already out “Girl, so confusing” take with Lorde, as well as “Von Dutch” with Addison Rae, “Everything Is Romantic” with Chairlift and solo singer Caroline Polachek “So I” with A.G. Cook, “B2b” with Tinashe and “Mean Girls” with Strokes/The Voidz singer Julian Casablancas.

The 16-track collection rolls to a close with “I Think About It All the Time” with Bon Iver, “365” with Shygirl and “Guess” with Billie Eilish.

See the billboards below.

07 Oct 2024

It All Came Back to Celine Dion For Her Hilarious, Gatorade-Drenched Sunday Night Football Intro

Celine Dion has long been the exquisite image of pop opulence. The singer known for her peerless vocals and warehouse full of bespoke, bedazzled gowns is the definition of musical elegance. Which is why it makes perfect sense that she helped introduce Sunday Night Football’s classic NFL grudge match between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers for the teams’ first primetime showdown since 1982; and their first game against each other since Super Bowl XXX in 1996.

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To the strains of her 1996 Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 hit “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” Dion waxed poetic about her love for the game as the camera panned past a bouquet of roses atop a grand piano. “I think my favorite thing about this game is its power to connect who we are, to who we were,” she said. “To prove that our most powerful memories, our most enduring loves, can stay with us forever.”

Strolling into the recording studio in an uncharacteristically dressed-down look accented by Chuck Taylor high tops and a grey sweatshirt commemorating the 1996 Super Bowl, Dion smiled at the camera and said with a mischievous grin, “You know what I’m talking about, right? Sometimes, some nights, it all just comes back.”

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Cue throwback footage of past classic Steelers/Cowboys match-ups featuring such stars of yore as Cowboys QB Roger Staubach and Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw, while Dion waxed rhapsodic over “their love affair — well, maybe not love the way I usually sing about it, but still, you know, work with me here.” Dion then quoted a few lyrics from her power ballad — ‘When you touch me like this. When you hold me like that’ — over NFL Films footage of huge hits and testy exchanges,” adding comically, “It kind of fits, no?”

Flashing forward to more recent times, Dion added, “But really what beautiful passion it produced, what painful heartbreak it revealed so, so long ago. Like so many old flames it always feels right when they’re back together. Don’t you think? Like tonight evoking the kind of magic they once produced. the Cowboys and the Steelers, a timeless classic on Sunday night.”

Her arms resolutely crossed, Dion got viewers ready for the game by invoking the majesty of Sunday Night Football amid a slow-motion montage of the teams’ coaches getting celebratory Gatorade baths as the strains of her ballad rose to a crescendo. Oh, and she got totally doused with a double Gatorade shower at the end that left her pumping her fists in joy.

Dion has recently begun to come out of the shadows after a few years off the radar during her battle with Stiff-Person Syndrome — chronicled in this year’s I Am: Celine Dion documentary — which resulted in her cancelling all of her 2023 and 2024 tour dates. She eased back into the spotlight this summer when she performed at the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Watch Dion’s SNF kickoff video below.

07 Oct 2024

Taylor Swift Passes Rihanna to Claim World’s Richest Female Musician Crown With Est. $1.6B Net Worth

After reportedly becoming a billionaire last year thanks to her juggernaut Eras Tour, Taylor Swift is now putting some distance between herself and other musical moguls. According to Forbes magazine Swift, 34, has surpassed Rihanna to become the world’s richest female musician with a net worth estimated at $1.6 billion.

The financial magazine said after Swift became a billionaire in Oct. 2023 thanks to earnings from her sold-out global Eras tour and the value of her music catalog, it noted that she’s the first musician to make the billionaire ranking primarily based on her songs and live performance. Among Swift’s estimated assets are $600 million from touring and royalties, as well as $600 million from her catalog and $125 million in real estate holdings.

The calculation of Swift’s wealth put her at #2,117 on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, ahead of such fellow female icons as Dolly Parton ($450 million), Barbra Streisand ($460 M), Celine Dion ($550 M), Beyoncé ($760 M), Madonna ($850 M) and Rihanna ($1.4 billion).

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Rihanna, in fact, is now just behind Swift (at #2,336 on the Forbes world list), with a mega-fortune thanks mainly to the success of her Fenty Beauty line and Savage x Fenty lingerie; at one point Rihanna held the title of the richest female musician of all-time when her net worth peaked at $1.7 billion.

With her new Forbes high, Swift ranks No. 2 on the list of richest musicians, trailing top dog Jay-Z, whose value is estimated to be around $2.5 billion. Swift is currently on a break as she gears up for the final run of Eras Tour shows, which resume on Oct. 18 with a show in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium.