Pop
Page: 24
While a number of U.S. awards shows and nomination announcements have been postponed or reworked due to the ongoing devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, England’s BAFTA Film Awards announced its nominations slate on Wednesday morning (Jan. 15).
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Among the films garnering multiple nods was the musical drug drama Emilia Pérez, which snagged 11 nominations, including best film, director and leading actress for Golden Globe winner Karla Sofía Gascón, as well as supporting actress for co-stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña.
The first part of Wicked was nominated seven times, including best leading actress for Globe nominee Cynthia Erivo and best supporting actress for Ariana Grande, as well as costume design, hair/makeup, production design, sound and special visual effects. Notably, though, the box office smash re-telling of the Wizard of Oz-inspired Broadway musical was shut out in a number of major categories, including best film, director and adapted screenplay.
Trending on Billboard
The BAFTA nominations were the first for Grande and Gomez.
The top-nominated film was the Vatican thriller Conclave, which had 12 nominations, while post-WWII epic The Brutalist scored nine, followed by the stripper drama Anora and Dune: Part Two, which each snagged seven. Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown was tapped for six BAFTAs, including best film, adapted screenplay and leading actor for Timothée Chalamet and supporting actor for Edward Norton.
Scrappy Irish music comedy Kneecap also had six, including outstanding British film, outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for writer/director Rich Peppiatt and original screenplay.
There have been a number of postponements due to the fires that have killed 25 so far an scorched more than 14,000 acres, including a push-back of the Critics Choice Awards, an extra week for academy members to vote on this year’s Oscars (and a postponement of the nomination announcement until Jan. 23) and the cancellation of the major label events surrounding this year’s Grammy Awards.
In light of the devastation in L.A., BAFTA film chair Sara Putt told Variety, that the British Academy’s thoughts are “very, very much” with everyone impacted by the still raging wildfires, the worst in the city’s history. “It’s a dreadful, dreadful time,” she added, noting that the BAFTAs have not yet decided if they would move the dates for the final voting rounds. The BAFTA Film Awards ceremony is slated to take place on Feb. 16 at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
Check out the full list of 2025 BAFTA nominations here.
Celine Dion paid loving tribute to her late husband, René Angélil, on Tuesday (Jan. 14) on the night anniversary of his death. “René, we can’t believe you’ve been gone nine years already. Not a day goes by that we don’t feel your presence, RC, Eddy, Nelson and I,” Dion wrote in an Instagram post featuring her and the couple’s three children, sons René-Charles, 23, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 14.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“You were my greatest champion, my partner, and the one who always saw the best in me,” she added. “I honor you and you are forever missed mon amour…. We love you.” Angélil died of throat cancer in 2016 at 73. Dion and Angélil met when the singer was 12 and he was 38 and he later mortgaged his home to fund her debut album, 1981’s La voix du bon Dieu. The couple married at Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal on Dec. 17, 1994.
Trending on Billboard
Back in December, Dion marked another milestone when she honored Angélil on what would have been their 30th wedding anniversary. She posted a throwback black and white picture of the two from their wedding day, writing, “You still fill our hearts, every day. You are everything to us. We miss you so much. Happy 30th anniversary, mon amour!”
Earlier this week, Dion sent her thoughts and prayers to those suffering during the historic L.A. wildfires. “My heart goes out to everyone in Los Angeles affected by these devastating fires. In moments like this, it’s so important for us to come together and help,” she wrote on Instagram, where she included a list of resources for those who’ve lost their homes or been forced to flee the conflagrations that have killed 25 people to date. Officials are warning that high winds on Wednesday (Jan. 15) could hamper efforts to contain the two largest fires, which have burned nearly 40,000 acres to date.
For a longer list of organizations providing relief to those impacted by the fires click here.
City and Colour frontman Dallas Green has dropped a bombshell for fans of his folk collaboration You + Me with pop icon Pink.
The Canadian musician, currently on tour in Australia with his band, revealed that the duo has completed a long-awaited follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2014 debut Rose Ave.
“We started writing and recording some songs in 2018 and recorded some more in 2022 and in April last year, we wrapped it up,” Green said, as per News.com.au. “I would hope that it comes out sooner than later but there’s a lot going on; she’s just finished the feat of doing back-to-back stadium tours and I’m just about to finish two and a half years of touring myself.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In another interview with The Plug podcast, Green noted that Moore also made the surprise announcement during a recent charity show.
Trending on Billboard
“She announced it on stage and I was like, ‘Oh, you’re talking about this? I’m gonna talk about it!’”
Pink first met Green through her husband Carey Hart and felt an immediate creative connection. She then invited the singer-songwriter to Los Angeles, where they recorded the majority of their debut, Rose Ave., in one week.
The two artists had worked together on one previous occasion. In 2014, Moore “sang with [Green] once at another show,” and she told Billboard she “knew that we didn’t sound horrible.” So when “the stars aligned” and both artists had some time off, they decided to try to recreate that magic.
Their album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, reached No. 1 on the Folk Albums chart peaked at No. 2 on the Digital Albums chart. It also peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts and No. 1 in Canada. The album’s lead single “You and Me” also charted in several countries.
The announcement comes as Green navigates the emotional terrain of his latest City and Colour album, The Love Still Held Me Near, written after the tragic loss of his producer and close friend Karl Bareham in 2019.
Beyond the stage, Green told the publication he had also recently collaborated with Australian multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana. “They had a song they wanted me to possibly help finish, so I came out early and went to the studio for two days and it was amazing, a lot of fun,” Green shared.
For Green, the parallels between his connection with Sultana and his partnership with Pink are unmistakable. “The only other time someone actively reached out to collaborate like this was Alicia [Pink],” he said.
City and Colour’s tour continues through Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth this January, with Green returning Down Under in March for a series of shows with his post-hardcore/screamo band Alexisonfire.
Ever since its release in 2015, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” has become a musical representation of hope for anyone overcoming obstacles or struggling with tragedy.
As the wildfires in Los Angeles continue to devastate the city, Platten took the stage at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday (Jan. 13) to perform her hit before the playoff game between the LA Rams and the Minnesota Vikings. “It was such an emotional night. It was so much bigger than me and the song,” she tells Billboard of the moment, which served as a tribute to victims of the fires as well as first responders who are risking their lives to save their city.
Platten and her family are thankfully safe, and were able to return home after a precautionary evacuation. “My heart breaks,” she says. “We know friends who have lost their houses, friends whose schools have burned down. It’s horrifying, and it’s been a really scary experience.”
Trending on Billboard
During her “Fight Song” performance, Platten switched up the line in the song’s first verse — “I might only have one match/ But I can make an explosion” — to a fitting and more appropriate lyric given the circumstances: “We might have been knocked down/ But I know we’ll keep going.”
“I feel really incredibly grateful for the whole night,” she says. “We can do so many things with tragedy. We can mourn together, and we can cry together — but then there are also times to be strong together. What I felt on stage was, ‘May this song touch people like medicine, may this song be healing.’ I did feel feel a reverberation and an echo in the stadium of that hunger for hope in the midst of darkness. Sometimes music can do what words can’t.”
Platten hopes to continue her message of hope as she embarks on her Set Me Free tour, which kicks off on March 17 in Denver, Colo., and hits multiple cities including Los Angeles before wrapping on May 9 in Orlando, Fla. “It’s freedom, and it’s earned joy, not superficial way of celebration,” she says of the upcoming run of live shows. “It’s the kind of joy where you’ve been through some shit, and you’ve seen pain and you’ve seen tragedy, and you are choosing to stay strong and resilient. We’re all going to sing and dance, but we’re also going to cry and feel our feelings. Hopefully, the whole tour gives people permission to feel everything.”
Watch Platten perform “Fight Song” before the Rams and Vikings game below.
As wildfires continue to threaten Los Angeles and surrounding areas, organizers behind awards shows and related events are figuring out how to pivot to best support the community. Should they move forward and become fundraisers for relief efforts? Or is it best to cancel or postpone to a later date? Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
After fleeing the raging wildfire that has decimated their Altadena neighborhood in Los Angeles, Mandy Moore and her family are sheltering with the singer/actress’ friend Hilary Duff. Moore’s brother-in-law, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith — brother of her husband, Dawes singer Taylor Goldsmith — revealed the kind gesture in an emotional Instagram post detailing the toll the deadly fires have had on his family.
“All of this so overwhelming. But what is as equally overwhelming is the amount of love and generosity we are on the receiving end of. Our dear friends @matthewkoma and @hilaryduff thought it wise to set up a gofundme for us to help with everything moving forward. Not to mention they are currently housing my brother’s family,” Goldsmith wrote of the How I Met Your Father star and her musician husband, Matthew Koma.
Trending on Billboard
“They’ve taken care of my entire family from the moment this began,” he added. “I will never be able to thank them adequately. This is the kindest act any human could do for another. They are the most beautiful, selfless people we’ve ever known.”
Griffin Goldsmith’s post also noted that he convinced his whole family and closest friends to move to the Altadena neighborhood years ago — including the siblings’ parents, who lived around the corner from him — only to have their homes leveled in the conflagrations that have taken 16 lives in that area as the massive Eaton Fire continues to burn after scorching more than 14,000 acres so far.
“It’s Impossible to express how much we’re feeling right now. We’ve lost everything. 8 years of memories made in our house. 20 years of gear. My wife @quintessentiallykit was applying the finishing touches to the nursery for our baby boy who’s due in a few weeks,” Griffin wrote. “She had, throughout the years, poured her heart and soul into making the property a literal piece of paradise. Anyone who had the chance the visit can attest. We often would say to each other ‘I want to live together in this house for the rest of our lives.’”
He said the brothers’ parents lost their home, while Taylor and Mandy were forced to flee from their house just down the street. In addition, he said his wife’s childhood best friend, Chelsey, and her family, former Dawes bassist Wylie Gelber and his wife and their first crew member and old friend, Jake, all lost their homes as well. “The thing we mourn the most is the loss of the community,” he said.
See Goldsmith’s post here.
Goldsmith noted that they are, of course, not the only people who are dealing with these kinds of unimaginable losses. In addition to at least two dozen deaths reported so far, more than 12,000 homes and structures destroyed or damaged and nearly 100,000 Angelenos under evacuation orders, officials warned on Tuesday (Jan. 14) that the powerful Santa Ana winds that are driving the spread of the fires are expected to pick up again, with critical red flag warnings in place across much of southwestern California.
Dawes played an emotional version of their 2011 tribute to their city, “Time Spent in Los Angeles,” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday night (Jan. 13), with images of the devastation playing on screens behind them.
Luckily for Moore and Goldsmith, their home was not a complete loss, but the This Is Us star hit back at haters who tried to shame her last week for posting a GoFundMe for her in-laws, who, as Griffin mentioned, are expecting their first child in a few weeks.
“People questioning whether we’re helping out our own family or attributing some arbitrary amount of money Google says someone has is NOT helpful or empathetic,” Moore wrote. “Of course we are. Our buddy Matt started this GoFundMe and I’m sharing because people have asked how they can help them. We just lost most of our life in a fire too. Kindly F OFF. No one is forcing you to do anything.”
The fires, which are the most destructive blazes in the city’s history, continue to burn, with the Palisades Fires just 17% contained to date, while the Eaton Fire is 35% contained and the Hurst Fire is 97% contained; three other smaller fires are reportedly now 100% contained. Click here for resources from organizations providing assistance to music industry workers.
Cardi B might just be in her Reputation era. The rapper posted on X Tuesday (Jan. 14) that she’s had it with “acting nice,” using a hilarious Taylor Swift meme to get her point across.
Cardi told followers, “I was acting nice and nonchalant but today I’m going to violate and show the real me 🙂”
The “WAP” musician didn’t specify what grievance inspired her post, but to illustrate her point, she did attach a video of the Eras Tour headliner performing at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in 2019. Instead of the original audio, however, the clip of Swift is paired with what sounds like a snippet of Beyoncé absolutely going off while riffing during a live performance of “Crazy in Love.”
Cardi’s post comes less than a week after an update to her long-running legal battle with gossip blogger Tasha K, who claimed in a new response motion that the Grammy winner is trying to “sabotage” her career. Weeks prior, Cardi’s legal team had submitted a claim to a federal bankruptcy judge accusing Tasha of hiding money to avoid paying the rapper nearly $4 million in damages, which a federal jury awarded Cardi in 2022 after finding the blogger’s past claims about the star defamatory. In the new filing, Tasha’s attorneys countered by saying Cardi had failed to “identify a cent of undisclosed value.”
Trending on Billboard
The “Up” musician is also still at odds with Offset, from whom she split in July after seven years of marriage. The two stars — who share three children — were still very publicly hammering out their divorce as of mid-December, with Cardi at one point posting on X at her ex, “F–k off and sign the papers TODAY.”
“When u split the custody I will [sign the papers],” the Migos rapper countered at the time.
As for her thoughts on the subject of her meme of choice Tuesday, Cardi has only had positive things to say about Swift. In 2021, the hip-hop star praised the “Karma” singer’s “All Too Well” short film, and last year, Cardi gushed about the singer-songwriter’s relationship with Travis Kelce.
“I think it’s cute,” Cardi said of the couple last February. “She looks so happy. I feel like she’s really private with her relationships, so I really feel like she likes him a lot because she’s like, ‘I don’t give a f—. I’m going to kiss him. I’m going to touch him. I’m going to kiss him! Yeah, I’m here. Yeah, I’m taking a jet to see my man.’”
See Cardi’s tweet below.
Coldplay are gearing up to release a short film they’ve been low-key teasing for almost five years. The band announced the new project, A Film For the Future, on Tuesday morning (Jan. 14), calling the 44-minute movie a visual companion to their recent album Moon Music, which became their first Billboard 200 No. 1 album in 10 years last year.
The film will premiere worldwide on YouTube on Jan. 22 via 360-degree screenings at the Lightroom in London, the Lightroom at Factory International at Aviva Studios in Manchester and Lightroom Seoul in Seoul, South Korea; that same day a fan-led remix of the movie powered by Microsoft AI will launch here.
Trending on Billboard
A minute-long trailer describes the creative process for compiling the footage for the film, which began in the summer of 2024, when more than 150 visual artists from 45 countries were given a handful of short Moon Music audio snippets and asked to create some accompanying visuals. According to a release announcing, “there were no rules or guidelines, and no knowledge of other artists’ creations,” as well as no direction other than to follow their inspiration.
“We’re very grateful to all the amazing artists who lent their genius to this film,” the band said in a statement. “They’ve created something very beautiful and we’re extremely proud of it.”
The ensuing preview features a wild mash-up of visual styles, from trippy digital collage to dancing AI bubble people, photo montage, found footage, nature visuals and animation. Executive producer Ben Mor — who directed the 2016 video for the Coldplay/Beyoncé collab “Hymn For the Weekend” — called the resulting Koyaanisqatsi-like visual mindtrip a “kaleidoscopic patchwork quilt — a 44-minute multimedia tapestry.”
He added, “It was a huge privilege to have the bird’s eye view of such an ambitious project, working with so many incredible animators and filmmakers all working independently of each other. The final film is simply jaw-dropping and I can’t wait for Coldplay’s fans to see it.”
Tickets for the three immersive screenings — where the film will be projected on a 36-foot screen across four walls and the floor — can be purchased here, while other fans can tune in worldwide on the band’s YouTube page on Jan. 22.
The release noted that Coldplay have been working a long con on fans since 2019, when they first teased the movie on a license plate in the artwork for their Everyday Life album that read “FFTF2024.” In addition, a segment of the project appeared in the July 2024 multi-media lyric video for their Moon Music single “feelslikeimfallinginlove.”
The AI-powered remix project will use Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI to create a unique, immersive experience for each user, with no two results the same. Coldplay’s record-breaking Music of the Spheres world tour was back on the road last week for a four-show run of stadium shows in Abu Dhabi; they will move on to Mumbai, India on January 18 for three gigs at DY Patil Stadium.
Watch the A Film For the Future trailer below.
Janet Jackson: Las Vegas will be extending its stay at Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas, Billboard can exclusive report. The announcement of the residency’s six-show extension comes after the five-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s sold-out debut at the theatre during New Year’s week. Explore Explore […]
Jessica Simpson and her husband of 10 years, former NFL tight end Eric Johnson are splitting up. According to People, Simpson, 44, told the magazine that the pair have separated and are living apart.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage,” Simpson said in a statement. “Our children come first, and we are focusing on what is best for them. We are grateful for all of the love and support that has been coming our way, and appreciate privacy right now as we work through this as a family.”
After dating for four years, the couple got married on July 5, 2014 and have three children together: daughters Maxwell Drew, 12, and Birdie Mae, 5 and son Ace Knute, 11. At press time a spokesperson for Simpson had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment and it did not appear that the singer had made any further statement on the pair’s break-up.
Trending on Billboard
Last week, she posted a sunny selfie with the message, “Life is short. SMILE while you still have teeth.” People also reported that Johnson was spotted without his wedding ring in November, which was around the time that Simpson teased a musical comeback in a chat with Footwear News.
“It’s like a retreat for me,” she said about temporarily moving her family from Los Angeles to Nashville last summer to work on her first new album in more than 13 years. “I get to just crawl up inside my head and embrace my heart. I feel so enlightened there. Writing music has become a beautiful therapeutic thing for me that I didn’t know was so natural, but it’s because I haven’t done it in so long. It’s just nice to know that I’m meeting myself back in this place, as a woman, and after going through everything that I’ve been through in my life. There’s a sense of freedom and empowerment.”
Around that time Simpson also posted a series of glam shots on Instagram from what she said were interviews in her “Nashville music room where I unearthed my singular magic.” She described her musical comeback back then as being “personal, it’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve.”
Though the singer has not discussed specific plans to divorce, if the couple do unwind their marriage it would be the second divorce for Simpson, who was married to 98 Degrees singer and Perfect Match host Nick Lachey from 2002-2005; the couple famously starred in MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. Johnson was previously married to stylist Keri Johnson, whom he divorced in 2010.
At press time no addition information was available on Simpson’s new album, which would be her first since 2010’s Happy Christmas; her last non-holiday release was 2008’s Do You Know, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. She also released “Particles” as a one-off single in 2021. Simpson’s debut album, Sweet Kisses, came out on Columbia Records in 1999 and included her highest-charting single to date, “I Wanna Love You Forever,” which topped out at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.