Pop

19 Mar 2024

Dua Lipa Reveals Her Favorite Spice Girl & the ‘Chaos’ That Inspired ‘Radical Optimism’

Dua Lipa is gearing up to release her upcoming album, Radical Optimism, and she sat down with Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly to discuss the inspiration behind the project.

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“[Releasing the album] feels good. It feels for lack of a better word — radically optimistic,” she shared, before explaining the idea behind the album cover, which features the singer floating in a wide open ocean facing a shark fin. “Throughout the whole record, there’s this idea of chaos happening around and me trying to push through it in a way that feels authentic and honest to me.”

The upcoming LP features her already released singles “Houdini” and “Training Season,” the latter of which Lipa says started out as a “joke” in the studio. “I’d been on a couple of dates, like a string of bad dates,” she recalled. “I went into the studio and was like, ‘Right, I’m done. I don’t want to meet anyone. Training season is over. I’m done training these boys.’”

As a British girl, Lipa is, of course, a fan of the Spice Girls, and revealed how she never got to portray her favorite member of the group on the elementary school playground. “I always wanted to be Baby Spice, but no one wanted to let me be Baby Spice because I wasn’t blonde,” she said. “It was a playground hierarchy. It was like, ‘Alright, you get to be Posh.’”

The 11-track Radical Optimism — Lipa’s first proper LP since 2020’s Future Nostalgia — arrives May 3. Watch the full interview above.

19 Mar 2024

Kelly Clarkson Slows Down Katy Perry’s ‘Wide Awake’ for Stunning Kellyoke Cover

Hold the caffeine, Kelly Clarkson is wide awake. On the latest episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the three-time Grammy winner shared a breathtaking cover of Katy Perry‘s 2012 smash, “Wide Awake,” stripping it back to feature just piano and vocals.

Taking the Kellyoke stage with her pianist Tuesday (March 19), Clarkson went without her usual full band to let her unreal voice shine even more than usual. The musician also slightly slowed down Perry’s track, which allowed the “Stronger” singer to stretch out certain lines and add her own impressive high notes.

“Falling from cloud nine,” belted Clarkson, dressed in a grey skirt and black, knee-high boots. “Crashing from the high/ I’m letting go tonight.”

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Released as the final single from Perry’s Teenage Dream album cycle, “Wide Awake” appeared on the set’s 2012 deluxe reissue, Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year, remaining on the chart for a total of 26 weeks.

Clarkson has previously covered Perry’s “The One That Got Away” and “Roar” on her Daytime Emmy-winning talk show. Earlier this week, she put her own spin on Maren Morris’ “The Bones.”

The Voice alum’s new performance comes just over a week after she filed a new lawsuit against her ex-husband, music executive Brandon Blackstock, alleging that he and his father’s management firm had been violating state labor rules since the beginning of their relationship. With the suit — which comes just months after she won $2.6 million from him in a previous ruling — Clarkson seeks the return of “any and all commissions, fees, profits, advances, producing fees or other monies” she paid to Blackstock’s father’s company, Starstruck Entertainment, dating back to 2007.

In June, Clarkson released her tenth studio album, Chemistry. The 14-track set, which featured collaborations from Steve Martin and Sheila E., peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.

Watch Clarkson cover “Wide Awake” above.

19 Mar 2024

Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs Teammate Hopes He & Taylor Swift ‘Start a Family’

Taylor Swift continues to have the Kansas City Chiefs‘ stamp of approval!

The Super Bowl LVIII winning team’s kicker, Harrison Butker, recently recalled meeting the superstar during an EWTN News In Depth interview. “She was just so humble and so gracious,” he shared. “I don’t think she grew up a football fan, so everything for her is so cool. Especially as a kicker, she thinks that’s amazing that I can kick the ball so far through the uprights.”

“I can’t say enough great things about her,” he continued, noting that he is hopeful for her future with boyfriend Travis Kelce. “I hope they get married and start a family,” he said.

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The couple is fresh off a flight from Singapore, where Swift performed a series of Eras tour shows at National Stadium. In a sweet clip taken just moments after the show wrapped, the athlete waits patiently backstage for the 14-time Grammy winner to make her way toward him — after which she wraps her arms around him and kisses him as fans roar with delighted screams.

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During the NFL season, the singer attended countless Chiefs football games, including the Super Bowl. “When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift told TIME in December, marking her first public remarks of the relationship. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.” 

19 Mar 2024

Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ Breaks Disney+ Record for Most-Streamed Music Film After Just 3 Days

Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour is still breaking records, five months after its initial release. The blockbuster concert film has already become Disney+’s most-streamed music special of all time, breaking the record just three days after premiering on the platform March 14.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three-hour-plus project was viewed for a collective 16.2 million hours in its opening weekend. It surpasses other music films such as Swift’s Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Elton John: Farewell From Dodger Stadium, Black Is King: A Film by Beyoncé and The Beatles: Get Back.

The “Anti-Hero” singer’s movie first premiered in theaters in October, upon which it immediately became the highest-grossing concert film in history with more than $92.8 million after just one weekend. In December, Swift made a slightly expanded version available to rent on-demand in celebration of her 34th birthday, including previously scrapped performances of “Wildest Dreams,” “The Archer” and “Long Live.”

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The Disney+ version of the film features its own set of new content, showcasing Swift’s performances of “Cardigan” and surprise songs “Maroon,” “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “You Are in Love” and “I Can See You” for the first time. Leading up to Eras Tour‘s streaming debut, the pop star unveiled sneak peeks at each new surprise song one day at a time on Good Morning America.

Swift’s acclaimed global trek is still going strong, more than a year after kicking off in Glendale, Ariz. in March 2023. The 14-time Grammy winner is currently taking a two-month break from the road as she gears up to release her new album The Tortured Poets Department on April 19, having just wrapped a six-night stint in Singapore. In May, she’ll pick up where she left off with a series of shows in Paris.

“Just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who traveled and put so much effort into being at our shows,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post. “See you in May when we get back to the Eras Tour!! In the meantime I’ve got an album to release…”

19 Mar 2024

Lady Gaga Jazz & Piano Show Returning to Las Vegas For Summer 2024 Run

Lady Gaga is headed back to Las Vegas for a summer run of more Jazz & Piano shows. The singer announced the news on Tuesday morning (March 19), revealing that she will be back on the stage at the Dolby Live theater at Park MGM for eight shows between June 19 and July 6.

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The news came alongside a video clip reel featuring highlights from the uber-Vegas revue, which finds the 13-time Grammy winner cycling through a series of bedazzled, glittering stage costumes while fronting a big band and singing hits from the Great American Songbook. Her most recent Jazz & Piano show was in October and since then she has performed a private show at the Fontainebleau in Vegas last month, as well as a Fortnite: Battle Royale gig during the 2024 Fortnite Festival on Feb. 22.

Fans can sign up now for the Little Monsters presale here for early access before the general public onsale begins on Saturday (March 23) at 1 p.m. ET. The upcoming shows will take place on June 19, 20, 27, 29 and 30 and July 3, 5 and 6. At press time there was no information on whether Gaga’s other Las Vegas residency show, the more pop-, hits-oriented Enigma will return in the future as well; Gaga has not performed the Enigma show since New Year’s Eve weekend in 2019.

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Gaga recently posted a response to the critics of trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who last year was the target of transphobic hate after Bud Light sent her a commemorative six-pack of beers. “It’s appalling to me that a post about [International] Women’s Day by Dylan Mulvaney and me would be met with such vitriol and hatred,” Gaga wrote in an Instagram post responding to an International Women’s Day picture she took with Mulvaney that was flooded with anti-trans comments.

“Hatred is hatred, and this kind of hatred is violence,” she added. “‘Backlash’ would imply that people who love or respect Dylan and me didn’t like something we did. This is not backlash. This is hatred.”

See Gaga’s Jazz & Piano announcement below.

19 Mar 2024

Hear Idina Menzel Sing Live in Her New Musical

“Ever since Rent, I have made it a priority to originate roles and shine a light on new work,” Idina Menzel tells Billboard. “It takes lots of patience and fortitude, but there is truly nothing as rewarding as seeing your kernel of an idea fully realized with a group of people you love and admire so deeply.”

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The Broadway icon’s latest project in that vein is the new musical Redwood, currently playing at La Jolla Playhouse in California. For Menzel — who plays Jesse, a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who finds herself as a personal crossroads and finds unexpected answers in the forests of Northern California — the show is an especially personal creative endeavor. “The story of a woman at a turning point in her life paralleled with the resilience, wisdom and strength of the redwood tree was one that spoke to me deep in my soul,” Menzel says. “Nature’s power to heal and connect us as human beings is essential in this turbulent world we are living in.”

Idina Menzel backstage during REDWOOD at La Jolla Playhouse.

Idina Menzel backstage during REDWOOD at La Jolla Playhouse.

Courtesy of Idina Menzel

Menzel, who released her latest album Drama Queen in August of last year, isn’t just the star of the production. She co-conceived Redwood with director, writer and co-lyricist Tina Landau (recently of Broadway’s inventive SpongeBob SquarePants musical) over the course of many years, delving deeply into the development of Jesse as a character.

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Menzel and Landau also “knew we wanted to find a new young composer who could bring a fresh take to musical theater” for the show, bringing in Kate Diaz for a score that Menzel describes as having “a beautiful, earthy and soulful quality as well as expansive and cinematic. When I perform Kate’s music, I am able to use all the different colors in my voice. I’m not just shooting for the rafters. I’m expressing myself similarly to how I express myself in my own songwriting.” (Diaz also co-wrote the lyrics with Landau).

While the La Jolla run of Redwood ends March 31, the show has its sights set on Broadway — which certainly seems more likely than not with Menzel and her creative collaborators on board. “We knew we wanted the production to be cutting edge and unconventional,” Menzel says. “We have encouraged one another to dream big, break rules, and not compromise our creative ideas. There’s a deep sense of creative freedom and trust in how we work.”

Here, Menzel exclusively shares with Billboard a live recording of her performing “Great Escape,” recorded during a performance of Redwood.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=zkMTRKoiXtI&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

19 Mar 2024

Joey Fatone Didn’t Even Tell His Parents About Secret *NSYNC Reunion at Justin Timberlake Show

Fans went wild at Justin Timberlake‘s Los Angeles concert last week when the singer brought out his *NSYNC bandmates for a surprise live reunion, debuting the group’s new song “Paradise” onstage. And in a new interview, Joey Fatone revealed the lengths he went to in order to keep it a secret leading up to the show.

“I didn’t even tell my parents,” the boy bander said on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday morning (March 19). “My father has a very large mouth. He’s very proud, so he likes to tell people… I didn’t tell my publicist, I didn’t tell nobody. Surprise!”

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In addition to “Paradise,” which appears on Timberlake’s new album Everything I Thought It Was, the “Mirrors” singer, Fatone, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass performed their smash ’90s hits “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” at The Wiltern in L.A. The performance came more than 20 years after *NSYNC went on hiatus in 2002, after which they wouldn’t officially reunite until 2023 to collaborate on “Better Place” for Timberlake’s Trolls Band Together animated threequel.

“It was really exciting, it was kind of just fun,” Fatone added of the show. “We have not been around for a long time, obviously… When we came out, it was just like, ‘What?’ Justin asked us to do the show and we were like ‘Yeah, why not.’ People went crazy.”

“When they all walked out … the screams were unbelievable,” chimed in the Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, who joined Fatone on the Hudson Show couch. “They didn’t miss a beat.”

McLean and Fatone kicked off their joint A Legendary Night Tour last week. The two stars have plans to play select dates across the United States through the end of March, with the shows promising live music, comedy and storytelling.

While chatting with J-Hud, the guys also reminisced on the time their respective bands faced off against each other for a charity basketball game in Europe back in the day. To spice things up, Bass had switched over to the Backstreet Boys team, while McLean played alongside the guys of *NSYNC.

“I think we won,” McLean said. “Whoops, sorry guys!”

Watch Fatone and McLean on The Jennifer Hudson Show above.

19 Mar 2024

Sufjan Stevens Musical ‘Illinoise’ Sets Broadway Debut

Sufjan Stevens is bringing the noise to Broadway. The acclaimed singer/songwriter’s new musical, Illinoise, is slated to graduate to the Great White Way after sold-out productions at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater when it opens at New York’s St. James Theatre on April 24.

The show is set to the songs from Stevens’ fifth studio LP, 2005’s concept album Illinoise (also known as Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come on Feel the Illinoise) which features songs and characters based on the Prairie state as the follow-up to his previous “state” album, 2003’s Michigan.

The show will be directed and choreographed by Tony-winner Justin Peck (Carousel, West Side Story), with an original story by Peck and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibbles Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole).

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The cast of Illinoise includes: Yesenia Ayala (West Side Story film), Kara Chan (Twyla Tharp Dance), Ben Cook (West Side Story film), Gaby Diaz (So You Think You Can Dance? winner, Maestro), Jeanete Delgado (Miami City Ballet), Carlos Falu (West Side Story film), Christine Flores (Dance Heginbotham), Jada German (Twyla Tharp Dance) and Zachary Gonder (Carmen at Lyric Opera), among others. The vocalists and band for the show will be announced soon.

According to an announcement, the show “brings the original story to life, set to the entirety of Stevens’ album with new arrangements by composer, pianist, and frequent Stevens collaborator Timo Andres, ranging in style from DIY folk and indie rock to marching band and ambient electronics, performed live by an 11-member band and three vocalists.”

“We’re absolutely thrilled to bring Illinoise to the St. James Theatre on Broadway. This project has been ruminating in my mind for nearly 20 years, which makes this moment even more sublime,” said Peck in a statement. “The audience response throughout our engagement at Fisher Center at Bard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Park Avenue Armory has been extraordinary, and we feel lucky that we get to continue sharing this unique show with future audiences on Broadway.”

Peck described the show as a coming-of-age story that “takes the audience on a journey through the American heartland — from campfire storytelling to the edges of the cosmos — all told in through a unique blend of music, dance, and theater. On behalf of my team, we welcome this rare opportunity with full hearts.”

Playwright Sibblies Drury added, “Supporting the craft of each of the artists involved in making up this show has been a joy and an inspiration. For me, the thing that makes Illinoise so special is how it allows incredible performers to come together with an audience and welcome emotion and connection with open arms. It is rare to have an experience, in a public space, that is moving on an elemental level, so we are all incredibly gratified to bring Illinoise to the St. James on Broadway.”

The musical’s limited engagement will run through August 10, with tickets on sale now here. The show is produced for Broadway by Orin Wolf, John Styles and David Binder in association with Seaview and executive produced by Nate Koch and co-produced by Thomas O. Kriegsmann and the Fisher Center at Bard.

19 Mar 2024

TOMORROW X TOGETHER Announce 2024 U.S. Tour

K-pop boy band TOMORROW X TOGETHER announced the dates for their upcoming 2024 U.S. tour, which will hit eight cities across 11 shows. The outing is slated to kick off in Tacoma, WA at the Tacoma Dome on May 15, followed by gigs in Oakland, two nights at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and shows in Atlanta, two gigs at Madison Square Garden in New York and a double-down at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL before a final gig at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C. on June 8

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The tour will be in support of the band’s upcoming mini-album, minsode 3: TOMORROW, which is due out on April 1.

The band — Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Choi Soo-bin, Huening Kai and Taehyun — has been priming fans for their next era this week with a series of concept photos to tease the upcoming sixth mini album. The soft-lit series of “Light” photos feature each member in glowing orange light in a field of wheat, as well as a short video of Soo-bin sitting contemplatively in the field, lounging and staring longingly over a soothing bed of sound; the other members also get their own solo video teases featuring a series of random props. The photo carousel also features a fun behind-the-scenes clip in which the men pop up out of the wheat and wave to the camera.

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Tickets for the tour will go on sale to the general public beginning Thursday (March 21) via Ticketmaster.

Check out the full list of dates on the tour poster below.

19 Mar 2024

Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez Divorce Finalized

A year after their separation, Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez are officially divorced. According to the Associated Press, a Los Angeles Superior Court judgement dissolving their three-year marriage became official on Tuesday (March 19), six months after the 30-year-old “yes, and?” singer filed for divorce from 28-year-old real estate broker Gomez.

The couple, who had a pre-nuptial agreement, separated more than a year ago and have no children or significant legal issues. The terms of the divorce were agreed upon in October, but the couple had to wait six months before the judge’s order could take effect. According to the AP, Grande will make a onetime payment of $1.25 million to Gomez and no future alimony and give half of the proceeds from the sale of their Los Angeles home to Gomez and pay up to $25,000 of his attorneys’ fees; the divorce petition cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the break-up.

The couple reportedly started dating in early 2020, but didn’t make their romance public until May of that pandemic year, sharing the news of their engagement on Dec. 20 with a series of pictures, including one of her engagement ring; they got married five months later, in May 2021. Since the split, Grande has reportedly been dating her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater.

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Grande’s new album, Eternal Sunshine, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, marking her sixth career chart leader, with all 12 chart-eligible songs from the album landing on the Hot 100, led by “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love), which debuted at No. 1.