State Champ Radio Pop
Page: 386
We all know and love The Plastics: Regina, Gretchen, Karen and … Megan? In a new Extra interview, Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp gushes over Megan Thee Stallion and recounts her journey with the character of Regina George.
“It’s been like five years of my life now,” Rapp joked. “I’m milking this IP for jobs until I can’t anymore.” Before taking Regina George to the big screen in the new Mean Girls movie musical, Rapp portrayed the character in the Broadway stage musical for several months during 2019-2020. The original Broadway production of Mean Girls earned 12 Tony nominations. Although her stint on The Great White Way eventually gave way to her reprisal of the role in the film adaptation, Rapp quipped, “I’m tired of wearing pink! I’ve had it, I’m good on it!”
Rapp handles most of the film’s soundtrack — alongside co-stars Auliʻi Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey and Avantika — and she even co-wrote and recorded some new original songs for the album. In addition to co-writing “What If’s” with Nell Benjamin, Rapp collaborated with Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion for the single “Not My Fault.” Paired with a pink-tastic choreography-laced music video, “Not My Fault” features the two stars thriving in all of their plastic glory. The pair’s joint dance scenes have gone viral across social media, and those happened to be the scenes that made Rapp swoon.
“Actually best a– I’ve ever seen in my life,” she gushed. “We were in dance rehearsal and I was like, ‘Wow, this is incredible! ‘I’ve actually never seen anything like this.” “Not My Fault” has so far peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 — Rapp’s first entry on any Billboard singles chart. The “Tummy Hurts” singer — who unleashed Snow Angel, her Billboard 200-charting debut studio album last year (No. 44) — continued: “I’m a true Meg supporter. I hate that other man, so I love Megan Thee Stallion. I love her. If anybody tries her when it comes to that sorry a– man, it’s a do or die fight for me.”
Rapp is likely referencing Tory Lanez, the Canadian rapper and singer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot back in 2020. On the Mean Girls premiere red carpet Monday (Jan. 8), Megan told Entertainment Tonight, “I love Reneé. As soon as I met her I was like, ‘Oh, you my friend. OK.’ I love it. I love her and I love Mean Girls!”
Mean Girls hits theatres this Friday, Jan. 12, and the accompanying soundtrack will be available on all digital streaming platforms the same day.
Watch Rapp chat about Megan Thee Stallion below.
[embedded content]
Joey Fatone and AJ McLean are crossing over. The *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys members announced on Tuesday (Jan. 9) that they are hitting the road together in March for an eight-date joint tour they’ve dubbed “A Legendary Night.”
In a post announcing the one-of-a-kind outing, Fatone wrote, “This is going to be fun!!!! @aj_mclean my dude … here we go!!!!,” with the BSB singer responding, “LEGENDARY [sign of the horns emoji].
The outing is slated to kick off on March 15 at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, CA and hit the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, CA before moving on to the East Coast for gigs in Wallingford, CT, Boston and Newark before wrapping with a trio of shows in Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Jacksonville, FL. Click here for details on the artist pre-sale and general on-sale, with the latter slated to kick off on Friday (Jan. 12) at 10 a.m. local time.
According to a release from promoter Live Nation, the tour will find the old friends teaming up to perform choreo, their beloved 1990s and early 2000s hits accompanied by a seven-piece band and “intimate conversations of never-before-told stories from their time on the road.” The singers, both 46, booked the tour after performing together at a gig dubbed “Joey Fatone & Friends — Welcome to Tampa 90s Party” in September; they also previously shared the stage in 2021 during Fatone’s “The AFTR PRTY” Las Vegas residency, which featured the *NSYNC member performing with McLean, Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) and McLean’s BSB bandmate, Nick Carter.
In an Instagram Live chat hyping the tour on Tuesday, Fatone promised fans that the new dates will be a “crazy” twist on the previous team-ups, with plenty of songs from both men’s groups, as well as some tracks “that never really hit on albums or records” and some throwback 90s tracks. The show will also include a “wheel of songs” segment in which they’ll spin and sing different tracks ecah night. “Obviously a blast a lot of fun,” Fatone promised.
“You guys are in for one hell of a show,” McLean added, noting that fans will know “every song,” while teasing that he will also be performing a couple of his new tracks.
Fatone reunited with his *NSYNC mates at last year’s MTV VMAs in a surprise moment that preceded the release of the defunct group’s first song in 22 years, the Trolls Band Together single “Better Place.”
Check out the “A Legendary Night” tour announcement, teaser video and dates below.
March 15 – Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Theatre
March 16 – Rancho Mirage, CA @ The Show at Agua Caliente
March 21 – Wallingford, CT @ Toyota Oakdale Theatre
March 22 – Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues
March 23 – Newark, NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center
March 28 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ AuRene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts
March 29 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
March 30 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre
Selena Gomez is taking another social media break. According to People magazine, the Only Murders In the Building star posted an Instagram Story on Tuesday (Jan. 9) detailing her latest social rest in an attempt to focus on “what really matters.” The Story was accompanied by an image of of boyfriend producer Benny Blanco goofing […]
Olivia Rodrigo is open to going back to the start. The “Vampire” singer who got her start as a kid and teen actor on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Bizaardvark told Variety magazine at the Academy’s Governors Awards on Tuesday night (Jan. 9) that she’d totally be up for a return to […]
Thirty years after the Spice Girls formed, triggering a wave of Girl Power that spread the globe, the classic lineup will reunite for a project.
Though details remain under lock and key, founding member Mel B let the news slip out during her appearance on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna.
When asked about the chances of a Spice Girls reunion, Mel B (real name Melanie Brown) told Hoda Kotb, “I’ve been saying it forever. But now we’re actually going to be releasing some really good news in about a few weeks that involves all five of us.”A reunion isn’t a sinch, she continues. “There’s five of us, five separate diaries, we’re all parents.”
The famous five is, of course, Baby (Emma Bunton), Posh (Victoria Beckham), Ginger (Geri Halliwell-Horner), Sporty (Melanie Chisholm) and Scary Spice (Mel B) – an outfit that landed No. 1s on both sides of the Atlantic during a hot streak in the late 1990s.Will Spicemaniacs be satisfied by what’s to come? Apparently so. “100%,” enthuses Mel B. “And it’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving, without saying too much about it. I’m going to get myself into so much trouble.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The Spice Girls assembled in 1994, and had a global phenomenon two years later with their debut single, 1996’s “Wannabe.” The catchy track logged four weeks at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1997, and is one of the group’s nine U.K. No. 1 singles. “Wannabe” is still powering along, passing one billion streams on Spotify over the recent holiday period. The Brits’ debut LP Spice spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and 15 weeks at the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart (followup Spiceworld logged three weeks at No. 1 in the U.K. in 1997).It takes something special to gather the girls. The last time all five performed together was for the London Olympics in 2012, though the pop act hit the road for a tour in 2019, doing so as a four-piece without Victoria Beckham.The Spice Girls did reunite in 2022 for the occasion of Geri’s 50th birthday, an event that doubled-up as the 25th anniversary of their Spiceworld, their sophomore album. Geri had left the group in 1998 to embark on a solo career, but returning to the fold in 2007 for the Return of the Spice Girls Tour.
Reunion talk aside, Mel B used her stint on the Today with Hoda & Jenna couch to discuss her return to the America’s Got Talent judging panel, her MBE, her book, her forthcoming wedding and the Royal Mail’s special collection of Spice Girls stamps. “It is massive,” she says of the new stamp issue. “For the Royal Mail, it’s usually the Queen, and the King” on the stamps. “And now it’s the Spice Girls.”
Watch the interview below.
[embedded content]
Just how high can Sophie Ellis-Bextor dance up the Billboard Hot 100 with her resurgent, Saltburn-powered hit “Murder on the Dancefloor,” 20 years after the song’s initial release? On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about the buzzy early-aughts song, which this week debuts at No. 98 on the Hot […]
Mother Monster is back! Lady Gaga took to Instagram on Monday night (Jan. 8) to share a photo set of herself in a dimly-lit music studio, posing by the microphone in an oversized striped sweater, chunky black heeled boots and sunglasses. She captioned the post with a black heart and music notes emojis, confirming that […]
Madonna swapped a fan favorite into her set list on Monday night (Jan. 8) in Boston during the fifth act of her career-spanning Celebration concert. In the slot where she typically performs an acoustic cover of Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 disco anthem “I Will Survive,” the singer offered the audience at TD Garden a surprise unplugged run through half of her empowering 1989 Like a Prayer single “Express Yourself.”
According to fan video of the moment, Madonna raised a bottle of beer to salute 2024 with “gratitude and appreciation” before picking up an acoustic guitar and momentarily setting aside her gigantic leather cowboy hat, joking, “I have too many props… I feel like I’m in a saloon and everyone is hootin’ and hollerin’.”
She then gave thanks that she gets to perform on stage every night with her four “beautiful, talented, intelligent, opinionated children,” lamenting that her eldest, daughter Lourdes and son Rocco, have “moved on,” but that she has twin daughters Estere and Stella Ciccone on the road with her, along with older sister Mercy James and son David Banda, every night.
“I’m very grateful, because while they may need me as a mother, I must admit that I need them,” she said. “And I need you, and we need each other, cuz family isn’t just what you’re born into. Family is the family that you create. And if you feel like you’re part of my family turn the lights on your phone.”
She then sang an a cappella verse of the 1920s folk song “This Little Light of Mine” with some help from the crowd before saying that while she was telling the audience what she needs, she also wanted to share what she doesn’t need. That cued up the No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit about pushing away material riches in lieu of women speaking up, and out for themselves.
“You don’t need diamond rings or eighteen karat gold,” she crooned in the instantly recognizable “Express Yourself” second verse. “Fancy cars that go very fast, you know they never last, no, no/ What you need is a big strong hand/ To lift you to your higher ground/ Make you feel like a queen on a throne,” she sang while strumming her guitar and hitting the iconic chorus and the next verse, pre-chorus and chorus about never going for “second best.”
The mini performance ended with an a cappella sing-along with the crowd to the line “express what he’s got, oh baby ready or not.”
The career-spanning tour plays TD Garden again on Tuesday night (Jan. 9) before moving on to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday (Jan. 11).
This summer’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will feature headlining sets from Post Malone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fred Again.. and Pretty Lights. The annual blowout event camping fest on the ‘Roo Farm in Manchester, TN will take place on June 13-16 will also host Megan Thee Stallion, Cage the Elephant, Maggie Rogers, Melanie Martinez, Carly Rae Jepsen, Diplo, T-Pain, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Diplo and Jon Batiste, among many others.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The acts will take to 10 stages for the four-day event featuring sets running into the early morning, as well as sunrise performances. Other artists on this year’s poster include: Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp, Cigarettes After Sex, Fisher, Dominic Fike, Parcels, Idles, Joey Bada$$, Lizzy McAlpine, Interpol, Taking Back Sunday, Gary Clark Jr., Sean Paul, Gwar, BigXthaPlug, Michigander, The Mars Volta, Key Glock, Grouplove, Teezo Touchdown, Thundercat and Brittany Howard.
In an announcement on Tuesday morning (Jan. 9), organizers revealed that for the first time in the event’s history the main What Stage will be fired up for a special headlining set on Thursday night by Pretty Lights, who will also return for a second sunrise set on The Other Stage on the final night; Sunday’s lineup will also mark the only 2024 U.S. festival appearance by Fred again..
This year’s SuperJam (June 15) in the That Tent, “One More With Feeling(s) — The Dashboard Confessional Emo Superjam,” will feature a performance from the Chris Carrabba-fronted band with to-be-announced (as well as unannounced) guests.
Pre-sale tickets will be available starting Thursday (Jan. 11) at 11 a.m ET, with fans encouraged to sign up now for a pre-sale code here; a public on-sale will follow if any tickets remain. Ticket package options include a 4-day general admission, 4-day GA+, 4-day VIP, 4-day platinum and a variety of other camping and parking options starting at $25 down with a payment plan.
Bonnaroo 2024 will feature more than 150 performances across the campground, 150 food vendors (including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options) and free water stations.
Check out the 2024 poster below.
London’s Southwark Coroners Court announced on Tuesday (Jan. 9) that beloved “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the coroner’s office revealed in a statement, “This is to confirm that Ms. O’Connor died of natural causes. The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death. […]
