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David Soul, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed star of hit 1970s cop series Starsky & Hutch and soft rock balladeer has died at 80. In a statement on Soul’s site, the actor’s wife, Helen Snell, wrote, “David Soul – beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother – died yesterday (4 January) after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family. He shared many extraordinary gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend. His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.”
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The star born David Richard Solbert on Aug. 28, 1943 in Chicago bounced between acting and singing for much of his career following an itinerant childhood in which his family moved from South Dakota to Berlin, where his father, history and political science professor Dr. David Solberg, served as the senior representative for the Lutheran World Federation refugee relief organization in the early 1950s.
According to his official bio, the talented baseball player was offered a pro contract with the Chicago White Sox after graduating from high school, but opted instead to join his family in Mexico after his second year of college, where he befriended a group of radicalized students who gifted him a guitar and taught him their nation’s indigenous songs. Soul later hitchhiked back to the Midwest and auditioned for a gig singing folk songs at the Ten O’Clock Scholar, a Univ. of Minnesota coffee house which had once hosted a young Bob Dylan.
After co-founding the Firehouse Theater in Minneapolis in the 1960s and foreshortening his last name to the more pithy “Soul,” the actor hit upon a gimmick of performing his folk songs while wearing a ski mask and calling himself “The Covered Man.” That bit landed him agency representation from the William Morris Agency, “sight unseen,” and a recurring spot on The Merv Griffin Show, where he performed his masked act; he also signed with MGM Records and released his debut album, The Covered Man.
After his first TV role in the light children’s series Flipper, Soul got a spot on the comedy I Dream of Jeannie and appeared in a 1967 episode of Star Trek, which led to his next gig playing Joshua Bolt on the comedy Western Here Come the Brides from 1968-1970. Soul appeared in a few more small screen gigs before Clint Eastwood cast him as a police officer in the gritty 1973 crime drama — and Dirty Harry sequel — Magnum Force.
That cop turn led to the defining role of Soul’s career as detective Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson on the police procedural Starsky & Hutch (1975-1979), where he starred alongside Paul Michael Glaser’s David Michael Starsky in the popular series in which the men tore around the fictional city of Bay City, CA in their signature red Ford Gran Torino with a white stripe on the side.
Soul went on to make cameos in a number of other popular 1970s dramas and comedies — Cannon, Gunsmoke, Ironside, Medical Center, The Streets of San Francisco and All in the Family, among many others — while also directing and and producing films and theater productions throughout the 1980s and staring in a number of West End production after moving to London in the 1990s.
He also launched a parallel music career with a series of soft rock hits under his stage name, beginning with his 1976 self-titled debut album, which featured a mix of originals and covers of songs by Leonard Cohen and Dr. Music. His 1976 ballad “Don’t Give Up On Us” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (while also topping the UK charts) and was followed by the 1977 No. 1 UK hit “Silver Lady” (which hit No. 5 on the U.S. charts). Several more albums followed, with diminishing returns, including 1977’s Playing to an Audience of One, 1979’s Band of Friends, 1982’s The Best Days of My Life and his final full-length, 1997’s Leave a Light On.
Listen to “Don’t Give Up On Us” below.
Kelly Clarkson is breaking down her weight loss journey piece by piece. During her Chemistry: An Intimate Evening with Kelly Clarkson Las Vegas residency, the “Breakaway” singer poked fun at her wardrobe evolution amid her recent body transformation. In a Jan. 2 TikTok, an audience member asks Clarkson to take a shot with them, prompting […]
Billy Joel will spend 2024 on the road with some good friends, with the Piano Man slated to hit a number of stadiums across the U.S. with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Sting in between his ongoing residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Joel announced the new gigs on Thursday (Jan. 4), which he […]
Billie Eilish knows that great art sometimes comes from the darkest places. And on Thursday night (Jan. 4) at the Palm Springs Film Awards, the 22-year-old singer accepted the Chairman’s Award in honor of her Golden Globe and Grammy-nominated Barbie soundtrack hit “What Was I Made For?” with an emotional speech dedicated to anyone struggling with thoughts of despair she knows all too well.
“I would really like to say that this award and any recognition that this song gets, I just want to dedicate to anyone who experiences hopelessness, the feeling of existential dread and feeling like, what’s the point, why am I here and why am I doing this?,” Eilish said while accepting the award alongside her brother/producer, Finneas, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The pair picked up the honor — marking the first time it’s been given to a musician — after a tribute from Barbie director Greta Gerwig. “I think we all feel like that occasionally, but I think if somebody like me, with the amount of privilege that I have and the incredible things that I get to do and be and how I have really not wanted to be here… sorry to be dark, damn, but I’ve spent a lot of time feeling that way,” Eilish continued.
The singer — who has openly and frequently discussed her mental health struggles — also shared a message of hope for others who have felt similar despair. “I just want to say to anyone that feels that way, be patient with yourself and know that it is, I think, worth it all,” Eilish said, adding that “it’s good to be alive now” after not feeling that way for “a very long time.”
Eilish shared that Gerwig approached the siblings about contributing to the hit movie’s soundtrack at a point when the singer was “in a dark episode and things didn’t make sense in life. I just didn’t understand what the point was and why you would keep going. Just questioning everything in the world.”
But after she and Finneas sat in a theater and screened around 35 minutes of footage, Eilish said she was overcome with emotion watching Margot Robbie’s Barbie saying and feeling things “that I really, really, really resonated with and felt so close to. I felt so seen, and I did not expect that.” The result was the hushed, emotional ballad whose spare, thoughtful lyrics plumb existential questions in a most elegant way. “I don’t know how to feel/ But I wanna try/ I don’t know how to feel/ But someday I might/ Someday I might,” she sings on the track.
“I think that this movie is the most incredible, most empowering and beautiful and funny and just unbelievable piece of art in the world, and I’m so, so honored to be a part of it,” Eilish added before turning the mic over to her brother, who used his time to pay tribute to their parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell.
“Our parents were theater people before they were our parents. They met on a flight to Alaska to do regional theater in 1984, and in the ‘90s they got married to each other and decided to start a family,” he said. “They decided that it might be a good idea to move from New York where they were doing plays to Los Angeles to maybe do some things that would make some residual income like film and television. That didn’t work out at all, and I think it underscored as children that it was okay to have dreams that didn’t pan out the way that you thought they might. And it also underscored that the entertainment industry, like all industries, is fairly unfair.”
Despite their struggle, though, Finneas said the siblings were not raised by “bitter people who hadn’t gotten to achieve their dreams. We were raised by people who did nothing but encourage us to believe in ourselves and pursue the dreams and passions that we had. I don’t particularly know how they were able to do both of those things, but they were, and we’d be nothing and nowhere without our parents, and I love them so much.”
“What Was I Made For?” is nominated for best original song at Sunday night’s (Jan. 7) 81st annual Golden Globe Awards, as well as record of the year, song of the year, best pop solo performance, best song written for visual media and best music video at the upcoming (Feb. 4) Grammy Awards.
Watch footage of Eilish’s speech below.
While accepting Chairman’s Award during Palm Springs Film Awards, Billie Eilish opens up on “dark episode” and feeling like she didn’t want to be here anymore prior to writing hit Barbie song. #PSIFF2024 pic.twitter.com/DnvZy0bJ1l— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) January 5, 2024
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Lewis Capaldi returns to his sweet spot, Gabby Barrett gives a loved one a Lone Star State-sized compliment and The Game links up with a star father-and-son team. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Lewis Capaldi, “Strangers”
If the Lewis Capaldi of “Forget Me” — lead single from last year’s Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent album — was just a little too upbeat for you, then you’ll be heartened by the sounds of his new song “Strangers.” Yes, Capaldi is back to the big balladry of breakout hit “Someone You Loved,” with the same vocally strained heartbreak in the chorus that fans fell in love with at the turn of the decade. A new wrinkle to this one, though: Capaldi sings of he and his now-gone beloved initially bonding over their shared hatred of Oasis’ “Wonderwall” (“You say you hate this song… my dear, you’re not the only one”), an insult likely to reignite Capaldi’s long-simmering feud with the Brothers Gallagher.
The Game & Big Hit, Paisley Dreams
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On New Year’s Day, West Coast rap fixture The Game dropped the nine-track project Paisley Dreams alongside veteran MC Big Hit — who released his first album The Truth Is in My Eyes last year while in his 50s, having spent much of his adult life in prison. The tight, smartly structured project has a similar energy and focus to Nas and Hit-Boy’s recent full-length team-ups — Game’s voice even sounds like God’s Son on a couple tracks — which makes sense, given that Big Hit is Hit-Boy’s father, with the latter artist even showing up as a producer on set highlight “P Fiction.”
Gabby Barrett, “You’re My Texas”
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Country hitmaker Gabby Barrett may be born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, but it’s Texas that feels like home to her in this sweet new ballad. Throughout the song, she compares her man to the Lone Star State, calling him “my home away from home/ You’re blue bonnets growin’ wild/ Boy, no matter where I roam/ You’re my Nacogdoches sky.” No telling how Steelers country might feel about the relocation, but in the land of the Cowboys, there’s sure to be a lot of young couples swooning to this one throughout 2024.
The Last Dinner Party, “Caesar on a TV Screen”
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British quintet The Last Dinner Party scored one of the breakout alt-rock hits of 2023 with the scorching “Nothing Matters,” generating a lot of buzz and anticipation for full-length debut Prelude to Ecstasy, due out in February. Before that, though, the group releases the stirring “Caesar on a TV Screen,” with lead singer Abigail Morris perhaps getting ahead of the album’s inevitable press avalanche by poking fun at her own delusions of grandeur: “I am Caesar on a TV screen/ Champion of my fate/ No one can tell me to stop/ I’ll have everything I want/ Anyone and everyone will like me then/ Everyone will love me.”
Liam Gallagher & John Squire, “Just Another Rainbow”
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Speaking of the Gallaghers: One of them is back with a new release this week, with a particularly esteemed Mancunian collaborator in tow. Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher has teamed up with guitarist John Squire of The Stone Roses, the Manchester greats who never quite crossed over to the U.S. mainstream but paved the way for the U.K.’s ’90s Britpop explosion with their attitude-driven psych-pop gems. The duo’s first release “Just Another Rainbow” might not quite be on the timeless level of “I Wanna Be Adored” or “Live Forever,” but it rocks familiarly enough to satisfy fans of the retro twosome — especially when Squire’s soloing goes into near-“I Am the Resurrection” overdrive at song’s end.
Green Day, “One Eyed Bastard”
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And if you prefer your ’90s alternative heroes to hail from this side of the pond, there’s always pop-punk paragons Green Day, still going strong 30 years after Diamond-certified breakout album Dookie. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trio is set to release their 14th studio album Saviors in two weeks, and this week they release another new taste from the set with “One Eyed Bastard,” a hard-earned winners’ anthem for the stadium-touring group who’s outlived nearly all their onetime peers: “I never asked to hear your god-d–ned feelings/ Get on your knees when you are kissing my ring.”
While the world waits for BTS to regroup in 2025 once the septet’s members have completed their mandatory duty in the South Korean military, an upcoming manga comic book will tell the story of K-pop superstars’ rise to global domination. Tidalwave Productions announced on Thursday (Jan. 4) that BTS will be the latest subjects of […]
You’ve bought the records, concert tickets and merch, seen the film. Now you can spice up your life with commemorative Spice Girls postage stamps, 15 in total. The U.K.’s Royal Mail will issue the stamps later this month as a small way of celebrating the Girl Power pack’s 30th anniversary.All told, the mail service’s bounty includes stamp sets, posters, postcards and collectables, with each piece available from Jan. 11. The top prize is the “Spice Girls Gold Stamps Set,” presented as a limited-edition (1,000 sets) featuring the issue’s stamps layered in 24-carat gold, and priced at £149.99 ($190).
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For the skint among us following the Christmas break, 30p (38c) will buy a Spice Girls “First Day” envelope.
The campaign, which celebrates the “U.K.’s biggest-ever girl group,” reads a statement, marks the first time the Royal Mail has dedicated an entire stamp issue to a female pop group.
The 10 main stamps feature images from the Brit Awards in 1997, including Ginger Spice in her iconic Union Jack dress, and their performance at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
An additional five stamps are available on a miniature sheet, comprising individual snaps from the photoshoot for the 1998 feature film, Spice World.
The lineup of Baby (Emma Bunton), Posh (Victoria Beckham), Ginger (Geri Halliwell-Horner), Sporty (Melanie Chisholm) and Scary Spice (Melanie Brown) assembled in 1994.
Two years later, with Simon Cowell on board as manager, the girl group dropped “Wannabe,” a debut that would set the tone for a new era of British pop.
“Wannabe” was the first of the Spice Girls’ nine No. 1 songs in the U.K., and, in the U.S., the catchy track logged four weeks at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1997. It’s still going strong; “Wannabe” passed one billion streams on Spotify over the recent holiday period.
The Spice Girls reunited in 2022 to celebrate Geri’s 50th birthday, an event that doubled-up as the 25th anniversary of their sophomore album Spiceworld, released back in 1997. There’s no talk, however, on the classic lineup hitting the studio or the road anytime soon.
Previously, the Royal Mail has issued stamps celebrating the careers of The Beatles (in 2007), Pink Floyd (2016), Queen (2020), Paul McCartney (2021), The Rolling Stones (2022) and Iron Maiden (2023).
Check out the Spice Girls Stamps here.
Just weeks after Selena Gomez confirmed that she’s been dating producer Benny Blanco for around six months, the celeb couple made their official public debut on Wednesday night (Jan. 3) at a Los Angeles Lakers game. The happy couple were spotted smiling and holding hands in their A-list courtside seats wearing adorably mismatched outfits, with […]
Reunited and it feels so good! Since they debuted in 1997, Destiny’s Child has become one of the most successful, beloved and acclaimed girl groups in music history. The group formally disbanded in 2006 — although they’ve since reunited at Beyoncé‘s 2013 Super Bowl Halftime Show and 2018 Coachella headlining performance — but fans have been aching for a public reunion of all of the key original members. Thanks to a pic posted by OG group member LeToya Luckett on Wednesday (Jan. 3), fans finally got their wish.
“[All love.] This was hands down my favorite moment of 2023,” Luckett captioned the post. “[The love, the joy, the prayer, the healing.] May we all experience beautiful moments like this in 2024.” In the picture, Luckett, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, and LaTavia Roberson pose backstage at Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour stop in Houston.
Beyoncé, Luckett and Roberson threw up H-Town hand signs to highlight their hometown of Houston, and Rowland and Williams opted for simple peace signs. While Beyoncé was dressed down in a simple black hoodie and sweats — she did just perform a nearly three-hour set, after all! — the four other Destiny’s Child members were decked out in glittery silvers and blacks to keep in line with the Renaissance dress code.
Fans got a brief glimpse at the moment behind the reunion picture in Beyoncé’s box office-topping Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé documentary concert film. While Beyoncé didn’t reveal exactly what the five ladies caught up on, her narration echoed the sentiments of healing that Luckett expressed in her caption. While the picture has delighted fans, it’s also sparked some rumors about more concrete reunion plans — but those remains just that, rumors.
Destiny’s Child has earned 10 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 1 hits “Say My Name” (three weeks), “Independent Women, Part I” (11 weeks), “Bills, Bills, Bills” (one week) and “Bootylicious” (two weeks). On the Billboard 200, the Grammy-winning vocal group has scored four top 10 entries, including the chart-toppers Survivor (two weeks) and #1’s (one week).
Check out the Destiny’s Child reunion picture and some of the best fan reactions below:
A Destiny’s Child reunion with all the original members?! I used to pray for times like this! 😭😭😭🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/fsA91tPQNr— Holiday Tuxedo Charles 🎅🏼 (@cedwards0527) January 3, 2024
I would literally kill all of you for a destiny’s child reunion show. Just one show.— nippy (@quinnpossibl3) January 3, 2024
Swifties have a legendary gift for finding hidden clues in every word that comes out of Taylor Swift‘s mouth. And, sometimes their intense, code-breaking treasure hunts take them down truly unexpected paths, such as a tweet from a fan on Wednesday (Jan. 3) resurfacing a 2009 Glamour magazine interview with Swift in which she appeared to manifest some aspects of her current love match.
The chat with the then 19-year-old singer included a question about whether she would have to date someone at a “similar level of success” in the wake of the release of her 2008 sophomore album, Fearless, which sold more than 2.1 million copies in two months. Less than a year after her break-up with the Jonas Brothers’ Joe Jonas, Swift said that any relationship she enters into is always going to have to be “long-distance, even if I date the boy who lives next door to me in Nashville. I’ll be flying to see him and flying him places to see me.”
Of course that teenage love speculation came 14 years before Swift would fly across the country several times in late 2023 to watch current beau Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce play, with Kelce returning the favor by jetting to Argentina to see Swift on her Eras Tour. “It feels like it would involve more scheduling, and I already deal with a lot of scheduling in my life,” Swift added at the time of the logistics needed to move a pop star (and, not for nothing, an NFL top-liner) around the country without getting hounded by the press.
“Of course, if I met somebody who was worth it, I would probably stop thinking that way!” the singer told the magazine.
It was the next question-and-answer that really got Swifties activated, though. When the interviewer wondered if Swift — who subsequently was linked to “You Belong With Me” video co-star Lucas Till, Valentine’s Day co-star Taylor Lautner, John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston and Joe Alwyn — felt like she needed to date someone at a “similar level” of success, the now-34-year-old singer gave a response that fans thought kind of manifested the Kelce love match.
“I think it’s more a question of confidence. I wouldn’t want to be with a pushover who would let me make all the plans and have all the control,” Swift said. “It’s really natural for me to go into planning mode, but I’d rather be with someone who has his own voice and passion and ambition.” Swift — recently named TIME magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year, as well as the newest member of the billionaire star club thanks to her Eras Tour grosses — appears to have found such a striver in two-time Super Bowl champ Kelce, who also hosts a popular podcasts and has a number of high-profile endorsement deals.
Though Swift kept a low-profile during her six-year relationship with Boy Erased actor Alwyn, in her TIME interview the singer said she’s not shy about talking up her connection with Kelce, while also trying to keep some things private. “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,” she told the mag in the December cover story. “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.”
Check out the fan tweet that helped spark the speculation below.
found this magazine with taylor on the cover from 2009 and this is what she said about being in a relationship back then omg some of it still applies pic.twitter.com/fqGaVxHEP7— isa (taylor’s version) 🇩🇴 (@isagonellc) January 3, 2024
