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Lady Gaga stunned the Oscars telecast on Sunday night with her stripped-down performance of the Top Gun: Maverick ballad “Hold My Hand,” during which she took the stage with no makeup, ripped black jeans and a t-shirt.
On Thursday (March 16) the singer presented a very different take on the surprise set when she posted a TikTok of a rehearsal in which she rocked her full glammed-out red carpet look while playing the song solo on piano in her hotel room. “The rehearsal no one saw,” she captioned the intimate 82-second clip, in which she glances at the song’s lyrics laid out atop the black baby grand piano while sporting bright red lipstick and a sheer black Versace gown.
“I wrote this song with my friend BloodPop for the film Top Gun: Maverick in my studio basement,” Gaga said during her Oscars performance. “It’s deeply personal for me, and I think that we all need each other. We need a lot of love to walk through this life, and we all need a hero sometimes. There’s heroes all around us, in unassuming places, but you might find that you can be your own hero even if you feel broken inside.”
“Hold My Hand” hit No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 — one of two Hot 100 hits from Maverick, along with OneRepublic’s “I Ain’t Worried.” Lady Gaga previously won the Oscar for best original song at the 2019 Academy Awards, for her Hot 100-topping Bradley Cooper duet “Shallow” from A Star Is Born.
Check out Gaga’s stripped-down performance below.
Billie Eilish has obviously conquered the world of music. But once you see her acting debut in the creepy teaser for Donald Glover’s new Amazon Prime Video series Swarm you’ll be wondering who the “Bad Guy” really is.
The series, which premieres today (March 17) focuses on a character named Dre (Dominique Fishback) who is an obsessive fan of a Beyoncé-like pop star. In the clip Eilish posted on Instagram, she and Dre are seen in extreme close-up discussing something ominous. “I see… milk spilled on the carpet,” Dre says.
“What color was the milk?,” Eilish’s character asks with a sweetly sinister look on her face. “It was red,” Dre replies with a knowing half-smile. “Did you hurt someone?” Eilish whispers before cracking a devilish grin. When Dre says she did, Eilish praises her work as “very good.”
The show also features Paris Jackson, Chloe Bailey, Damson Idris, Rickey Thompson, Rory Culkin, Kiersey Clemons and Byron Bowers. All seven episodes of the show are now available on Prime Video.
In an interview with Billboard, Fishback opened up about portraying Dre in the series. “I really wanted to stretch myself as an actor,” said the 31-year-old actress.
“Presence was really important,” she explained of her approach to the role. “If I tried to map out Dre, I wouldn’t be able to play an authentic character because she isn’t that. It became a thing where I would do something really weird and I would try to get a reaction out of Donald [Glover]. If I could get him to be like, ‘Huh, that was strange,’ then I was doing something.”
Eilish also posted a series of snaps from the Swarm red carpet premiere earlier this week, including ones in which she’s cheesing in baggy black slacks, an oversized white button-down and black tie in a parking garage stairwell, walking the carpet, posing with Fishback and series co-creators Donald Glover and Janine Nabers and with boyfriend Jesse Rutherford.
Check out Eilish in the teaser and walking the red carpet at the show’s premiere below.
Jimin’s solo career rumbles along with the new release, “Set Me Free Pt.2”.
After teasing it earlier in the week, the BTS star’s fresh song dropped at the stroke of midnight, via HYBE LABELS, marking the first cut lifted from his forthcoming debut solo album FACE.
Loaded with snapping hip-hop beats and Auto-Tuned vocals, “Set Me Free Pt.2” is accompanied with an appropriately flashy music video.
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Helmed by Oui Kim, Jimin is the center of the attention, and at the heart of the action, as dozens of dancers glide their way through gloriously choreographed drama.
“First, we tried to focus on the performance and express the really intense vibe of the song,” explains Jimin in an interview with Consequence on the new song and forthcoming album.
“The key point was freedom — and actually, we were drinking at the time. This is the last track on the album; the last of the emotions. It’s very intense, so I wanted to announce a ‘Jimin solo’ in an impactful way.”
FACE is due out March 24. On the same day, Jimin will also share the music video for second single “Like Crazy,” which was co-written by his BTS bandmate RM.
Most recently, Jimin scored his first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100 by joining Taeyang for the BIGBANG member’s new single “Vibe.” Earlier this month, the K-pop idol gave ARMY an early present by uploading his solo tracks “Promise” and “Christmas Love” to streaming services for the very first time. (The two songs had previously only been available to stream on the official BTS Soundcloud or YouTube accounts.)
Watch “Set Me Free Pt.2” in full below.
As if Taylor Swift beginning her long-awaited The Eras Tour wasn’t exciting enough, the superstar added to the hype on Friday (March 17) by releasing four new tracks.
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“In celebration of The Eras Tour I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight,” she revealed on her Instagram Stories a day prior. The four tracks include re-recordings of Swift’s dual contributions to the 2012 soundtrack to The Hunger Games — “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound” featuring Joy Williams and John Paul White — as well as “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” and never-before-heard song “All of the Girls You Loved Before.”
The Eras Tour is set to begin on Friday (March 17) with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz., which has temporarily been renamed Swift City in honor of Swift’s imminent arrival. Support on the tour will come via a rotating cast of opening acts including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
Since the Reputation tour wrapped in 2018, Swift has released four original studio albums — Lover, 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and Midnights — as well as two re-recorded albums, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), both in 2021.
Listen to the four new songs below.
Louis Tomlinson introduced a new side of him to the world at Thursday’s (March 16) London premiere of his upcoming documentary, All of Those Voices, and his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne was there on the red carpet to support.
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In videos shared by fans to Twitter, Payne is seen taking photos and waving to fans as he walks into the premiere, shortly after Tomlinson himself also made his appearance.
The Charlie Lightening-directed All of Those Voices, out in theaters on March 22, will delve into Tomlinson’s life and musical journey, complete with never-before-seen home video footage and behind-the-scenes access to the star’s 2022 world tour.
In a previously released first look, Tomlinson discusses his days in 1D and how he grew to be the member with the most songwriting credits. ““All of a sudden, I felt in control again. The first two and a half years, I just felt like I wasn’t in control of myself or certainly had an influence on the band,” he said of writing songs while in the group. “When I think about how proud I am of One Direction, I think of us as a collective. When I think about what makes me most proud as me as an individual in that band, is definitely having the most writing credits. That makes me feel important to the band, and that’s all I ever wanted when I was a lad.”
Netflix unveiled the trailer for its new Lewis Capaldi documentary, Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now, on Thursday (March 16).
The film promises a behind-the-scenes look at the Divinely Inspired to a Hellish Extent singer’s meteoric rise to fame with his No. 1 hit “Someone You Loved,” as well as the impact the success as taken on his mental health.
“I think I’ve never been more insecure in my life than I am now,” he admits in the supercut. “And I think that’s got worse the more successful I’ve got.”
Later, the singer confesses he felt a remarkable amount of “tension all the time” to deliver a worthy follow-up to his 2019 breakout album. (“You get your whole life to write your first album, and a year or six months to write your second … The clock’s ticking,” he points out.)
The rest of the trailer follows Capaldi on the journey to improve his mental health, all as he feels the weight of everyone depending on him to continue his career. “You can only be the next best thing for, like, a year,” he says. “Of course there’s pressure … I’ll probably f–k up, but we’ll have a good time while we do it.”
Earlier this month, the Scottish crooner was forced to postpone a pair of shows in Zurich and Milan due to a doctor’s orders that he take at least three days rest to recover from a case of bronchitis.
Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now is slated to premiere on Netflix on April 5. Watch the full trailer below.
Taylor Swift announced on Thursday (March 16) that she’s giving Swifties a major surprise in the form of four new songs ahead of her tour kickoff.
“In celebration of The Eras Tour I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight,” she revealed on her Instagram Stories. The four tracks include re-recordings of Swift’s dual contributions to the 2012 soundtrack to The Hunger Games — “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound” featuring Joy Williams and John Paul White — as well as “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” and never-before-heard song “All of the Girls You Loved Before.”
Remarkably, the superstar’s re-recording of her Hunger Games collab with The Civil Wars marks the first time Williams and White have appeared on record together since the duo’s contentious 2014 breakup.
“If This Was a Movie” was originally released as a bonus track on the deluxe version of Speak Now, perhaps lending credence to the rampant fan theories that the 2010 album will be the next re-recording Swift plans to drop following both Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021.
The Eras Tour is set to begin on Friday (March 17) with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz., which has temporarily been renamed Swift City in honor of Swift’s imminent arrival.
Ahead of Tay’s wildly anticipated trek, Billboard staffers ranked her 100 best songs for the very first time in Billboard history — from “Look What You Made Me Do” (No. 100) and “Death by a Thousand Cuts” (No. 74) to “White Horse” (No. 34), “The Last Great American Dynasty” (No. 17) and beyond.
Charlie Puth and Sabrina Carpenter shocked fans on Wednesday (March 15) by locking lips in the TikTok teaser for what appears to be a new collab.
In the clip posted to the “Charlie Be Quiet!” singer’s TikTok account, the two pop stars get flirty as she attempts to feed him a candy heart while they’re surrounded by candles. “I always knew you had a tiny, tiny heart,” Puth banters before piano notes play over the scene and they lean in for the kiss.
The TikTok sensation cryptically captioned the video “3.31” and tagged both Carpenter and Dan + Shay, but fans weren’t quite sure what to make of the whole thing. “IM SORRY DID I JUST WITNESS SABRINA CARPENTER AND CHARLIE PUTH KISS?!?” one follower asked in all caps in the comments, while a second wrote, “I DON’T KNOW IF I WANT TO BE SABRINA OR IF I WANT TO BE CHARLIE.”
Other fans expressed concern over Puth’s relationship with girlfriend Brooke Sansone, which he confirmed back in December on his 31st birthday. “EXCUSE YOU WHAT ABOUT BROOKE,” one demanded. Another joked, “SHAWN MENDEZ [sic] PUNCHING THE AIR RIGHT NOW” in reference to the recent online chatter that Carpenter could possibly be dating Shawn Mendes.
The Charlie artist didn’t hint at a song title or any other details regarding his collaboration with the “Nonsense” singer, but the latter is already dropping the deluxe edition of her 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send this Friday (March 17) containing four new bonus tracks. Meanwhile, Puth most recently announced he’ll be hitting the road this spring for The Charlie Live Experience.
Watch Puth and Carpenter canoodle over a candy heart while you brace yourself for what’s coming at the end of the month below.
Niall Horan stopped by Hot Ones on Wednesday (March 16) to chat about his freshman season on The Voice while taking on the iconic “Wings of Death.”
Three hot sauces in, the former One Direction-er told host Sean Evans that rejecting hopeful singers is the hardest part of his new gig on the NBC reality show. “‘Cause I know what it’s like to be 16 and stood on a stage, and looking at some famous dude that’s got your future in his hands,” he said. “The easy part is pressing the red button, spinning the chair, saying how you like someone. But when the chair turns around and you’re not with them, how do you give them that rejection feedback? And that’s where I’ve struggled with it, but it’s full circle stuff.”
However, Horan was quick to admit there’s one person he wouldn’t have trouble saying no to as a coach: his 16-year old self auditioning for The X Factor. “I wouldn’t have turned,” he deadpanned before breaking out into a laugh. “Not for that guy. I was right place, right time. No, I don’t think I would’ve turned for myself, put it that way.
“I’d turn for me now!” the Irish singer-songwriter continued. “I’ve learned a lot, I’ve been around the block a couple of times, which is, a lot can be said for someone that’s 29. But yeah, I’d turn now. I wouldn’t’ve turned then.”
A longtime fan of the YouTube series, the “Heaven” singer, whose third solo album The Show drops June 9, handled the heat remarkably well — though he eventually broke out in the shakes when the time came to try the infamous sauce Da’ Bomb. “I’ve been nervous about this for about seven years,” he joked before taking a big bite.
Watch Horan make his way through all 10 sauces during his Hot Ones interview above.
Halsey is not in the mood for anyone’s b.s. in the first look at director Tony Tost’s heist drama Americana. In a 90-second sneak peek that dropped on Wednesday (March 15), the singer — rocking a 1970s-style choppy shag cut and all-black ensemble — is minding her own business while filling up her orange muscle car when she’s interrupted not once, but twice.
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“Beautiful day today,” says Paul Walter Hauser’s (Black Bird) character Lefty to Halsey’s Mandy. “Still, they say it might rain. Any big weekend plans?,” he continues. Mandy is clearly not interested, snapping back, “Hey buddy, today is not the f—ing day.”
The confrontation is interrupted by Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria), whose character Penny Jo sticks a gun into Mandy’s back demanding the mythical Native American artifact that she and Lefty were planning to steal. “Do you have the artifact?” Penny Jo asks as Mandy looks back over her shoulder in annoyance.
“I thought you were sweet,” she says, her face softening in seeming condescension. “Do you have it?” Penny Jo repeats more menacingly as Mandy suggests she might have the object, or maybe not. “Give it to me,” Penny Jo demands. “No,” Mandy says as she finishes pumping, walks away and dares Penny to “shoot me” nonchalantly.
Americana marks Halsey’s big screen debut and according to Deadline, the movie follows waitress Penny Jo and lonesome cowboy Lefty as they plan to swipe the mythical “Lakota Ghost Shirt” from some criminals to fund Penny’s Nashville dreams. “Things get complicated when the lead criminal’s long-suffering girlfriend (Halsey) decides to take the artifact for her own personal reasons,” reads a description.
“It’s one of my favorite scenes because none of these characters are smooth, experienced criminals in the slightest, and I love how Sydney, Paul, and Halsey all play their desperate intentions and discomfort to quietly comedic effect,” Tost told Deadline. The film, Tost’s first major feature, also stars Eric Dane, Simon Rex, Zahn McClarnon and Gavin Maddox Bergman. Americana is slated to make its world premiere at 2:30 ET on Friday (March 17) at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX during SXSW.
Check out the Americana sneak peek below.
