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BT21 celebrated its five year anniversary on Thursday (Dec. 29), and J-Hope crashed the virtual festival to share a special video message for the occasion.
“Congratulations on your fifth anniversary, BT21,” the K-pop idol said while squeezing an adorable MANG plushie. “We BTS have already been together for 10 years — I hope the same goes for you guys and that five years won’t be your end. I hope you guys stay strong together for [the] next 10, 15, 20 years and so on.
“I will root for you guys! And good luck on the various promotions, projects and businesses coming up. Hope you make bank,” he continued before breaking out into laughter and adding, “I’m just kidding. We will be here supporting you guys throughout your journey.”
J-Hope then went on to encourage BT21 to “spread positive energy and brightness” to the people who love and support them — including the members of BTS. “I wish you guys the very best and fighting!” he said to conclude his video message.
Designed by BTS, the eight BT21 characters were launched in 2017 and include blue koala KOYA, alpaca RJ, cookie SHOOKY, playful puppy CHIMMY, heart-headed TATA, pom-pom-wielding bunny COOKY and gray alien VAN, along with J-Hope’s aforementioned dancing pony.
On the very same day as the 2022 BT21 Festival, Suga dropped a 10-minute video on the official BANGTANTV YouTube channel of himself attending an introductory hip-hop class. Just before the holidays, V also covered “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” for ARMY.
Watch J-Hope’s message to BT21 above.
Look out 2023, here comes a new and improved Miley Cyrus. In a teaser clip for NBC’s upcoming new year’s special, A Toast to 2022!, the 30-year-old pop star shared that her resolution for next year is to be a better listener — and revealed that it was actually Dolly Parton‘s husband who inadvertently inspired her to set her mind to it.
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“I guess my resolution would really be — my instinct is very loud, but I’m not a great listener sometimes,” she told Today host Hoda Kotb in the clip, premiered exclusively by People. “Dolly was telling me, her husband [Carl Thomas Dean] says, ‘You’re not hard of hearing. You’re hard of listening.’ And I guess that would kind of be my resolution, to not just listen to myself, but listen to others.”
“I always say that my truth, and the opposite of what that is is also true,” Cyrus continued, before switching gears to talk about entering her 30s. “Somehow I’m completely different, and then somehow I’m exactly the same. Now, in my 30s — I mean, my 20s were so much fun. If you don’t believe me, I think you can Google it…”
Cyrus and Parton — who you may also know as Cyrus’ godmother in addition to country music legend — will both appear in the Hannah Montana alum’s new year’s special Miley’s New Year’s Eve. Also featuring Sia and Latto, the special will air at 10:30 EST Saturday (Dec. 31) on NBC, shortly after A Toast to 2022! wraps up on the same network.
In another clip from Cyrus’ Toast to 2022! interview, posted on Today‘s website, the “Midnight Sky” singer revealed that she almost went brunette for her own new year’s special — but Parton, wanting to continue having matching hair colors with her goddaughter, shut down that idea immediately.
“I’ve never seen Dolly actually scared before,” Cyrus continued. “She acted like I told her the worst news you could imagine.’ She goes, ‘You can’t do that. You are me.’ So I’m somehow some extension of Dolly Parton, where she looked like I had just given her the worst news you’ve ever heard. So I will be blonde.”
Aside from singing, BTS is also known for its larger-than-life dance moves and crisp choreography. And despite going on 10 years of being in the septet, a good dance practice every now and then helps keeps its members in peak performance shape.
Suga wanted to go back to the basics and shared a 10-minute video on Thursday (Dec. 29) to BTS’ official YouTube page of him taking a Hip-Hop Dance 101 class with the help of a private instructor.
Before the lesson kicked off, Suga sat down at the camera and told viewers, “Hello everyone. At age 30, I’ve come to take dance lessons. Basic hip-hop moves. It’s been about 12 years since I last did this in high school. I’ll give it a try.”
After dancing to tracks by Snoop Dogg, 2Pac and more, Suga exclaimed, “I feel like a trainee!” referencing his days in K-pop training camp prior to joining BTS. He elaborated, “I’m a mess. This is so hard. It’s so hard to do this [basic moves] after a long time. I feel kind of dumb doing this. When I first joined as a trainee I’d never danced before.”
Suga concluded the first day of dance lessons with a message to his fans about what he has been up to lately. “I’ve learned some basic hip-hop moves. I’ve suddenly got an interest in learning at the age of 30,” he shared.” I’m taking all kinds of lessons now. I’ve started playing the keyboard again. I’m also taking guitar and dance and Japanese and English.”
The video featured two more classes with Suga honing his skills, and finished with a note from the instructor to always practice his moves, but in alternating positions in the body.
Watch Suga’s dance-lesson video above.
The Weeknd is closing in on the one-year anniversary of his fifth studio album, Dawn FM, and if you’re a fan, you might want to keep an eye on his YouTube page as the date draws nearer. In a Wednesday (Dec. 28) tweet, the 32-year-old hitmaker teased that a new music video for a song off the record is in the works, just in time for the milestone.
Dawn FM arrived one week into 2022 on Jan. 7, two years after his No. 1 record After Hours was released. On Wednesday, a fan on Twitter asked the Toronto native — born Abel Tesfaye — “dawn fm almost a year old, how do you feel?”
“i feel istheresomeoneelsemusicvideo-ish,” he simply replied.
“Is There Someone Else?” is the 10th track on Dawn FM. So far, lead single “Take My Breath” and subsequent tracks “Out of Time,” “Sacrifice,” “Gasoline” and “How Do I Make You Love Me” all have corresponding music videos.
The video tease comes on the heels of the Idol star’s latest release, “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength),” which he wrote and recorded for the Avatar: The Way of Water soundtrack. Co-written and co-produced by Swedish House Mafia, the ballad plays during the end credits of the Avatar sequel, which premiered in theaters Dec. 16.
Tesfaye is also gearing up for the European and Latin American legs of his After Hours Til Dawn Tour, which picks up again in Manchester in June. The “Blinding Lights” singer completed the trek’s North American leg in November, and is already getting hyped for next year’s excursion.
“xo bout to F–k up 2023,” he also tweeted on Wednesday alongside an artistically edited compilation of footage from his prior After Hours Til Dawn tour shows. See it below:
Taylor Swift rebounds to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Dec. 31), spending a record-extending 58th week as the top musical act in the U.S. thanks to the continued success of her album Midnights.
Plus, RM re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 6, a new best for the BTS member as a soloist.
Swift’s Midnights ranks at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart with 155,000 equivalent album units earned in its ninth week (Dec. 16-22), according to Luminate. Of those nine weeks, five have been spent at No. 1, making it her sixth album to have five or more weeks at the summit. Swift is the only woman with as many as six albums that have reigned for five or more weeks, tying her with Garth Brooks for the second-most among all acts, since the chart became a combined stereo and mono survey in 1963. The Beatles lead with a whopping 14 No. 1s that ruled for five or more weeks each.
In total, Swift places eight albums on the latest Billboard 200, the most among all acts. After Midnights, she charts with Folklore (No. 39), Lover (No. 40), Evermore (No. 42), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 46), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 80), 1989 (No. 105) and Reputation (No. 151).
Swift also charts two songs from Midnights on the Billboard Hot 100: former six-week No. 1 “Anti-Hero” at No. 9, followed by “Lavender Haze” at No. 67. As previously reported, “Anti-Hero” hits No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart, where Swift becomes the first artist with leaders in the 2000s, ’10s and ’20s, and the only act with No. 1s as a lead artist in any three distinct decades.
Plus, Swift has now spent eight total weeks at No. 1 on the Artist 100 chart in 2022. As this is the last chart week dated in 2022, she and Bad Bunny tie for the most weeks logged at No. 1 this year. The Weeknd follows with six weeks on top this year, then Adele (four), Harry Styles (three), Beyoncé and Stray Kids (two apiece).
Elsewhere on the Artist 100, BTS’ RM re-enters at No. 6 — a new high — thanks to the CD release of his solo album Indigo. The set re-enters the Billboard 200 chart at a new No. 3 best (83,000 units) after debuting at No. 15 two weeks ago, when he first reached the Artist 100’s top 10 at No 8.
RM is the sixth BTS member to scale the Artist 100 solo, after Jung Kook (No. 47 peak, earlier in December), Jin (No. 10, November), J-Hope (No. 9, July), V (No. 57, January) and Suga (No. 57, December 2021, after he soared to No. 4, billed as Agust D, in 2020). BTS has spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Artist 100, the most among groups and the fourth-most overall after Swift, Drake (37) and The Weeknd (28), dating to the survey’s 2014 inception.
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multidimensional ranking of artist popularity.
No place like home for the holidays. On Wednesday (Dec. 28), Anne Twist, mom to one Harry Styles, took to social media to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at how their family celebrated Christmas.
“Christmas 2022,” she captioned the series of four photos along with a smiley face, Christmas tree and red heart emoji. The slideshow shows off Twist’s holiday decorations and cozy fireplace, Christmas Day feast including veggies, casseroles and Yorkshire puddings, and the family’s sparkling Christmas tree.
However, the third photo of the bunch got fans most excited, with Twist posting a selfie with her pop star son, his sister Gemma Styles and Gemma’s longtime boyfriend Michal Mlynowski grinning ear to ear with their arms around one another. In the snap, Styles wears a blue hoodie beneath a yellow and black puffer jacket and an added balaclava for warmth, all with his hair pulled back off his forehead with a clip.
The laid back holiday caps off quite a major year for Styles, who scored his second career No. 1 (and broke several records) with the smash hit “As It Was” off his third solo album Harry’s House. Throughout the year, the British heartthrob also headlined Coachella, won album of the year at the 2022 MTV VMAs, starred in not one but two major motion pictures and made history with his Love on Tour show — including a record-breaking 15-night residency at Madison Square Garden.
Styles also picked up six nominations at the upcoming 2023 Grammy Awards, including trophies for album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, best pop vocal album, best pop solo performance and best music video.
Check out Styles’ cozy family Christmas below.
Kamila Valieva took the 2023 Russian Figure Staking Championships by storm last week by performing a routine to The Cramps‘ “Goo Goo Muck” dressed as Wednesday Addams.
Starting outside the edge of the rink, the 16-year-old sensation nailed her recreation of the herky-jerky dance on the Jenna Ortega-led Netflix series — all the way down to the hand motions, gothic party dress and long black pigtails.
“When the sun goes down and the moon comes up/ I turn into a teenage goo goo muck/ Yeah, I cruise through the city and I roam the streets/ Looking for something that is nice to eat,” Lux Interior’s voice sang as Valieva executed the choreography flawlessly and the audience in the stands clapped along to the beat.
Then, halfway through the program, Valieva went full TikTok as the music abruptly changed to the sped-up version of Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way album cut “Bloody Mary” and she ended the routine with a flourish.
Ultimately, Valieva took home the silver in the women’s senior championship division just behind 15-year-old Sofia Akateva. Between her short program and free skate, Valieva earned a total of 247.32 points from the judges, with her free skate even coming in at the top of the pack.
In early December, Gaga even got in on the viral fun by performing the dance challenge on her official TikTok page while Dino, Mingyu and Joshua of SEVENTEEN ran through the moves while attending LA3C with Billboard‘s own Tetris Kelly.
Watch Valieva’s Wednesday Addams-inspired routine below.
It’s safe to say that Jack Frost nipped at Shawn Mendes‘ nose, toes and everything in between this Christmas. In a daring video posted to his Instagram, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter revealed that he celebrated the holiday by taking a swim in a freezing river — and as if that wasn’t cold enough on its own, he did it while wearing nothing but his underpants.
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In the video, Mendes and a friend stand in the snow next to the river, which is visibly capped with sheets of thick ice. The “Mercy” singer then strips off his pants, sweater and boots until nothing but his black boxers are left, and he proceeds to take the plunge.
“It’s cold!” the Ontario native shouts after dipping his head into the frigid water.
And later, as he’s stepping out of the river — his skin flushed pink from the cold — he confesses, “I can’t feel a thing.”
“MERRY CHRISTMAS,” Mendes captioned the excursion.
The “When You’re Gone” musician’s friends and fans took to the comments to cheer him on. “Can take the boy outta Canada but can’t take the Canada outta the boy,” wrote Mendes’ former MagCon costar Nash Grier. “BLUE BALLS. LITERALLY,” wrote producer and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder.
Mendes’ video comes about five months after the pop star made the shocking decision to cancel the entirety of his Wonder World Tour, which he’d originally postponed by just a few weeks. He explained at the time that he needed to focus on his mental health, and the following month, he told TMZ that he was spending his time off going to therapy, hanging out with family and “taking it easy.”
In October, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, an animated film for which Mendes voiced the titular character, premiered. It featured an original song written by Mendes for the movie, titled “Heartbeat.”
Check out Shawn Mendes’ Christmastime polar plunge below:
In 2023, Jennifer Lopez‘s new era will take flight with the release of her new album, This Is Me … Now. And in her latest newsletter, the 53-year-old singer-actress opened up about one of the songs she wrote for the set, and revealed how it inspired her and husband Ben Affleck’s blended-family Christmas celebrations.
“I wrote a song called ‘Hummingbird’ for my new album. To me, hummingbirds are messengers of love,” Lopez explained in her On The JLo newsletter. “They’re very agile — can fly forward, backward, and up and down. They’re also the fastest bird but they always have time to stop, eat something sweet and smell the roses.”
“I identify with them, but more than anything, whenever I see one, I feel like it’s a sign from God that everything is going to be OK,” she added.
The Marry Me star, who said she’d spent recent weeks “hunkering down at home” after wrapping up her newest movie Atlas, went on to say that she likes to create a different theme for each holiday she celebrates.
“I decided this year that the hummingbird would be a perfect theme,” she continued. “I wanted to have a tree in the house that was a hummingbird tree, reminding us that everything done in love and with love will always be OK.”
“We have blended families, doubled the people, doubled the fun, doubled the love, doubled the presents and tripled the chaos!!” added Lopez, whose household includes Affleck (whom she married in July), his three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner — 17-year-old Violet, 13-year-old Seraphina and 10-year-old Samuel — and Lopez’s two children with ex-husband Marc Anthony, 14-year-old twins Max and Emme.
One of the ways the “Let’s Get Loud” singer and the Oscar winner celebrated the holidays this year was by hosting a star-studded Christmas party in L.A., at which Lopez wore a Gucci dress with green and gold “hummingbird” colors, she pointed out in her newsletter.
This Is Me … Now is expected next year, though its exact release date has not yet been revealed. Lopez first announced the album — a follow-up to her 2002 record This Is Me … Then — in a late November Instagram post. She also at that time unveiled the tracklist, which lists “Hummingbird” at No. 8.
See the album announcement below:
Ariana Grande made certain that kids facing injuries or illnesses during Christmas this year still felt merry and bright. On Monday (Dec. 26), it was revealed that the 29-year-old pop star had sent presents to young patients at hospitals across Manchester, England, giving back to the city more than five years after it became the site of a horrific suicide bombing after one of her concerts.
“Thank you Ariana!” tweeted the official Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital charity account. “We were so excited to receive Christmas gifts for young patients across our hospitals from Ariana Grande.”
The foundation also shared photos of some of the gifts sent by Ariana Claus, each of them labeled with a tag reading “happy holidays! love ariana grande.” The presents were divided among “babies, children and teenagers” across Trafford Hospitals, Wythenshawe Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital and the RMCH.
At the time of publication, Grande has not posted about her donation on social media. Billboard has reached out to her rep for comment.
The Wicked star’s Christmas surprise is just the latest way she’s honored the English city since the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, which killed 22 people and injured several hundred. The incident — later identified as a terrorist attack — took place as people were leaving the venue after Grande’s concert that night.
A couple weeks afterward, Grande and some of her famous friends organized One Love Manchester, a benefit concert for victims of the attack. In the years following, she’s gotten a tattoo of a bee (Manchester’s historic symbol) in remembrance, and released “Get Well Soon,” a song about her anxiety and PTSD struggles resulting from the bombing, with 40 seconds of silence added to the end of it, making its timestamp 5:22 — the date of the May 22 attack.
She’s also publicly spoken and posted on social media in honor of the victims several times over the years. “Manchester, my heart is with you today and always,” she wrote in a message on Instagram last year on the tragedy’s four-year anniversary.
“Although grief is ever-present and our relationship to it is constantly evolving and expressing itself in different ways every day, year round,” she also wrote. “I know that this anniversary will never be an easy one. Please know that I am thinking of you today.”
