State Champ Radio r&b
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Mary J. Blige says she appreciates all the kind words from fans after her name was included on the stacked lineup for this year’s Lovers & Friends festival in Las Vegas on May 4. Unfortunately, the singer said in an Instagram Story on Thursday (Jan. 25) that was a mistake. “I am beyond humbled by […]
“Caliber” singer Coco Jones stopped by Sherri Shepherd’s syndicated show on Friday (Jan. 19) to talk about her 2024 Grammy nominations, her desire to keep holding up the R&B genre, and most importantly, to share a flawless, funny Mariah Carey impersonation.
Aware that Jones has gone viral for her impersonation skills, Shepherd cued up the “Celebrity Spin” game to test Coco’s skills at nailing a famous voice in a wacky scenario. Britney Spears ordering a latte? Nailed it. Rihanna on a roller coaster? “Oh hey now, hey now. Stop de ride, stop de ride,” Jones sang in RihRih’s signature island-soaked timbre.
Jones definitely saved the best for last, though. Asked to conjure Mariah on the phone with Shepherd’s in-house turntablist, DJ Suss One, Jones gathered her thoughts and busted out, “Hey Mr. DJ, are you gonna play my favorite song,” in a perfect Carey coo, topped by a signature sky-high MC whistle note.
The singer who is nominated for five Grammy Awards — including best R&B performance, best R&B song, best R&B album, best traditional R&B performance and best new artist — told Shepherd the very first person she called to celebrate the good news was, of course, her mom. “I called my mama when I landed,” Jones said. “My mom was the team before the team. She was the one knocking on doors on behalf of her little 9-year-old just to beg somebody to listen, so I want he to see that her sacrifice has paid off.”
The Bel-Air star also spilled on what’s next for her character Hilary Banks, promising that she will continue to “stir the pot” and “surprise you guys” in season three of Peacock’s reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The 26-year-old singer also revealed that she’s hoping to have her full-length debut album out this summer. To date, Jones has released a handful of EPs, including 2022’s What I Didn’t Tell You, which featured her only Billboard Hot 100-charting single to date “ICU,” which peaked at No. 62.
Watch Jones on Sherri below.
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Though he’s currently running through the paces of rehearsals for his first go at it, Usher knows the rigors of preparing a Super Bowl halftime show. With just 13 minutes to perform a career-spanning set and eight minutes to set up the stage, the singer told Vogue magazine in a new digital cover story that there he knows there is no room for error.
“It has to be perfect,” said the “Yeah!” singer known for his mind-bendingly smooth dance moves and elaborate staging. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I want people who have been a part of that journey to feel like it’s a celebration for everybody, for all of us, from the beginning up until this point.”
Because the pre-game specifics of the halftime show are notoriously tightly-held, there were no details to share about what songs fan can expect to hear, even though Usher did give the magazine a sneak peek about his Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII set. Among the items definitely on the checklist: roller skating, killer choreography, one major costume change and, unlike last year’s performer, Rihanna, some special guests.
“This night was specifically curated in my mind to have R&B take the main stage,” he said, teasing that he’s pulled together a team who represent the architects of the genre to help him compile the set list. “Not just R&B music, but R&B performance, R&B connection, R&B spirit.” The singer who tearfully closed out his 100-show Las Vegas residency in December, said he’s also been thinking about such other legendary Vegas icons as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley while putting together the show.
“I’m literally speaking to every woman. I want to make it feel like that,” the legendarily lusty singer said of aiming for a sensual intimacy in the 65,000-capacity stadium, while also keeping in mind other legendary Super Bowl halftime shows as he celebrates his own history.
“I’m thinking about the fact that I’ve been able to walk through the front door as a result of their sacrifice and ability,” he said of the legacy of such previous Black icons as Michael Jackson and Prince, as well as what R&B means in a country where some of its most famous practitioners had to enter the stage through the kitchen door in the 1950s and 60s due to segregation.
“It’s made me feel joyous. It made me feel like I want to go out there, and I want the world to smile when they look at me. I want them to feel something, and feel my passion, my love, feel like I was the right person to sit in this position, and I was the right person to bring this kind of energy and love and connection to the entire world,” Usher said.
“People will tune in for a football game, but I hope when they look at that halftime performance, I’m hoping they walk away with something that’s healing them,” he added. “Something that makes them feel hopeful, and not just look at the past, but have hope for the future, and have hope for a different type of future than we’re looking at right now in the present.”
The 45-year old singer is gearing up to release his ninth studio album, Coming Home, on Feb. 9, just two days before he takes the stage at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the big game. It’s a gig that his fans will tell you is a long time coming, but which didn’t materialize until Jay-Z called up to ask Ush to do the honors this year.
“Every day I’m kind of sitting here and I take a moment to just look at where we’re going to be, which is right there,” Usher told the magazine while pointing to the shiny black glass spaceship of a stadium in the Nevada desert.
And, not for nothing, the writer reveals that they have already heard an “afrobeat-inflected earworm” from Coming Home, assuring fans that it is “20 tracks of absolute bangers.”
Zayn Malik has hopped on a remake of “Tu Hai Kahan,” the 2023 No. 1 hit from Pakistani trio AUR. The song was re-released on Friday (Jan. 12) with additional Hindi-language vocals on the mesmerizing ballad’s chorus from Malik. “I was incredibly humbled when AUR reached out and asked me to collaborate on their song […]
Take that, rewind it back, Usher is about to make the Super Bowl go smack! This year’s Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show star dropped the trailer for what promises to be a super-hype game break on Friday morning (Jan. 12).
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The first look at what Usher has in store came via a one-minute hype video taking viewers on a kaleidoscopic trip through 30 years of Ush. It opens with a gospel choir singing “Peace Up,” as various other fans second that emotion over a church organ and the choir adds “A-town down” in a tribute to the clip’s soundtrack song: 2004’s smash with Lil Jon and Ludacris, “Yeah!”
After a woman says “take that and rewind it back,” the camera rolls into the past to 1998, after Usher’s second album, 1997’s My Way, blew the singer up into a global superstar thanks to such hits as “You Make Me Wanna…” and “Nice & Slow.” The clip even includes some old video of a pre-fame, teenage, babyfaced Usher smiling in the studio as a group of double-dutching girls reveal that “Yeah!” is their favorite song.
The song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 consecutive weeks in 2004 bubbles up and gets reworked by a marching band, subway flutist, teenage string quartet, late night diner beatbox crew, pianist and pal J Balvin — who recreates the famous oven door meme — amid footage of Ush killing it on stage. Another friend, BTS singer and “Standing Next To You” collaborator Jung Kook makes a brief cameo, along with NBA superstar LeBron James, who also can’t help singing along to the hit’s indelible chorus.
The clip ends with Usher, 45, standing against a red background wearing shades and an open-to-the-navel shirt black shirt and matching gloves as he swings his signature U pendant around his neck framed by the words “One performance. 30 years in the making.”
Usher announced he was taking on the iconic gig in September, saying in a statement, “It’s an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before. Thank you to the fans and everyone who made this opportunity happen. I’ll see you real soon.”
The inaugural Apple Music-sponsored Super Bowl Halftime Show took place last year with Rihanna setting new viewership records as she unveiled her second pregnancy during a performance. Usher will bring his hits to the stage in Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for this year’s game on Feb. 11 as he gets ready to release his upcoming ninth studio album, Coming Home, on Feb. 9. The big game will air live on CBS and stream live on Paramount+, NFL+ and Vix.
Watch the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show preview below.
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The annual MusiCares Charity Relief Auction will take place live for the first time ever from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles (and online) on Feb. 4. The event that will unfold on the same day as this year’s Grammy Awards will feature a stellar selection of one-of-a-kind items from many of this year’s nominees, as well as some other past Grammy-winning stars.
Among the more than 75 unique collectibles on the list are late Fleetwood Mac singer Christine McVie’s Yamaha C3 “Songbird” baby grand piano (estimate: $20,000-30,000), which she played on stage for two decades during the band’s concert encores. Bidding will also take place on a Baby Taylor Swift model acoustic guitar (estimate: $5,000-$7,000), a signed hardcover edition of Paul McCartney’s two-volume The Lyrics: 1965 to Present (estimate: $1,000-$2,000) and Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield’s signed black ESP LTD Vulture electric flying V guitar (estimate: $4,000-$6,000).
Other items on the auction list include:
— Harry Styles’ 1999 Gretsch White Falcon hollow-body electric guitar, signed and dated 2023 with a heart and swirl drawing
— Cure singer Robert Smith’s black RS-1000 Stage Artist Edition signature Schecter acoustic guitar — played on stage at the band’s May 2023 Hollywood Bowl show
— A pair of Dr. Dre’s all-white Nike Air Force 1 Low ’07 signed sneakers
— Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh’s signed 2015 Fender Hot Noiseless Stratocaster guitar from his personal collection
— Bad Bunny signed 2011 Schecter Diamond Series model T S/H-1 semi-hollow body guitar
— Lionel Richie’s gold sequined performance bomber jacket featured “All Night Long” in white Swarovski crystals across the back
— Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash’s signed 2023 Gibson Les Paul Anaconda Burst guitar with green flame maple top with Slash’s “Scully” doodle
— Coldplay singer Chris Martin’s colorful handwritten setlist from the band’s show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in Oct. 2023
The auction will also feature signed “Cleopatra” lyrics from the Lumineers, Eagles guitarist/singer Don Felder’s 2010 Gibson guitar, DJ Khaled’s signed Les Paul studio guitar, Willie Nelson and Friends signed 2023 Martin D-10 acoustic guitar (featuring the signatures of Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, Bob Weir, Snoop Dogg, Beck, Tom Jones and more), Jon Batiste’s signed Hohner Instructor 32 melodica and James Brown’s custom-tailored navy jacket with blue and black floral brocade lining and an embroidered label featuring the late soul singer’s name, plus more items to be revealed in the coming weeks.
There are four ways to bid for the items, including online and live in real time here, over the phone, in person at the auction site and an advance absentee bid available here. In addition to the Julien’s and MusiCares sites, the livestream will fun on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Live.
All auction proceeds will benefit the MusiCares program, which provides the music community with services in physical and mental health, addiction recovery, unforeseen personal emergencies and disaster relief.
The 2024 Grammy Awards are set for Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Culture Club singer Boy George names names and does not hold back in his new memoir, Karma: My Autobiography. Especially when it comes to some fellow 1980s celebs he says were not so nice to him back in the day. The flamboyant, technicolor star who once sang “Don’t Talk About It” on his new wave group’s 1984 album Waking Up with the House on Fire definitely talks about it in the book out now.
According to an excerpt in People, George quips, “When it comes to me and Janet [Jackson], let’s wait a while.” George said the two pop idols met during their respective 1980s peaks on the show Solid Gold, where Janet superfan George approached the “Rhythm Nation” singer without his signature bold makeup on to express his love for her.
“She wasn’t friendly and didn’t try to be. But I just walked off and got myself into my best ‘Boy George’ and was walking around backstage to make sure I was seen by everyone,” he writes in the book, where he also notes that a member of Jackson’s crew later approached him with video camera in hand asking him to record a message for Janet.
“‘Next time you meet someone, be nice,’” George replied. Later, George said he was swept into Jackson’s dressing room, where she said she hadn’t recognized him earlier. “‘Are you saying you would have been nice to me if you knew who I was?’ We parted on awkward terms,” he said of their stilted exchange.
Things were not much friendlier the next time they meet at the long-running U.K. music series Top of the Pops several years later, where he reported that Jackson “looked straight through me.” George (born George O’Dowd), 62, told People he has nothing else to say about the incident now, noting that sometimes when you write a tell-all there’s a “chance you’re going to bump into someone that you’ve written about,” and that he’s secure in his truth about how people behaved.
“I’m always someone who’s prepared to bury the hatchet because there’s always another opportunity to be different,” he said, adding, however, that at this point, “there’s certain people I’m never gonna be friends with unless a miracle happens — and I guess I put her [Jackson] in that category.”
“I love Janet Jackson’s music and I love Madonna and I love all the people I’ve written about,” George told People. “I suppose when you write things about other artists, it’s also — note to self — you remember that perhaps there’s been times in your life when you weren’t friendly to everyone you met.”
George also had similar feelings about late rock icon Tina Turner — who he doesn’t mention in the book — though he told People that she also “wasn’t nice to me, which was a shame.” He says he’d been invited to an Elton John show and in a tiny, celeb-packed dressing room afterwards among such luminaires as Faye Dunaway and Ben Kingsley, John introduced him to Turner, who, he said, “turned her back.”
He never figured out why Turner reacted how she did, saying it may have had to do with his drug-taking at the time. “I’d just come off drugs — so maybe she was disapproving of that,” he said. Regardless, George said he’s still “the biggest Tina Turner fan on the planet. I mean, I forgave her and I loved her.”
“It’s 1,000% easier to be nice,” the singer told the magazine. “Not only Is it easier to be nice as it’s better for you.” In an earlier excerpt, People noted that the book covers everything from George’s violent childhood in South East London as as bullied teen to his four-month prison stint in 2009 after a conviction for falsely imprisoning and assaulting a male escort and his $2.3 million dollar legal battle with former bandmate/lover Culture Club drummer Jon Moss.
12/21/2023
The genre is in great hands.
12/21/2023
Jung Kook and Usher set the dance floor on fire in the new video for their remix of the BTS star’s “Standing Next to You.” In this case, a moodily lit abandoned warehouse flooded with daylight stands in for a club, but either way, the dynamic duo fill the space with slick move after slick […]
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains the identity of the contestant eliminated on Wednesday night’s (Dec. 13) episode of The Masked Singer.
Anteater isn’t gonna lie: His super-awkward costume on The Masked Singer was cumbersome and, frankly, pretty ugly. But the dulcet-voiced veteran singer charmed the judges with his Battle run through Justin Timberlake’s Trolls hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling!,” a Philly soul take on the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” and an energetic Smackdown cover of Toni Basil’s “Mickey.” His gritty ramble through one of his favorite songs, Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis,” cemented early on that this was definitely an A-lister, which might explain the top-shelf guesses.
Robin Thicke was pretty sure it was Jackson Browne or Paul Simon, while Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg was thinking it was either Bob Seger, E Street Band guitarist “Little” Steven Van Zandt or Willie Nelson, and Nicole Scherzinger guessed John Cougar Mellencamp or Bryan Adams. Always-wrong Ken Jeong, as usual, was way off, guessing ’80s pop heartthrob Rick Springfield.
After self-described leftie “short king” Anteater’s final high-energy rip through his childhood favorite, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” on Wednesday’s show, the cat, or ant, was out of the bag. The man behind the long snout was none other than mustachioed Hall & Oates member John Oates; also eliminated on Wednesday night’s season 10 Group C finals was Candelabra (Keyshia Cole), with Donut advancing to next week’s final against Cow, Gazelle and Sea Queen.
Billboard spoke with Oates, 75, before his elimination to find out how he chose the costume, why his intense cardio helped him survive the costume and whether the show has been a welcome distraction from the Hall & Oates lawsuit headlines.
Who came to you with the offer to be on the show? Were you already watching it?
I found out about it through my PR and social media team. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t aware of the show until I did a guest spot on The Goldbergs and [star] Hayley [Orrantia] reached out to me to say I was going to be a clue on The Masked Singer [when she was the Ringmaster in season 7]. I had no idea what she was talking about and then I started watching and said, “Wow!” That was my introduction to the show. I kind of followed it and then when it was a good time for me in between tours … I’m always up for something new and I realized how massive the reach of the show is. Here was a chance to talk to folks like you about my new music coming out in the spring, my single out next week and the charity work I’m doing with Feeding America and Movember.
I’m not gonna lie, John, Anteater is probably the ugliest costume to date so far. Why did you pick that one?
Thank you. That’s what we were going for. I have to be honest, I didn’t like the costume when they showed me the rendering. “Why that?” Then I thought maybe it was a subtle connection between [Hall & Oates’ 1982 hit] “Man Eater” and Anteater, which I thought might be a subtle clue without being a clue. At a certain point they convinced me it’s cool, but I’m still not sure it’s true.
The arms were so long you couldn’t even hold the mic!
I had what I call a “Madonna mic,” the Janet Jackson mic that goes around your ear. The weird thing is I could only flap my arms up and down and it also had gigantic shoes that had a pair of sneakers inside the giant boots. I had to put my foot into the giant boot, so I could barely walk and I couldn’t see.
You’re 75 years old, but you had so much of what the kids calls “rizz” onstage. How did you keep your wind up in that cumbersome costume?
It got challenging near the end, especially during the Smackdown performance, and then I had to sing it again. I ride my bicycle, cross-country ski and hike — so for my age, I’m in really, really good shape. The hardest thing for me was I couldn’t see because they had choreography for me and I had to count out the steps and sing at the same time. I should have gotten a freakin’ medal for that!
You seemed to really get out of your traditional lane with Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” and the Smackdown with “Mickey.” Were you excited to explore some different genres?
The “Mickey” one was too weird. But it’s fun and it’s crazy. I don’t mind being thrown into a situation like that and being on a tightrope. I’ve been singing “Johnny” since I was 6-7 years old when it first came out. It was one of the first songs I learned.
Were any of your friends or family hitting you up knowing it was you?
My wife and my team knew. When I had to go to L.A. to do the show every week for three weeks — I have a lot of friends in L.A. — I would go out to dinner with them and they’re like, “Why are you in town?” I was like, “Oh, I’m doing a TV pilot.” I would do the show all day and then hang with friends and lie to them.
In a way you’re kind of the best singer for the show since people know your vocals from songs like “She’s Gone” and “Time Won’t Pass Me By,” but you kind of slip under the radar by being able to do different styles.
That was one of the things that intrigued me and made me want to do it — the reaction to me singing without knowing my past. Daryl’s vocals are the signature of the big Hall & Oates hits, so I do fly under the radar. It was interesting to see what type of artist they thought I might be: Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, Willie Nelson… that one threw me. It was interesting to see what the reaction would be when they heard someone singing and connect their voice with the image and career without a preconceived notion of who it could be.
The guesses were definitely all over the place and, I assume, kind of flattering? Bob Seger, Wilie Nelson, Paul Simon, John Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, Billy Joel and Rick Springfield?
All people who I really respect and like.
Is this the weirdest gig you’ve ever had?
It right up there! [Laughs] Right up there with when I was inducted into the Mustache Hall of Fame and performed a Halloween show for them where everyone in the audience, including women, wore mustaches. That was weird.
You also said it’s the most fun you’ve ever had. What was so fun about it?
It was just so fun to sustain this secret over a month. During the last episode I was scheduled to play the Newport Folk Festival — talk about a conflict in styles! — so on Sunday I played a show in the afternoon, took the red-eye and then Monday I started rehearsing and doing choreography. I was wasted, really tired, and it was the last episode. When I got unmasked, I wasn’t 100% disappointed.
Are you bummed you didn’t win? Who do you think has the inside track to win?
It was OK. It was a great experience and I some fun doing it, but when it was done I was pretty happy about that.
Tell me about your “Get Your Smile On” single. It’s such a sweet, old-school soul song, but with a bit of a modern drum machine touch.
It’s a song I wrote during COVID — I wanted to write something really positive — and this is a great time to put it out, with all proceeds from the download of the song going to Teen Cancer America. It’s a good-feeling song and I recorded it all at home on Garage Band.
I know you can’t talk specifics, but has it been fun promoting this show as a distraction from the headlines you’ve been dealing with lately about the catalog dispute with Daryl [Hall]?
Any time I can talk about music and not the other stuff, that’s better.
Well, I hope that all gets resolved and we can see the two of you perform again together someday soon.
Yup, we’ll see.
The Masked Singer season 10 finale will air on Fox on Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. ET.
