smokey robinson
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Jamie Foxx, Gladys Knight, Andra Day and JoJo are just a few of the performers taking the stage tonight for NBC’s 2024 A Motown Christmas special.
Smokey Robinson and Halle Bailey host tonight’s concert event, which airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Want to watch A Motown Christmas? Here’s what you need to know.
How to Watch A Motown Christmas Online
A Motown Christmas airs this year on NBC, and you can watch the special on TV through your local NBC affiliate. Want to watch A Motown Christmas online without cable? Livestream the show online using DirecTV Stream, which includes a live NBC feed as part of its channel lineup.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
DirecTV Stream has a five-day free trial that you can use to watch the live airing of A Motown Christmas online for free. Continue on with one of their streaming packages or cancel before your free trial is up to avoid being charged. See full details here.
Want to watch A Motown Christmas on-demand? You can stream the TV special beginning Thursday, December 12 on Peacock. The NBCUniversal streaming service will have the full show and all the performances available to stream online for subscribers. Not a subscriber? Sign up for Peacock starting at just $7.99/month here.
Trending on Billboard
Who Is Performing on A Motown Christmas 2024?
In addition to Knight, Foxx, Day and JoJo, this year’s list of performers on A Motown Christmas includes Ashanti, BeBe Winans, October London, Machine Gun Kelly, Pentatonix, Jordin Sparks and the cast of the Broadway show, MJ The Musical. Hosts Robinson and Bailey will also take the stage, alongside performances from Motown legends Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and The Temptations.
The artists will pay tribute to Motown stars like Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Four Tops, while also offering festive holiday hits.
In a new interview with Billboard, Robinson promises fans a “great night featuring legendary Motown artists and contemporary artists singing music and having a good time together.”
Watch A Motown Christmas tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC or stream it live online with DirecTV Stream here.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Chris Polk/AMA2017 / Getty
In an interview, Smokey Robinson reveals that he and fellow Motown Records legend Diana Ross became involved with each other despite him being married.
The singer was the subject of a lengthy interview while doing a promotion for his latest album. Gasms. As the conversation turned to how Robinson met his first wife, Claudette Rogers, he was first asked if he ever had a fling with Aretha Franklin who he grew up with in the same Detroit, Michigan neighborhood. When he responded no, he was asked about Diana Ross and he confirmed that they had an affair for “about a year”.
“I was married at the time,” Robinson said. “We were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful. She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together. I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.”
The “Cruisin” singer then detailed how the two split. “After we’d been seeing each other for a while, Diana said to me she couldn’t do that because she knew Claudette, and she knew I still loved my wife’ Robinson said. “And I did. I loved my wife very much.” He and Rogers would remain married until 1986. Representatives for Ross didn’t respond to requests for answers.“I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time. And it has been made taboo by us. By people,”
The 83-year-old went on to say how the situation helped him gain a greater perspective on love. “I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time. And it has been made taboo by us. By people. It’s not because one person isn’t worthy or they don’t live up to what you expect – it has to do with feelings,” he said.
Robinson’s dalliance with the “Inside Out” singer was also motivation for a funny moment in the interview, where he’s told about a rumor that he and Ross were the actual parents of the late superstar Michael Jackson. “They say Diana Ross and I had Michael? Oh my God! I never heard that one, man! That’s pretty good. That’s funny! That’s funny!” When asked if Ross has heard it, Robinson said he would call her and ask.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Smokey Robinson is an amazing talent and still going strong as he approaches the age of 83 later this month. However, the legendary singer and songwriter got some folks scratching their heads after prepping a new album titled GASMS and the song titles alone truly has Twitter saying Robinson is deep in his nasty bag.
Smokey Robinson, 82, hasn’t dropped a new project in nearly a decade according to a press release and GASMS is definitely not an acronym as far as we can tell. We’re petty certain the name is short for orgasms based on the aforementioned titles that we’re about to share below.
TRACKLIST:
01. Gasms02. How You Make Me Feel03. I Wanna Know Your Body04. I Keep Callin’ You05. Roll Around06. Besides07. If We Don’t Have Each Other08. You Fill Me Up09. I Fit In There
Currently, one of GASM’s tamer song titles, “If We Don’t Have Each Other,” is the current single ahead of the nine-track LP’s release on April 28. We don’t need to do any guesswork on songs like “I Fit In There” and “Roll Around” but we’re not mad at the living legend for getting his sexy man swag all the way up.
On Twitter, folks aren’t trying to let Smokey Robinson live and have lots to say about the upcoming GASMS and the song titles. Check out those reactions and the single, “If We Don’t Have Each Other,” below.
—
Photo: Keith Griner / Getty
-
Pages