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Kacey Musgraves returned to Studio 8H on March 2.
For her third time as musical guest on Saturday Night Live, the 35-year-old country music star performed two tracks from her upcoming album, Deeper Well.
Stepping out barefoot and donning a patchwork jacket dress, Musgraves received an introduction from host Sydney Sweeney before opening with the a stirring rendition of her new project’s title track. For her second song, the singer-songwriter wrote a beautiful blue dress during “Too Good to Be True,” with assistance from her backing band.
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“I just want someone to look at me the way Sydney Sweeney looks at Kacey Musgraves,” a fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter) after the show. Musgraves responded to the post, writing, “The clip. I forgot to remove the clip,” she wrote, referring to a hair clip she’s seen wearing at the end of the program.
Musgraves took the stage as musical guest on SNL for the third time, having previously done it in May 2018 and October 2021. On the heels of winning her seventh Grammy honor Feb. 4 (for best country duo/group performance with Zach Bryan for “I Remember Everything”), the artist will release her fifth studio album, Deeper Well, on March 15, through Interscope/MCA Nashville. The project follows her previous project, Star-Crossed, which released in 2021.
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In a statement, Musgraves explained that she took inspiration for the new album from the energy in New York City’s Greenwich Village and that she recorded the project at the iconic Electric Lady studios. The album will “serve as a lens focusing on moments of life that often go unnoticed, turning them into timeless songs that strike a chord deep within listeners. Saturn returns, cardinals embody a dead friend, love is given and taken, streets rush by, belongings are packed and old chapters deserted, new love blooms, jade bracelets serve as talismans, deep lessons emerge, small details define everything, the woods are a refuge and New York City serves as the same gleaming beacon as Oz.”
Watch Musgraves’ SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
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Sydney Sweeney is making her Saturday Night Live hosting debut this weekend (March 2), alongside musical guest Kacey Musgraves.
In a series of new promos for the episode, SNL cast member Heidi Gardner expresses excitement for the “girl power” of the three girls in the scene. “Love this group of three strong ladies. I bet so many women are going to tune in this week,” Gardner says, before Sweeney expresses, “Weirdly, a lot of my fans are men.”
“Hm, I wonder why,” Musgraves responds.
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Musgraves is taking the stage as musical guest for SNL for the third time, having previously done it in May 2018 and October 2021. On the heels of winning her seventh Grammy honor Feb. 4 (for best country duo/group performance with Zach Bryan for “I Remember Everything”), Kacey Musgraves will release her fifth studio album, Deeper Well, on March 15, via Interscope/MCA Nashville. The project follows her previous project, Star-Crossed, which released in 2021.
In a statement, Musgraves explained that she took inspiration for the new album from the energy in New York City’s Greenwich Village and that she recorded the project at the iconic Electric Lady studios. The album will “serve as a lens focusing on moments of life that often go unnoticed, turning them into timeless songs that strike a chord deep within listeners. Saturn returns, cardinals embody a dead friend, love is given and taken, streets rush by, belongings are packed and old chapters deserted, new love blooms, jade bracelets serve as talismans, deep lessons emerge, small details define everything, the woods are a refuge and New York City serves as the same gleaming beacon as Oz.”
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Watch the promos below, and catch the full episode on Saturday (March 2) at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, before the episode heads to streaming on Peacock.
The 2024 Oscars will have strong Latin representation. Two Puerto Rican superstars of different generations — Bad Bunny and Rita Moreno — have been added as presenters for the March 10 ceremony, along with Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate McKinnon, John Mulaney, Catherine O’Hara, Octavia Spencer and Ramy Youssef.
Moreno won an Oscar in 1962 for West Side Story. In 1977, she became the first Latina (and just the third person overall) to complete the EGOT. In 2022, Bad Bunny made history when Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language album to top Billboard’s year-end chart and to receive a Grammy nod for album of the year.
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On Wednesday, the Academy announced that another popular Latin star, Becky G, would perform the nominated “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot on the telecast. Becky G was born in Inglewood, Calif., to Mexican American parents.
Previously announced Oscars presenters are Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast to outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner for the 2024 Oscars. Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan are also executive producers. Hamish Hamilton is directing. Rickey Minor is music director.
Freaknik took HBCU spring breaks in Atlanta throughout the ’80s and ’90s by storm. The cultural street party has been turned into a documentary as Hulu’s Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told is set to arrive on the streamer on March 21.
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Ahead of the P. Frank Williams-directed documentary’s debut at SXSW next month, Hulu unleashed a trailer detailing the Black excellence to give those that attended a nostalgic blast from the past and inform those who didn’t have the chance to learn about the history they missed out on.
21 Savage, Jermaine Dupri and Uncle Luke are on board as producers for the film, which also boasts appearances from Lil Jon, Killer Mike, Too Short and more.
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“At its heart, Freaknik is a music documentary. Luke is the soundtrack of Freaknik, [Dupri’s] So So Def label is directly correlated to Freaknik and 21 Savage is the new school. They’re fascinated with the wild stuff we did, the clothes and the music of that era,” Williams told Variety. “The legacy of Freaknik really started in ‘83, I don’t know if people realized that. It was about kids trying to find a place for Black joy. Freaknik wasn’t just about the party. Our goal was to show how it affected politics, culture, race, there was a lot with sexuality, gender.”
Freaknik provided a place for the youth to indulge in debauchery but also celebrate themselves as well as their sexual expression. Lil Jon called the block party the “greatest Black gathering in America.” Killer Mike joked to close out the teaser: “Trust me, your momma and daddy got down.”
However, amid all the partying, there was a dark side of Freaknik that the documentary made sure to not shy away from with scenes of violence breaking out among the overwhelming amount of partygoers and police brutality.
“The turn up, the cars, sexuality, joy, the daisy dukes — that’s the candy of it. But there’s also some vegetables in it – which is the Black empowerment, police brutality was part of it, Black cultural realization, young women realizing their sexuality, young men too,” Williams continued.
“Freaknik is really a coming of age story about a generation who was trying to find a voice in a world that didn’t accept them — but this is a place they created for themselves. Freaknik is the ultimate personification of that.”
Watch the trailer below. Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told arrives on March 21.
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In Jennifer Lopez’s new documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, producers revealed that Lizzo and a litany of other celebrities turned down cameos in the “I’m Real” singer’s This Is Me … Now: A Love Story film, but according to the Yitty founder, she never received an invite.
A very confused Lizzo reacted to a clip from the behind-the-scenes project – in which Lopez’s team says the singer is “unavailable” to participate in the film – in a Wednesday (Feb. 28) TikTok, telling followers, “Ain’t nobody told me nothing.”
“Nobody asked me,” the “Truth Hurts” artist adds, laughing. “J. Lo, I love you.”
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Billboard has reached out to Lopez’s rep for comment.
Lizzo’s reaction comes about two weeks after the 54-year-old singer-actress unveiled This Is Me … Now: A Love Story alongside her new album This Is Me … Now Feb. 16. The accompanying documentary of the album and film’s making, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, arrived Tuesday (Feb. 27) on Prime Video.
In addition to Lizzo, producers noted in the doc that Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge and Snoop Dogg were also all unavailable to appear in This Is Me … Now: A Love Story. The film did, however, nab cameos from Fat Joe, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Jane Fonda, Post Malone, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Derek Hough, Paul Raci, Trevor Jackson and, of course, Lopez’s husband and the muse behind her new record, Ben Affleck.
This Is Me … Now debuted at No. 38 on the Billboard 200. It serves as a follow-up to the Marry Me star’s 2002 LP This Is Me … Then and captures Lopez’s journey to rekindling her romance with Affleck nearly two decades after they called off their original engagement in 2004.
“This Is Me…Then was something that I wrote at that point in time that wound up capturing a moment where I fell deeply in love for the first time in that way, and I didn’t know that I would look back and I think,” she told Billboard earlier this month. “Then to have this kind of crazy, strange, magical, surrealistic plot twist where I wound up back with that person, it was insane and it was also very inspiring.”
See Lizzo’s TikTok below.
Fans will finally get to see Paul Simon dive into his songwriting legacy and the high points of his nearly seven-decade career in music when the biopic In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon hits streaming next month.
“People used to say, ‘Oh, you have your finger on the pulse,’” Simon says in voiceover in the 90-second trailer for the “definitive” musical doc chronicling the 82-year-old singer’s legendary career; the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and will bow as a two-part series on MGM+ on March 17 and 24. “No, I don’t have my finger on the pulse… I just have my finger out there and the pulse is running under,” Simon says.
In addition to taking viewers behind the scenes of the making of Simon’s 2023 album Seven Psalms, the Alex Gibney-directed doc promises to includes never-before-seen footage from throughout Simon’s storied career, from his days in Simon & Garfunkel to the global success of his landmark 1986 world music album Graceland.
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The opening montage says it all, bouncing from footage of a fresh-faced Simon at the beginning of his career in the mid-1950s, to his historical free 1981 Concert in Central Park benefit show with former partner Art Garfunkel for 500,000 and the sessions for the meditative Psalms song cycle.
“I’ve never wanted to be anything other than a singer and songwriter,” says Simon, author of such indelible hits as “Homeward Bound,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” “Loves Me Like a Rock” and the South Africa-inspired Graceland, which won the 1987 Grammy for album of the year.
His collaboration with Garfunkel — which began when they were teenagers performing as Tom & Jerry — spawned dozens of hits and classic albums during the 1960s until their acrimonious split in 1970. The pair reunited several times over the next three decades for one-off shows and a 1993 world tour, though they would never again record a full album together.
“Artie, that was a good friendship,” he says lovingly about Garfunkel in the trailer. “We thought we should express what our generation felt.”
Watch the trailer for In Restless Dreams below.
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Richard Lewis, the beloved comedian and actor known for his role as himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died on Tuesday (Feb. 27) after suffering a heart attack. He was 76 years old. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Comedian/Actor Richard Lewis passed away peacefully at his […]
Rom-coms are fun because of their tried-and-true tropes, and in the latest Saturday Night Live promo, actress Sydney Sweeney and SNL cast member Michael Longfellow pay tribute to the old “bump into each other and fall madly in love” shtick.
In a clip uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday (Feb. 28), Longfellow sorts through potential jokes — “Not funny, not funny, too funny” — as he flicks through a stack of pages walking around set. Sweeney, also wandering around set, has her nose stuck between the pages of a book titled Kafka on the Shore, which happens to be a real 2002 novel written by Haruki Murakami. Naturally, the two performers collide, with Longfellow immediately apologizing and Sweeney insisting, “No, it’s my fault, I’m sorry.”
In true rom-com fashion, Longfellow picks up Kafka and claims to recognize the title as “one of my favorite books of all time” in a ploy to ask Sweeney out on a date. “This is crazy, uh, but would you ever maybe want to…” he begins, cutting himself off once he realizes that Sweeney has already walked away while his head was in the clouds. “Oh, she left a while ago. Cool!” he says. “Whatever, I didn’t like this book, anyways.”
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Right on cue, the lighting magically changes to a purple hue (again) and whimsical music resumes, with Longfellow lamenting, “No. It’s… she said no! Didn’t work. Thank you, though.”
The union of Longfellow and Sweeney in the latest promo is an easter egg for avid SNL viewers. Back in 2022, during his debut SNL episode, Longfellow poked fun at Sweeney for allegedly having Trump-supporting family members.
Sweeney is set to host the next episode of Saturday Night Live this weekend. The actress’ star has been on the rise in recent years thanks to standout performances in The Handmaid’s Tale, Reality, Euphoria and The White Lotus, the latter two of which earned her a pair of Primetime Emmy nominations. Most recently, Anyone But You — the blockbuster rom-com in which she starred alongside Glen Powell — just crossed $200 million at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy in years, per Variety. For Sweeney’s episode, Kacey Musgraves — who is promoting her latest album, Deeper Well — will serve as musical guest.
Check out the latest SNL promo above.
All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best original song will be performed live at the 2024 Oscars on March 10. Billie Eilish and Finneas will deliver “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, which is widely expected to win the award. This will mark the third time in five years that the brother-and-sister pair have performed on the Oscars. They performed “Yesterday” as the In Memoriam song on the 2020 Oscars and their nominated “No Time to Die” on the 2022 ceremony. It went on to win the award.
Becky G will perform “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, but won’t be joined by the song’s writer Diane Warren, who has accompanied the singer on two other of her other recent nominated songs, joining Laura Pausini on “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead and Sofia Carson on “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman.
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Mark Ronson will join Ryan Gosling to perform “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, which Ronson co-wrote with Andrew Wyatt. Ronson and Wyatt won five years ago for co-writing “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, but the song was performed by the film’s stars, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
Jon Batiste will perform “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.
Scott George and the Osage Singers will perform “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon, which George wrote.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner for the 2024 Oscars. Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan are also executive producers.
Rob Paine returns as co-executive producer, and Taryn Hurd returns as talent producer. Producers Sarah Levine Hall, Erin Irwin and Jennifer Sharron, music director Rickey Minor and lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz also rejoin the team.
The show’s production team also includes director Hamish Hamilton and production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley.
John Legend is a fierce competitor. The “All of Me” singer proved it on Tuesday’s (Feb. 27) second night of the blind audition round on The Voice when he dangled one of his wife Chrissy Teigen’s signature dishes as enticement to win over an impressive singer.
The delicious moment came when season 25 contestant Nathan Chester busted out an impressive, high-energy cover of Al Green’s soul-pop classic “Take Me to the River,” which elicited chair turns from Legend and new coaching due Dan + Shay. “I’m always waiting for someone to inspire me, excite me, and Nathan, when I heard you singing, I turned very quickly, because I was like, this man’s got it!” Legend gushed about the performance that added a rocking edge to the 1974 classic.
Chicago native Chester got Legend out of his seat, clapping along and shaking his hands in the air, even as Chance the Rapper admitted he didn’t turn around after he assumed that Chester’s vocals would be a perfect fit for Team Legend. Chester also noted that he sings on cruise ships and, not for nothing, he loves cheesecake.
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While the latter tidbit seemed kind of random — though coach Reba McEntire said that made him a “man after my own heart” — Legend put on the full-court press after emerging so far with only one artist on his team. “I’ve been very selective. I’m always just waiting for somebody to inspire me, excite me and Nathan, when I heard you singing, I turned very quickly because I was like, ‘This man’s got it!,’” Legend said.
After Dan + Shay playfully noted that “there’s a reason John’s only got one guy on his team,” they also laid it on thick in praising Chester’s vocals, with Shay Mooney adding, “Also, I love cruise ships and I love cheesecake a lot!”
Legend had the closer, though. “My wife makes a mean cheesecake,” he said of spouse Chrissy Teigen, author of the 2018 cookbook Cravings: Hungry For More and its 2021 sequel, Cravings: All Together. “And you can just come to the house and have cheesecake. Homemade cheesecake,” Legend piled on, eliciting groans of “unbelievable” from his fellow panelist.
In the end, the singer’s cheesy pitch did the trick and Chester picked Team Legend.
Watch Chester’s performance below.
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