TV/Film
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Despite the fact that Wicked is undeniably “Popular,” the film won’t be making an appearance in Kuwait theaters any time soon. According to a report from Variety on Wednesday (Dec. 4), the Jon M. Chu-directed musical adaptation has been removed from theater listings across Kuwait just days before its slated release in the country on […]
The cast of the new Wicked film has an explosive week on Billboard’s charts, thanks to the release of the film’s soundtrack on Nov. 22.
The set soars in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales, Soundtracks and Vinyl Albums charts (all dated Dec. 7, 2024), while also opening at No. 2 on the overall Billboard 200. It scores the highest Billboard 200 debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical ever, dating to the list’s 1956 launch as a regularly published weekly chart.
Seven songs from the Wicked soundtrack concurrently debut on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Defying Gravity,” by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who play the film’s leads, Elphaba Thropp and Galinda Upland, respectively. Meanwhile, multiple members of the cast, including Erivo, earn their first career Hot 100 entries.
Here’s a recap of every song from the Wicked film on this week’s Hot 100.
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Rank, Title, Artist Billing
No. 44, “Defying Gravity,” Cynthia Erivo feat. Ariana Grande
No. 53, “Popular,” Ariana Grande
No. 68, “What Is This Feeling?,” Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo
No. 86, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” Ariana Grande feat. Andy Nyman, Courtney-May Briggs, Jeff Goldblum, Sharon D. Clarke & Jenna Boyd
No. 90, “Dancing Through Life,” Jonathan Bailey feat. Ariana Grande, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode & Cynthia Erivo
No. 93, “The Wizard and I,” Cynthia Erivo feat. Michelle Yeoh
No. 94, “I’m Not That Girl,” Cynthia Erivo
Erivo, Nyman, Briggs, Goldblum, Clarke, Boyd, Bailey, Slater, Bode and Yeoh all score their first Hot 100 entries. Grande, of course, is a veteran of Billboard’s charts, having now charted 90 total Hot 100 hits. She boasts eight No. 1s, including two this year: “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” from her latest solo album, Eternal Sunshine.
While Erivo and Goldblum appear on the Hot 100 for the first time, both have previously appeared on other Billboard charts. Erivo’s debut solo studio set, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, reached No. 44 on Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales chart and No. 77 on the overall Top Album Sales chart in October 2021. Plus, her song “Stand Up,” from the 2019 Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet, hit No. 31 on Digital Song Sales. Erivo played Tubman in the film, a portrayal that earned her a nomination for best actress at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2019. “Stand Up” also earned her a best original song nomination.
Erivo previously played the lead in the Broadway revival of the musical The Color Purple. She won several accolades for her performance as Celie, including the Tony for best leading actress in a musical at the 70th ceremony in 2016; a Grammy for best musical theater album (for The Color Purple soundtrack); and a Daytime Emmy for outstanding musical performance in a daytime program in 2017.
Goldblum, who plays the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Wicked, reached Billboard’s charts for the first time in 2018 with his debut studio album, The Capitol Studios Sessions. The set, with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts. It includes collaborations with comedian-actress Sarah Silverman, jazz trumpeter Till Brönner and singers Imelda May and Haley Reinhart. He returned to the charts in 2019 with his follow-up album, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, which reached No. 2 on both Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums.
Nyman, Briggs, Clarke, Boyd, Bailey, Slater, Bode and Yeoh are all brand new to Billboard’s charts. In Wicked, Nyman portrays Governor Thropp (Elphaba and Nessarose’s father), Biggs plays Mrs. Thropp (their mother), Clarke voices Dulcibear, Boyd voices Wolf Doctor, Bailey plays Fiyero Tigelaar, Slater plays Boq Woodsman, Bode plays Nessarose Thropp and Yeoh plays Madame Morrible.
Wicked has even generated a radio chart hit, as Grande’s “Popular” debuts at No. 40 on Pop Airplay, thanks to plays on stations including KMVQ San Francisco, WBLI Long Island, N.Y., and SiriusXM’s Hits 1.
Jan Dan, the talented Newark-born contestant on The Voice, made his final stand during the Dec. 4 live shows with a powerful rendition of John Mayer’s “Gravity.”
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Competing for the coveted Instant Save, Dan’s soulful performance impressed the audience and judges, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough to secure him a spot in the top five.
Dan’s heartfelt take on the 2005 ballad was a showcase of vulnerability and raw talent. “Gravity,” a song that earned Mayer a Grammy for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, provided the perfect canvas for Dan’s expressive voice and emotional connection. The song’s history on the Billboard charts—including a peak at No. 18 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in 2007—underscored its significance as a timeless anthem of struggle and resilience.
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Though the audience ultimately voted Danny Joseph from Team Reba into the final five, Dan left the stage with a message of gratitude. “Gwen, I love you. You’ve helped me evolve as an artist and a person,” he said, reflecting on his journey from a budding talent to a standout performer.
Gwen returned the love, saying, “You keep surprising me. It’s true, you have broken out of your shell. It’s crazy, you’ve got the swag, you’re sexy. Everything about that performance you just did, you’re moving people because you’re an artist. You’re really a true artist that just has a vision for yourself and you keep going towards that vision no matter what happens next, because I do believe in you. You’re so talented.”
A father to a newborn daughter, Nori Arabella, Dan often spoke of her as his inspiration throughout the competition. Balancing fatherhood with his pursuit of musical success, he delivered standout performances, including a duet of “Roxanne” with Adam Bohanan, featuring Sting himself on bass.
Mayer’s track “Gravity” has had a notable impact on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 18 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in 2007 and holding its place for 12 weeks. It also appeared on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 list, where it reached No. 20 in 2006.
Watch Jan Dan’s powerful final performance on The Voice here.
The Voice is wrapping up season 26 with a star-studded finale this month, and NBC revealed on Tuesday (Dec. 3) the performers for the episode. Myles Smith, Riley Green and Ella Langley, Tears for Fears, season 24 winner Huntley, season 25 winner Asher HaVon and former Voice coaches Dan + Shay and Kelly Clarkson will […]
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Jeopardy! continues to set the standard for game shows as it tests contestants and viewers on your knowledge of mystery categories from U.S. history to geography. The trivia game show’s world is now expanding with Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which will hone in on a specific category testing your awareness on current trends, viral moments and celebrities.
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You can watch Pop Culture Jeopardy! online when it premieres on Wednesday (Dec. 4) and see Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost bring his comedy chops as host for the new game show.
Fans of the classic Jeopardy! don’t need to fret, as the original isn’t going anywhere. Instead, Pop Culture Jeopardy! will bring a fresh twist to the trivia show you know and love. Instead of solo contestants competing against one another, you’ll watch as teams of three work together to answer questions spanning categories like Broadway, MMA, The Avengers, alternative rock and more. The winners not only walk away with bragging rights, but a cash prize of $300,000.
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Keep reading to learn the streaming options available.
How to Watch Pop Culture Jeopardy! Online for Free
Prime Video is the exclusive streaming platform that’ll let you watch Pop Culture Jeopardy! online. You’ll need to be a Prime member in order to stream the game show, just log into your account and you’ll instantly be able to watch Pop Culture Jeopardy! for free.
New subscribers can take advantage of Amazon’s 30-day free trial that’ll get you access to everything in the Prime Video library (including Pop Culture Jeopardy!) for no extra cost. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged the regular membership fee of $14.99/month or $139/year.
Adults ages 18-24 and students at an accredited college can score a six month free trial and 50% off subscription when you sign up for Prime Student. If you’re a part of a qualifying government program you can even snag a 30-day free trial and half-off subscription through the EBT/Medicaid membership.
In addition to being able to watch Pop Culture Jeopardy online, you’ll have access to the entire Prime Video library featuring exclusive and original content like Cross, My Old Ass, Them: The Scare, Jackpot, Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Fallout, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, The Boys, Gen V, Harlem and Candy Cane Lane.
You can expand your streaming options through Prime Video’s add-ons featuring premium channels like Max, Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, AMC+ and more.
Watch the trailer for Pop Culture Jeopardy! below:
Nathy Peluso dazzled during her late-night TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday (Dec. 2), captivating audiences with a powerful performance of “El Día Que Perdí Mi Juventud” and “Corleone” from her latest album, Grasa. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Adorned in an […]
Because they knew each other, Kristin Chenoweth and Ariana Grande have been changed for good — and now, they have matching jackets to prove it.
On Monday (Dec. 2) — just over a week after Jon M. Chu’s Wicked premiered in theaters Nov. 22 — the 56-year-old singer-actress revealed on Instagram that she’d surprised the 31-year-old pop star with coordinating pink denim coats while on set together. In the film, Grande plays Glinda — a role Chenoweth originated on Broadway — while the Our Little Secret star makes a cameo alongside Idina Menzel, who first played Cynthia Erivo’s role of Elphaba.
“Leading my babygirl down the yellow brick road,” Chenoweth captioned her post, sharing multiple photos of herself and the “Yes, And?” singer posing in their new apparel. “I surprised @arianagrande with these jackets on set at @wickedmovie… a little physical memento of our ‘passing of the wand.’”
The backs of the jackets feature custom illustrations of Grande and the Broadway legend holding hands while walking down Oz’s famous Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City, both of them dressed in Glinda gowns. The two women have been in each other’s lives for about two decades now, first meeting when the Victorious alum saw the original Broadway cast of Wicked when she was a child. When Grande was cast to play Chenoweth’s iconic role in the two-part film adaptations, the latter was on hand to give the former advice and support throughout the two-year production process.
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“[Ariana] was really nervous,” Chenoweth recalled on The Kelly Clarkson Show last year. “She said, ‘I want to pay homage to you but I’m scared. I want to make you proud.’ I go, ‘Well you’ve already made me proud, so it doesn’t matter … What I want to encourage you to do, Ariana, is make Glinda your Glinda. Sure, you can tip your hat at me if you want, but really I just want you to do you.”
In her Monday post, Chenoweth added, “I’ll lead you down any road you let me, Ari. I’m so so proud of you baby. 🫧”
The “We Can’t Be Friends” artist wrote in the comments, “my entire heart 🫧 thank you for your thoughtfulness, generosity and support ♡ my Glinda.”
In the 10 days since its release worldwide, Wicked has seen massive success. Its soundtrack album recently opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — the highest ever debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical on the chart — and the film has so far brought in over $260 million in North America, becoming the highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office based on a Broadway musical.
The project has also generated newfound interest in the original Broadway soundtrack led by Chenoweth and Menzel. A quarter-century after it was first released, the musical’s album reached the top 40 of the Billboard 200 for the first time ever, jumping to No. 33 on the chart dated Dec. 7.
The original Broadway cast recording of Wicked reaches the top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, nearly 21 years after its release in December 2003. The set jumps 79-33 on the chart dated Dec. 7, following continued buzz generated by the recently released film adaptation of the long-running stage show.
The Broadway show, which opened in New York in October 2003, launched with Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba (played by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the film).
Wicked is just the seventh musical cast album to reach the top 40 of the Billboard 200 in the last 25 years, following Bruce Springsteen’s solo show Springsteen on Broadway (2018) and the original Broadway cast recordings of Dear Evan Hansen (2017), Hamilton: An American Musical (2015), If/Then (2014), The Book of Mormon (2011) and Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2008).
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The new Wicked film opened in U.S. theaters on Nov. 22 and has earned more than $260 million at the U.S. and Canada box office. Its soundtrack debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, marking the highest debut for a soundtrack of a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical.
In the tracking week ending Nov. 28, as reflected on the Dec. 7-dated Billboard 200 chart, the Wicked Broadway cast recording earned 22,000 equivalent album units (up 60%) while the Wicked film soundtrack starts with 139,000 units.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 7, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
The original Broadway cast recording of Wicked had previously peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard 200 in March of 2014. Chenoweth and Menzel starred in the Broadway show from its opening through July 2004 and January 2005, respectively. Wicked has continued to play on Broadway since its premiere in 2003, and with more than 8,100 performances, it is the fourth-longest running show in Broadway history.
The original Broadway cast recording of Wicked also spends a 350th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart, which ranks the week’s top-selling musical stage show albums. Wicked has the second-most weeks at No. 1 on Cast Albums since the list began in January of 2006. The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton: An American Musical leads the pack with 411 weeks at No. 1.
The Wicked cast album also debuts on the Top Streaming Albums chart at No. 38, where the Wicked movie soundtrack debuts at No. 4.
Ice Cube recently revealed a script idea he had for an early version of the highly anticipated fourth film of the Friday franchise.
The rapper and filmmaker sat down with former NFL quarterback Cam Newton on his podcast before Thanksgiving break and broke done the script’s premise. “I wrote a script where Craig and Day-Day, they had a dispensary. They had a flash mob in there and they caught one of the kids and beat his little a–, and they end up going to jail,” he began.
“So they in jail duckin’ Deebo, they in jail duckin’ Damon, they in jail duckin’ the Joker brothers. And then they get into a rehab. — and I was trying to get Chris [Tucker] back — Smokey was running the rehab, but it was a bullsh– rehab where he was taking everybody’s weed and smoking it in the basement.”
He then talked about how his initial idea was shut down because some film executives weren’t into the idea of the movie being set almost entirely in jail. “They were like, ‘Jail’s not funny, it’s too much time in jail. How can you make jail funny?’ And I’m like, ‘Man, y’all don’t know what the f— y’all talking about.’ Then they come out with Orange Is the New Black, Let’s Go to Prison, all these movies about that. And I’m like, ‘See, more Hollywood execs don’t know what the f— they talking about.’”
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Cube has expressed his frustration in the past about trying to make the franchise’s fourth installment, but told Million Dollaz Worth of Game that the tentatively titled Last Friday has finally gotten off the ground. “Yeah, it’s coming back,” the West Coast legend told Gillie and Wallo. “We gonna do what we need to make it dope, make it funny, bring it up to date, introduce new characters, bring back the old characters, create the feeling the movie gives you.”
Chris Tucker also expressed being open to reprising the iconic role that helped turn him into a household name, while also placing the onus on the movie studios. “It’s studios, and they gotta want to do it, and then it’s producers and all that stuff. It’s a lot that goes with it,” he told host Big Tigger during a March interview on Atlanta’s V-103 radio station.
You can watch the full interview below.
Gracie Abrams and Hozier are the latest artists to set their sights on Saturday Night Live as the comedy series nears the end of the year. As announced Monday (Dec. 2), both musicians will serve as musical guests on respective episodes in December, with the “That’s So True” singer-songwriter expected to make her debut Dec. […]