TV/Film
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During the premiere of Tomorrow Was Beautiful — in which Karol G highlights the impact of Selena Quintanilla on her own career — the Colombian artist was surprised with top-secret news from Netflix. The cat is now out of the bag, as it has been officially announced that a new Selena documentary is coming to […]
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Ever wondered how some of the biggest acts in K-pop were made? Amazon‘s documentary Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop dives deep into the inner workings of the popular music genre as seen through the eyes of legendary South Korean business executive and record producer Lee Soo Man.
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Directed by Ting Poo, the one hour and 47-minute film is currently available to stream on Amazon’s Prime Video via a Prime subscription, which will run you $14.99 per month. The documentary was made available on the streaming platform on May 13.
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‘Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop’
A brand new Amazon’s Prime Video documentary discussing the life and work of legendary music producer and businessman Lee Soo Man.
From Man’s beginnings in the traditional town of Jeonju, to his work at hallowed entertainment company SM Entertainment, the documentary chronicles the good, bad and ugly of the K-pop industry, with the hallowed producer behind the wheel. Many credit Man with starting what is known as the “Hallyu wave,” a phenomenon that speaks to the surge in popularity of South Korean culture, particularly its music, dramas and films.
Man founded SM Entertainment back in 1989. During his roughly 33 years at SM Entertainment, Man is credited with creating some of the company’s most popular groups, including Exo, Super Junior, Aespa, Girls Generation, Red Velvet, NCT, TVXQ and SHINee. The company is largely credited as a key driver of the global success of K-pop. Man left the company in March of 2023 due to a slew of logistical issues and a heated management dispute, which are briefly touched on in the documentary.
While the Hallyu movement began in the 1990s, the figurative wave has grown to monsoon levels, taking the music industry by storm. The K-pop sphere has gained major recognition over the past few years, becoming an immensely popular genre throughout the world, thanks to the work of Man and industry bigwigs like him. This documentary is a must-watch for fans of the genre who are seeking an insider’s perspective on some of their favorite groups.
Travis Scott and thousands of others’ lives changed on the night of Nov. 5, 2021, at the rapper’s Astroworld Festival in his hometown of Houston. The event left 10 festivalgoers dead and hundreds more injured following a lethal crowd surge.
Billboard can report that the events surrounding the tragic festival at NRG Park will be featured in the first episode of Netflix’s upcoming anthology series Trainwreck.
Titled “The Astroworld Tragedy,” the episode will explore the concert’s failures from the perspective of those in the middle of the chaos, with input from survivors, mourning family members, paramedics and security guards.
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Look for the premiere episode of the series to arrive on June 10. Yemi Bamiro is on board as director of “The Astroworld Tragedy,” while Hannah Poulter will serve as co-director and producer.
Eight individuals were pronounced dead at the scene in November 2021, and Harris County medical examiners confirmed that two more people died as a result of their injuries days later. The official cause of death was listed as compression asphyxia; the victims ranged in age from 9 to 27 years old. There were about 50,000 people who attended the festival in total.
Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
Netflix
Scott and Live Nation became the subject of aplethora of wrongful death lawsuits in the wake of the tragedy, all of which were settled by the parties by May 2024.
“I always think about it, those fans were like my family. You know, I love my fans to the utmost,” Scott told GQ in 2023. “It has its moments where it gets rough and, yeah. You just feel for those people. And their families.”
The rest of the Trainwreck series is set to delve into other disasters, including “political scandals, media hoaxes, cult-like corporations and reality TV” debacles, according to the press release. Episodes after “The Astrworld Tragedy” will be released by Netflix each of the following seven weeks, wrapping up on July 29.
Watch a trailer for Trainwreck below.
Good news! Fans are finally getting their first looks at Wicked: For Good, with Universal Pictures announcing the release date of its first trailer while unveiling the film’s poster Wednesday (May 14).
As revealed first on the official Wicked Instagram account, the sequel’s official poster finds leading ladies Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande — who portray Elphaba and Glinda in the live-action musical duology, respectively — looking stoic as they stare each other down while standing on opposing rocky cliffs separated by a deep ravine. At the bottom, the franchise’s famous Yellow Brick Road leads the way to the Emerald City, which looms on the horizon in the center.
“You will be changed,” reads text on the poster, a play on the lyrics to Elphaba and Glinda’s “For Good” duet from the Wicked Broadway musical, on which the films were based.
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The poster offers fans their first visual of the sequel to Jon M. Chu’s first Wicked film, which hit theaters in November 2024 and has so far grossed $755.4 million worldwide — more than any other film adaptation of a Broadway musical — as of Monday (May 12). It also shows Erivo and Grande’s characters in brand new outfits, with the former embracing her persona as the Wicked Witch of the West in her signature pointy hat and an edgy black coat that billows out behind her, while the latter wears a tiara and multicolored ballgown.
But while the artwork is all viewers get for now of Wicked: For Good, they’ll soon get their first proper view of the November-slated installment. Shortly after unveiling the poster, the Wicked Instagram account announced that the sequel’s trailer will premiere in theaters on June 4 as the first film returns to the big screen for one night only in the United States and Canada.
“We know you’ve been waiting for this, and it’s finally coming,” Erivo says in a video sharing the news, standing next to the “Positions” singer.
“You will be changed …,” adds Grande before the Pinocchio star finishes, “For good.”
Tickets for Wicked‘s single-night return to theaters are on sale now. The announcement comes just two days after NBC revealed that a Wicked event special featuring Grande, Erivo and some “special guests” would both air on the network and stream on Peacock in November.
Modeling the arc of Act II in the Wicked stage musical, For Good is expected to pick up during the aftermath of the events of the first film. Elphaba is forced into hiding after the Wizard of Oz (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum) convinces the realm that she’s, well, wicked. Meanwhile Glinda assumes her role as people’s princess and government mouthpiece in the absence of her best frenemy.
“It gets messy,” Chu told Variety of the sequel’s plot in January. “I think if [audience members] are following the emotions of this movie, they’ll walk with us.”
See the new Wicked: For Good poster and trailer announcement below.
Rihanna fans who are desperate for new music don’t need to feel blue any longer — the superstar finally has a new song coming out soon, recorded for the Smurfs movie soundtrack.
As revealed Wednesday (May 14) with the release of the film’s new trailer, Ri will drop a track called “Friend of Mine” on Friday (May 16). The teaser also features snippets of the song, which finds the Fenty mogul singing over a dreamy Afrobeats-inspired dance track, “You’re looking like a friend of mine.”
Starring Ri as the voice of Smurfette opposite John Goodman, James Corden, Nick Offerman, Sandra Oh and more, the Smurfs movie is set to hit theaters July 18. In addition to the “Umbrella” singer’s new song, its soundtrack will also feature Tyla as well as a song called “Higher Love” by DJ Khaled, Cardi B and DESI TRILL, which dropped in February.
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The new teaser opens with a shot of Rihanna — aptly wearing a blue jacket and blue beads in her hair — dancing in the studio as she records some of Smurfette’s lines. It then shows a preview of the film’s storyline, with the residents of Smurf Village traveling to the real world to save Papa Smurf (Goodman) after he’s kidnapped by evil wizard Gargamel (J. P. Karliak).
In addition to starring and singing in the film, Ri also served as an executive producer on the latest addition to the Smurfs franchise. While announcing the project back in 2023 at that year’s CinemaCon alongside Paramount and Nickelodeon, the musician — who was pregnant with second son Riot Rose at the time — said, “I get to show up in my PJs in my third trimester … I hope this gives me cool points with my kids one day.”
“Friend of Mine” will mark Ri’s first release since 2022’s “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. She hasn’t dropped an album since 2016’s Anti, which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
The new trailer comes a week after Ri attended the Met Gala with partner A$AP Rocky, who was one of the event’s co-chairs this year. On the red carpet, she showed off her baby bump, revealing that she’s expecting her third child with the rapper.
And though fans have been waiting for a new Rihanna album for nine years at this point, the musician says that her latest pregnancy isn’t going to stop her from working on Anti‘s follow-up. “Noooooo!” she told Entertainment Tonight when asked whether that would be the case on the Met red carpet May 5. “Maybe a couple videos! I can still sing!”
Watch the new Smurfs trailer and listen for snippets of Ri’s new song “Friend of Mine” below.
The party don’t stop for Kesha‘s biggest hit, “Tik Tok,” which has remained one of the most popular songs from the late 2000s more than a decade later. But according to the pop star, she originally thought the track was “too dumb” when she first wrote it.
While serving as a guest on The Jennifer Hudson Show Tuesday (May 13), Kesha recalled being blown away by the success of “Tik Tok” after it dropped in 2009. “No, oh my god,” she said when asked whether she ever expected it to become such a big hit.
“When I was writing ‘Tik Tok,’ it was weird, because the dumber it got, the better it got,” the “Praying” singer continued. “Which was confusing, because I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent human being. But it just got dumber and dumber and better and better.”
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Kesha added, “When I listened to the final product, I was like, ‘This is too dumb.’”
Regardless, there was nothing dumb about what the track would do for her career. “Tik Tok” would launch the California native to superstar status, becoming not just her first solo Billboard Hot 100 entry, but her first No. 1 on the chart. It would also remain in the top spot for nine weeks, her longest run at the chart’s summit, and helped Kesha’s first album, Animal, debut atop the Billboard 200.
Fifteen years later, the musician is gearing up to release her sixth studio album, . (Period), her first LP under her own label, Kesha Records. Her departure from Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe Records — the founder of which also produced much of Animal — comes after a yearslong legal battle with Dr. Luke over Kesha’s claims that he drugged and raped her in 2005, after which he sued her for defamation while calling the allegations “false and shocking.” Their ensuing legal battle continued for nine years before the two parties finally reached a settlement in 2023.
Of finally getting to release music fully on her own terms, Kesha told Hudson, “I’m really excited for the world to hear this, because I’ve been in control of everything.”
“It’s been all of my vision, all of my words, a lot of hard work, a lot of joy,” she continued, tearing up. “Really coming back home to myself and feeling what freedom really looks like, feels like, sounds like.”
Watch Kesha’s conversation with Hudson below.
A wide range of guest performers will hit the American Idol stage Sunday alongside this year’s top 14 contestants ahead of the live crowning of the 2025 winner during the three-hour finale, Ryan Seacrest announced on Monday’s (May 12) live episode. Sunday’s performers include: Brandon Lake, Goo Goo Dolls, Good Charlotte, Jennifer Holliday, Jessica Simpson, […]
Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem had a big influence on one of the biggest movies of the year. In a clip posted by IMAX on social media, Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier explained how going to see Christopher Nolan’s movie Tenet at IMAX headquarters while working on music videos with the two cousins during the pandemic […]
Madonna fans have been waiting for years to see the Queen of Pop get her very own biopic — and according to a new report, they may finally get to see one. According to a report from Deadline on Monday (May 12), Madonna has teamed up with Deadpool & Wolverine producer Shawn Levy to develop […]
She’s back, y’all! NBC announced Monday morning (May 12) that Reba McEntire will make her way back to the spinning red chairs of The Voice as a coach for season 28. Set to premiere this fall, the upcoming season marks the superstar’s fourth go-round on the popular reality singing competition after joining the fun as […]