TV/Film
Page: 56
Jelly Roll was Dwayne Johnson’s rock long before the musician was a bestselling recording artist.
While appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show Friday (Nov. 15), The Rock opened up about discovering the “Need a Favor” singer’s music many years prior, during what the actor described as a rough patch in his life. “I was going through a hard time at that time — he didn’t even know it, because we didn’t know each other,” Johnson recalled.
“That was one of my bouts with depression, and I was struggling, and I was really wobbly,” he continued. “I was trying to balance a lot, we were pregnant with our second baby … my older daughter, she was long distance, I was trying to film a movie. There was a lot going on.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Johnson — who shares daughter Simone with his ex-wife, producer Dany Garcia, and daughters Jasmine and Tiana with musician Lauren Hashian, whom he married in 2019 — went on to read aloud a lyric of Jelly’s 2017 track “Only,” which the Moana star says particularly inspired him at the time.
Trending on Billboard
“What if the darkness inside of me has finally taken my soul?/ What if the angels in heaven were sent to take me home?” Johnson quoted. “Would they fight through the demons that I have in my life?/ Lord, I’m believing eventually see the light.”
“That really moved me and touched me,” The Rock concluded. “We got in contact with each other and I told him what it meant to me. We didn’t know each other but became really good friends. That’s my boy, and I love that guy.”
As host Clarkson pointed out, the exchange occurred well before Jelly hit his commercial breakthrough in late 2022 with “Son of a Sinner” — which reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and sealed in his superstar status with 2023’s Whitsitt Chapel. The Tennessee native has since scored his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with October’s Beautifully Broken, and he’s fresh off of nabbing two new Grammy nominations: best country song and best country solo performance for “I Am Not Okay.”
Jelly previously opened up on the Kelly Clarkson Show about his side of the story of his friendship with Johnson, a snippet of which the talk show played during the Jumanji actor’s episode. “He was a fan when I wasn’t worth being a fan of,” the musician says of The Rock in the clip. “By him being a fan, I was like, ‘If one of the greatest personalities of this generation — one of the greatest actors and entertainers — if he sees something in this music, maybe I’m on to something.’”
Watch Johnson gush about Jelly below.
Luke Bryan, a co-host of this year’s CMA Awards and a two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner, is set to guide viewers through country music’s current moment, offering fans a journey into the artists, songs and stories that have led the genre over the past year, when he hosts the ABC News special Vegas Lights & Country Nights: Countdown to the CMA Awards — A Special Edition of 20/20.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The one-hour special will air Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 10:01 p.m. ET on ABC, and will stream the following day on Hulu and Disney+.
Filmed in Las Vegas, the special will take fans behind-the-scenes as country music gears up for the 58th Annual CMA Awards. The awards ceremony is hosted by Bryan, Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson, and will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 20, on ABC, and the following day on Hulu.
Trending on Billboard
Vegas Lights & Country Nights will feature Jason Aldean, who will sit down for a candid discussion of his career history in Vegas, at his new Jason Aldean Kitchen+Bar Vegas location; he will also surprise first responders from 2017’s Route 91 Harvest Festival with an intimate musical performance. Bryan’s fellow American Idol judge and eight-time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood will take fans behind the curtains of her Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency, while Blake Shelton will show fans around his Ole Red Las Vegas bar while talking about his life and upcoming residency.
From there, Keith Urban will also reflect on his new album, High, and his Las Vegas residency, while Shaboozey will discuss his breakthrough year and his 17-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Shaboozey has two nominations leading into this year’s CMA Awards, including new artist of the year and single of the year for “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
The special will also feature conversations with Thomas Rhett, who will launch a limited Las Vegas residency in December, as well as Carly Pearce, who offers an all-access pass to her “Hummingbird” tour stop in Las Vegas. Dustin Lynch, Brandi Cyrus and the YEEDM DJ duo VAVO will also provide an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at their performances at the Professional Bull Riders after-party.
Vegas Lights & Country Nights: Countdown to the CMA Awards – A Special Edition of 20/20 is produced by ABC News Studios and 20/20. Emily Whipp serves as executive producer, and Janice Johnston is senior executive producer. Monica Escobedo serves as senior entertainment producer.
Get an early look at the ABC News special below:
Jon M. Chu is giving a bit of insight into the highly anticipated film about the life and career of pop princess Britney Spears. “I cannot talk much about the Britney story other than I have been a Britney fan for many years,” the director told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “I saw her […]
Boyz II Men have joined the list of beloved artists getting the biopic treatment.
The group — which includes members Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanyá Morris — have partnered with Compelling Pictures and Primary Wave to develop the film, according to Variety. Additionally, Compelling is working on a documentary about the group’s rise and impact throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and how their success continues today.
Producers for the upcoming film include Denis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri for Compelling; Larry Mestel for Primary Wave; Joe Mulvihill for the Mulvi Group; and Jeremy M. Rosen for Roxwell Films. All three members of Boyz II Men will serve as executive producers for the project, along with Ori Allon, Dennis Casali and Steven Garcia. The producers are reportedly in talks with writers and directors to lead the project.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“We’ve been waiting to find the right partners who understand our story and are willing to tell it all,” Morris said in a press statement. “Denis and Jeff at Compelling Pictures understood us day one.”
Trending on Billboard
Among the musicians whose biopics are currently in production include Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Jenni Rivera, Janis Joplin, Queen Latifah, Sublime and more.
Biopics have proven to be wildly successful over the past few years. 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which grossed over $900 million globally) gave Queen’s discography a major boost. In the six months following its release, Queen’s music streams tripled, from 588 million to 1.9 billion. Sales, too, had a 483% increase from the previous year. In mid-2019, the band occupied the top two spots on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.
Meanwhile, Elton John’s hits collection Diamonds occupied the No. 4 slot thanks to a biopic boost from the 2019 musical Rocketman. In June, the set also catapulted to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it John’s 20th top 10 album.
Josh Groban, whose 2007 holiday album Noël topped the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks, will headline a festive-season special for CBS, Josh Groban & Friends Go Home for the Holidays, set to air on Dec. 20.
Musical performances include holiday classics, new releases and duets with Groban and his guests, including James Bay, Jennifer Hudson, Tori Kelly and The War And Treaty.
Hosted and executive produced by Groban, the special is said to feature a new format combining compelling stories, music, comedy and a live adoption on stage, celebrating the creation of a new family.
Trending on Billboard
“I am honored and excited to host a show with friends old and new to celebrate the unity and togetherness of the holidays,” Groban said in a statement. “It’s especially important because it will spread the importance of adoption and will feature the most incredible kids. I can’t wait for everyone to watch with their families, sing along and hopefully make room in their hearts and homes for a child who needs one.”
For the last 25 years, Home for the Holidays has shined a light on the thousands of American children in foster care, and has inspired tens of thousands of adoptions. Josh Groban & Friends Go Home for the Holidays continues its legacy of showcasing the transformative power of adoption and the true meaning of family.
Josh Groban & Friends Go Home for the Holidays is produced by Triage Entertainment and Goldsmith Entertainment. Groban, Karen Mack, Stu Schreiberg, Stephen Kroopnick, Marilyn Seabury and Diarmuid Quinn are the executive producers. Jennifer Perry, Nicole Cadena and Kelly Brock are producers. Michael Simon is director.
The special was filmed in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills, Calif.
Groban’s previous specials include Josh Groban in Concert (2002) and Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show (2022), both for PBS.
Josh Groban & Friends Go Home for the Holidays is set to air on Dec. 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).
Emmy-winning composer Siddhartha Khosla was elected to the Television Academy’s board of governors, representing the music branch. Khosla will serve a two-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2025. Khosla has received seven Primetime Emmy nominations for his work on two hit series – NBC’s This Is Us andHulu’s Only Murders in the Building. He won his […]
KATSEYE are turning up the girl power. The group’s single “Flame” is featured on the upcoming soundtrack for Netflix’s Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, and was officially released on Thursday (Nov. 14). The song, which will also be the animated series’ theme song, is included in a new teaser for the show, starring and executive […]
Two years after Lady Gaga‘s “Bloody Mary” was resurrected by a runaway TikTok trend surrounding Netflix’s Wednesday, Mother Monster has reportedly joined the Jenna Ortega-led cast.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gaga will appear in the second season of the hit Addams Family-inspired show slated for 2025. Details regarding her role are still unknown, but production is currently under way in Ireland.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Gaga and Netflix for comment.
Trending on Billboard
Though the cameo will mark the “Rain on Me” singer’s first official step into the Wednesday universe, she’s unofficially been in the show’s orbit since its first season premiered in 2022. When one scene of Ortega — who plays the titular role of Wednesday Addams — dancing to The Cramps’ 1981 single “Goo Goo Muck” went viral, fans began editing the sequence to Gaga’s Born This Way deep cut “Bloody Mary.” The edits sparked a broader trend on TikTok of users re-creating the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star’s choreography, which the Oscar winner herself tried out that December.
The “Bloody Mary” craze also propelled the song into the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, a full 11 years after it was first release. It bowed at No. 41 in April 2023.
Centered on Wednesday’s experience leaving her famous spooky family behind for boarding school, the first season of Wednesday featured Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez and Fred Armisen as Uncle Lester. Emma Myers played Ortega’s onscreen best friend Enid, while Gwendoline Christie portrayed Nevermore Academy principal Larissa Weems and Christina Ricci — who played Wednesday in 1991’s The Addams Family — starred as Marilyn Thornhill.
Around the time of the “Bloody Mary” resurgence, Ortega addressed the possibility of Gaga joining the cast. “I’m sure Netflix would love that,” Ortega said on the Golden Globes red carpet in January 2023. “If Lady Gaga were to be a part, [she and Wednesday] would have to be two monsters that understand each other.”
This year, Gaga starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux — for which she dropped a companion album, Harlequin, in September — and she previously acted in A Star Is Born, American Horror Story and House of Gucci.
The musician is also currently gearing up to release her seventh studio album in February. Its lead single, “Disease,” dropped in late October, debuting at No. 27 on the Hot 100.
Charli XCX is pulling double duty on Saturday Night Live this weekend as both host and musical guest, which means that 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s Studio 8H is getting a whole lot more Brat. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a new promo for the upcoming episode, […]
Fans just got their longest tastes yet of two highly anticipated Wicked performances from stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, with the film sharing extended looks at the former’s “Popular” and the latter’s “The Wizard & I” Wednesday (Nov. 13).
Accompanied by a visual lyric display, the “Popular” video finds the pop star as Glinda, frenziedly dressing up the Pinocchio actress’ perplexed Elphaba in pink accessories. “Don’t be offended by my frank analysis/ Think of it as personality dialysis,” she sings on the signature track, originally performed by Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway. “Now that I’ve chosen to become a pal/ A sister and adviser, there’s nobody wiser/ Not when it comes to popular.”
In the “Wizard & I” video, Erivo roams the campus of Shiz University and explores the Ozian outdoors while belting out the hopeful ballad, adding her own custom riffs. (Sorry, Wicked superfans, it looks like you’ll have to wait for the full movie to hear her take on the track’s famous final high note.)
Trending on Billboard
“When I meet the Wizard/ Once I prove my worth/ And then I meet the Wizard/ What I’ve waited for since, since birth,” she sings, making the Idina Menzel-originated song her own. “He’ll say to me I see who you truly are/ A girl on whom I can rely/ And that’s how we’ll begin/ The Wizard and I.”
The new videos come just nine days ahead of the premiere of Wicked Part 1, which hits theaters Nov. 22. Part 2 will arrive one year later. Leading up to the movie’s theatrical release worldwide, the two stars — and the rest of the Wicked cast — have been traveling to various premieres, most recently greeting fans on the red carpet in Mexico City Monday (Nov. 11).
As sampled in the newly released performance videos, both Grande and Erivo sang live vocals on the set of Wicked. “When we were shooting it, those girls were like, ‘F–k the pre-records,” Chu recalled in a March Vanity Fair interview. “We’re going live.’”
Watch Grande sing “Popular” above, and see Erivo perform “The Wizard and I” below.