TV/Film
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Pharrell Williams‘ autobiographical film Piece by Piece looks a little different from any of the many musician biopics that have come before it. Mainly, it takes place entirely in the Lego universe, a slice of which was finally revealed in a star-studded trailer for the project that dropped Thursday (June 6).
The teaser opens with Pharrell’s Lego avatar telling the film’s director, Morgan Neville, “You know what would be cool is if we told my story with Lego pieces.”
It then launches into animated, Legoland renderings of the 13-time Grammy winner’s childhood, followed by shots of his musical projects over the years, including the creation of his and Snoop Dogg’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Many of Williams’ past collaborators lent their voices and toy likenesses to the project, including Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z, whose recognizable laugh can be heard at the end of the trailer.
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“I loved music — it was mesmerizing to me,” Williams says in a voice-over in the trailer. “I would see beautiful hues of light cascading. I just thought that’s what all Black kids did — they stared into the speaker like, ‘Whoa.’”
Featuring two new songs by Pharrell, Piece by Piece will arrive in theaters Oct. 11. The “Happy” singer first announced the project on Instagram in January, writing at the time, “Who would’ve thought that playing with Legos as a kid would evolve into a movie about my life?”
In an interview with Variety about the trailer, Williams said that he wanted the film to “be a medium for anyone that just wanted to hear a good, aspirational, inspiring story told vividly, in a way that felt like it could apply to them personally.”
“The joy is seeing it come together piece by piece — pun intended,” he added. “My story never really made a lot of sense to most people. Because most people just choose a lane or two, and I like to cross into different lanes and go into different worlds and take what I feel like is interesting from this place and those experiences and apply them elsewhere.”
Watch the trailer for Pharrell’s Piece by Piece biopic above.
Travis Kelce has become one of the world’s most talked-about celebrities since he started dating Taylor Swift last summer, but the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has somehow remained sane through it all. And in a new interview with Good Morning America that aired Thursday (June 6), Kelce explained how. “I’ve always been a very […]
Glee was in the spotlight, and on the cover, of the May 8, 2010-dated Billboard, nearly a year after the Fox series’ cast made its chart debut. Wrote Ann Donahue that issue, “Still in its first season, the program has sucked in young fans with its inventive mix of musical-theater brio, pop-chart savvy and outsider empathy.”
On the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 6, 2009, the troupe’s covers of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” entered at Nos. 4 and 98, respectively, the former with a hefty 177,000 downloads sold in the U.S. in the tracking week, according to Luminate. The songs appeared in the first Glee episode, which aired on May 19, 2009.
The Glee cast rocketed to a record 207 Hot 100 entries (through its last, a cover of the Bob Dylan-penned “To Make You Feel My Love” in October 2013), as Fox and Columbia Records unveiled a strategy of releasing multiple songs, with a focus on pop and Broadway favorites, digitally after each new Glee episode. (Notably, with the songs essentially serving as souvenirs, and almost all devoid of radio airplay, 173 of the 207 titles spent a single week on the Hot 100.) Between May 2010 and March 2012, the act logged 15 weeks each with five debuts; four weeks each with six arrivals; and two weeks each with seven.
On the Hot 100 dated Feb. 26, 2011, not even two years into the show’s run, the Glee cast passed Elvis Presley’s longstanding record for the most appearances to that point. Through June 8, 2024-dated list, only Drake (332) and Taylor Swift (263) have made more visits.
Glee
Joe Viles / TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved, Courtesy: Everett Collection
“I remember I talked to [executive producer] Dante Di Loreto and [co-creator] Ryan Murphy and said, ‘If all works well, we should see records in the top 10 and we should sell albums,’” Geoff Bywater, then-head of the music department at 20th Century Fox Television, said in the 2010 Glee cover story. “‘And, if all that works, we should do a tour.’”
Any such doubts were extinguished over the show’s nearly-six-year run (through March 20, 2015). In addition to its Hot 100 haul (a sum that includes three top 10s, with “Believin’ ” its highest charting hit – it even outperformed the No. 9 peak in 1981 of Journey’s classic original), the Glee ensemble scored 31 Billboard 200 album chart entries, 14 of which hit the top 10, including three No. 1s. Its to-date U.S. album sales stand at 8 million.
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Along with its trademark mix of heart (often in touching scenes between Jane Lynch and Lauren Potter) and humor (almost any line by Lynch), the series was a magnet for revered pop hits, as the Glee cast charted on the Hot 100 with versions of 58 No. 1s, from its update of Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” in September 2009 through Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know” in May 2012. Also among leaders that the collective returned to the chart were songs by Adele, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Prince, Queen, Britney Spears and Usher.
As Glee’s reach surged, the show welcomed high-profile guests and the cast charted Hot 100 hits with Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Ricky Martin, Idina Menzel, Olivia Newton-John and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Matthew Morrison and Gwyneth Paltrow on Glee.
Adam Rose / © Fox / courtesy Everett Collection
To date, the Glee cast’s songs have sold 48.3 million downloads in the U.S. – and drawn 3.8 billion official U.S. streams.
Meanwhile, the Glee cast grossed $45.9 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, over 53 tour dates, all in 2010-11, highlighted by a seven-show run at London’s O2 Arena in which all 103,513 tickets sold out.
The series also received 22 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning four. Among series regulars, Lynch was honored for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series and Murphy won for outstanding directing for a comedy series, while stars Chris Colfer, Dot-Marie Jones, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison and Mike O’Malley earned nominations.
Apart from Glee billings, Michele hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in March 2014 with her LP Louder, a high among cast members on their own, after Morrison had reached No. 24 in May 2011 with his self-titled set.
Fifteen years after its premiere, the show’s fandom endures, in part on platforms that didn’t exist when it originally aired. After reaching No. 93 on the Hot 100 in May 2010, the cast’s “Rose’s Turn,” sung by Colfer, bounded to No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 this March.
Fan fervor among “Gleeks” was evident from the start, Bywater recalled in 2010. “We saw it in the in-stores we did in the beginning of the project. We did a Hot Topic tour right after the pilot, and there were 3-, 4-, 500 people. Within a couple of months, we were talking 1,500 people outside the Borders in New York.
“It happened really fast.”
Peacock’s The Traitors has locked in its season 3 cast, and it features everyone from Britney Spears’ ex-husband, model Sam Asghari, to Madonna support act Bob the Drag Queen, The Bachelorette‘s Gabby Windey and Wells Adams, Vanderpump Rules‘ Tom Sandoval and more. Described as the “most treacherous season yet,” the new installment will also feature […]
Taylor Swift isn’t a fair-weather fan when it comes to Grey’s Anatomy. She’s in it for the long haul. And the haul has indeed been very, very long. The Shonda Rhimes juggernaut has been on the air for 20 seasons over the course of two decades, but according to one of its stars, Anthony Hill […]
As allegations about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ behavior over the years continue to come to light, ABC News Studios’ IMPACT x Nightline will release a new special chronicling the producer’s dramatic fall from grace on Hulu Thursday (June 6). And in a new clip from Diddy’s Downfall shared exclusively with Billboard, Tiffany Red, a friend of […]
One of the OG coaches is returning to The Voice. NBC announced on Wednesday (June 5) that Adam Levine will be returning to the big red chairs for season 27 in spring 2025, six years after he departed the show in 2019. Additionally, Kelsea Ballerini will be coaching for the first time. Levine and Ballerini […]
For a three-time Super Bowl champion who’s dating one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Travis Kelce is doing exactly as well you’d expect. In a new teaser posted two days ahead of his Thursday (June 6) Good Morning America interview, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end had a simple but enthusiastic answer when asked by the show’s Will Reeve how he’s doing: “I’m living the dream, baby.”
The teaser also hints that the sit-down interview will touch on Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift as well as his football prowess. Plus, he’ll answer the question, “What does Travis Kelce want you to know?”
At the end of the 16-second clip, the Ohio native says the talk show’s iconic catchphrase: “Good morning, America!”
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The teaser comes just a few days after the athlete visited the White House with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the rest of his Chiefs teammates — even kicker Harrison Butker, despite his condemnation of President Joe Biden in his controversial Benedictine College commencement speech in May — to celebrate their 2024 Super Bowl win. On Wednesday’s (June 5) episode of New Heights, Kelce opened up about the outing, revealing that the Secret Service warned him not to go near the POTUS’ podium again after pulling the same stunt one year ago.
“They weren’t too happy with me,” he said on the podcast, laughing. “[They said,] ‘You know, if you go up to that podium, we’re authorized to tase you. It is actually an order for us to tase you.’”
Even so, Kelce still got to approach the podium that day, as Biden ended up personally inviting him to speak into the microphone. “My fellow Americans, it’s nice to see you all yet again,” the football player said at the time before addressing the chief of state directly. “I’m not gonna lie, President Biden, they told me if I came up here, I’d get tased. So I’ma go back to my spot.”
“I had no idea President Biden was going to ask me to come up and let me have my moment,” Kelce recalled on New Heights. “If I would’ve did something real fast or real quick … I was in my head. I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m about to get f–kin’ tased. They warned me!’”
Watch Kelce talk about “living the dream” on GMA and open up about his recent White House visit on New Heights below.
Legendary rap group De La Soul worked for years to get their influential music catalog on streaming services. Sample clearances and disputes with their old label Tommy Boy kept their albums off DSPs up until recently. It wasn’t until Reservoir Media purchased Tommy Boy as part of a $100 million acquisition that the group’s music finally became available digitally. The group and Reservoir Media worked tirelessly to format the group’s first six albums for streaming, and the new documentary Chapter 3 chronicles that journey.
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The group released the statement below on their Instagram page: “Chapter 3 chronicles the iconic studio sessions leading up to the 2023 re-release and remaster of De La Soul’s catalog, one of the most storied music collections in hip-hop. These sessions marked the first time in almost three decades that Posdnuos, Dave, Maseo, and producer Prince Paul ventured into the same studio together in service of a De La Soul project.
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“Chapter 3 captures the journey of these four grown men with a legacy to protect, as well as the memories and moments that helped them build it. The documentary provides an intimate look at the creative process, camaraderie, and passion that has defined De La Soul’s enduring legacy.”
Reservoir president Rell Lafargue had this to say when speaking on the new partnership:
“Over the past 18 months, we have worked tirelessly with De La Soul, maintaining a heightened attention to honoring the group’s original musical details, including bringing Prince Paul and the original team to the studio to prepare the catalog for streaming.”
De La Soul’s catalogue became available on music streaming platforms March 2023 and they immediately racked up 12 million streams.
Chapter 3 will livestream on De La Soul’s YouTube, Facebook and X pages, as well as their official website in different time zones starting Friday, June 7.
Check out the dates and times below.
June 7 — Los Angeles, 3 p.m.June 8 — Sydney, 3 p.m.June 9 — Chicago, 3 p.m.June 10 — London, 3 p.m.June 11 — Paris, 3 p.m.June 12 — Seoul, 3 p.m.June 13 — São Paulo, 3 p.m.June 14 — New York City, 3 p.m.
Seeing Plug 1, Plug 2 and Plug 3 together in the studio with Prince Paul is going to be special.
Only Murders in the Building is returning for its highly anticipated season 4 on August 27, and stars Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin sat down with Good Morning America on Tuesday (June 4) to discuss while fans can expect. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]