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It’s early in season 26 of The Voice, but Monday night’s (Oct. 21) kick-off of the Battle rounds had the coaches wondering if they’ve already spotted one of this season’s frontrunners. With the blind auditions in the rear view, coaches Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Michael Bublé and Reba McEntire counseled their teams on strategy, then had the unenviable task of pitting two of their chosen vocalists against each other.
Stefani picked two promising teens on her team, 15-year-old Buffalo, N.Y. native Sydney Sterlace and 19-year-old Pittsburgh singer Sloane Simon, tasking them with taking on Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather.”
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Sterlace was up first, appearing a bit nervous as she crooned, “I want you to stay/ ‘Til I’m in the grave/ ‘Til I rot away, dead and buried/ ‘Til I’m in the casket you carry.” Simon proved she was equally up to the task, jumping in on the second verse with airy, confident vocals as she stared down her opponent.
The women then sang directly at each other as they dueted on the song’s wistful chorus, “Birds of a feather, we should stick together/ I know I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone,” changing places and expertly working the stage as they blended their voices and did their best to stand out during the individual bits with impressive runs and soaring ad libs.
Proud coach Stefani leapt to her feet (along with McEntire) as Bublé told the pair that their singing was “really beautiful” and Gwen admitted that she was totally “momming out right now.” Bublé said he could sense a bit of nervousness in Sterlace’s vocals, noting that she was not as settled as her battle mate, “nor should you be. You’re 15. Besides that your voice was great, I loved that you moved towards Sloan,” he said.
Snoop added that he was “thrilled” with the performance, dubbing both singers “true professionals… do not let the age dictate what you could possibly be because we were all young once upon a time.” Snoop dubbed them equally good, suggesting Stefani shold pick the singer she can “grow with,” even as the No Doubt and solo star lamented, “how can a mommy choose between their daughters?”
McEntire also said she was impressed with both, but suggested that her vote would be for Simon, agreeing that Sterlace has some more years to develop her craft. “You’re gonna blossom like the most beautiful rose ever,” she said. “‘Cause you’re a beautiful bud right now.”
Stefani said her heart was in her throat about the tough decision, recalling that she was blown away by Sterlace’s blind audition and wanted to hear more, while also being stunned by Simon’s “sparkly personality,” confidence and tone. It may have helped that Simon was, literally, wearing a silver sparkle dress with matching stacked heels.
In the end, Stefani focused in on Sterlace’s still-germinating stage presence rather than already established vocal talents. “You have come so far since our rehearsals. I’m shocked,” Stefani said, doubling down on McEntire’s rose bud metaphor. “I keep hearing that word ‘bud,’” veteran toker Snoop joked. Stefani said that the reality was that Simon is “a little bit more ready… you have that star-quality personality.”
Faced with a tough choice, Stefani followed the “weird voice” insider her head and chose Sterlace. And even after McEntire praised Simon’s “voice of an angel,” in her pitch to steal, Sloane ended up choosing Bublé — who also called her voice “angelic” — as her new team leader.
New episodes of The Voice air Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, and then stream on-demand via Peacock the next day.
Watch Sterlace and Simon face off below.
There’s a very good reason that Henry Winkler is considered to be one of the nicest guys in show biz. The eternally sunshiny 78-year-old Happy Days veteran always brings the good cheer to his talk show appearances, that is when he’s not taking time to send fan notes to fellow artists he’s inspired by.
During a visit to Live with Kelly and Mark on Tuesday (Oct. 15), Winkler was predictably enthusiastic about one of his recent kind letters eliciting an equally generous response when he shared how happy he was to get a thank you video from Jelly Roll.
“Oh my gosh, it was the most amazing thing that it came from you and that he answered,” Winkler told Ripa about getting an equally sweet reply from the “I Am Not Okay” that the singer sent to the daytime talk show host. Winkler explained to the studio audience that he often writes what he calls “fan notes” to artists he admires. “And I wrote one to Jelly Roll, ‘Dear Mr. Roll,’” he explained. “And I never thought I would hear back and all of a sudden I got a video from Kelly of Mr. Roll thanking me!”
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Ripa responded that being a conduit of the mutual admiration society was “the most exciting thing that has ever not happened to me… it was for you, so it had nothing to do with me. “It was great,” Winkler said before Ripa cued up the tape.
“Hey Mr. Winkler, it’s Jelly Roll,” the singer said in the clip scrolled on Ripa’s device. “I’m just sending my love. I have been hoping to see you ‘cause I got a note and they said it was from you. I didn’t believe it and this is my publicist — she hates being embarrassed but now she is — and she told me it was you, she confirmed and I cannot tell you how much that meant to me.”
Jelly promised to send Winkler a picture of the letter when he gets back home. “I hope you don’t mind, I framed it. I hung it up on my wall where I have like hand written lyrics from Craig Morgan, all the stuff that’s really been special in my career. Thank you, I’m absolutely honored Mr. Winkler. I can’t wait to see you and hopefully give you a hug man. I’m a big hugger, I’ll squeeze you.”
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week, Winkler first revealed that he’d sent the letter to the country star. “I really believe that when I see something that I think is wonderful you’ve got to let the person know,” he told the late night host, who has been on the receiving end of some of those nice notes. When asked who the most recent recipient was, Winkler said it was Jelly Roll, following an appearance on Kimmel’s show.
“I wrote him a letter, ‘Dear Mr. Roll,’ and all of a sudden I got a video back on my phone… it was amazing,” Winkler said. “I think that he is so filled with emotion.”
Watch Winkler kvell about his Mr. Roll moment below.
The Voice season 26 contestant Camryn Brooks provided living proof on Monday night (Oct. 14) that you should never give up on your dreams. Three years after washing out of season 21 after getting no chair turns, the California native made a triumphant return that elicited four chair turns.
After impressing the judges with her soaring cover of Maggie Rogers’ “Light On,” Brooks, 24, brought down the house and got Gwen Stefani out of her chair, inspiring the solo star and No Doubt singer to brag, “I was first!”
“I’m literally crying right now because this is like, absolutely unreal. I was a contestant on season 21 and I didn’t get any chair turns,” Brooks told coaches Snoop Dogg, Reba McEntire and Micael Bublé after her performance. “I didn’t ever envision I was going to get four so this is literally a dream come true.”
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McEntire, who praised Brooks’ “beautiful” voice, was elated by the redemption story, reminding viewers that the show’s judges often tell singers who don’t get a chair turn to “please come back.” Bublé also had high praise, adding that he hit his button because of FOMO, with Snoop giving the Mt. Shasta native props for her tone, composure and stage presence.
She and Bublé also bonded over their early gigs singing the National Anthem, though the Canadian crooner couldn’t get Brooks to join him on a chorus of his native “Oh Canada” as Snoop repeatedly trolled him for singing the “wrong” anthem. He got his own redemption, though, when Brooks noted that when she attended a performing arts school the only song she sang to earn money in competitions was Bublé’s rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.”
Despite the mutual admiration, Brooks ended up going with Stefani, who said her new team member’s voice reminded was pleasantly reminiscent of her favorite 1970s singers. “There are so many singers that are good, but there’s certain ones that just like touch you because of their tone or just little taste things that they do,” Stefani said. “That’s what I was feeling from you. I would listen to that voice on a record. It’s round, it’s soothing, it would be really fun to work with you ‘cause I feel like we could pick some really cool songs and define who you are.”
Not for nothing, Brooks’ story was even wilder because after her no-turn 2021 audition she noted that her plans to finish school and start performing professionally were derailed when she was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. “It was really scary because I couldn’t get out more than three words at a time,” she said. “The first thought that came to my mind was, ‘Am I going to be able to sing again?’ In that moment, you just think, ‘Am I gonna die? I’m too young to have this happen.’”
Though frightening, Brooks said the ailment really put into perspective what mattered to her and made her fight harder for her dreams. “I’m just so blessed to even be here,” she said.
New episodes of The Voice air Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, and then stream on-demand via Peacock the next day.
Watch Brooks perform “Light On” below.
Retired KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons is known for unapologetically wagging his legendarily long tongue and for his self-described reputation as a lusty Lothario. But during a guest judging stint on Tuesday night’s (Oct. 8) “Hair Metal Night” on Dancing With the Stars some commenters thought he went too far by focusing on pulchritude instead of Paso doble.
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First, Simmons reportedly got a loud round of boos on air after he gave a bewigged Reginald VelJohnson (Family Matters, Die Hard) a lowly score of 5 for his stiff cha cha to Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock.” According to EW, the studio audience did not take kindly to fellow permanent judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli posting the same score — Carrie Ann Inaba gave them a more magnanimous 6 — but when Simmons followed suit, the boos reportedly got significantly louder.
The low score came after Simmons had previously been generous to the fellow septuagenarian, saying before the dance, “Hey Reggie, you’ve got a beautiful woman right beside you who can twist it and turn it and knows how to move it and all that. But I want to tell you, as a guy that’s been on the stage for half a century around the world, I’m kind of a big deal, Reggie. It’s all in the attitude. And you’ve got something in that beautiful face. They love you.”
VelJohnson — who was eliminated on Tuesday night — had had consistently low scores so far this season, but EW said Inaba noted that he’d been a season 33 fan favorite as he hoofed alongside such fellow stars as previous eliminees con artist Anna Delvey, actors Eric Roberts and Tori Spelling, as well as still-active contestants Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, NFL player Danny Amendola, NBA center Dwight Howard, Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher, model Brooks Nader and Bachelorette star Jenn Tran, among others.
Simmons was repeatedly called out by viewers in comments on X for what they dubbed his “creepy” remarks, which some said treated the female dancers as if they were in a beauty pageant. The pointed to Simmons saying he couldn’t decide which one was more “hot hot hot” among Amendola and pro dancer Witney Carson and telling 24-year-old actress Chandler Kinney (Pretty Little Liars) that she “fogged up my glasses” and that she “moved me — not just with your gyrations, but with your beautiful face.”
“ABC needs to issue an apology after having Gene Simmons on there and subjecting their cast to that . Why didn’t a producer tell him to knock it off,” wrote one X user, while another joked, “Gene Simmons comments about the ladies are giving the energy of the gross uncle who corners you at the reunion.” A similar comment read, “it’s only the first dance and i’m already over gene simmons being a creep,” as one added, “Gene Simmons is seriously sucking all the energy out of the ballroom with his creepy comments about the female dancers.”
Well known for speaking his mind on all manner of subjects, Forbes noted that Simmons has been called out before for his thoughts on the opposite sex, including over a passage in his 2017 book, On Power: My Journey Through the Corridors of Power and How You Can Get More Power, in which he wrote that leveraging sexuality is still the fastest route to the top for women.
“Women have a choice,” he said in an interview with the New York Post while promoting the book in 2017. “They can dress in potato sacks, [but] as soon as they pretty themselves up with lipstick, lift and separate them and point them in our general direction, they’re gonna get a response. Guys are jackasses — we will buy them mansions and houses . . . all because of sex.” In that same interview, Simmons told women to “get over” their biological urges, opining, “It’s natural to want to have kids, but, sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You have to commit to either career or family. It’s very difficult to have both.”
KISS said that after five decades on tour their End of the Road Tour — which wrapped in December — would be their last go-round. The group then sold its name, image and likeness rights and announced a virtual Las Vegas performance set to launch in 2027.
Watch VelJohnson’s routine and see some of the comments about Simmons below.
If Gene doesn’t think the woman is hot, she gets a low score. Get this man off my screen. No reason he tried to give Brooks a ten and THE Phaedra Parks a five? #DWTS— Shelby🌻 (@shelbykvosburg) October 9, 2024
Dear @officialdwts ,Shame on Gene Simmons for treating this like a beauty pageant. Never have him on the show again. EVER. He ruined it. #gross #DWTSWith love, Everyone— StarSamantha21 (@StarrSamantha21) October 9, 2024
underscoring the asian and black female contestants relative to the other judge’s scores after inflating scores all night??? gene simmons you may just be a racist #dwts pic.twitter.com/8MuuMVLeu2— lau (@kodylavenders) October 9, 2024
One of the enduring joys of watching The Masked Singer is seeing how totally wrong judge Ken Jeong is from week-to-week. The joyful panelist is impressively confident in his often wildly off-base guesses and in a Billboard exclusive sneak peek at Wednesday night’s (Oct. 2) Footloose-themed episode the good doctor again pushes all his chips in on last week’s bold guess at the identity of the celeb inside the towering Woodpecker costume.
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“This is a clue-based guess,” Jeong says of the singer who impressed the panel in last week’s season 12 kick-off with her bouncy cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.” Admitting that “for the first time ever” he had no idea who the singer was, a cowboy hat-wearing Jeong said he was doubling-down on his previous prediction: Willow Smith.
Now, pay attention as we try to follow Jeong’s logic, which, it’s worth noting drew a subtle eye-roll from host Nick Cannon.
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“That director’s chair? Willow Smith also directs as well as performs in her own music videos,” Jeong said of the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith who first broke through in 2010 with her No. 11 Billboard Hot 100 single “Whip My Hair” and whose most recent album is this year’s jazzy Empathogen.
On the subject of bird clues, Jeong also noted that Willow has performed with past Masked Singer contestant Rubber Ducky (aka Anthony Anderson) in “perhaps the best and most precious Mother’s Day special of all time on VH1 called ‘Dear Mama.’” Fellow panelist Robin Thick says that, clue-wise, Jeong’s theory makes sense, but vocally he warned, “you’re going down the wrong tree hole.”
In an earlier clue package, season 11’s Miss Cleocatra, film/TV actress Jennifer Lewis spilled the tea on someone she said she has known “from her start. She’s been called a mogul, a chic CEO,” Lewis said as Woodpecker held up a roll of tape reading “NEXT.” Other clues: she’s friends with Beyoncé and is a “baddie.”
Woodpecker herself teased that “the only doors that open are ones you knock on” as she rapped on a gate next to a panel reading “Family” and said she is on a path to becoming the “youngest billionaire.”
Last week’s season premiere revealed the identity of Leaf Sheep, NFL legend quarterback John Elway, who was booted after singing Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It.” For the record, Jeong somehow got that one right.
Check out the preview video below and tune in to The Masked Singer on Fox tonight at 8 p.m. ET.
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WWE takes the show to Deutschland with the Bash in Berlin this Saturday, (Aug. 31). The pay-per-view live event takes place at Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany, with a start time of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
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Want to watch WWE Bash In Berlin 2024 online? This PPV event is available to stream on the WWE Network on Peacock for Premium or Premium Plus subscribers only.
If you don’t subscribe to the streaming service, you can get access with a Peacock monthly subscription, which starts at $7.99 per month for the ad-supported plan, or $13.99 for the ad-free plan.
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Along with Bash In Berlin and the WWE Network, you can also watch original programming, such as Love Island USA, Bel-Air, The Traitors and others; hit movies, including Monkey Man, Abigail, The Holdovers, Oppenheimer and others; live sports from NBC Sports; live news from NBC News; and more than 50 streaming channels.
Check out the WWE Bash In Berlin 2024 match card below, and livestream the event here.
Match Card, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
Gunther (champion) vs. Randy Orton (World Heavyweight Championship) — Main Event
Cody Rhodes (champion) vs. Kevin Owens (Undisputed WWE Championship)
The Judgment Day vs. The Terror Twins (Mixed tag team match)
CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre (Strap Match)
The Unholy Union (champion) vs. Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match)
WWE Bash In Berlin 2024 is available to stream on Peacock on Saturday, Aug. 31, starting at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Sabrina Carpenter contains multitudes. The former Disney Channel star showed off her child actress chops, and then some, on Thursday night (August 22) on The Tonight Show when she performed a jazzy version of her inescapable Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Please Please Please” after joining Jimmy Fallon and fellow guest Zoë Kravitz in the basement for the host’s very silly signature “EW!” bit.
Channeling Michelle Pfeiffer’s iconic sultry piano-top performance from 1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys, Carpenter kicked-off her performance of the strong contender for song of the summer seated atop a white grand piano. Looking over her left shoulder while singing into a bejeweled microphone, the singer revamped the pop bop into a swoony torch song with the help of three back-up singers, as well as a string and horn section.
Barefoot in a glittering black gown with a daringly plunging neckline, Carpenter crawled, then stood on the piano while emoting her way through the song with the NSFW chorus that she thankfully amended for NBC censors. The performance came on the night Carpenter dropped the anticipated follow-up to 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send, Short n’ Sweet, which in addition to chart-topper “Please” also gave the singer her first top 10 hit in April, the equally inescapable “Espresso.”
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Carpenter also showed up earlier in the episode alongside actress and Blink Twice director Zoë Kravitz for a trip to the basement for Fallon’s long-running sketch “EW!” Joining brace-face Sara on the couch, Kravitz and Carpenter, as Lucy and Hailey, bounded down the steps in colorful outfits bursting with cute as Kravitz — chomping on a gigantic wad of gum like her life depended on it — lamented being “so not ready” for school to start.
The summer camp chums also showed off their friendship bracelets, which the pals noted were, ahem, “very mindful, very demure,” to shouts of approval from the studio audience who clearly are on board with the viral phrase’s creator, TikToker Jools Lebron. Kravitz’s read “nightowl” because she stayed up “sooooo late,” while Carpenter’s was “Sweetie Pie,” because she ate “soooo much candy” and Fallon’s read “Splash,” because, she shouted, “I’m like a mermaid!”
As usual, the guests could barely contain their laughter at Fallon’s over-the-top ridiculousness, especially when they jumped up to do their “Espresso” dance, only to be interrupted, ugh, by Sara’s super annoying, dorky step dad, Gary. He then ruined the fun by busting out the most cringey version of the only song of the summer he acknowledges, “Kumbaya.”
The bit ended with the obligatory EW! speed round. In short: mullets (EW!), PopSockets (EW!), Hokas (EW!), Love Island (EW!), Stanley Tucci (cute) and pink drink (love!).
Watch Carpenter on The Tonight Show below.
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By now you probably think you know just about everything there is to know about Billie Eilish. The singer has been in our lives for nearly a decade and between her confessional songs and revealing interviews, the 22-year-old “Birds of a Feather” singer has shared a lot.
But things got super-deep on Thursday night (August 15) when she sat down on The Late Show for what is known as the most probing series of questions in the celebrity universe: The Colbert Questionert. The first one was a slam-dunk, or should have been, with Eilish immediately noting that the best sandwich is the one her brother, producer Finneas, makes for her. “It’s like a pesto… it’s a pesto situation, with like an eggplant thing,” Eilish revealed.
“A pesto situation with an eggplant thing?” Colbert said, before things got super sandwich nerdy. Meandering, Eilish announced, “I like French bread.”
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Confused, and smelling comedy gold, Colbert asked, “Is it a secret? I just want to know why I can’t know any of your sandwich recipes. Are you opening up your own chain?” Then Eilish — wearing a striped blazer over a checkered shirt to go with a backwards baseball cap and oval glasses — laughed and admitted that she never really peels back the bread to see what’s inside her sandwiches. “You don’t look a gift sandwich in the mouth?” Colbert deadpanned.
Eilish then admitted that the very best sandwich is the good old PB&J.
The singer revealed her very first concert was The Neighbourhood, fronted by former boyfriend Jesse Rutherford, and that the scariest animal is, duh, “a f–kin’ whale, dude! Those motherf–kers are so big!” While beautiful and stunning, Eilish said she simple doesn’t want to “mess around” with anything that massive.
Strangely, the hardest question for Eilish was the one that’s usually a slam-dunk: apples or oranges. As it turns out, Billie loves a tangerines, but when asked to choose between a Cutie and a Fuji apple, Eilish went Honeycrisp, final answer. She then switched and went tangerine after all. Asked if she’s ever gotten a celebrity autograph, Eilish said she went to a Skylar Grey signing when she was nine-years-old and that she has a signed Tori Kelly CD somewhere in her house.
Though her songs often probe the deepest depths of her emotions and feelings, when it comes to what happens to us when we die, Eilish admitted to having no clue. “We go back to where we were… nothing,” she said. “I love the afterlife idea and if I see it, that’s great.” The pair agreed that some finality is better than an open-ended story with no cut-off point. “I don’t need it to keep going… seems greedy,” Eilish said.
Asked to name her favorite action movie, Eilish questioned what that even means. “There’s fighting, explosions…” Colbert offered, which elicited a quick response. “I love The Dark Knight. I have seen that movie like 17 times,” Eilish said. For the record, Billie is 100% Team Window Seat (vs. Aisle), her favorite smell is honeysuckle, her least favorite smell is “a bad person smell… man stank,” her earliest memory is swinging on a swing in her back yard and sorry, childless cat ladies, she’s a dog lady.
Then Colbert got the meat of the matter and quizzed Eilish on the one song she’d listen to if she had to pick a track for the rest of her life. “I would hear ‘Nightcall’ by Kavinsky,” she said of the track that had a streaming surge after being featured in the closing ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she and Finneas also performed. For the record, Eilish said that’s been her top-played song for the past three years.
And finally, when it came to describing the rest of her life in five words, Eilish said what she hopes it will be like, “laughter… smiling… snuggling… eating… singing.”
Watch Eilish take the Colbert Questionert below.
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BLACKPINK’s LISA is used to being on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, but when it came to her casting in the upcoming third season of the HBO drama The White Lotus, the veteran performer got those familiar butterflies in her stomach.
“Oh my God, Mike White? I think he’s a genius,” Lisa told Elle magazine about the show’s creator tapping her for her acting debut. “I think I cried. I was with my friends, my mom’s friends, and my mom as well, but I didn’t tell them that I auditioned for it. I’m super excited and nervous, because it’s my first acting project. So I was happy for a second, and then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, wait, how am I going to deliver this?’”
Luckily for LISA, while acting is not on her resumé, she does have some relevant experience. “It’s pretty new to me, but I think it’s similar to shooting music videos. I’m excited for my fans to see it,” she said. As for what the third go-round of the murder mystery dramedy has in store, LISA was, of course, mum to avoid any spoilers. “I feel like people are going to fall in love with Thailand even more,” she said diplomatically.
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Production on the as-yet-unscheduled third season was initially delayed because of the 2023 writers/actors strikes, with HBO/Max now saying that it is slated to premiere in 2025. The upcoming season of the show that chronicles the lives of the rich and famous is being filmed at luxury resorts across Thailand, which happens to be LISA’s home country.
She told the magazine that filming in Bangkok and the islands of Phuket and Koh Samui was a great chance for the K-pop icon to “be back home, to have Thai food every day” and have her mother be close to the set.
LISA is slated to release a new single on Thursday (August 15), “New Woman,” featuring Rosalía as the follow up to her previous solo single, “Rockstar.”
If you’ve ever wondered: “why hasn’t anyone pitched a Curb Your Enthusiasm-style mockumentary sitcom about beloved 1980s pop singer Huey Lewis in which the News leader tries to figure out what life looks like after hearing loss with the help of his eccentric friends and clingy family?” Well, your prayers are answered, because according to […]