Month: February 2023

Janelle Monáe may have gotten their foot in the door as a musician, but these days, newer fans tend to forget that little fact due to their blossoming acting career. So despite Monáe’s schedule filling up with more on-screen opportunities partly due to the success of Glass Onion, they’ve promised to give day-one fans new music to hold them over.

Last month, the triple threat shared a video of them working on new material in the studio. Then finally, a few weeks ago, Monáe released an extended teaser video for their upcoming single, “Float.” But thanks to a viral tweet, the whole track may never see the light of day.

A user on Twitter garnered a lot of attention by tweeting, “Janelle Monáe finally showing off how fine she is instead of dressing like the monopoly man.”

Monáe’s signature monochromatic black-and-white fashions, oftentimes suits, were a way to pay homage to their mother and grandmother every time they took the stage. The singer told the Huffington Post, “It’s a dedication to uniformity, and I’m a minimalist by heart, but a lot of it had to do with me wanting to have a uniform like the working class, like my mom and my grandmother.”

Well, once the tweet crossed the desk of the singer, she came back with a playful response: “35.7k likes?? No new tour. hope it was worth it beloved,” closing with the winky kissy face emoji.

Fans rushed to let the singer know not all of them felt that way and that they shouldn’t suffer without new music because of the original user.

The original users’ mentions were riddled with angry fans, but they stood firm in their comments, saying that although it was a joke, they meant what they wrote and also respect Monáe’s artistry. Monáe jumped back in to say, “Monopoly man?? [crying emoji] You’re pretty and funny. [kissy face emoji].”

It looks like everything worked out, and Monáe will return to music soon.

Squid Game star O Yeong-Su reportedly expressed regret for his behavior while entering the courtroom for his sexual misconduct trial in South Korea. “I am sorry. I think I behaved badly,” the 78-year-old actor said. However, despite his apology, the Golden Globe winner is denying the charges that were brought against him.

“O admitted his wrongdoing when the victim asked for an apology, but he has denied the charges during the investigation, failing to show any remorse for his act,” the victim’s attorney said in a statement ahead of the trial. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The police report said that O attempted to hug the unidentified woman by force and kissed her on the cheek while they went out for a stroll together. O has admitted that he held the victim’s hand but denies there was any indecent assault. The allegations were originally brought in 2021, but the police dropped the case due to a lack of evidence. Later, the prosecutors reopened the investigation after the woman appealed.

The woman was reportedly traumatized by seeing O receive accolades for Squid Game, including his Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor in the Netflix series and filed charges. The alleged incident reportedly occurred in 2017 when the victim was 22-years-old and was working on a play with the veteran actor.

For his part, O claimed in an interview that he only held her hand to “guide her way while they were strolling around the lake” and that he apologized “not as an admission of guilt,” but because she “wouldn’t make an issue” if he said he was sorry.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Ben Affleck’s apparently terrible time at the Grammys was more than simply his usual, you know, face. That sounds awkward as heck for me to phrase it that way, but surely, you’ve seen all of the paparazzi photos of Sad Batman looking less than thrilled to be on camera when he isn’t acting. He also seems very “over it” in terms of attending glitzy parties, but that could also be due to his resting face as well. After all, he doesn’t even look happy when grabbing Dunkin,’ and everyone knows how much he adores Dunkin.’ His reported Super Bowl commercial for that Affleck paradise will be coming soon.

Ben also loves JLo, and they’re still technically newlyweds, but he still couldn’t muster up some grins (or any enthusiasm at all) while supporting her at the Grammys, where people noted that he looked “miserable.”

At one point during the evening, the cameras also caught an awkward, apparently conflict-filled moment between Ben and JLo. Reports have surfaced that indicate that she told him to “[l]ook more friendly. Look motivated.” To which he reportedly responded, “I might.” I suspected that Ben simply wanted to go home, and that’s what a source told Entertainment Tonight:

“Jen and Ben had a fun date night out at the Grammys, but they have both been very busy working on several projects, and Ben was feeling tired… He wanted to go and support Jen, but he wasn’t his usual self … Ben is more of a homebody, and it isn’t his thing to be out at events all the time.”

That’s still not fantastic, given that JLo appears to be about doing the most while attending events, including dancing while Ben looked like he was dreaming about his next Dunkin trip. Hopefully, they can work out some sort of compromise for future events because Ben’s lack of enthusiasm will be remembered the next time they walk the red carpet together (if they ever do again).

(Via Entertainment Tonight)

Jay-Z has long been open about his mixed feelings about the Grammys. In his and wife Beyoncé’s 2018 single “Apesh*t,” he famously rapped, “Tell the Grammys, ‘F*ck that 0 for eight sh*t,’” after being nominated eight times that year, but not winning a single award. But still, he will make his impact on the culture known by maintaining a presence at the ceremony each year.

This year, he was super adamant about his wife receiving her much-due flowers. In an interview with Tidal conducted before this year’s Grammys, Jay said he feels that Bey’s seventh studio album, Renaissance was objectively the Album Of The Year.

“Look what it’s done to the culture. Look how the energy of the world moved,” Jay said. “They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world. Every remix is better than the other one. From anybody, we’re just finding these joints out in the street.”

Renaissance, however, did not win the coveted Album Of The Year award, but ended up taking home the award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Songs from the album won several awards — “Break My Soul” for Best Dance/Electronic Recording, “Plastic Off The Sofa” for Best Traditional R&B Performance and “Cuff It” for Best R&B Song.

The aforementioned wins brought her total number of wins up to 32 Grammys throughout her career, making her the artist with the most Grammy awards.

Over the weekend, Lizzo had a blast at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Not only did she take home Record Of The Year for her song “About Damn Time,” but she also was one of the star performers to play during the event.

After seemingly watching videos of herself tackling the track with a church-style choir, Lizzo took to Twitter to express just how happy she was with her performance.

“Ok… last thing,” she wrote. “Can I say IM SO PROUD OF MY VOCALS!!! Like… I been working on my voice for the last couple years… some people think I’m a born singer but I’m a rapper first! I wanna thank God & my vocal coach for getting me here.”

Over the years, many fans have admired Lizzo for both her vocal and breath control — as she is also insanely talented at playing the flute.

She also dedicated her win to Prince and Beyoncé during a tearful speech. “I’m just so proud to be apart of it,” she said. “Not only can people do good, but we are good.”

Continue scrolling for some additional fan reactions to Lizzo’s recent post about her Grammys performance.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s hard to pull off Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain’s internet-breaking chemistry on the red carpet. Take Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, for instance. They’re two charismatic, attractive actors, but at the premiere of their romantic-comedy, Your Place or Mine, they looked like 12-year-olds on a first date at Chili’s. The pictures were so awkward that Kutcher’s wife, Mila Kunis, called them out on their lack of passion.

“She even emailed us last night,” Witherspoon said about Kunis on the Today show. “She goes, ‘You guys look so awkward on the red carpet together.’” The Legally Blonde actress wasn’t offended, though. She and Kunis have been friends for years. “It’s just fun because when you know a girlfriend so much, it was just fun to get to know her significant other because I’ve loved her for so long,” Witherspoon explained. “He’s so professional. He’s the funniest guy. I mean, such a goofball. We had so much fun.”

Your Place or Mine director Aline Brosh McKenna (who co-created the wonderful Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) told the Hollywood Reporter that Witherspoon and Kutcher both wanted to “make something fresh and modern that felt very today and a reality and a grounded-ness to it, so like where she lives, her clothing, how her kid dresses and his apartment is a nice apartment, but it’s not like a $20 million apartment. It’s a perennial genre, my favorite romantic comedies come from the ’30s and ’40s, so you can always find a way to update it and I hope that’s what we did.”

But based on the photos, if the question is “your place or mine,” the answer is “neither.”

(Via EW)

A lot happened at the 2023 Grammy Awards this weekend, but the leading narrative throughout the evening was Beyoncé’s chase for history. She entered the night a few wins away from breaking the all-time record for most career Grammys, a record she did end up claiming. Congratulatory messages have poured in since then, and now Beyoncé has gotten one from former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Obama shared a tweet about the record-breaking victory and wrote, “Congratulations @Beyonce for making history. Thank you for blessing us all with the music we live our lives to — the songs that keep us singing and dancing and talking. You deserve all this and more! [hearts emoji] [crown emoji].”

Obama, by the way, is also a Grammy winner: Her first nomination came in 2020, for her Becoming audiobook in the Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling) category, and she won. Husband and former President Barack Obama also has a couple Grammys to his name, for his audiobooks of Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race And Inheritance and The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream.

Obama didn’t attend the Grammys, but current First Lady Jill Biden was on hand to award Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” the Grammy for Song Of The Year.

The only person who had a worse time at the Grammys than Beyoncé was Ben Affleck. While Taylor Swift was white-wine dancing, the Air star and director looked miserable seated at the same table as his wife, Jennifer Lopez (who I just learned has the same number of Guinness World Records as Grammy nominations with two).

At one point during the ceremony, Lopez leaned over and said something to Affleck. Was she informing him that his favorite Dunkin was closing? That would explain a lot. But nope, according to a lipreader commissioned by the Daily Mail, Lopez was asking Affleck to — to quote a song that should have won a Grammy — put a smile on your face.

Lopez and Affleck, who frequently looks strained when in public, were seen exchanging tense words during the ceremony, right as host Trevor Noah sat down next to them. “Stop,” Lopez tells him. “Look more friendly. Look motivated.” Affleck replies: “I might.”

Affleck looked “more friendly” in a photo that Lopez shared on Instagram. “Always the best time with my love, my husband,” she wrote, while also tagging Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, and Mary J. Blige. She left off Beyoncé, probably because Affleck’s broken soul was enough for her.

(Via the Daily Mail)

In perhaps the biggest surprise of this year’s Grammys, Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” won Song Of The Year, triumphing over songs by Adele, Beyoncé, DJ Khaled, Gayle, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and Taylor Swift. When Raitt’s song was announced, the open-mouthed look on her face indicated she was the most surprised person in the room.

It turns out that even after the initial shock passed, she still couldn’t believe it.

In a video of a backstage interview after her win, she entered the room and said, “I’m just so surprised, I don’t know what to say to you guys.” Later, she said of the other nominated songs, “I’m so surprised because there were just massively talented, great tunes that represented tremendous excitement of the public, both in sales and just No. 1 and big smashing hits, and my little record was, you know… I’m so glad to be nominated. I was very surprised, but holding up our end of the American roots and my generation, that was… made me very proud. So… I don’t know, I love it.”

After answering another question later, she excitedly added, “I can’t believe it! I just can’t… it’s like, when I won for Nick Of Time [Album Of The Year at the 1990 Grammys], I just could not believe that they called my name, and Dr. Biden gave me my damn award! Get the hell out of Dodge, you know? Sorry, I’m losing it.”

In a different backstage interview, she added, “I’m just completely surprised. I’m absolutely… I was not expecting that. There was so many massive records that are so popular, and to be included in that in the nomination was a surprise enough, but this happened to me 30 years ago, or 32 years ago, when nobody expected Nick Of Time to be in the running for Album Of The Year, and somehow, I made… everybody canceled each other out or something. But this was… I feel at disbelief and very, very grateful.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lil Yachty’s new album Let’s Start Here elicited many different reactions due to its departure from his previous sound into a more psychedelic direction. Featuring artists like Justin Raisen, Sad Pony, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait, Magdalena Bay, and more, Let’s Start Here was a new chapter for the rapper. And it looks like it was a success.

According to Billboard Charts, Let’s Start Here debuted at No. 1 on three separate charts: Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Alternative Albums.

About the project, Yachty voiced his desire to expand his sound before the release and not want to be pigeonholed or dismissed as “just some SoundCloud rapper.”

He explained, “This album is so special and dear to me. I think I created it because I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. You know? Not just some SoundCloud rapper. Not some mumble rapper. Not some guy that just made one hit. I wanted to be taken seriously because music is everything to me, and I respect all walks of music. Not just rap and hip-hop but everything. I wanted to make something that showed the world that shows it, just how great music is to me.”