In recent weeks, chart watchers have been intently keeping an eye on the Billboard Hot 100, to see if Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has what it takes to become the longest-running No. 1 single in chart history. Prior to the latest chart (dated November 30), the song had been on top for 18 weeks, one shy of the 19-week record set by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road.”
Well, the top 10 of the new chart is out now, and sure enough, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is No. 1 yet again, for a 19th total week, and has tied the all-time record. While the song is knotted for the overall record, it does extend its reign as the longest-running No. 1 song by a performer without an accompanied artist.
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is excelling across the Billboard chart landscape: It’s also No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart for a 17th week and on the Hot Country Songs chart for a 23rd week.
Meanwhile, Teddy Swims just achieved a more under-the-radar accomplishment: “Lose Control,” at No. 4 this week, is in the top 10 for a 45th week, which is now the second-most of all time, behind only The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” with 57 top-10 weeks.
The Boston Celtics have been on a role to start this season, as the team is 14-3 at this early juncture, sits in second place in the Eastern Conference behind the scorching hot Cleveland Cavaliers (who Boston has already beaten this year), and looks to be in as good of a position to defend a championship as any team in recent memory. All of this has happened without the services of Kristaps Porzingis, who has not played this season after suffering a foot injury during the NBA Finals that required surgery.
Fortunately for the Celtics, their time without Porzingis on the floor is about to come to an end. According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Boston is going to get Porzingis back during Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Porzingis has been making rapid improvements in his recovery from foot surgery in late June, completing scrimmages in recent weeks of practices with the Celtics and their NBA G League affiliate, Maine,” Charania wrote.
Porzingis joined the Celtics via a trade with the Washington Wizards last offseason and immediately became a perfect fit for how Joe Mazzulla wants to use his centers. His three point shooting and ability to protect the rim were invaluable when he was able to play, but a calf injury limited him to only seven games in the team’s run to a championship last year. Not long after his return in the NBA Finals, the Celtics announced that Porzingis suffered a torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon in his left leg during Game 2, which the team deemed a “rare injury.” He was able to play 16 minutes in their Game 5 win that sealed a championship, but needed offseason surgery.
It’s almost that time again: when you learn that “Night Moves” by Bob Seger is your most-played song for the seventh year in a row (just me?). Spotify Wrapped is coming soon, as is Apple Music Replay, which calculates an Apple Music listener’s top songs, albums, artists, playlists, genres, and stations. But when you will be able to see your 2024 Replay?
When Does Apple Music Replay Come Out For 2024?
Last year, the Apple Music Replay data was released on November 28. So, expect it to be around then for the 2024 edition.
To view your Apple Music stats, head here then sign in with the same Apple ID that you use with your Apple Music subscription. From there, you can:
-Get insights every month: Once you’re eligible, you can see your top songs, artists, and albums every month based on play count and time spent listening. And you can see any milestones you’ve reached listening to music.
-See your year-end Replay: At the end of the calendar year, you can see your top songs, artists, albums, genres, playlists, and stations, along with play counts, totals, and the time that you’ve spent listening to them.
-Play your year-end highlight reel: Celebrate your year in music with an audio and visual recap of the music that you listened to the most.
-Share insights: Tap the Share button to share your personalized listening insights on social media.
Kendrick Lamar putting his hometown on display in his videos isn’t exactly new, but he’s never before done it the way he does in his video for “Squabble Up.” The song, which interpolates Debbie Deb’s 1984 freestyle hit “When I Hear Music,” first appeared as a tag on the video for “Not Like Us,” prompting a fan frenzy for its official release. Those fans got exactly what they wanted with the surprise release of K. Dot’s new album GNX, which features dozens of references to LA culture and history, including that sample.
The video for the song, which Kendrick just dropped, likewise puts an appreciation for Los Angeles on display, opening with a street sign from the 105 Freeway (eastbound, if you know you know) that acts as Compton’s northern border and featuring dancers performing the various “walks” affiliated with street gangs and inner city residents who see that sign often. African American flags hang over Kendrick’s head as he reads a book titled How To Be More Like Kendrick For Dummies — a book whose publication would certainly cut down on certain online shenanigans by a bunch.
You can watch the video for Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up” above.
GNX is out now via PgLang/Interscope. You can get it here.
The Eras Tour has been a huge hit, but looking at it from Taylor Swift’s perspective, the tour has been a major part of her life for a long time: The tour started in March 2023, but she was presumably preparing for it well before that. Now, the end is coming up, as the final shows are scheduled for early December in Vancouver. As Swift approaches the finish line, it looks like she’s in an emotional place.
On The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift fans have made it a tradition to cheer for as long as possible after Swift performs “Champagne Problems.” Swift was especially moved by the Toronto ovation on November 23, as was made clear when she spoke to the audience.
As fan-shot videos like this one show, Swift took pauses, wiped away tears, and her voice wavered as she said:
“Toronto, we’re at the very end of this tour so you doing that, you have no idea how much it means to me and my band. To my band and to my crew, everybody who’s put so much of this into this tour… I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore, I’m just having a bit of a… sorry. It’s not even the last show.
My band, my crew, all my fellow performers, we have put so much of our lives into this, and you put so much of your lives into being with us tonight and to giving us that moment that we will never forget. We’ve loved our time in Toronto. It’s been so amazing. I love you, guys, thank you so much for that.”
Find all of the surprise songs Swift has performed on tour here.
It’s appropriate that Kendrick Lamar named his new album after the 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental. Produced in limited quantities, it was never as ubiquitous as its predecessor, the Buick Regal, nor considered an out-and-out classic like some other ’80s muscle cars such as the Pontiac Firebird or Chevrolet Camaro IROC Z. But among auto enthusiasts, it’s an underrated favorite, the sort of “if you know, you know signifier” of a true head.
In that way, Kendrick has a lot in common with the GNX. He’s a one-of-one; the talents don’t get much rarer than his. And while he’s certainly received his fair share of recognition over the years — the Grammys, the Pulitzer, the mid-career BillboardNo. 1s — it’s fair to say, that his true value as a lyricist and cultural figure isn’t really for general audiences, even if they refuse to understand or accept that about themselves (“Not Like Us” is a hit, but, well… look at who all’s singing along).
GNX, the album, is also a lot like the GNX, the car. It knows what it is, and it knows what it ain’t. The 1987 issue of Car And Driver that tested the roadster had this to say of it: “In a world of sleek shapes and refined manners, the GNX is an axe-wielding barbarian laying waste to everything in its path.” This statement could double as a fairly accurate assessment of Kendrick’s new album too — the album his day one fans have been waiting for since 2009.
That was the year Kendrick swapped out “K. Dot” as his official rap name with the Kendrick Lamar EP, a mixtape that quickly flashed his early promise, but belied his gangster-adjacent, Compton roots. Since then, each album has shifted a paradigm or addressed a social ill… but for some of us (okay, fine, me, specifically), none of those albums completely satisfied what we knew we wanted from the Hub City prophet. There was always more he could do; another edit to make, a more focused beat selection, for him to turn his labyrinthine wordplay toward something less solipsistic.
He got close on DAMN. in 2017, earning himself a Pulitzer Prize in the process, but again, the album felt like it was for everybody — or, at least, not for us. Dot’s songs always seemed to reach out for broader acceptance, even when he was baring his soul, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and dashing it open to spill its ruby contents. The influences of Kendrick inspirations like DMX, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Nas were always apparent, but seemingly sublimated the ones that should have been there all along, like DJ Quik, MC Eiht, MC Ren, and King Tee — even when their names appeared on the tracklist.
But with GNX, Kendrick finally sheds expectations that he would be an avatar of intellectualism and sophistication in rap. It’s not for anybody those who know. Songs like “Squabble Up,” with its call back to LA’s hip-hop foundations in freestyle music like the interpolated Debbie Deb hit “When I Hear Music,” or “Dodger Blue,” with its call-outs of transplants afraid to cross the 10 freeway and shout-outs to high schools below the 105, are for Angelenos, those tapped into the culture of lowriders and set trippin’, of Drew League in the summer and functions broken up by ghetto birds and fist fights between reds and blues.
Songs like “Man At The Garden” and “Reincarnated” are salutes to rap heads who care more about the storytelling in the songs that moved them than the punchlines and metaphors that cause scrunch faces at backpack rap shows. They are not for people who think hip-hop is just for dancing in the club or pissing off their parents; they are for people who move and talk and think and breathe through hip-hop because hip-hop is what gives them life, speaking to them in languages that they can both hear and understand, word to Sidney Dean and Jimi Hendrix. Brands can bite the “Mustard Meme” prompted by “TV Off” all they want, but everything around that iconic ad-lib is a smoke signal to a certain kind of person — the kind those brands would hate to see step into their boardrooms, even as they try desperately to co-opt the clout such characters effortless carry with them. It ain’t on us, it’s in us.
GNX is stripped of the artifice and gimmickry that anchored Kendrick’s critically hailed introspective projects like To Pimp A Butterfly and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Free of the weight of expectations — ours and his own — K. Dot delivers an album about his home, and how it affected him… but in typical Kendrick fashion is about more. It is about politics — the both the hood kind and the kind that create the material conditions for the previous kind to exist. It is about how and why music has been the lifesblood of a people who spent 250 years at the bottom of the American social hierarchy yet define its cultural identity. It is about protecting yourself from outsiders, and it’s about taking off the mask that keeps them comfortable while keeping ourselves from knowing who we are — a common theme in rap releases this year from Vince Staples’ Dark Times to Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia.
It’s the album we — and when I say “we,” I want to you to know that if you question whether that includes you, then it probably doesn’t — always wanted from Kendrick Lamar. Unapologetically LA, with the brute force to truly create the sort of impact his inspirations had; confessional but self-assured in the way only someone who has come to terms with himself can be. GNX is all muscle, no fat, built for the streets, and for those in the know; everyone else can get left in the dust.
(SPOILERS for Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 will be found below.)
The sixth season ofCobra Kai presented the bleakest episode (Season 6, Episode 10) of the series. This landed as a surprise not only due to those final moments but because Daniel-san’s kidnapping (by cartoon villain Terry Silver) had just been resolved with a semi-jokey vibe. That tone was in line with the series’ heightened reality, which usually doesn’t weigh too heavily upon an audience seeking to be entertained. Yet the season took a horrific turn when Kwon fell upon the knife that Kreese had been holding behind his back while Sekai Taikai continued to devolve into chaos.
That moment when Kwon (who is formally part of the Cobra Kai, but that dojo’s lines have blurred with Miyagi-do throughout the series) was killed took this generally sunny series into an unprecedented dark place. Presumably, Season 6 Part 3 will resolve everything and restore The Karate Kid universe’s order before next year’s movie. However, there’s more: the Kwon tragedy followed the show’s revelation that Mr. Miyagi had not only fought at the Sekai Taikai tournament but had killed an opponent. WTF.
With that said (what?), it’s hard not to wonder whether Cobra Kai is suggesting that there is some sort of curse on either Miyagi-do or the Sekai Taikai or the intersection therein. Fortunately, Hollywood Reporter‘s Demetrius Patterson had the same question and broached the subject while interviewing co-creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg. In response, Hurwitz admitted that “[I]t’s very possible” and that “there’s a brutality” to the Sekai Taikai that adds “a level of danger beyond the All Valley [Tournament].” As for the idea of a curse, Hurwitz offered this insight:
“In terms of Miyagi, we learned that match ended in death in the past and a thing that we may find out more about is, what exactly happened in that match? All we know are the results, and that’s what Daniel is wrestling with there. When he’s seeing what happens with Kwon, it’s this element of history repeating itself right in front of Daniel LaRusso. And it continues his soul searching – not just about Mr. Miyagi, but about karate and tournaments in general.”
We do know that Daniel-san hasn’t been doing well emotionally over Miyagi’s hidden past, and even though he and Johnny (supposedly for real this time) vanquished their decades-long beef, plenty of emotional turmoil is still smacking the franchise’s original protagonist in the face. This existential karate woe could, however, bridge the gap between Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid: Legends movie, which comes out on May 30, 2025.
In the meantime, the series will hopefully resolve the “curse” business when Cobra Kai returns for the final time on Feb. 13, 2025.
This is the time of year where the music industry generally starts to wind down (unless you’re Kendrick Lamar). Most of the year’s biggest albums have been released and folks are gearing up to make a splash next year.
There’s still one more significant matter to tackle in 2024, though: the 2024 Billboard Music Awards, which are set to air on December 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox (or on-demand via Paramount+). Today (November 25), the finalists were announced.
Unlike other award shows, instead of being voted on by a committee, winners are determined by year-end Billboard chart data from October 28, 2023 to October 19, 2024, so the winners are based on data, not the opinions of a select few.
Zach Bryan is this year’s leading finalist with 21 entries, while Taylor Swift is close behind with 17. After them are Morgan Wallen (15 entries), Sabrina Carpenter (9), Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Teddy Swims, Tyla (8 each), Bad Bunny, Benson Boone, Chandler Moore, Jung Kook, Naomi Raine, Shaboozey, and SZA (6 each).
First-time finalists include Swims, Tyla, Boone, Shaboozey, Tommy Richman, and Chappell Roan.
Check out the full list of finalists below.
Artist Awards
Top Artist
Zach Bryan
Sabrina Carpenter
Drake
Taylor Swift
Morgan Wallen
Top New Artist
Benson Boone
Tommy Richman
Chappell Roan
Shaboozey
Teddy Swims
Top Male Artist
Zach Bryan
Luke Combs
Drake
Post Malone
Morgan Wallen
Top Female Artist
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Chappell Roan
Taylor Swift
SZA
Top Duo/Group
blink-182
Coldplay
Fuerza Regida
Linkin Park
Stray Kids
Top Billboard 200 Artist
Zach Bryan
Drake
Taylor Swift
SZA
Morgan Wallen
Top Hot 100 Artist
Zach Bryan
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Taylor Swift
Morgan Wallen
Top Hot 100 Songwriter
Amy Allen
Jack Antonoff
Zach Bryan
Kendrick Lamar
Taylor Swift
Top Hot 100 Producer
Jack Antonoff
Zach Bryan
Daniel Nigro
Finneas O’Connell
Taylor Swift
Top Streaming Songs Artist
Zach Bryan
Sabrina Carpenter
Kendrick Lamar
Taylor Swift
Morgan Wallen
Top Radio Songs Artist
Sabrina Carpenter
Doja Cat
Taylor Swift
SZA
Morgan Wallen
Top Song Sales Artist
Jelly Roll
Jung Kook
Shaboozey
Taylor Swift
Teddy Swims
Top Billboard Global 200 Artist
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
The Weeknd
Top Billboard Global (Excl. U.S.) Artist
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
The Weeknd
Top R&B Artist
Brent Faiyaz
Tommy Richman
SZA
Tyla
The Weeknd
Top R&B Male Artist
Brent Faiyaz
Tommy Richman
The Weeknd
Top R&B Female Artist
Muni Long
SZA
Tyla
Top R&B Touring Artist
Chris Brown
Bruno Mars
Usher
Top Rap Artist
Drake
Future
Kendrick Lamar
Metro Boomin
Travis Scott
Top Rap Male Artist
Drake
Kendrick Lamar
Travis Scott
Top Rap Female Artist
Doja Cat
GloRilla
Nicki Minaj
Top Rap Touring Artist
Nicki Minaj
Travis Scott
$uicideboy$
Top Country Artist
Zach Bryan
Luke Combs
Post Malone
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Top Country Male Artist
Zach Bryan
Luke Combs
Morgan Wallen
Top Country Female Artist
Beyoncé
Megan Moroney
Lainey Wilson
Top Country Duo/Group
Zac Brown Band
The Red Clay Strays
Treaty Oak Revival
Top Country Touring Artist
Zach Bryan
Kenny Chesney
Luke Combs
Top Rock Artist
Zach Bryan
Hozier
Jelly Roll
Noah Kahan
Linkin Park
Top Rock Duo/Group
Good Neighbours
Linkin Park
The Red Clay Strays
Top Hard Rock Artist
Bad Omens
Hardy
Linkin Park
Top Rock Touring Artist
Coldplay
The Rolling Stones
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Top Latin Artist
Bad Bunny
Fuerza Regida
Junior H
Karol G
Peso Pluma
Top Latin Male Artist
Bad Bunny
Junior H
Peso Pluma
Top Latin Female Artist
Karol G
Shakira
Kali Uchis
Top Latin Duo/Group
Eslabon Armado
Fuerza Regida
Grupo Frontera
Top Latin Touring Artist
Bad Bunny
Karol G
Luis Miguel
Top Global K-Pop Artist
Enhyphen
Jimin
Jung Kook
Stray Kids
Tomorrow X Together
Top K-Pop Touring Artist
Enhyphen
Seventeen
Tomorrow X Together
Top Afrobeats Artist
Asake
Burna Boy
Rema
Tems
Tyla
Top Dance/Electronic Artist
Beyoncé
The Chainsmokers
Charli XCX
Dua Lipa
Calvin Harris
Top Christian Artist
Lauren Daigle
Elevation Worship
Forrest Frank
Brandon Lake
Anne Wilson
Top Gospel Artist
Kirk Franklin
Maverick City Music
Chandler Moore
Naomi Raine
CeCe Winans
Album Awards
Top Billboard 200 Album
Zach Bryan — Zach Bryan
Drake — For All the Dogs
Noah Kahan — Stick Season
Taylor Swift — 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
Taylor Swift — The Tortured Poets Department
Top Soundtrack
Hazbin Hotel: Season One Trolls: Band Together Twisters: The Album Wish Wonka
Top R&B Album
Chris Brown — 11:11
Brent Faiyaz — Larger Than Life
PartyNextDoor — PartyNextDoor 4 (P4)
Bryson Tiller, Bryson Tiller
Tyla — Tyla
Top Rap Album
21 Savage — american dream
Drake — For All the Dogs
Future & Metro Boomin — WE DON’T TRUST YOU
Nicki Minaj — Pink Friday 2
Rod Wave — Nostalgia
Top Country Album
Beyoncé — Cowboy Carter
Zach Bryan — The Great American Bar Scene
Zach Bryan — Zach Bryan
Chris Stapleton — Higher
Bailey Zimmerman — Religiously. The Album.
Top Rock Album
Zach Bryan — The Great American Bar Scene
Zach Bryan — Zach Bryan
Hozier — Unheard (EP)
Noah Kahan — Stick Season
Dolly Parton — Rockstar
Top Hard Rock Album
Bring Me The Horizon — POST HUMAN: NeX GEn
Falling In Reverse — Popular Monster
Hardy — Quit!!
Pearl Jam — Dark Matter
Sleep Token — Take Me Back to Eden
Top Latin Album
Bad Bunny — nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana
Fuerza Regida — Pa Las Baby’s Y Belikeada
Grupo Frontera — El Comienzo
Junior H — $AD BOYZ 4 LIFE II
Karol G — Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season)
Top K-Pop Album
Ateez — THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL
Jung Kook — GOLDEN
Stray Kids — ROCK-STAR
Stray Kids — Ate: Mini Album
Tomorrow X Together — The Name Chapter: FREEFALL
Top Dance/Electronic Album
Charli XCX — BRAT
Jungle — Volcano
Odetari — XXIII SORROWS
Troye Sivan — Something to Give Each Other
John Summit — Comfort in Chaos
Top Christian Album
Elevation Worship — CAN YOU IMAGINE?
Forrest Frank — CHILD OF GOD
Brandon Lake — COAT OF MANY COLORS
Maverick City Music, Chandler Moore & Naomi Raine — The Maverick Way Complete: Complete Vol 02
Katy Nichole — Jesus Changed My Life
Top Gospel Album
Kirk Franklin — Father’s Day
Koryn Hawthorne — On God
Maverick City Music, Chandler Moore & Naomi Raine — The Maverick Way Complete: Complete Vol 02
CeCe Winans — More Than This
Naomi Raine — Cover The Earth: Live in New York
Song Awards
Top Hot 100 Song
Benson Boone — “Beautiful Things”
Jack Harlow — “Lovin on Me”
Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”
Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Teddy Swims — “Lose Control”
Top Streaming Song
Zach Bryan Feat. Kacey Musgraves — “I Remember Everything”
Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”
Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Teddy Swims — “Lose Control”
Top Radio Song
Benson Boone — “Beautiful Things”
Jack Harlow — “Lovin on Me”
Tate McRae — “Greedy”
Taylor Swift — “Cruel Summer”
Teddy Swims — “Lose Control”
Top Selling Song
Benson Boone — “Beautiful Things”
Jung Kook — “Standing Next to You”
Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”
Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Teddy Swims — “Lose Control”
Top Collaboration
Zach Bryan Feat. Kacey Musgraves — “I Remember Everything”
Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar — “Like That”
Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”
Taylor Swift Feat. Post Malone — “Fortnight”
Morgan Wallen Feat. Ernest — “Cowgirls”
4batz Feat. Drake — “act ii: date @ 8 (remix)”
Muni Long — “Made for Me”
Tommy Richman — “MILLION DOLLAR BABY”
SZA — “Saturn”
Tyla — “Water”
Top Rap Song
Doja Cat — “Agora Hills”
Doja Cat — “Paint the Town Red”
Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar — “Like That”
Jack Harlow — “Lovin on Me”
Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
Top Country Song
Zach Bryan Feat. Kacey Musgraves — “I Remember Everything”
Dasha — “Austin”
Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen — “I Had Some Help”
Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Morgan Wallen — “Thinkin’ Bout Me”
Falling In Reverse Feat. Jelly Roll — “All My Life”
Falling In Reverse, Tech N9ne & Alex Terrible — “Ronald”
Hardy — “Psycho”
Linkin Park — “The Emptiness Machine”
Superheaven — “Youngest Daughter”
Top Latin Song
Bad Bunny — “MONACO”
Bad Bunny & Feid — “PERRO NEGRO”
FloyyMenor & Cris MJ — “Gata Only”
Karol G & Peso Pluma — “QLONA”
Xavi — “La Diabla”
Top Global K-Pop Song
ILLIT — “Magnetic”
Jimin — “Who”
Jung Kook — “Standing Next to You”
Jung Kook Feat. Jack Harlow — “3D”
Le Sserafim — “Perfect Night”
Top Afrobeats Song
Adam Port & Stryv Feat. Malachiii — “Move”
Tems — “Me & U”
Tyla — “Truth or Dare”
Tyla — “Water”
Tyla, Gunna & Skillibeng — “Jump”
Top Dance/Electronic Song
Dua Lipa — “Houdini”
Dua Lipa — “Illusion”
Kenya Grace — “Strangers”
Ariana Grande — “yes, and?”
Marshmello & Kane Brown — “Miles on It”
Top Christian Song
Elevation Worship Feat. Brandon Lake, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore — “Praise”
Forrest Frank — “GOOD DAY”
Josiah Queen — “The Prodigal”
Seph Schlueter — “Counting My Blessings”
Tauren Wells with We The Kingdom & Davies — “Take It All Back”
Top Gospel Song
Koryn Hawthorne — “Look at God”
Maverick City Music, Chandler Moore & Naomi Raine — “God Problems”
Maverick City Music, Chandler Moore & Naomi Raine ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard — “In the Room”
Victor Thompson X Gunna Feat. Ehis ‘D’ Greatest — “THIS YEAR (Blessings)”
CeCe Winans — “That’s My King”
Is Wicked the best movie based on a musical based on a book based on another movie based on another book? Yes. But even if you remove those hyper-specific qualifiers, Wicked is getting [extremely Julianne Moore in 30 Rock voice] wicked good reviews. The Jon M. Chu-directed film has a strong 90 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with universally positive reviews for Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.
Erivo has been a movie star since making her big-screen debut in Steve McQueen’s Widows, one of the most under-appreciated films of the 2010s. But Wicked is, somewhat surprisingly, Grande’s first starring role in a movie. And her first sizable role in any project since her Nickelodeon days.
Let’s take a look back at the firsts that led Grande to Wicked, beginning in Florida where Ariana had an awfully long way to go.
First Starring Role
For a lot of New Yorkers, the dream is to retire and move to Florida. Ariana Grande’s journey began in reverse: she was born in Florida, and from a young age, dreamed of performing under the bright lights of Broadway. She would get there eventually, but not before making one of her first live performances at a hockey game in the Sunshine State.
An eight-year-old Grande sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Florida Panthers game in 2002, four years after her mom paid $200 in a charity auction to have her curly-haired daughter ride a zamboni at then-National Car Rental Center. (She also got hit in the wrist with a hockey puck… twice.)
Around the same time, she was getting into theater. Grande made her acting debut in a production of Annie with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater (there is footage, and yes, it’s cute). This wasn’t a case of Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team with Grande playing one of the lesser-known orphans; she was cast as Annie. A star right from the start.
First Musical
If Grande had her way, her first album would have come out much earlier than 2013. “I was 14 years old [in 2007/2008] and ready to make an R&B album,” Grande told Marie Claire. “I was like, ‘Where is that Mary J. Blige collab? Where is that Natasha Bedingfield writing session? Where is my session with India.Arie? I’m ready. Let’s go.’ I wrote this song called ‘Higher,’ and the lyrics were too sexual, too mature.” Her mom told her, “This is a great song, but damn, you’re too young for this.” So, naturally, Grande did what any rebellious teenager would do in this situation: she got cast in a Broadway musical.
13 is about a teenage boy on the verge of his Bar Mitzvah who is dealing with a move from New York City to rural Indiana and the divorce of his parents. Grande played gossipy Charlotte during the Broadway run of the musical, which was later turned into a Netflix movie. But 13’s most notable contribution to culture — besides “A Little More Homework” — is that it was the professional debut of not only Grande, but also Elizabeth Gillies. They would go on to star in Victorious, the first of Grande’s many Nickelodeon shows.
Without the proving ground of 13, she might not have been cast in Victorious. Without Victorious (and its spinoff, Sam & Cat), her YouTube channel might not have caught the attention of Republic Records CEO Monte Lipman. A friend sent him videos of Grande covering Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and he liked what he heard so much that he signed her to a record contract.
Grande has gone on to record 22 top-five singles.
First Starring Role In A Movie Musical
When Ariana Grande was a kid, she won an auction (a different auction than the zamboni one) to go backstage and meet Wicked star Kristin Chenoweth at New York City’s Gershwin Theatre. “Her mom and grandma brought her back,” the Glinda actress recalled, “and she sang a little bit of ‘Popular.’ And I thought, well, you’re pretty good.”
Little did Chenoweth know that Grande would eventually be cast as Glinda. But in the years between this encounter and the movie, Grande kept a strong connection to Wicked. She sang “What Is This Feeling?” with Seth MacFarlane on Carpool Karaoke: The Series (what a sentence); she belted “The Wizard And I,” with green lipstick, on NBC’s A Very Wicked Halloween special; and she fan-casted herself as Glinda over a decade ago. Even the song that landed her on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time has a Wicked connection.
But even with her history with the material (and — perhaps as significantly — her 376 million Instagram followers), Grande didn’t tap her heels together three times and instantly get the part. “She auditioned many times,” Chu told Vanity Fair. “I sort of didn’t want to believe that she could do this. It seems almost too easy to say, ‘Oh, Ariana Grande.’ [But] every time she came in, she was the most interesting person. You couldn’t take your eyes away.”
The obvious-in-retrospect casting paid off: she’s considered a frontrunner to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2025 Oscars. For Ariana Grande, there’s no place like Wicked.
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Kendrick Lamar surprisingly dominate the week with an unexpected new album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
It looked like Kendrick Lamar was going to end 2024 by hanging his hat his decisive victory in the Drake beef, which was highlighted by the No. 1 single “Not Like Us.” Instead, he wrapped up the year with a bang by, to everybody’s surprise, dropping a new album, GNX, which includes “Squabble Up,” that song Lamar teased in the “Not Like Us” video.
Jack Harlow — “Hello Miss Johnson”
While some unexpected Kendrick knocked Harlow down this week’s hip-hop power rankings, “Hello Miss Johnson” still isn’t one to miss. The smooth, samba-inspired tune is a delightful one that sees Harlow getting in his romantic bag.
Nicki Minaj — “Arctic Tundra” Feat. Juice WRLD
Back in the day (if you consider 2019 “the day”), Nicki Minaj teamed up with Juice WRLD on “Girl With The Blonde Hair,” a song that leaked online. Now, Minaj has given the collab (now titled “Arctic Tundra“) an official release. The tune arrives via The Pinkprint (Tenth Anniversary Edition), a reissue of Minaj’s classic release.
Rosé — “Number One Girl”
Rosé has a non-Blackpink hit alongside Bruno Mars with “APT.,” and now the train continues to roll. Last week, she unveiled “Number One Girl,” which is actually low-key another Mars collab, as he co-wrote the track.
Snoop Dogg — “Outta Da Blue” Feat. Dr. Dre and Alus
Missionary is the first full collaborative album from Snoop and Dre since 1993’s Doggystyle. They’re not squandering the occasion either, as they show on “Outta Da Blue,” a lively new tune that sees the two swapping verses back and forth.
Bossman Dlow — “The Biggest Pt. 2”
After landing a coveted TikTok hit with “Get In With Me” in January, Dlow rode the momentum to a prosperous 2024. He reflects on that, and the success yet to come, on his latest single, “The Biggest Pt. 2.”
Omar Apollo, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross — “Te Maldigo”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are behind the score of Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Queer. Omar Apollo stars in the movie, so given that all this musical firepower is involved, they went ahead and linked up on “Te Maldigo,” a ballad for the soundtrack.
Kenny Mason — “Intuition”
Mason is gearing up to join Denzel Curry on the Mischievous South tour next year, and he’ll have some new music to perform, too: He just dropped the Angel Eyes mixtape, along with a Joker-inspired video for “Intuition.”
Tyla — “Tears”
After Tyla started 2024 off on a sour note by canceling tour dates, the year picked up from there. Her latest win is “Tears,” a new acoustic song she dropped in partnership with Coke Studio.
Father John Misty — “Mahashmashana”
Poor Father John Misty: He just released his new album Mahashmashana, on the same day as Lamar’s big surprise. (He’s fine with joking about the unfortunate timing, at least.) FJM’s LP is worth the spin, though, with highlights including the sweeping, nine-minute title track.
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