Month: November 2022

Latin music came out on top on Spotify’s 2022 Wrapped campaign with Bad Bunny as the most-streamed artist in the world. Alongside the Puerto Rican superstar, Karol G was revealed to be the year’s most-streamed female Latin artist on the platform.

For the third year in a row, Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist in the world on Spotify. With his blockbuster album Un Verano Sin Ti, his music amassed over 18.5 billion streams on the streaming platform. With that news, it’s also obvious to add that Bad Bunny was also the top-streaming Latin male artist on Spotify in 2022.

Among the women, Karol G was the only female Latin artist to place within Spotify’s 50 most-streamed artists globally. This marked her third year being the platform’s top-streaming woman in Latin music. Thanks to the success of her monster hits like “Provenza” and “Mamiii” with Becky G, the Colombian superstar placed at No. 27 on the list. Other Latin artists that appeared in the top 50 included Rauw Alejandro at No. 11, J Balvin at No. 19, and Daddy Yankee at No. 25.

The Spotify Wrapped results also revealed the five most-streamed women in Latin music globally this year. Karol G led the way followed by Shakira, Rosalía, Camila Cabello, and Selena Gomez.

It looks like the long-awaited release of SZA’s hotly-anticipated sophomore album, S.O.S., is nearer than ever, despite the TDE singer still not announcing an official release date. Today, she teased her long-suffering fans with what appears to be a glimpse of the album’s cover art, which features SZA sitting on a ludicrously lengthy diving board overlooking a massive body of water in her signature uniform of a hockey jersey and construction boots.

The contextless post was met with both jubilation and exasperation by those fans, who’ve been waiting for a follow-up to SZA’s debut album, CTRL, for well over four years. While some asserted that they “never doubted” the New Jersey-born singer, others merely dropped their favorite memes in relief that it finally looks like she’s following through on her claim the album would drop sometime in December after bailing on similar promises before.

However, this time her promise coincided with the announcement that she’d be performing on Saturday Night Live (this Saturday, in fact, which means the album could very well fall out of the sky on Friday). She also finally released the video for the single “Shirt” and teased another video in a clip called “P.S.A.,” so it definitely looks very much like the rollout has begun in earnest.

The final day of group play in Group C at the 2022 World Cup presented a whole hell of a lot of intrigue. The long and the short of it: Every single team — Argentina, Mexico, Poland, and Saudi Arabia — had a chance to move on to the knockout stage. Argentina and Poland took the pitch against one another, as did Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Things were pretty chill after the first half. Both games were tied at 0 — thanks in large part to Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny standing on his head — meaning that Argentina and Poland were slated to move on. And then, the second halves of both games started, and things got absolutely outrageous right away.

Almost immediately out of the break, Alexis Mac Allister put Argentina ahead with a first-time effort on a ball by Nahuel Molina.

Two minutes into the second half of the other game, a corner for Mexico got put away by Henry Martin.

It didn’t take long for Mexico to get a second. Luis Chávez got a free kick from about 15 yards out of the box and could not have placed it more perfectly, going top bins to give El Tri a 2-0 lead.

As things stood, both Mexico and Poland were on four points, but the Mexicans trailed on goal differential by one goal. They weren’t able to get a second, because an effort was ruled out for offside…

…but Argentina was able to help them out considerably, as Julián Álvarez controlled a ball into his feet in the box and beat Szczęsny.

Because of this, every single tiebreaker — goal differential, goals scored, points in head-to-head matches, goal differential in head-to-head matches, and goals scored in head-to-head matches — were exactly the same. Literally, every single thing that could be determined based on goals. Mexico and Argentina spent the rest of their games getting chance after chance, but their efforts would just miss every single time.

If this held, everything was going to come down to something called fair play points, which basically is a way to reward teams that pick up fewer cards in games.

It, ultimately, did not matter. Five minutes into seven minutes of stoppage time, Saudi Arabia’s Salem Al-Dawsari found himself one-on-one with Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa thanks to a well-worked 1-2 with Hattan Bahbri. While Ochoa has come up gigantic for Mexico time and time again in the World Cup over the years, this ended up being too heavy a burden to bear.

As a result, Poland made it through on goal differential. They finished in second place in the group, which means they’ll take on France in the round of 16. Argentina, meanwhile, won the group and will play Australia in their first knockout game. As for Mexico, this marks the first time they failed to get out of their group at the World Cup since 1978.

For Luxembourg-born Portuguese actress Hana Sofia Lopes, traveling overseas to hobnob with industry elites should have been a dream come true. But it quickly became a nightmare.

As CNN reported, Lopes had planned on visiting a friend in New York City before arriving in Montreal where the event would be held. It was an event she was eagerly looking forward to and had the perfect outfit for it carefully tucked away in her luggage.

Only the luggage never arrived.

The actress spent a week calling the airline during her New York stay, but all to no avail. Things didn’t look good. “Here I am in New York, with no clothes other than those I was wearing during the flight. No shoes. No brush for my hair. No makeup. No socks. Nothing. Just me and my handbag,” she told CNN.

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At the end of her rope, Lopes went to file a complaint as she touched down in Montreal. And whether it was a lucky coincidence, or a dose of good karma, Lopes would have a chance encounter that turned things around in the most uplifting way.

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Deciding to not take her anger out on the airport worker, Lopes gave the disclaimer, “what I’m about to say is nothing personal. It’s really just against your company, against the company you’re working for.”

The rage might have been quelled, but emotions still rose up. As tears began to roll down her face, Lopes explained that “I’m here to shoot a movie, and tomorrow, there is a reception with the prime minister of Luxembourg, which is my home country. I don’t even have makeup to put on my face. I don’t even have face cream. I have nothing.”

The worker, Azalia Claudine Becerril Angulo, found herself instantly empathizing with this woman whom she had never met. “She was really sad, angry also, and I understood why,” she told CNN, adding that she found Lopes’ openhearted approach refreshing. “I wanted to help her. Normally, people are rude and they’re very aggressive. She was different.”

Though she couldn’t help with the luggage—which apparently was in Frankfurt, Germany—it just so happened that when not working at an airport, Angulo was a professional makeup artist.

“If you want, I can come to your hotel in the afternoon and do your hair and makeup so that you can attend your reception,” she told Lopes, offering to do it all for free. Obviously, Lopes agreed.

Angulo arrived at Lopes’ hotel room the next day, and as she went to work, the two women chatted about their lives. Lopes recalled how it all felt “very natural” as they seamlessly spoke in French, English and Spanish, and that their connection was instant. “It didn’t feel like I was just meeting somebody for the first time. It felt like I was meeting up with an old friend, which is crazy, because I just met her the day before, but we were talking a lot.”

Angulo finished with a look the Lopes loved, but refused to accept payment for her work “Makeup for me, it’s an art, it’s really a passion,” she noted “So it’s not about the money. It’s just because I really like to make the person feel good and happy.”

In quite the storybook ending fashion—that same day Lopes was notified that her luggage was not, in fact, in Germany, but instead was on its way to Montreal. It’s unclear whether or not that dress arrived in time for the event that night, but regardless, the photos from the event turned out gorgeous. Hair, makeup and all.

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Though it’s certainly good news that everything worked out for Lopes, both she and Angulo agree that what’s really important to take from their feel good story is the power of kindness.

Angulo told CNN, “people have to be a little bit more understanding that the person in front of them, they don’t have control of what happened. So if they are patient and really calm about it, the person in front is going to help you the best that we can.”

On her Instagram page, Lopes seconded the sentiment as she wrote, “in an era where atrocities and bad news seem to be the norm, our story hopefully restores a little bit of faith in humanity. Let’s never lose our ability to step into someone else’s shoes, it’s what makes us human. I am sure that what unites is far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates us.”

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It costs nothing to be kind. But it pays off in the most rewarding of ways.

James Cameron has spoken openly about how Avatar: The Way of Water needs to absolutely crush it at the box office for the franchise to continue. In recent interviews, he’s candidly stated that should the sequel fail, he’s prepared to pull the plug after Avatar 3, which has already been shot. However, should The Way of Water prove to be a box office juggernaut like the first film, Cameron has revealed that he’s prepared to take the franchise even further than the already announced Avatar 5.

Part of the 13-year gap between Avatar and its sequel is that Cameron insisted on having the next four films written before getting behind the camera. With the story locked in, he got to work shooting The Way of Water and Avatar 3 back-to-back. (There’s even footage for Avatar 4 already in the can.) However, making the films has been wildly expensive, so there’s a chance they could no longer be worth the investment to Disney. But if Cameron does strike gold again, well, he knows he’s probably not going to live to see the rest of the massive story if he doesn’t hand over the reins.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

He’s also got plans — should the world demand them — for Avatar 6 and 7. “I’d be 89 by then,” Cameron says. That sounds like a joke, but based on the fact that it took 25 years for him to make the first two Avatar movies, it’s pretty realistic. “Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make Avatar movies indefinitely, the amount of energy required.” He’s started giving some thought to a succession plan. “I would have to train somebody how to do this because, I don’t care how smart you are as a director, you don’t know how to do this.” He figures he may have five or six more movies in him and that three of them, probably, would be Avatar movies.

Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16, and if you want more Avatar movies, you better go see it a bunch of times because, seriously, it needs to make like a bajillion dollars. Blue cat aliens don’t grow on trees, you know.

Or do they? It’s been so long.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

ITZY might’ve gotten the whole world fooled if they just ended the year with releasing one EP (Checkmate) and their pre-release English single “Boys Like You.” But from the looks of their Checkmate promotions, the teasers and posters hinted something else was up the K-pop girl group’s sleeves.

The scribbles and scratched out phrases on the Checkmate poster and album art actually spoiled ITZY’s new EP and lead single “Cheshire.” Taking inspiration from the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland, ITZY’s newest release, out today (November 30), is a pop track that invites listeners to fall into their mysterious side. With lyrics that sing, “Hey, why so serious?/Just trust what you see Don’t complicate it, nothing’s wrong, right?/Can you see me?/Hey, why so curious? Trust your gut, not your logic,” the quintet mischievously leaves you no choice but to do so.

Compared to the group’s past two releases where neon and saturated colors took over the concepts of upbeat songs, “Cheshire” flips the switch to monotone black and grey colors to compliment the song’s dark pop beat. The song is the lead single off ITZY’s sixth EP of the same name, CHESHIRE. The mini-album contains four tracks, including the group’s English single “Boys Like You.”

Check the full tracklist to CHESHIRE below.

1. “Cheshire”
2. “Snowy”
3. “Freaky”
4. “Boys Like You”

The Office is, by now, timeless in a way few 2000s-era sitcoms have managed to become. A 200-episode show debuting before Twitter existed that’s remained so popular an entire streaming service’s rollout was built around it is kind of crazy when you think about it. But the show’s enduring presence means we’re going to learn a lot more about the nuances of the show basically, well, forever.

The show is officially trapped in a loop of entire sections of fans learning (and sometimes, relearning) tidbits of trivia about the show’s most infamous moments. An easy example of that is the chili cold open, in which Kevin makes his “famous” chili in a huge pot and proceeds to spill it all over the office floor, ruining everything.

You can watch the clip above. It’s simple yet very effective and a great bit of physical comedy from actor Brian Baumgartner. And in the years since that clip aired, his career has strangely revolved around that one-minute cold open, to the point that he actually wrote a chili cookbook and is constantly asked about the filming of the chili scene. And sometimes those moments get their own second life of sorts, like this interview Baumgartner did with Rich Eisen in which he detailed some new details about filming his most iconic moment from The Office.

“I thought it was funny but I never imagined that it would catch on like it did,” Baumgartner said on The Rich Eisen Show earlier this summer. “I had no idea as we were filming it, end of the day, me alone, that it would ever end up being something that I’d be talking about, you know, all these years later with you and writing a book. It’s totally crazy.”

Baumgartner said he managed to get it done in one take, which was nerve-wracking because of just how high the stakes were. He recalled a set designer telling him “Brian, we only have three carpets” and how involved the costume changes were once he got very messy.

“I don’t think anyone understood how difficult a task it would be to clean me,” he said. “Like, my physical body. Like, my hands were stained that kind of browny reddy color.”

The funniest part of the interview involves some other Office alums, too. Baumgartner said he and two other actors, Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nunez, had an “accountant’s dinner” planned at a nice restaurant in Beverly Hills, but he really struggled to eat much of anything because of the work he put in on set.

“We’re sitting there and I pick up a shrimp or whatever and I pick it up and all I smell is chili,” he said. “Just, chili all over.”

Interestingly, he said one trick the production staff had to do to make the bit work involved something you may not expect. The pot, for one, wasn’t completely full of chili.

“The bottom half was styrofoam,” he said. “It was genius because it made it top-heavy. We did all these tests, we filled it with chili and there’s no way that it would flip out.”

Baumgartner and Eisen have a great rapport, so the interview itself was a delight. And it included a moment where Baumgartner got to give himself a pat on the chili-covered back, too

“That scene became improvised once I was on the floor,” he said, giving himself credit for thinking to scoop chili back into the pot with office paper. “I think that was me. And if not, I’m gonna take credit for it.”

Shaky Knees Festival will return to Central Park in Atlanta, Georgia next May. Today, the festival has unveiled its 2023 lineup, which proves to be promising.

The Killers are set to headline on Friday, May 5, with Manchester Orchestra, Grouplove, Placebo, Mom Roch, and Charlotte Sands also set to perform. Cypress Hill will also take the stage that day, performing their Black Sunday album in its entirety.

On Saturday, May 6, The Mars Volta, Tenacious D, Phantogram, The Front Bottoms, and Soccer Mommy are all set to take the stage, with Muse headlining.

Closing out the festivities on Sunday, May 7 are Father John Misty, Hozier, Future Islands, Taipei Houston, with The Lumineers as the headliner. The Flaming Lips are also one of the closing day’s anticipated acts, and will perform their album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Over 60 acts are scheduled to play Shaky Knees across four stages. The 2023 iteration of Shaky Knees will mark the festival’s 10th anniversary.

General on-sale for GA and VIP passes begins Friday, December 2 at 11 a.m. ET. Fans can purchase tickets and view a schedule of performances here.

Check out the full lineup below.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kanye West is reportedly planning an attempt to reopen the Donda Academy. His school, which recently shuttered for a number of obvious reasons, has also struggled to retain its past students and teachers following West’s antisemitic rants and right-wing associations. The academy is currently closed for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year but has noted possible plans to return for Fall 2023.

The rapper confirmed the closure in a now-deleted tweet to Hollywood Unlocked, via The Guardian. “Here’s the clout you’re looking for…My school is being shut down,” he wrote.

West, according to TMZ, has met with Cornerstone Christian Church pastor Ronald Nagin on several occasions with the intent of leasing the church space for the school’s new home. Donda Academy maintained a religious presence in the curriculum, which is why the two appear to be seeking a partnership. The publication noted that Cornerstone is currently drafting a lease for West.

However, since the school is notoriously non-accredited, there are apparently classes on everything from choir to parkour. That’s right. Like, “jumping over sh*t” parkour. It also cost $15,000 in annual tuition.

If West’s recent behaviors in the news don’t deter Donda Academy attendees, it’s hard to say what will. Even Rolling Stone published a deep dive into the mysterious school, and the claims in it weren’t great either — including signing NDAs and exclusivity of only under 100 students… Who just have to attend regular school now, following the closure, which begs the question: What’s the point?

Arizona loser Kari Lake has never made a secret of the fact that she would not accept defeat. But the lengths to which the failed gubernatorial candidate is going in order to somehow insert herself into an elected office that the majority of her would-be constituents voted against seeing her occupy is getting hella creepy. In her latest desperate attempt to remain relevant, the former TV personality has invoked God, of all people. Though exactly what The Almighty has to do with Lake’s failed election is anyone’s guess.

As Raw Story reports, Lake’s latest plea to her fellow Arizonians played out more like a hostage video — with the viewers being the ones who were seemingly threatened. On Tuesday, Lake chatted with conservative activist and host Charlie Kirk, and issued a warning to her followers that until she is named governor, they will be made “slaves.”

Lake — who, again, LOST her election — seems to be under some sort of illusion that she’s just being tested by God (though your guess as to what she was saying is as good as ours). Of her loss, Lake noted:

God never said this was going to be easy… But He put us here at this moment for a reason. He doesn’t make mistakes. He knows that we are the people to fight through this and save our country. I truly believe that. And this is not hyperbole.

It is our moment right now, Charlie, to prove that we love this country, to prove that we’re in it for the fight.

Look at China. If we don’t stand up right now, we will become China. And I’m not talking about these heroic people in China. I’m talking about we will become slaves because globalism, that’s what it has in mind for us. We become slaves to a system.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that even God is like: Huh?!

Lake went on to encourage her followers to fight for her, because “If we don’t stand up and fight, what are we telling our grandkids and our children? That we don’t care about their future?”

That, or that you ran for office and lost?

You can watch her bizarre rant — and attempt to make sense of it yourself — below.

(Via Raw Story)