entertainment blog
Justin Bieber Heads to ‘Free Fire’ for an In-Game Performance
Free Fire players can now take a break from their survival mission to watch a show from Justin Bieber. The singer has teamed up with the game to offer its players an ongoing in-game performance featuring a new track, “Beautiful Love.” During the event, Free Fire players will have the opportunity to get a closer look at Bieber’s character, which goes by the name J.Biebs, through a series of minigames. Free Fire has shared a trailer for the performance, previewing Bieber’s performance on the virtual stage. Developed by 111dots Studio and published by Garena, Free Fire challenges up to 50 to survive battle royale-style on a remote island. After parachuting onto the island, players compete from a third-person perspective, searching for supplies and weapons to kill their competitors. The game i...
Plains Share Video for New Song “Abilene”
In the video for “Abilene,” my dear friend Adriene Mishler plays the narrator of the song. We see her struggle in the final stages of a romantic relationship and then make the hard decision to choose herself and leave. I think we all have our own personal “Abilene.” Maybe it’s a place where you used to live and things didn’t turn out as planned, like in the song. It could also be a relationship that ended in disappointment, or a dream that turned into a hard reality, or even an old version of yourself that’s better left in the past. “Abilene” is a song about knowing your worth, having courage in the face of an uncertain future, and trusting your gut.
Horse Lords Announce New Album, Share Video for New Song “Mess Mend”
Horse Lords have announced their new album Comradely Objects with a video for their new song “Mess Mend.” Their first record with their new label Rvng Intl. is due out November 24. Check out “Mess Mend” below. Comradely Objects draws its name from Imagine No Possessions, art historian Christina Kaier’s 2008 book on Russian Constructivists, who eschew the ego of capitalist art in favor of utilitarian objects. Of its relation to the new album, the band said in a statement: “The comradely object should promote collective, egalitarian ideals. They tended toward simple, unadorned forms that emphasized utility and foregrounded the material. Comradely Objects works through what this means for the material of sound, for music, for the album, and for artistic production in the 21st century.” Horse ...
Producers of 2022 VMAs on Why They Think the Ratings Ticked Up This Year: ‘All the Stars Aligned’
In an era when ratings are drifting downward on most award shows, viewership of the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards was actually up compared to last year, whether measuring by traditional TV ratings or cross-platform consumption. According to final Nielsen figures, the awards, a pre-show and two on-air replays averaged 3.9 million viewers across 12 Paramount Global cable channels as well as broadcast network The CW. That’s up from 3.7 million for the 2021 awards and associated programming, a gain of 3% year-to-year. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news That’s not a huge increase, but it’s an increase, and as such it’s worth exploring. On Tuesday (Aug. 30), Billboard spoke with both of the show’s producers, Bruce Gillmer and Jesse Ign...
Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Terry Crews ‘Sing’ ‘Nessun Dorma’ on ‘AGT’: Watch
Luciano Pavarotti’s rendition of “Nessun Dorma” popularized the aria, and shook us to the bones. Aretha Franklin blew our minds with her soul-meets-operatic recital, Paul Potts surprised everyone when he showed us his version on Britain’s Got Talent. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news During the semifinals of America’s Got Talent on Tuesday (Aug. 30), an altogether different performance of the classical work unfolded. Metaphysic, a multimedia act that uses artificial intelligence in its performances, strolled onto the stage and, through the wonders of deep-fake technology, formed a chorus of Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Terry Crews to “sing” the famous piece from Puccini’s “Turandot.” It’s all AI-powered, it’s slightly creepy, and it’s totally e...
Mark Hoppus Teaches Beauty School Dropout the Rock Star Ropes in ‘Almost Famous’ Video: Exclusive
Mark Hoppus is a super hands-on boss. That might explain why the Blink-182 bassist/singer co-stars in the video for up-and-coming pop punk band Beauty School Dropout’s single, “Almost Famous,” which Billboard is exclusively premiering today (August 31). Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The earworm song appears on their debut album, We Made Plans & God Laughed, which was released earlier this month on the new Verswire label, whose founders include Hoppus and strategic advisor/Fall Out Boy bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz. The video is a playful send-up of life as a baby band, with Hoppus playing the role of perpetually annoyed industry veteran trying to teach the guys how things really work. It opens with Mark telling a group of scruffy dudes to p...
Billboard China Announces Partnership With Tencent Music Entertainment Group
Billboard announced on Wednesday (Aug. 31) that the company has partnered with Tencent Music Entertainment Group to develop its new Billboard China brand. As the leading online music and audio entertainment platform in China, Tencent will work with Billboard to launch the “Chinese Music Gravity Project,” a pioneering initiative that will shine a spotlight on Chinese music artists through a series of engaging content collaborations and other features. By enlisting TME, Billboard will also share its global content — authoritative charts, expert recommendations, music news coverage and more — across the platform’s many channels, including QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing. As of late 2020, Tencent Music, which licenses Billboard China, controlled 77% of China’s streaming ...
Quavo & Takeoff ft. Birdman “Big Stunna,” John Legend ft. Saweetie “All She Wanna Do” & More | Daily Visuals 8.29.22
HipHopWired Featured Video With Offset officially out on his solo grind, Quavo and Takeoff continue to do the duo thing and invited a Ca$h Money triple OG to roll with them in some big boy toys that many men will never be able to push in their lifetimes. Linking up with Bideman for their visuals to “Big Stunna,” Quavo and Takeoff pull out all kinds of exotic cars with the suicide doors that had all the big booty women within a 15 foot radius twerking like there was no tomorrow. Cars like this are capable of that for some reason. On the R&B tip, John Legend gets a gang of women to bust a move to his tunes in another room while he cuts a rug on his side of the wall for his Saweetie assisted visuals to “All She Wanna do.” Check out the rest of today’s drops and some joints you might’ve mi...
Upcoming Doc Claims Michael Jackson Used Fake IDs To Buy Drugs
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kimberly White / Getty Michael Jackson would have turned 64 this past Monday (August 29) and instead of celebrating the life and legacy of the King Of Pop, folks are focusing on the entertainer’s reported struggles with drug addiction. According to an upcoming documentary, Jackson allegedly used 19 falsified ID cards to obtain drugs. A new documentary coming next week titled TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson examines the passing of Jackson, who died at the age of 50 in 2009. According to widely known reports, Jackson succumbed due to acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. Jackson’s physician, Conrad Murray, was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the death was ruled a homicide. Murray served two years of a four-year pris...
‘Black Ink Crew: Chicago’ Recap: Phor & Nina Still Have Issues, Don Wants To Help Ryan Get A Boo
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: Courtesy VH1 / Black Ink Crew: Chicago This week on Black Ink Crew: Chicago, Phor and Nina still have issues they need to work out despite getting along in the co-parenting department. Don wants to help Ryan get a boo. Phor & Nina Are Fine With Just Co-parenting While plugging his new project aptly titled Phorplay, Phor stopped by the Kendra G radio show. We don’t really care about his music, so the conversation shifted toward his love life, and he reveals to the radio host that he is single and that co-parenting is going well with his son’s mother, Nina. He also revealed to Kendra G that he’s planning on holding a lingerie listening party to celebrate the project and to give his fans and friends a taste of his new music. Don Wants To Help Ryan ...
Ari Lennox Unveils ‘age/sex/location’ Album Art
With her new album set to release in September, Ari Lennox has unveiled the cover art for age/sex/location. The album art sees the Dreamville star sporting diamonds on her-two piece as she sits in a pool of water with a beautiful sunset-like backdrop. “my new album, age/sex/location, is available everywhere sept 9,” she wrote as the caption. age/sex/location marks Lennox’s first studio effort since 2019’s Shea Butter Baby, which included guest appearances from JID and J. Cole, the latter of whom co-executive produced the previous record with Elite. She recently dropped her newest single “Hoodie,” which was produced by Elite, with its music video featuring Isaiah Rashad as her love interest. Check out the cover art below. Ari Lennox’s age/sex/location drops September 9. Elsew...
White Noise, Noah Baumbach’s New Netflix Movie, Gets Premiere Dates
White Noise, Noah Baumbach’s new film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, premieres tomorrow (August 31) at the Venice International Film Festival. Netflix has now also revealed the details of the movie’s wider release: White Noise will show in select theaters starting November 25 before it streams on December 30. White Noise stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Jodie Turner-Smith, André 3000, Don Cheadle, and others. In addition to a score by Danny Elfman, the movie features LCD Soundsystem’s first new song since 2017, “New Body Rhumba.” Noah Baumbach on the Music of His Life
