Month: November 2022

OneRepublic‘s “I Ain’t Worried,” from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, ascends to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated Nov. 5).

The song marks the Ryan Tedder-fronted group’s fourth leader on the list and first since “Counting Stars” spent seven weeks at No. 1 in 2013-14. Before that, the act reigned with “Good Life,” for four weeks in 2011, and as featured on its first entry, Timbaland’s “Apologize,” which ruled for six weeks in 2008.

In August, “I Ain’t Worried” became OneRepublic’s 12th Adult Pop Airplay top 10. In between the song and “Counting Stars,” the group reached the top 10 with “Lose Somebody,” with Kygo (No. 8, 2020); “Connection” (No. 9, 2018); “I Lived” (No. 10, 2015); and “Love Runs Out” (No. 4, 2014).

Meanwhile, Tedder adds his 11th Adult Pop Airplay No. 1 as a co-writer. In addition to OneRepublic’s four leaders, he’s topped the chart as a co-author of: Lil Nas X’s “Thats What I Want” (2022); Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker” (2019); Maroon 5’s “Maps” (2014) and “Love Somebody” (2013); Gavin DeGraw’s “Not Over You” (2012); Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone” (2009-10); and Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” (2008).

On the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100, “I Ain’t Worried” has so far reached No. 6, marking OneRepublic’s fourth top 10 and first since “Counting Stars” in 2014.

“I Ain’t Worried” is the second hit from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack. The set’s “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga rose to No. 12 on Adult Pop Airplay in July.

Tyler Perry fought back against Kanye West‘s recent barrage of antisemitic commentary by sharing his family’s personal connection to the Jewish community during his childhood.

“This first photo is of my mother with these adorable children she worked with at a Jewish community center,” the filmmaker wrote, captioning a post on Instagram depicting his mother’s class of 3-year-olds at the Jewish Community Center Nursery School. “I remember her coming home from work one day devastated because there was a bomb threat and my mother was horrified that there were people who wanted to blow up a building full of children because they were Jewish.

“I blurred their faces but think about that. It brought her back to that pain of having to live through the bombing of a church in Alabama where three little black girls died,” he continued, tying the moment emotionally to his mom’s experience during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Perry then went on to explain that his mom “made sure that I knew the commonality of what black people and Jewish people have endured” and made a moving argument about the crucial role allies can play in helping marginalized people regardless of race, ethnicity or creed.

“She not only taught me about slavery but she also taught me about the Holocaust,” he wrote. “But in teaching me about all our common pains she also taught me about the allies that Jewish people have been for black people. Case in point, look at the founding members of the NAACP – it took allies to get us to a better place in this country and those allies didn’t look like us.”

In another slide, Perry shares photos of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney and Michael Henry Schwerner, three civil rights activists from New York who were abducted and killed in what were called the Mississippi Burning Murders. The trio had been working to register Black voters in Mississippi at the time.

“It was Jewish allies that were murdered in Mississippi trying to help us get the right to vote,” Perry continued. “I can fill this post with so many examples including my own allies that I work with today who have helped me grow a business that has allowed me to hire more black people than most businesses in Hollywood. No one makes it alone. Refuse hate!!”

While Perry didn’t refer to directly to Ye in the post, the rapper has created his own downward spiral in recent weeks by making increasingly disturbing antisemitic claims in the press, prompting multiple brands, from Balenciaga and Adidas to Gap and Foot Locker, to cut ties with him.

Read Perry’s powerful post about allyship below.

Kid Cudi, Berry Gordy, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan and Quinta Brunson are slated to be among the honorees at the fifth annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television. Hosted by actor/comedian Bill Bellamy, the event will take place on Monday, Dec. 5 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

The celebration, sponsored by the Critics Choice Association, will recognize honorees in 15 categories.

“The Celebration of Black Cinema & Television has grown tremendously over the last five years,” CCA CEO Joey Berlin said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to recognize such outstanding projects across both film and television, and to honor these incredible actors and filmmakers for their work.”

“It has truly been a year to celebrate,” added CCA board member Shawn Edwards, who is serving as executive producer of the event. “The unprecedented amount of content about the Black experience on film and television made it very difficult to choose our honorees for this milestone year. And our special Icon Award honoree, Berry Gordy, pushed open a heavy door during the ’70s and ’80s through his Motown Productions with a string of movies and TV series that helped pave the way for future Black storytellers.”

The show will be televised on KTLA in January and shown nationwide on Nexstar stations throughout the month of February to tie in with Black History Month.

The show is produced by Madelyn Hammond and Javier Infante of Madelyn Hammond & Associates.

The Critics Choice Association is the largest critics organization in the U.S. and Canada, representing nearly 600 media critics and entertainment journalists. It was established in 2019 with the formal merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

Here’s a complete list of this year’s honorees:

Kid Cudi: The musician and actor, born Scott Mescudi, will be honored with the Groundbreaker Award for his starring role as Jabari in the Netflix television event, Entergalactic, which he also created. Cudi won a Grammy 11 years ago for his featured role on Kanye West’s “All of the Lights,” which was named best rap/sung collaboration.

Berry Gordy: The songwriter, producer, director, entrepreneur and Motown founder, will receive the Icon Award for his contributions to music, film and popular culture. Gordy will also be honored, alongside his lifelong friend Smokey Robinson, at the MusiCares person of the year gala on Feb. 3, 2023.

Angela Bassett: The actress, who received a 1993 Oscar nomination for portraying Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It, will receive the Career Achievement Award for her career as well as her recent role as Queen Ramonda in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Michael B. Jordan: The actor, producer and director will receive the Melvin Van Peebles Trailblazer Award for his contributions to the industry and in celebration of his directorial debut with the United Artists Releasing film, Creed III. In addition to directing the film, he reprises his role as Adonis Creed, and also produces under his Outlier Society production banner. Jordan received an Emmy nomination four years ago as an executive producer of HBO’s Fahrenheit 451, a nominee for outstanding television movie.

Quinta Brunson: The multihyphenate, who received Emmy nominations this year for acting, executive producing and writing on Abbott Elementary, will receive the Actress Award for Television for her work on ABC’s hit series, which she created and also executive produces. Brunson won an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series.

Danielle Deadwyler: The actress will be honored with the Actress Award for Film for her role as Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of the murdered Emmett Till, in the Orion Pictures and United Artists Releasing film, Till.

Nicco Annan: The actor will receive the Actor Award for Television for his role as Uncle Clifford on the STARZ series, P-Valley.

Elegance Bratton: The writer and director will accept the Social Justice Award for his work on the A24 film, The Inspection.

Brian Tyree Henry: The actor will be awarded the Supporting Actor Award for his performance as James Aucoin in Apple Original Films and A24’s Causeway.

Ayo Edebiri: The actress and comedian will receive the Rising Star Award presented by IMDbPro for her role as Sydney Adamu on the FX series, The Bear.

Quincy Isaiah The actor is the other recipient of the Rising Star Award presented by IMDbPro for his role as Magic Johnson in the HBO Original series, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

Jonathan Majors: The actor will be presented with the Actor Award for Film for his role as Jesse Brown in Columbia Pictures and Black Label Media aerial war epic, Devotion. Majors received an Emmy nomination last year for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

Gina Prince-Bythewood: The director will receive the Director Award for Film for her work on TriStar Pictures and Entertainment One’s critically-acclaimed The Woman King.

Nikyatu Jusu: The writer/director will receive the Breakthrough Film Award for the Amazon Studios and Blumhouse film, Nanny.

The Wonder Years cast: The Ensemble Award will be presented to the cast of the reboot of ABC’s 1980s sitcom — Elisha “EJ” Williams, Dulé Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Laura Kariuki, Julian Lerner, Amari O’Neil, and Milan Ray.

The Bocelli family, Debbie Gibson, Crowder and Thomas Rhett all continue to ring in the holiday season, leading a parade of debuts on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart (dated Nov. 5).

A Family Christmas by Andrea Bocelli and his children Matteo and Virginia Bocelli enters Top Holiday Albums at No. 2 with 6,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 27, according to Luminate. Andrea Bocelli spent eight weeks atop the chart in the 2009-10 holiday season with My Christmas. While Virginia Bocelli makes her Billboard chart arrival with the new set, Matteo logged 14 weeks at No. 1 in 2018-19 on the Classical Digital Song Sales chart with “Fall on Me,” with his father.

The list’s second-highest debut of the week belongs to Gibson’s first seasonal collection, Winterlicious, at No. 17. Says the pop singer-songwriter, “I put a lot of thought into making a universal album inclusive of non-denominational songs, Christmas songs and even an original Hanukkah song, which highlights the strength and devotion of the Jewish community.”

The set also includes duets “with my two favorite Joes: Daddy Joe [Gibson’s father] on ‘White Christmas’ and Joey McIntyre on ‘Heartbreak Holiday.’ “

Gibson, who broke through with her hit debut single, “Only in My Dreams,” and album, Out of the Blue, in 1987, muses, “Getting the call to say I’ve charted in Billboard never gets old.” 

Also bowing on the latest Top Holiday Albums tally: Crowder’s Milk & Cookies: A Merry Crowder Christmas (No. 21); Rhett’s Merry Christmas, Y’all (No. 22); XTC frontman Andy Partridge’s My Failed Christmas Career, Volume One (No. 26); and Joss Stone’s Merry Christmas, Love (No. 26).

Meanwhile, the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas returns to the top of the tally for its 13th week at No. 1. It earned 9,000 units, up 23%, in the tracking week.

The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sales, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.

Selena Gomez dished on what it was like to work with Steve Martin and Martin Short during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Wednesday (Nov. 2), and apparently it’s as amusing as you would imagine it to be.

“It’s so odd, it’s so weird,” she told host Kelly Clarkson of life on the Only Murders in the Building set. “You know, my whole day consists of listening to 70-year-olds talk about news, or Steve was like, ‘Who’s a Dua Lipa?’ And I was like, ‘No, it’s not a thing, it’s a…’ And they’re just so much fun to be around — they’re hilarious, they’re pure and they’re professional, and they keep me wanting to be better.”

Later in the conversation, the “Boyfriend” singer confessed she was apprehensive about how fans will react to her upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, which drops Friday (Nov. 4).

“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “And I think that’s why I wanted the documentary to feel really personal. But I’m kind of scared. Like, a lot of people are gonna see this…whole other side of me and I’m like, [grimaces] ‘I hope they like it.’”

Earlier this week, Gomez posted a video on her Instagram Stories encouraging her fans to vote in the 2022 midterm elections, specifically stumping for her friend Stacey Abrams in the incredibly close race for governor of the state of Georgia, where the politician is running against Republican incumbent Brian Kemp.

Watch Selena’s full interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show below.