Springfield Police are looking for a woman who failed to appear in court on
drug charges. Caitlin Bolton is wanted on two counts of possession of a
controlled substance. Police say Bolton is 5’8”, 130 pounds with green eyes.
Investigators say she often changes her hair color. Bolton has an angel tattoo
on her left shoulder and the names Payton, Micah and Cristan on her left arm.
A door greeter at a Walmart store in Springfield was injured while trying to
stop a shoplifter. The door greeter at the store on East Independence tried to
stop a woman and was pushed. The door greeter had minor injuries. Police say
the shoplifter was about 5’9” and wearing mostly black clothing. She was with
an unidentified man.
The road to the 2022 MAMA Awards was not paved overnight. J-Hope dominated the stage at the award show Nov. 30 when he performed a medley of tracks from his solo album Jack in the Box, and is now giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at his performance coming together by sharing the dance practice video for “MORE” on Wednesday (Dec. 7).
Hobi — along with a small army of backup dancers clad in all black — appears in a sparse room with black walls and gray concrete floors, skipping in between the dancers and performing well-timed choreography as he rapped along to the fierce track. The dancers, for the most part, kept to the confines of marked-off squares on the floor. (The night of the MAMAs, the squares turned into a large checkered box.)
During the show, the BTS rapper also performed two other songs from Jack in the Box: “Arson,” which delivered a fiery stage set, and “Future,” which saw the BTS rapper cooling things off for something a bit more intimate feeling.
After the rapper’s appearance at the MAMAs, the official BTS Twitter account shared its congrats with the idol and thanked ARMY for making his appearance possible. “J-Hope who set 2022 MAMA AWARDS’ stage on fire! Including a valuable award that J-Hope and BTS received because of ARMY’s cheers/support! Thank you ARMY!” the account wrote at the time.
J-Hope won the award for most popular male artist at the 2022 MAMAs, in addition to the Bibigo culture and style award.
Watch J-Hope’s “MORE” dance practice video above.
Did you know that … Lana Del Rey‘s ninth studio album is coming out next year? On Wednesday (Dec. 7), the 37-year-old alt-pop star put an end to fans’ anticipation for new music by announcing her new record, titled Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, will arrive March 10, and to tide them over in the meantime, she also dropped its title track.
Del Rey also unveiled Ocean Blvd‘s cover art, a black-and-white portrait of the “Summertime Sadness” singer resting her head in one of her hands. In chunky yellow lettering reads the album’s title, and in white are the names of its featured artists: Jon Batiste, Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis and SYML.
Antonoff, who previously worked with the singer-songwriter on 2021’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, is also listed on the cover as a producer, as are Mike Hermosa, Drew Erickson and Zach Dawes, who worked on Blue Bannisters, also released in 2021. The new record is available now for pre-order on the New York native’s website, as are vinyls with several alternate covers.
Ocean Blvd‘s brand new title track, meanwhile, finds Del Rey in her element, her voice billowing out like smoke over somber piano and dark strings. “When’s it gonna be my turn?” she sings on the single. “Open me up, tell me you like it/ Love me until I love myself / There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard.”
The Grammy-nominated artist hasn’t released a full album since Blue Bannisters last year, but she did drop an ethereal single titled “Watercolor Eyes” in January for Euphoria‘s soundtrack. She also worked with Father John Misty on the EP Buddy’s Rendezvous this year, and was featured on Taylor Swift’s Midnights track “Snow On the Beach,” which became Del Rey’s second Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit.
Listen to “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” below:
Fútbol fans are anxiously waiting to see which two countries will play the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, set for Dec. 18. Meanwhile, music fans are patiently waiting to see which artists will take the stage for the tournament’s closing ceremony.
Both finalists and artists are still up in the air. The match will ultimately come down to whichever two teams move forward, and the Federation International Football Association (FIFA) has yet to announce the lineup for World Cup’s closing ceremony, which will also take place the same day of the last match.
Traditionally, artists who’ve released a song or anthem for that year’s World Cup perform at the closing ceremony. For example, that’s when Nicky Jam, Will Smith and Era Istrefi performed their 2018 official song “Live It Up.” But anything can happen: Shakira performed a special version of “Hips Don’t Lie” at the 2006 World Cup closing ceremony in Germany.
This time around, strong contenders include Ozuna and Gims, who released “Arbho” for the 2022 World Cup official soundtrack. The song earned the Congolese-French rapper his first top 10 Billboard chart hit. Another possibility could be Trinidad Cardona and Rahma Riad, who released a track for the soundtrack. There’s also Paulo Londra, who marked his grand return to music with his new album Back to the Game, and who was spotted in Qatar hanging out with Argentina star Lionel Messi. Maluma and Myriam Fares — who performed at the Fan Festival in Doha, Qatar, ahead of the World Cup — could also return to sing their hit song “Tukoh Taka,” this time with Nicki Minaj in tow.
There are many options and fans won’t know for sure who’s performing until FIFA officially announces the lineup. In the meantime, vote for the artist(s) you’d like to see perform at the World Cup’s closing ceremony below.
Shania Twain is extending the love to Adele. The “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” singer attended the 2022 People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday night (Dec. 6), where she received the Music Icon honor, but took some time on the red carpet to share how she felt about Adele shouting her out on instagram after Twain attended the “Easy on Me” singer’s Las Vegas residency.
“That was so special. I only heard about it after. I didn’t want to bother her before the show, and I just wanted to enjoy from the audience so she didn’t realize I was there and that was kind of good,” she told Extra. “It was cute. It was very sweet of her.”
Last month, Adele took to her Instagram Story to share how delighted she was to find out that the country singer was in the audience. “Thank god you had a hat on … I would have self combusted had I seen it was you!! I adore you, I can’t believe you came to my show,” Adele captioned a snap of her performing, with Twain in a white cowboy hat off to the side.
In response, Twain reshared the snap to her own Story and wrote, “Thank god we didn’t make eye contact, all I can think of is the reaction of all those fans to @adele combusting halfway through the show [laughing emoji].”
Twain also took a moment on the People’s Choice carpet to discuss what her forthcoming album Queen of Me means to her. “It’s really just about me coming into my own, you know, just feeling more comfortable in my own skin, she said.”
Watch Twain’s interview in the video above.
Beyoncé, Rihanna and Taylor Swift have each done their fair share of dominating Billboard‘s charts, and now, they’re taking command of Forbes‘ rankings, too. On Tuesday (Dec. 6), the publication unveiled its list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and all three of the hit-making pop stars earned a spot.
Of the three women, Rihanna placed the highest at No. 73, with Forbes citing her billionaire status and her Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty businesses as her major achievements. According to the publication, her net worth is currently $1.4 billion, making her the 2,031st richest person in the world.
Six spots behind Ri is Swift, who ranked No. 79. The success of Midnights and her re-recorded albums Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) were highlighted, along with her political influence and November’s Eras Tour ticket sale meltdown, which has recently been addressed by Congress, and is the subject of a lawsuit leveraged by fans against Ticketmaster. Her net worth in 2022 was $570 million, according to Forbes.
Close behind her at No. 80 is Queen Bey, whose net worth is listed at $450 million. The publication cited her and Jay-Z’s On The Run II stadium tour, which grossed roughly $5 million per night and earned a total of more than $250 million, and her groundbreaking performance at 2018’s Coachella.
Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list is a yearly ranking of high-profile women wielding substantial public influence, and is determined by money, media, impact and spheres of influence, according to the publication. “The result is a collection of women who are fighting the status quo,” this year’s list reads.
Rihanna, Beyoncé and Swift were all featured on last year’s Most Powerful Women roundup as well, ranking at No. 68, 76 and 78, respectively. The three also each hold a spot on this year’s Forbes list of America’s richest self-made women, with Ri at No. 21, Swift at No. 48 and Bey at No. 61.
It was a refrain heard throughout the Billboard offices in the first half of 2022: Where are the hits? The slow start for new entries really impacting the Billboard Hot 100 had us all looking left and looking right for the sort of songs we usually take for granted — the kind that slowly (or not-so-slowly) spread to all corners of the culture, connecting every kind of music fan and becoming unavoidable parts of a given year’s experience. With 2021’s biggest singles refusing to go away and this year’s listenership seemingly too spread out to elect new consensus hits to replace the incumbents, it was starting to look like we might go the whole calendar subsisting on nothing but reruns.
Luckily for us, the hits showed: first from some of pop’s biggest returning heroes, then from some artists taking the next step towards stardom, some longtime hitmakers we hadn’t heard from in a bit, and some new names we hope to be hearing a lot more from in the years to come. And of course, it wasn’t just the big songs that enraptured us in 2022; we found plenty of smaller favorites to save to our streaming playlists and inspire our vinyl orders in between those. But the year just wouldn’t have felt complete without those late-arriving, chart-crashing smashes, particularly since we ended up getting a handful who proved more than worthy of their position.
Here are our 100 favorite songs of 2022, a year that once again proved that no matter the time or context, pop music always finds a way. (Songs were considered eligible for the list if they either came out in 2022, were first released as an official single in 2022, or peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 — though sorry, Stranger Things heads, we still couldn’t quite justify including “Running Up That Hill” or “Master of Puppets.”)
The audience at Sunday night’s (Dec. 4) Broadway opening of A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical showed up to hear their favorite hits from the legendary 81-year-old singer. But they went home with much more. According to CNN, Diamond surprised theatergoers when he popped up in the balcony during the curtain call to help lead the audience in a singalong of his beloved 1969 hit “Sweet Caroline.”
The singer, who retired from touring in 2018 after receiving a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, sang the song’s opening lines before encouraging the packed house at the Broadhurst Theatre to join in on the iconic chorus as the house band played along. The pop-in at the jukebox musical that pays homage to his long, hit-filled musical career was New Yorker Diamond’s first appearance in his hometown since 2017 and one of the few times he’s appeared in public since his diagnosis.
According to People, before the surprise, Diamond walked the red carpet with his wife, Katie McNeil, and received a standing ovation from the audience upon entering the theater. While Diamond has kept a low profile since 2018, he did show up for a rare public appearance during a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in June to sing “Caroline.”
Diamond stepped out during the 8th inning of the Red Sox’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals to deliver a rousing rendition of his 1969 hit; the singer had last performed at Fenway Park in 2013, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing. “Sweet Caroline” has been an 8th inning tradition at the ballpark since 1997. Standing alongside Diamond at Fenway was Broadway veteran Will Swenson, who plays the lead role in A Beautiful Noise.
Check out footage of the impromptu “Caroline” singalong below.
KPOP, which broke ground on Broadway for its casting and representation of Korean culture, is closing just a few weeks after opening at the Circle in the Square.
The musical, which originally premiered off-Broadway in 2017, will end its run on Dec. 11, the producers announced Tuesday (Dec. 6). Written by Jason Kim and directed by Teddy Bergman with music and lyrics by Helen Park and Max Vernon and choreography by Jennifer Weber, KPOP‘s closure follows 44 previews and 17 regular performances.
The final performance will feature a panel discussion celebrating and reflecting on AAPI representation on Broadway. Those panelists include David Henry Hwang, the first Asian American playwright to win a Tony; KPOP‘s Park the first Asian female composer in Broadway history; Korean playwright Hansol Jung; and actor Pun Bandhu. In support of that final performance, 200 complimentary tickets are being offered to AAPI community members and youth.
The show, which announced last week that a Broadway cast recording would release on Feb. 24, stars Luna, Julia Abueva, BoHyung, Major Curda, Jinwoo Jung, Jiho Kang, Amy Keum, James Kho, Marina Kondo, Eddy Lee, Joshua Lee, Jully Lee, Lina Rose Lee, Timothy H. Lee, Abraham Lim, Min, Kate Mina Lin, Aubie Merrylees, Patrick Park, Zachary Noah Piser, Kevin Woo and John Yi.
The story presents a behind-the-scenes look at various K-pop groups and a massive solo star who have come together to film for a special one-night-only concert. In the process, they find themselves unpacking both cultural and personal issues that threaten to dismantle one of the industry’s hottest labels and their sense of self as artists.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in early November, producer Joey Parnes acknowledged that the show had struggled to attract early audiences, saying that it has been challenging for producers to attract theatergoers to new or unknown work when some may still be nervous to return. “It’s not surprising that if they’re having to be discerning, they’re going to choose something that is more certain,” Parnes said.
Since it began previews in October, the new musical has often made less than $200,000 a week, ranking among the lowest-grossing in weekly industry tallies. Capacity has remained fairly healthy but alongside a low average weekly ticket price. The quick closing means KPOP will not be able to benefit from the traditional boost in ticket sales that comes around the holidays and for which many shows hold out for.
Beyond its box office, the musical’s presence on Broadway was historically significant, marking firsts in terms of its subject, its cast and creative team. As the first musical ever about Korean culture on Broadway, KPOP featured Korean representation in the creative team and onstage, including 18 Broadway debuts and only one non-Asian actor in the principal cast. It also featured lyrics for the songs and lines in Korean, with Park not only making history as a first for Asian women but joining just a handful of Asian composers to work on any Broadway show.
Earlier this week, producers Parnes and fellow producer Tim Forbes addressed these milestones while responding to a New York Times review of the show which both called an “insensitive and frankly offensive” take on the musical. In a lengthy Instagram statement addressing the critic Jesse Greene, along with the paper’s theater editor Nicole Herrington and chairman Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, the duo addressed a “cultural insensitivity, underlying ignorance of and distaste for K-pop” present in the review, which they cited with a number of examples as statements that come “across as casual racism.”
They wrote that from the headline to the review itself, specific word choices about the script, choreography, costuming, lighting design and score — coupled with the review’s decision to leave out both audience reaction to the show’s Korean language elements and a lack of discussion about the performers themselves — denied the production’s K-pop performance elements “very legitimacy as part of a Broadway musical” and offered an “implicit assertion of traditional white cultural supremacy.”
“The job of theater critics is to dissect, analyze and ultimately judge work,” the producers’ statement concluded. “We also contend that they have a responsibility to meet a show on its own terms and to be informed enough to know what that even means. Above all, in these troubled times, they have an obligation to do so with cultural sensitivity and absolutely without the casual racist tropes Mr. Green wittingly or not perpetuates.”
In a statement shared with Playbill on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Times noted that after the open letter, the publication “quickly convened a discussion among editors and members of our standards department.” It found that the publication was “in agreement that Jesse’s review was fair” and disagreed “with the argument that Jesse’s criticism is somehow racist.”
This story originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.