Month: December 2022

Following last week’s news of Chuu‘s removal from LOONA, the former girl group member is moving forward with a new seasonal duet.

As the latest installment in a series of singles produced by Korea’s Lotte Department Store, “Dear My Winter” dropped Monday (Dec. 5) as a new duet between Chuu, a current face for the retail brand, and rising R&B singer George. With a jazzy, old-timey production that brings the same nostalgia of classic Christmas songs, the harmonious collaboration highlights the duo’s softer vocals to sing of a “winter” lover that comes to them like a wrapped present or comforting holiday.

The accompanying video is also suited for the season with Chuu and George in cozy sweaters and blankets to duet inside an animated living room complete with a Christmas tree, fireplace and snow falling outside.

“Dear My Winter” is the latest solo release from Chuu this year, following her “Lullaby” duet with rapper-singer B.I from June, plus two covers of classic ’90s K-pop songs via “One and Half” in August and “Confession” in October. The star had been consistently building up solo work and appearances, in addition to performing with LOONA through the past years, until the confusing back-and-forth between the K-pop group and LOONA’s record label led to Chuu’s ousting. Billboard can confirm that this single was scheduled for release since at least mid-November, meaning that the current situation with Chuu and her label was not a factor in this song’s release.

There have been no further updates from either Chuu or her former record label BlockBerryCreative since the star posted a short message on her Instagram thanking fans for support. However, LOONA fans are still eager for answers and taking to social media asking for information.

Watch the “Dear My Winter” video from Chuu and George below:

She came with the receipts!

After a Twitter troll posted a video of Cardi B‘s performance at Miami’s Art Basel over the weekend with the caption “Not the Grammy winner performing in someone’s backyard,” the rapper responded that she had scored a seven-figure payday to perform at the private party.

“I got payed 1 million dollars to perform at this elite bankers private event for 400 people and only for 35 minutes,” Cardi responded in a since-deleted tweet to the now-private Twitter account (see screenshots below). “THINK ABOUT THAT WHEN YOU TYPE ABOUT THIS GRAMMY WINNER,” she wrote, punctuating the sentiment with a gold trophy emoji.

Screenshots of the tweet show she also attached an invoice from WP Touring Inc. that shows the million-dollar payout from her brief time in Miami.

Later on Twitter, the rapper confirmed she wore a sequined nude illusion bodysuit for the 35-minute set, telling a fan who questioned the revealing outfit, “it’s a custom Jean Paul Gaultier look and it represent the purest form of women bodies.”

During last year’s Art Basel, Cardi launched her boozy Whipshots brand with a raucous party at The Goodtime Hotel. This year, she helped close down the annual event by performing at the party thrown by Tequila Don Julio 1942.

Last week, she called into Angela Yee’s final day hosting The Breakfast Club to tease her long-awaited follow-up to her 2018 Grammy-winning debut album Invasion of Privacy. “I gotta put it out next year,” Cardi said, after revealing it’s still “missing something” despite having “like, a couple of songs that are, like, definite.”

Check out fan-captured footage of Cardi’s Art Basel performance (and receipts) below.

Jennifer Hudson and Amber Riley are bonding over their mutual experience of starring in Dreamgirls.

On the Monday (Dec. 5) episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, the Glee star and the EGOT winner bonded over both playing Effie White in the musical and its movie musical rendition, and gave the audience in attendance a taste of their vocal prowess by duetting on the bombastic track “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” originally performed by Jennifer Holliday.

During the pair’s sit-down, Hudson — who starred as Effie in 2006’s Dreamgirls movie and won an Oscar for best supporting actress — revealed that she “made it a point” to see Riley during the 2016 run of the play on London’s West End.

“Playing Effie and you know that — I’m sure you became very close to that character like I [did]. Having her story be this gift and not being able to be out in the front, and I felt that,” the Glee actress said, adding that “Doing things like The Masked Singer, Dancing With the Stars, I get to triumph, be triumphant for those stories. I get to be the winner for those stories and it’s just full-circle for me.”

Following their discussion, Hudson and Riley gave a live rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” belting the song’s endless high notes with ease.

“And I am tellin’ you I’m not goin’/ You’re best man I’ve ever known/ There’s no way I can ever go/ No, no, there’s no way/ No, no, no, no, way,” the pair took turns singing. “I’m not livin’ without you/ I’m not livin’ without you/ I don’t wanna be free/ I’m stayin’, I’m stayin’/ And you, and you/ You’re gonna love me.”

Watch Hudson and Riley’s performance in the video below.

Shania Twain is opening up abuse she suffered a a child that caused her to take extreme measure to avoid being assaulted by her late stepfather. In an interview with the Sunday Times Style magazine, the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” singer, 57, revealed that her struggle with body image stems from the sexual and physical abuse she suffered from stepfather Jerry Twain, which caused her to change the way she looked to deal with the abuse.

“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs,” Twain explained of a method she devised in an attempt to avoid attention. “I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”

When Twain’s stepfather and mother died in a 1987 car crash when she was 22-years-old, the singer had to raise her three younger siblings in destitute conditions in Timmons, Ontario as she was attempting to launch her singing career. “Then you go into society and you’re a girl and you’re getting the normal other unpleasant stuff too, and that reinforces it,” she said. “So then you think, ‘Oh, I guess it’s just s—ty to be a girl. Oh, it’s so s—ty to have boobs.’ I was ashamed of being a girl.”

Twain recalled the conundrum she faced when promoting her music between the need to lean into and appreciate her body and her femininity in the wake of the sexual trauma of her early years. “All of a sudden it was like, well, what’s your problem? You know, you’re a woman and you have this beautiful body?,” she recalled thinking. “What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn’t have a choice now. I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely. And work out how I’m not gonna get groped, or raped by someone’s eyes, you know, and feel so degraded.”

After signing a recording contract and beginning work with her producer and future first husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, Twain described herself as the kind of woman who, “When I walked in the room, it’s like, don’t even get any closer. It was clear in my body language. And I think maybe what young girls can learn too is to exude that confidence.” Besides, Twain said, “I was never an exhibitionist for the sake of, like, saying, you know, ‘Look at my t–s.’ It was really me coming into myself. It was a metamorphosis of sorts.”

Over the years, Twain explained, she learned how to control the narrative, love her body and to, “speak and tell a story about myself by the way I moved my body, the drape of the fabrics, the colors, where the focus was.”

Twain received the Music Icon award at last week’s 2022 People’s Choice Awards, where she also performed a medley of her biggest hits. The country superstar’s sixth studio album, Queen of Me, is slated for release on Feb. 3.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

Suga‘s show is off to a great start. The BTS rapper released the debut episode of Suchwita on Monday (Dec. 5), in which his fellow group mate RM discussed his debut solo album Indigo, shared his fears while making the project, and revealed which member of the group was the first to listen to the album when it was complete over drinks.

Speaking of what it’s like to release an album, RM said, “I feel a little strange. Basically what this is, you and I have been in this field for about the same time considering we started music around the same time. It’s been 15 years [since we started pursuing music] and yet in a sense, this is my first album. So after 15 long years I finally have a chance to prove to myself in the form of a solo album. That’s what I felt.”

Going into recording of the album, RM was happy to have the chance to make a statement about who he is as an artist now on Indigo, because “to be honest, in my Mono album, I had doubts and concerns for about half the songs in there, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case for this album.”

Suga then revealed that “J-Hope was the only one who listened to all tracks before the release” — something that RM noted is actually a rare occurrence for the BTS boys.

“Usually we don’t ask each other to listen to our album. Before Jack in the Box was out, I think I was the first one to listen to it before its official release,” he added. “So I told him when my album was ready that I would want him to listen to it first. That’s how I got Hobi to listen to it. I usually don’t do that kind of thing, but I invited him to give back what I got from him.”

RM’s debut solo album Indigo was released on Friday, Dec. 2. To celebrate the release, the rapper performed tracks from the album for NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series.

Watch RM and Suga’s chat on Suchwita above.