Music

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Summer Walker posted a picture of her and Ciara at the 2022 Billboard Women in Music Awards Wednesday night and thanked her for acting as a mentor.

“Thanks @ciara for being so humble & sweet to me cause these b****** really be rude as hell lol, you’ve slick been a mentor & you looked so beautiful tonight,” Summer’s caption read.

Ciara responded in a comment, “Haha. Love you mama. Fun times.”

The R&B singers posed for photos together at the annual Billboard event, which streamed live on Wednesday from the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, CA.

Ciara hosted the show, where Summer was presented with the Chartbreaker Award. Her 2021 hit “No Love” landed at #13 on the Hot 100 chart and her sophomore album, Still Over It, sat at #1 for a week on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

Walker is known for openly speaking her mind and letting fans in on her personal life. Her debut album, Over It, features 18 tracks that Rolling Stone referred to as “sultry and cathartic, processing bad relationships and new beginnings.”

Summer’s also opened up about her struggle with depression and the “happy place” she’s found recently. “If you struggle with depression, don’t give up it gets better, baby,” the singer said on Instagram.

In response to what she’s most proud of accomplishing in the past year, Walker told Billboard, “Just meeting people that I really f*** with.”

H.E.R and Saweetie were also among the honorees at the Billboard Women in Music Awards. Doja Cat was presented with the Powerhouse Award and gave the final performance of the night, singing “Alone” from her 2021 album, Planet Her. The coveted Woman of the Year Award went to 19-year-old Olivia Rodrigo.

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Jack White has premiered two new songs: “Hi-De-Ho” and “Queen of the Bees.”

“Hi-De-Ho,” which features A Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip, will appear on the upcoming album Fear of the Dawn, one of two solo albums White is dropping this year. The other, Entering Heaven Alive, includes “Queen of the Bees.”

Both “Hi-De-Ho” and “Queen of the Bees” are available now via digital outlets.

Fear of the Dawn, which features the lead single “Taking Me Back,” will be released April 8. The more acoustic-driven Entering Heaven Live arrives July 22.

White will launch his Supply Issues tour in support of both records April 8 in Detroit.

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It was all about Olivia Rodrigo and Doja Cat at Billboard‘s 2022 Women in Music Awards.

Olivia received the Woman of the Year award from Sheryl Crow. “When I came up, women were struggling to be the architects of their own careers,” Sheryl said. “So when I see someone like our Woman of the Year, Olivia Rodrigo, having such incredible success at such an early age, I am blown away.”

Olivia, who told Sheryl she’s a “massive fan,” said during her speech, “It’s not always easy being a young woman in the music industry, but I’ve found so much strength from the female songwriters who have come before me and paved the way and opened doors for so many young women like me.”

Olivia shared a message to “all the young girls out there who are writing songs every day,” telling them “I promise everyone here today is working to make this world and this industry a better place for you.”  She also performed a searing rendition of “Deja Vu.”

Doja Cat, who received the Powerhouse Award, closed the ceremony by performing the “Alone” deep cut from her new album, Planet Her. She received her honor from Normani, who called Doja a “bona fide superhero super star.”

“There’s nothing she can’t do,” Normani continued through shouts and applause. “The attention to detail, the energy, the passion is exactly why she is where she is today.  This wasn’t handed to her on a plate!  She has earned every ounce of her success.”

Doja thanked her mom, fans and her management before humorously ending her acceptance speech with, “Can’t wait to break this s*** open and put the necklace on — You know, that’s what girls do! Amen, women. Let’s go.”

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After taking a break from touring amid the global pandemic, The Weeknd will return will a vengeance with his first-ever worldwide stadium tour.  He also unveiled his opener: his “You Right” collaborator, Doja Cat.

The After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour begins this summer, with the first pit stop set in The Weeknd’s hometown of Toronto, Canada, on July 8.  The tour, which wraps September 2 in Los Angeles, combines the two albums he issued during the pandemic, marking the first time he gets to perform After Hours and DAWN FM live before fans.

Tickets for the North American trek go on sale next Thursday, March 10 and 10 a.m. ET on TheWeeknd.com/tour.  However, those lucky fans who scored tickets to The Weeknd’s After Hours arena tour will be able to cut the line and access a special pre-sale starting Friday, March 4 via a web link that’ll be emailed directly to them.

In addition, Verizon subscribers will also be able to access a pre-sale of their own for select shows starting Monday, March 7, at 10 a.m. local time through the customer loyalty program Verizon Up.  That pre-sale expires on Wednesday, March 9 at 10 p.m. local time.

The Weeknd will also offer a pre-sale opportunity for the Spotify users who stream his music the most via Spotify Fans First; that’ll begin Tuesday, March 8.

One dollar from each ticket sold will benefit The Weeknd’s newly launched XO HUMANITARIAN FUND, which is part of the United Nations World Food Programme to fight world hunger, for which he serves as goodwill ambassador.  

The Weeknd plans to launch additional tour legs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South America.  Those dates are forthcoming.

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Slipknot and Iron Maiden have joined the growing list of rock artists canceling shows in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The affected Knot dates include their headlining set at Moscow’s Park Live festival this summer, which has already seen a number of acts drop off the lineup, as well as shows in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Minsk, Belarus.

“We had looked forward to reuniting with our fans in these incredible cites, coming back together after global lockdown,” Slipknot writes in a statement. “But we take this step in support of our community and in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, for whom the struggle continues, in a new and more terrible form.”

The masked metallers add, “We also acknowledge that our Russian and Belarusian fans are overwhelmingly united with the Ukrainians in their fight for peace.”

Maiden, meanwhile, has scrapped shows in Kyiv and Moscow scheduled for May 29 and June 1, respectively. In their statement, the metal legends write, “Our priority is, and will always be, the safety of our fans.”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — rapper, actor, and executive producer of Starz’ hit Power franchise — is not happy with the cable network, again.

In a series of Instagram posts, Fiddy showed himself stuffing clothes into suitcases, noting, with some colorful emoji use, “This is me packing my stuff, STARZ…Sucks, my deal is up over here I’m out.”

At issue was the network’s decision to grant another season to another series, Hightown, while remaining mum about the fate of his so-called Power Universe.

“They Renewed High town [sic] and FORCE is the highest rated show they have it sitting in limbo,” Jackson griped, referring to Power Book IV: Force. “If I told you how much dumb sh** I deal with over here,” he vented, with the facepalm emoji. 

As previously reported, Force launched on February 6 to Starz’ highest ratings ever, and bested high-profile premieres like The White Lotus on HBO and Showtime’s Dexter: New Blood.

Force wraps up on March 27, but with Fiddy’s G Unit production deal set to expire, as he alluded to, it looks like the rapper’s already calling it a wrap with Starz. The fate of Book V: Influence remains unclear.

When ABC Audio recently spoke with Fiddy for Force, he didn’t hold back as to how the network treated him, initially passing on Power and then allegedly underpaying him before the original show launched a successful franchise. 

“I was getting paid seventeen thousand dollars per episode to be a producer, act on the show, and to be the marketing…” he admitted. “[I]n the beginning, I’m looking at it like, ‘Bro, I coulda went to the nightclub and waved.’ I would have got paid more to go to a nightclub and waved. Like, you know what I’m saying?”

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2022 marks Madonna‘s 40th year as a recording artist, and she’s kicking off the celebration with a new take on one of her classic hits.

Madonna’s dropped a new remix of her 1998 song “Frozen,” based on the viral version by producer Sickick that took over TikTok last year, soundtracking more than 100,000 videos. It’s called “Frozen (Fireboy DML Remix),” and is credited to Madonna, Sickick and Fireboy DML, a Nigerian singer who’s currently on the charts with an Ed Sheeran collaboration called “Peru.”  A video for the remix is coming “soon,” according to Madonna.

In other Madonna news, The Hollywood Reporter has more information on the casting process for the Queen of Pop’s upcoming biopic, which she co-wrote and is directing.  The publication says Ozark‘s Julia Garner, Black Widow‘s Florence Pugh, Euphoria star Alexa Demie, indie-film star Odessa Young and Mayor of Kingstown actress Emma Laird are in the running to play Madonna, and even pop star Bebe Rexha has been part of the search.

The audition process is described as “grueling,” involving 11-hour-a-day choreography sessions with Madonna’s choreographer and then with Madonna herself.  The callbacks consist of readings and singing auditions, again with Madonna — so, no pressure, right?  One insider tells The Hollywood Reporter, “You have to be able to do everything.”  Just like Madonna.

In October, Madonna told Jimmy Fallon that she’s so involved in the project because “A bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men.”

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Jennifer Hudson, will make her daytime TV debut this fall with the launch of The Jennifer Hudson Show on Fox Television stations.

“I have experienced so much in my life; I’ve seen the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, and just about everything in between, but as my mother always told me, ‘Once you think you’ve seen it all, just keep on living,’” Hudson said in a statement obtained by Variety on Wednesday.

“People from around the world have been a part of my journey from the beginning — twenty years ago — and I’m so ready to join their journey as we sit down and talk about the things that inspire and move us all,” the statement continued. “I have always loved people, and I cannot wait to connect on a deeper level and let audiences see the different sides of who I am, the human being, in return. And I couldn’t be more thrilled to do it alongside this incredible team. We’re about to have a lot of fun and shake things up a little bit!”

Hudson first rose to fame as a contestant on American Idol in 2004. In addition to releasing several albums, she went on to star as Effie White in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, for which she won an Oscar, appeared in dozens of TV and film projects and starred on Broadway in The Color Purple.

Most recently, Hudson portrayed Aretha Franklin in the biopic, Respect, which earned her another Oscar nomination and the award for outstanding actress in a motion picture at the Sunday’s NAACP Image Awards, along with the entertainer of the year award.

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