‘Late Late Show with James Corden’s’ “Carpool Karaoke” returns this week with Nicki Minaj as the first guest

‘Late Late Show with James Corden’s’ “Carpool Karaoke” returns this week with Nicki Minaj as the first guest
‘Late Late Show with James Corden’s’ “Carpool Karaoke” returns this week with Nicki Minaj as the first guest
Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

The beloved Late Late Show with James Corden segment “Carpool Karaoke” is finally returning after a two-year hiatus, and superstar rapper Nicki Minaj will be the late-night host’s first guest to take part in the popular sing-along showcase.

In the Twitter announcement on Friday, James Corden revealed the exciting news by sharing a promo video of the new installment and revealing that both Minaj and singer Camila Cabello will be featured in upcoming segments. 

The skit, which usually features musical artists who ride in a car with Corden and sing along to some of their greatest hits, was on pause for two years due to the pandemic and social-distancing guidelines.  

Speaking of the show’s musical guests in a past interview on The Ellen Show, Corden said, “It feels like there’s a whole raft of artists that we are desperate to do it with.”

Stars and celebrities that have made previous appearances on the segment include Mariah Carey, Michelle Obama, Missy Elliot and Jennifer Hudson. 

The first new episode of Carpool Karaoke, featuring Minaj, will air this Wednesday, April 6, while Cabello will appear on the April 18 episode.

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Grammys 2022: The Backstage Scene

Grammys 2022: The Backstage Scene
Grammys 2022: The Backstage Scene
Francis Specker/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Backstage at the Grammys Sunday night in Las Vegas, artists answered questions from both reporters who were actually backstage at the MGM Grand Arena, and reporters who’d logged in on Zoom from around the country.  But some of the night’s biggest winners didn’t appear backstage.

Olivia Rodrigo and Silk Sonic, both of whom won multiple awards Sunday night, posed for photos, but didn’t talk to reporters. Doja Cat, who won Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for “Kiss Me More,” also declined to speak with reporters, but her duet partner, SZA, did come backstage, despite the fact that she was on crutches due to, as she put it, “falling out of bed” the day before.

“That’s the way it goes,” she laughed. “Everything awesome in my life has always come with something very random, but it just adds to the energy.”

SZA’s Grammy was her first win after 11 nominations, and R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan and country duo Brothers Osborne were two other artists who finally won for the first time Sunday night after multiple nominations.  Backstage, Sullivan, who actually won two trophies, said, “After losing so many times, I feel like I kinda gave up [hope of ever winning]…so it’s surreal to actually hold these babies!”

TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne, who admitted that his mother “hates” that he dyed his hair blond, spoke about how “incredibly fulfilling” it’s been to perform for their fans since he came out as gay last year.

But country’s big winner was Chris Stapleton, who took home three trophies, including Best Country Album. Asked backstage who out there he’d like to collaborate with, Stapleton, who’s worked with Taylor Swift, Adele and Santana, among others, said he wouldn’t mind working with Harry Styles.

Country superstar Carrie Underwood won the Best Roots Gospel Album Grammy for her faith-based project My Savior and cried backstage as she spoke about how it “means the world” to her that she won because she’s wanted to make that kind of album “literally my whole career.”

H.E.R., who won the Best Traditional R&B Performance Grammy, was still buzzing from her performance with Lenny Kravitz on the show.  “I was having so much fun…growing up, I’d literally study all his videos…he’s one of the reasons why I even wanted to play guitar, so having this full circle moment…I was at a loss for words.”

And The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste, who had the most Grammys going into the show, also cited Lenny Kravitz as HIS full circle moment: Kravitz announced that Batiste had won the Album of the Year for his project We Are. “We played together when I was 16, so it was surreal,” Batiste told reporters, adding, “Seeing Uncle Lenny up there, it was just like a whole vibe, like, ‘This is far out.'”

Foo Fighters swept the rock categories, but sadly, they didn’t attend due to the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. St. Vincent won Best Alternative Album for Daddy’s Home and backstage, she mentioned how happy she was that Jack Antonoff, her co-producer on the album, had been named Producer of the Year.

She also spoke about how “times are changing” in terms of women in alternative rock, while rock legend Bonnie Raitt, who won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, praised the new crop of young female artists, including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo.

“Across all genres, I think women are kickin’ it,” said Raitt.

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Grammys 2022: Chris Stapleton wins big; Carrie Underwood, Brothers Osborne and more perform

Grammys 2022: Chris Stapleton wins big; Carrie Underwood, Brothers Osborne and more perform
Grammys 2022: Chris Stapleton wins big; Carrie Underwood, Brothers Osborne and more perform
Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The 64th annual Grammy Awards kicked off live from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena Sunday night, hosted by Trevor Noah.

Chris Stapleton won big, snagging the award for Best Country Album for Starting Over during the televised portion of the awards ceremony. He also won Best Country Song for “Cold,” which he later took the stage to effortlessly perform.

Another amazing performance came from Brandi Carlile, who, after being introduced by music icons Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell, sang her Grammy-nominated hit “Right On Time.”

Looking fierce, Carrie Underwood performed her new song “Ghost Story” for the first time ever. Showing off her powerhouse vocals, she was slowly raised into the air on a platform as the song came an end.

Ending on a high, Brothers Osborne closed out the show giving an electric performance of “Dead Man’s Curve,” which comes after the duo, consisting of brothers TJ and John Osborne, won their first ever Grammy award for Best County Duo/Group Performance for “Younger Me.”

Accepting the award, TJ, joined by his brother at the podium during a pre-telecast premiere ceremony, said, “For those of you who do not know, this song was written really in response to me coming out.”

“I never thought I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexuality,” he continued. “And I certainly never thought I would be here on this stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, potentially in a very negative way. And here I am tonight, not only accepting this Grammy award with my brother, who I love so much, but I’m here with a man that I love and who loves me back. I don’t know what I did to get so lucky.”

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Grammys 2022: H.E.R, Nas, and more perform medley of hits

Grammys 2022: H.E.R, Nas, and more perform medley of hits
Grammys 2022: H.E.R, Nas, and more perform medley of hits
Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The 64th annual Grammy Awards kicked off live from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena Sunday night, hosted by Trevor Noah. 

Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak’s, Silk Sonic started music’s biggest night, with a smooth performance of their hit “777.” The duo also won big, taking home the Grammy for each of the four categories they were nominated for, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Leave the Door Open.”

Lil Nas X got the crowd hype with mixture of songs from his debut album MONTERO, including “Industry Baby” featuring Jack Harlow, who joined him.

Legendary rap icon Nas performed a medley of his hits over the years including 2001’s “One Mic,” 2002’s “Made You Look,” and “Rare” from his 2021 album King’s Disease II, which was nominated for Album of the Year. 

John Legend, joined by three women from Ukraine — an instrumentalist, a vocalist, and a third who delivered a spoken word — led a moving performance of the spiritual “Go Down, Moses.”

The multi-talented H.E.R. sang her hits “Damage” and “We Made It,” before Travis Barker and Lenny Kravitz hopped on stage with her for a cover of Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” 

Other notable moments during the ceremony included Jazmine Sullivan winning Best R&B Album for Heaux Tales, where she explained, “I think that I wrote this project to deal with my own thing… but what it ended up being was a safe space for Black women to tell their stories.” 

Also, Doja Cat getting emotional as she and SZA, who hobbled to the stage on crutches due to an undisclosed injury, accepted the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Kiss Me More.”

“Damn, I like to down play s*** but… it’s a big deal,” Doja said as she wiped away tears. Doja nearly missed accepting the award after she stepped away to use the bathroom.

Jon Batiste — the top nominee going into the night — took home Album of the Year for We Are, in addition to winning four trophies during the pre-show.

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Grammys 2022: Silk Sonic, Olivia Rodrigo snag multiple awards

Grammys 2022: Silk Sonic, Olivia Rodrigo snag multiple awards
Grammys 2022: Silk Sonic, Olivia Rodrigo snag multiple awards
Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It was a big night for Silk Sonic and Olivia Rodrigo Sunday at the 64th annual Grammy Awards.

Silk Sonic kicked off the show with an ultra seductive performance of “777,” which host Trevor Noah joked was enough to steal everyone’s girlfriends. Their night only got better from there, as the duo took home four awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best R&B Song for “Leave The Door Open,” as well as tying with Jazmine Sullivan for Best R&B Performance.

Olivia, meanwhile, snagged three awards: Best Pop Solo Performance for “drivers license,” which she belted out on the Grammy stage, Best Pop Vocal Album for SOUR and Best New Artist.  She emotionally declared upon picking up the latter, “This is my biggest dream come true!”

The most memorable moment probably came from Doja Cat, who sprinted from the bathroom to collect the Best Pop Duo / Group Performance award and hilariously — but breathlessly — thanked the Academy for recognizing her “Kiss Me More” collab with SZA, who was on crutches.

Lady Gaga earned praise for jumping out of her seat to help SZA up the stairs.  Speaking of Gaga, she won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Love for Sale, her collaborative album with Tony Bennett.  She also tearfully shouted out Bennett when performing “Love For Sale” and “Do I Love You,” saying she loves and misses him.

Lil Nas X turned heads with a medley of his hits — and multiple wardrobe changes — performing “Dead Right Now,” “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and “Industry Baby” with Jack Harlow. 

Other notable performances include BTS, where all seven members reunited on the Grammy stage to perform “Butter” after Jungkook tested positive for COVID-19 early last week.  Billie Eilish also brought down the house with an incredible performance of “Happier Than Ever” and paid tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins by wearing a tee shirt with his face on it.

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Grammys 2022: Recording Academy honors Taylor Hawkins after Foo Fighters sweep rock category

Grammys 2022: Recording Academy honors Taylor Hawkins after Foo Fighters sweep rock category
Grammys 2022: Recording Academy honors Taylor Hawkins after Foo Fighters sweep rock category
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

The Foo Fighters were set to perform at the 64th Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but withdrew from the ceremony following drummer Taylor Hawkins‘ tragic death. In place of their scheduled performance, the Academy put together a beautiful tribute to Hawkins, which featured footage of past performances set to Foos’ smash hit “My Hero.”  

Hawkins’ tribute preceded the “In Memoriam” segment, which honored music legends we lost over the past year.  Among those celebrated was ZZ Top‘s Dusty Hill, Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, Don Everly, Meat Loaf, Procol Harum founder Gary Brooker, drummers Roger Hawkins and Ron Tutt, songwriter James Richard Steinman, guitarist Rusty Young and Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees.

Billie Eilish also honored the late Foos drummer by wearing a Taylor Hawkins shirt during her “Happier Than Ever” performance.

As previously reported, the Foos were further honored by the Academy during the pre-show Premiere Ceremony. They swept all three awards of which they were nominated: Best Rock Album for Medicine at Night, Best Rock Song for “Waiting on a War” and Best Rock Performance for “Making a Fire.”

On the metal side, Dream Theater took home the golden trophy for “The Alien,” which beat out Deftones, Gojura, Mastodon and Rob Zombie for Best Metal Performance.

Later in the night, Travis Barker and Lenny Kravitz joined R&B artist H.E.R. for a high octane performance of “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” which drew a standing ovation.

Kravitz later presented the award for Album of the Year, which went to Jon Batiste.

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Grammys 2022: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers powerful video message

Grammys 2022: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers powerful video message
Grammys 2022: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers powerful video message
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise appearance at the 64th Grammy Awards and sent a powerful message about the cost of freedom and the healing power of music.

In a pre-taped video, the president spoke from an unknown location in his country, which is being bombarded by Russian bombs in an unprecedented attack to seize control of the country.  Zelenskyy remained poised and spoke with a stern, gravel-like tone about the cost of Russia’s ongoing war.

“The war.  What’s more opposite to music?  The silence of ruined cities and killed people.  Our children draw swooping rockets, not shooting stars.  Over 400 children have been injured and 153 children died and we’ll never see them drawing,” he said. “Our parents are happy to wake up in the morning.  In bomb shelters. Alive.”

Zelenskyy urged, “The war doesn’t let us choose who survived and who stays in eternal silence.”

“Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos.  They sing to the wounded in hospitals.  Even to those who can’t hear them, but the music will break through anyway,” he continued, noting Russia is bringing “horrible silence with its bombs.  The dead silence.”

He urged those at the Grammy Awards to “fill the silence with your music” and to “tell our story” by sharing the “truth” of the Russian invasion “on your social networks, on TV — support us in any way you can.”

While naming the besieged cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Volnovakha and Mariupol, Zelenskyy declared, “I have a dream of them living and free.  Free like you on the Grammy stage.”

The Ukrainian president’s speech was followed by John Legend‘s performance of “Free.” He was joined by Ukrainian instrumentalist Siuzanna Iglidan and singer Mika Newton for the inspiring number.

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Grammys 2022: Halsey leaves early to recover from surgery: “Not feeling super well”

Grammys 2022: Halsey leaves early to recover from surgery: “Not feeling super well”
Grammys 2022: Halsey leaves early to recover from surgery: “Not feeling super well”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Halsey hadn’t attended the Grammy Awards in five years and, sadly, they had to cut the night short Sunday for health reasons.

Prior to the ceremony, the singer revealed on Instagram, “The last time I attended the Grammys was 2017 and it was 3 days after I had my first Endometriosis surgery. I walked the carpet with my stitches still in… As luck would have it, I’m attending tomorrow for the first time in years and I had surgery again (you guessed it) 3 days ago.”

“If you see me be gentle lol I’m fragile. Fragile but excited,” they added.

About an hour into the show on Sunday, the “Bad At Love” singer revealed on their Instagram Story they “left early” because they weren’t “feeling super well.”  Halsey revealed they did tough it out until BTS, whom they collaborated with on “Boy With Luv,” took the stage to perform an over-the-top rendition of “Butter.”

The Grammy nominee told fans they are “going to get pasta and sleep” before thanking fans for their support.

Feel better, Halsey!

Halsey was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album for If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, losing to St. Vincent‘s Daddy’s Home.

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Glass Animals pull out of Grammys due to frontman Dave Bayley’s positive COVID test

Glass Animals pull out of Grammys due to frontman Dave Bayley’s positive COVID test
Glass Animals pull out of Grammys due to frontman Dave Bayley’s positive COVID test
Dave Bayley second from left; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Glass Animals are up for Best New Artist at tonight’s Grammys, but they won’t be attending, because frontman Dave Bayley has tested positive for COVID-19.

“I feel fine, and am showing no symptoms so far, but nonetheless it would be truly irresponsible for me to attend the Grammy ceremony,” he writes on Instagram. “I am so overwhelmingly heartbroken…I wanted to be there for all of us as this has been a colossal team effort.”

Among the people for whom Bayley wanted to attend the ceremony, he wrote, is “my best friend who passed away who I do all of this for, who ‘Heat Waves’ was about, and who I get to share all these amazing moments with even though our time on Earth together ended too soon.”

Bayley concludes by writing that to prepare for the Grammys, he has “ordered room service and I am prepped with several bags of cheetos and gummy bear multivitamins.”  He adds, “I am ready to kick the small point a** of COVID and cheer for all the amazing musicians and records being honored tonight…we will be there in spirit.”

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Grammys 2022: Foo Fighters, albums by George Harrison & Joni Mitchell among rock winners

Grammys 2022: Foo Fighters, albums by George Harrison & Joni Mitchell among rock winners
Grammys 2022: Foo Fighters, albums by George Harrison & Joni Mitchell among rock winners
CBS/Recording Academy

Foo Fighters swept all the categories for which they were nominated at the 2022 Grammys, which were handed out Sunday during the pre-show Premiere Ceremony.

Dave Grohl and company won Best Rock Album for Medicine at Midnight, Best Rock Song for “Waiting on a War,” and Best Rock Performance for “Making a Fire.” The Foos were also scheduled to perform during this year’s awards, but Rolling Stone reports that they canceled the appearance due to the tragic unexpected death of drummer Taylor Hawkins on March 25.

In winning Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album, the Foos beat their friend Paul McCartney, who’d inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as Eddie Van Halen‘s son Wolfgang, who was up for Best Rock Song for Mammoth WVH‘s “The Distance.”

Other announced winners include former Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej‘s Divine Tides for Best New Age Album, marking Copeland’s first Grammy outside of The Police, with whom he’d won five. Dream Theater‘s “The Alien” won Best Metal Performance.

George Harrison‘s All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Edition won for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, while Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) for Best Historical Album.

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