At just 12 years old, Blue Ivy Carter is already starting to carve out her own role in the entertainment industry. In 2019, she won a Grammy for her work on mom Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl,” and now, she’s readying to make her movie debut (in a voice-acted role) in Mufasa: The Lion King, which is set to release on December 20.
There was a premiere for the film last night, though, where Blue Ivy posed on the red carpet with parents Beyoncé (who voices Nala as she did in the 2019 Lion King movie) and Jay-Z (here’s a video).
Beyoncé, ever the proud mother, shared some photos of Blue Ivy at the premiere and wrote on Instagram, “My gorgeous baby girl. This is your night. You worked hard and you did such a beautiful job as the voice of Kiara. Your family could not be prouder. Keep shining.”
The post got some supportive comments from people like Ty Dolla Sign (a raised hands emoji), Flo Milli (“aw congratulations”), and Leona Lewis (“So special [heart emoji]”).
Meanwhile, it was recently announced that Beyoncé will be part of the NFL’s effort to give itself a more significant Christmas presence, by performing a special halftime show.
The Carters took the red carpet of the Los Angeles premiere of Mufasa: The Lion King, which stars both Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Carter.
The family can be seen together, all smiles, on the red carpet. Blue Ivy wore a stunning gold gown that matched her mother’s hue. Hov was accompanied by a sharp burgundy suit.
The video shows the family posing together and a touching moment when Jay and Bey cheer on their daughter as she poses for the cameras.
“My gorgeous baby girl,” Beyoncé wrote on Instagram. “This is your night. You worked hard and you did such a beautiful job as the voice of Kiara. Your family could not be prouder. Keep shining”
It has been a difficult stretch, legally speaking, for the Carters. JAY-Z and Beyonce were accused of heinous acts by Jaguar Wright, and subsequently sent a cease-and-desist to interviewer Piers Morgan. The latter subsequently issued an apology. Now, however, JAY-Z has been saddled with even more grim allegations. The rapper is being accused of assaulting a teenager alongside Diddy during an after party in 2000. Hov denied these allegations, and a day later, he attended a film premiere with Beyonce and their daughter.
JAY-Z, Beyonce and Blue Ivy Carter attended the world premiere of Mufasa: The Lion King. Beyonce and Blue Ivy voice characters in the film, and JAY made sure to show support on the red carpet. Interestingly enough, Beyonce did not include her husband on the Instagram post commemorating the event. Queen Bey decided to focus on her daughter, instead. “My gorgeous baby girl. This is your night,” she wrote in the caption. “You worked hard and you did such a beautiful job as the voice of Kiara. Your family could not be prouder. Keep shining.”
Fans flocked to the comment section to show their support for Blue Ivy. The timing, and the particular wording of Beyonce’s post, however, led some to question whether there was an intentional effort to take the focus away from JAY-Z’s allegations. The rapper is nowhere to be found on the singer’s social media, despite being on the red carpet with Blue Ivy. There’s also the emphasis on it being Blue Ivy’s “night,” as a means of highlighting her achievement over Hov’s legal drama. This is the first time that Beyonce has posted anything on Instagram since November 23.
It’s also, crucially, the first time she has issued any kind of public statement since JAY-Z’s allegations came to light. Beyonce has not directly addressed the claims made against her husband. Her mother, Tina Knowles, seemingly did via Instagram. She liked a post about JAY-Z’s alleged assault, which had fans thoroughly confused. She later claimed that she had been hacked, however. Knowles assured the fans that she will always stand by her family, and does not believe the allegations.
JAY-Z is the latest rapper to be hit with harrowing allegations. The Brooklyn hitmaker was was accused of sexually assaulting a minor alongside Diddy in 2000. The minor in question was alleged to be 13 years old, and the assault was alleged to have taken place at a VMAs after party. JAY-Z’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, has already issued a statement denying these claims. Of course, the story has spread like wildfire online, with many debating the legitimacy of the suit. It was the Instagram activity of JAY-Z’s mother in law, Tina Knowles, however, that had fans stumped.
Tina Knowles liked a post detailing the allegations against JAY-Z on the social media platform. Fans were shocked to see a member of the rapper’s own family seemingly condoning the lawsuit. This led many to question whether Knowles has any knowledge of her son-in-law’s past. It did not take long, however, for Tina Knowles to make a statement. Beyonce’s mother took to Instagram to explain that her account had been hacked. She insisted that she did not condone or like the post about JAY-Z legal troubles, and said she would never do anything of the sort against her own family.
“I was Hacked,” Tina Knowles asserted. “As you all know I do not play about my family. So if you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that it is not me!” The celebrity mother added some more thoughts in the caption of her explanatory post. She urged fans to “stop playing with me!!!!” and quoted the Bible, to emphasize the severity of her words. “No weapon formed against my family shall prosper,” she concluded. Tina Knowles has gone out of her way to avoid discussing the personal lives of both her daughter and JAY-Z.
She has, however, been supportive of Hov whenever she does speak on him. She assured TMZ that the relationship between the rapper and her daughter was nearly “perfect” in 2023. During a 2022 chat with Gayle King, Tina Knowles recalled feeling protective of the Brooklyn icon. She claimed a white women referred to Hov as a “gangster rapper” instead of a CEO. “She didn’t think of him as a CEO, or even a talented celebrity that was a great businessman,” Knowles noted. Based on her recent comments, she still feels protective.
The Lion King — not the animated masterpiece from 1994, but the live-action remake from 2019 — made over $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s not unreasonable to think that at least a few million bucks of that total is from people who wanted to hear Beyoncé voice a lion. The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer voiced Nala in the 2019 film, and she’ll be back for the prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, directed by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins.
Last time, Beyoncé also released a tie-in soundtrack album, The Lion King: The Gift, featuring Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, 070 Shake, Tierra Whack, and Pharrell Williams, among others. Is she planning on doing something similar for Mufasa: The Lion King?
Is Beyoncé On The Mufasa: The Lion King‘Soundtrack?
It doesn’t appear so.
Disney released the tracklist for Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack on Monday, and there’s no mention of Beyoncé. But cheer up: we get to hear Mads Mikkelsen, Keith David, and Rebel Ridge breakout Aaron Pierre sing!
“The Lion King has an incredible musical legacy with music from some the greatest songwriters around, and I’m humbled and proud to be a part of it,” Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the songs for the soundtrack, said in a statement. “It’s been a joy working alongside Barry Jenkins to bring Mufasa’s story to life, and we can’t wait for audiences to experience this film in theaters.”
You can see the tracklist and watch a video below.
Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack Tracklist
1. “Ngomso” by Lebo M
2. “Milele” by Anika Noni Rose and Keith David
3. “I Always Wanted A Brother” by Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somulo, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.
4. “Bye Bye” by Mads Mikkelsen, Joanna Jones and Folake Olowofoyeku
5. “We Go Together” by Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Preston Nyman and Kagiso Lediga
6. “Tell Me It’s You” by Aaron Pierre and Tiffany Boone
7. “Brother Betrayed” by Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack comes out on December 13, followed by the movie on December 20.
Beyoncé‘s team has paused rumors about a “Cowboy Carter” tour, but she’s sharing a new art book inspired by her latest album. On Sunday, Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment unveiled the Cowboy Carter Art Book, available for preorder on the singer’s official website. The 136-page collection features exclusive, never-before-seen visuals drawn from the creative universe of Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter. Priced at $74, the limited-edition book promises to be a collector’s treasure for her devoted fan base.
Queen Bey’s latest album made waves earlier this year after its surprise debut during a Super Bowl commercial, accompanied by the release of singles “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ’Em.” The tracks ignited a frenzy online and set the stage for an album that shattered records while reshaping conversations around Black artists and the genre’s country roots. The Cowboy Carter era showcases Beyoncé’s innovation and artistry, highlighting her talent for building suspense. Fans eagerly await the halftime performance and the possibility of what’s next from this ever-evolving superstar.
Beyoncé will perform during the halftime show at the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game on Christmas Day at NRG Stadium in her hometown of Houston. Bey returns to the Lone Star State after joining Presidential candidate Kamala Harris last month for her campaign rally. This performance will mark the first live rendition of tracks from Cowboy Carter. The announcement sparked widespread speculation about a potential tour, but Beyoncé’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, was quick to dismiss the rumors. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she clarified, “Untrue. Nothing to report here. Whenever there is news, you will hear it directly from the source.”
While a tour remains uncertain, fans can channel their anticipation into securing the art book, which promises a deeper look into Beyoncé’s groundbreaking project. Preorders will begin shipping on December 13, making it a must-have gift for the holiday season.
Today (December 1), Beyoncé announced visuals are officially on the way. Well, sort of. On the Grammy Award record holder Parkwood company’s X (formerly Twitter) page she confirmed that fans can get their hands on a special edition Cowboy Carter book on her website. For $74, purchasers will own dozens of “never-before seen imagery inspired the album,” among the 136 high gloss pages according to the site. However, there are a few stipulations.
In the item’s footnotes, viewers are told that the Cowboy Carter art book’s preorders can only be shipped to US addresses. Also, there is a ten book limit per customer. To further fans’ anticipation no promotional photographs were shared along with the announcement. But the book’s cover, which seems to feature Cowboy Carter artwork outtake. When Beyoncé initially unveiled her Cowboy Carter artwork it sparked a viral response from users online. So, this collector’s item is sure to continue that conversation.
The Cowboy Carter art book will begin shipping out on December 13. Find more information here.
Beyonce is definitely in her prestige era. The singer dominated the 2000s, but the 2010s and beyond have seen her release increasingly experimental and sonically rich albums. Cowboy Carter is one such example. The album sees Beyonce foray into country music, and fans and critics alike have praised her sophisticated approach. Queen Bey’s live show is a huge part of her appeal as an artist, though, so the fans are eager to find out when she plans to go on tour. And her publicist finally gave an update on Nov. 27.
Yvette Noel-Schure, Beyonce’s longtime publicist, responded to a tweet on Wednesday evening. The social media account Pop Tingz claimed that the singer was going out on tour at the top of 2025. “[It’s] set to kick off with her halftime performance at the NFL Christmas Game,” the outlet claimed. Beyonce’s publicist quickly shut this allegation down. “Untrue,” Noel-Schure tweeted back. “Nothing to report here. Whenever there is any news, you will hear it directly from the source first.” This is not the first time that Yvette Noel-Schure has had to contend with rumors about a Beyonce tour.
A source told The Daily Mail that Beyonce was prepping “to unveil a series of UK stadium gigs for next summer.” These dates were alleged to include five shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. It has been firmly refuted by Noel-Schure’s tweet, however. Beyonce may not be hitting the road at any point in the near future, but fans will get a chance to see her in action at the aforementioned Christmas Game. Beyonce confirmed she will be performing during halftime for the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game. The game will air on Dec. 25 via Netflix. It will mark the first time Queen Bey plays songs from Cowboy Carter in public.
Beyonce’s lack of promotion regarding the album has not hurt it in terms of accolades. Cowboy Carter has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. This sizable number brings Beyonce’s total count of Grammy nominations to 99. This means she is the most recognized artist in the organization’s history. Hopefully fans will get a chance to see Bey for themselves at some point in 2025.
It’s a week before Thanksgiving, which can only mean one thing: Year-end list season is upon us. Some lists have already dropped, more will pop up next week, and then there will be a deluge of retrospective ranking throughout December. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you like seeing numbers next to pithy paragraphs.
I make my own list every year, and I contribute to the Uproxx list that will post here in a few weeks. But I also pay attention to all the other lists, and like music nerds everywhere I’m curious about which records will emerge as “Album Of The Year” contenders according to the critical consensus.
Some years it’s hard to predict which albums will achieve that distinction. And then there are years like 2024, which (I expect) will be pretty predictable. With that in mind, I decided to do some sports book-style speculation on this year’s AOTY crop. These are not necessarily the albums that I think are the best; they’re the ones I think critics overall will love the most. This is not about personal taste. I am acting as a cold-blooded prognosticator.
How is consensus determined? You can look at things like Uproxx’s annual critics poll (which arrives in January) or my friend Rob Mitchum’s less formal compilation of year-end lists. You can also chuck science out the window and simply go with your gut, i.e. these are the same damn albums I see at the top of every list!
Whatever the case is, here are eight serious AOTY challengers as I see them, along with odds that they will ultimately be the consensus No. 1.
Charli XCX, Brat
Odds: -1200
Pros: It’s hers to lose. She captured the zeitgeist. (The whole Brat summer thing, etc.) She dominated music media coverage for months. She currently has the highest score on Metacritic. And there’s an ocean of goodwill from critics, who have been calling her “the future of pop” for more than 10 years. There’s a sense from the commentariat that they really want to crown her, and Brat has the cultural heft to make that crowning a foregone conclusion. Practically foregone, anyway.
Cons: My friend and podcast partner Ian Cohen recently posited an interesting counter-theory about how the election might affect how Brat is perceived. The thinking goes like this: “Kamala is Brat” is an extremely obvious and ingrained signifier of the various factors that made the ultimate result of the 2024 presidential campaign turn out as it did, particularly the mistaken belief that putting stock in celebrities and ephemeral pop-culture trends would be more important than, say, making a convincing case to the electorate that alleviating inflation is best handled by someone who is not a convicted felon. Put another way: Brat could potentially be tied inextricably to the most embarrassing parts of 2024, which none of us will want to remember one second after 2025 commences, similar to how nobody since 2016 has dared to play “Sensual Pantsuit Anthem” or “I’m With Her”.
I think there’s some truth to that, though Brat clearly is way less cringy and overtly political than those Hilary era songs. I just don’t think this feeling will truly set in until well after list season ends. For now, I’ll make a sports analogy: Brat has that thing Michael Jordan had in the nineties and Patrick Mahomes has now — victory feels, no matter what, inevitable.
Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
Odds: 4-to-1
Pros: It’s Beyoncé. She’s the S&P 500 of contemporary critical favor — betting on her to do well on a year-end list has to be the safest and most reliable investment there is. She’s like Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s, Radiohead in the late 1990s and early aughts, or Kanye West pre-The Life Of Pablo. Music writers just never get sick of writing about how great she is. At the same time, incredibly, she has an underdog narrative: Cowboy Carter could be her first LP to win the Grammy for Album Of The Year. Expect the music press to lead the cheering section if that happens.
Cons: Hey Beyhive, is that Queen Bey and Jay doing something incredibly glamorous and expensive in the far distance? You better go take a look!
[whispers while the Stan army is temporarily distracted]
Let’s be real: Cowboy Carter is way too long. And the conversation about it died down dramatically within a week or two of the release. Of the albums she’s put out during her “prestige” era — which began with 2013’s Beyoncé and peaked in cultural relevance with 2016’s Lemonade — Cowboy Carter must be counted as the weakest and least impactful. It will definitely get some year-end list love regardless, but that feels more like muscle memory than genuine enthusiasm.
MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks
Odds: 8-to-1
Pros: Feels like the leading “indie rock” AOTY candidate. The people who like him tend to love him. And those that love him view him as a generational talent in the process of creating an all-time body of work. Weirdly, given his unassuming nature, he also has a cult of personality that feels like the flipside of Charli XCX — in both instances, however, fans like the idea of hanging out with the artist as much as listening to their music. Never underestimate the power of parasocial charisma on allegedly high-minded music critics. It’s a potent intoxicant!
Cons: He’s way less famous than the artists I’ve already mentioned, which sadly must be counted as a negative. Also, there is a significant number of writers who will always be skeptical of the “White Male Guitar-Playing Critics Darling” archetype, partly as a delayed reaction (and “correction”) to the aforementioned praise once lavished on the Springsteens and Radioheads of the world. Lenderman is the first artist in a while who fits that description, and it is definitely a double-edged sword.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department
Odds: 10-to-1
Pros: She is the most brilliant songwriter of our time. Her run of albums is virtually unparalleled in music history. Anything she does is automatically era defining. Taylor Swift is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life. Am I saying this while blind-folded and tied to a chair in a pitch-black basement at an undisclosed location? Of course not! Just please don’t hurt me!
Cons: If I were not tied to this chair, and I was doing an impersonation of a meanie music critic, I would say this: By Taylor Swift standards, The Tortured Poets Departmentwas not terribly well reviewed. Nor did it deserve to be: It is a long, monotonous, and frankly boring record. Plus, her relentless self-promotion and ruthless grade-grubbing on the album charts finally registered as craven to at least some segments of the music press, which otherwise has rubber-stamped much of her work lately.
Nevertheless: She still has plenty of fans in the critical community, so you can’t ever count her out. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to water-boarded.
Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee
Odds: 15-to-1
Pros: Hands down the year’s most appealing indie-rock underdog story. A double album composed of 32 spooky and expertly written retro pop songs is posted to an obscure Geocities site by a mysterious composer and guitarist who performs in drag, and within weeks it becomes one of the best reviewed releases of 2024. The music is alluring and magnetic, but the circumstances inevitably make cynical media people feel warmly nostalgic about a less corporate era of the internet. (I am talking about myself but not only myself.)
Cons:Diamond Jubilee came out in late March, and not long after Cindy Lee canceled a nationwide tour midway through. Aside from a beguiling collaboration with Panda Bear, it’s been radio silence ever since. That silence makes Diamond Jubilee feel distinctly like an early 2024 phenomenon, which might as well be a whole different year. Even those who love this record might have trouble remembering it in light of more recent and visible releases.
Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood
Odds: 16-to-1
Pros: In the indie realm, Waxahatchee has Beyoncé-levels of critical esteem. It’s just hard to imagine Katie Crutchfield not doing very well on a year-end list, no matter the album or the year. She’s even crossed over to “nominated for an Americana Grammy” status. (It helps that she delivers consistently good albums, of course.)
Cons: I’m not sure I can quantify this, but anecdotally I get the feeling that Tigers Blood is viewed as a worthy and well-made but ultimately lesser sequel to the previous Waxahatchee record, 2020’s Saint Cloud, one of the finest and most beloved indie releases of the decade so far. There’s also the matter of MJ Lenderman — who appears throughout Tigers Blood, including the standout single “Right Back To It” — and whether Manning Fireworks will undermine the Waxahatchee voting bloc.
Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard And Soft
Odds: 16-to-1
Pros: Of all the big superstar pop albums I have already mentioned, Hit Me Hard And Soft feels like the least heralded. But in terms of album reviews, it actually performed nearly as well as Brat and Cowboy Carter, and significantly better than the Taylor Swift record. For years, Eilish was the pop star to which rock-minded people gravitated — if Dave Grohl or Billie Joe Armstrong or Eddie Vedder namechecked a recent hitmaker in an interview, it was bound to be her. She’s moving out of that category now (Olivia Rodrigo and Chappel Roan have now assumed that role) but Eilish still seems like the pop star of choice for those who don’t take other pop stars seriously.
Cons: Are there really many critics (or any critics) who don’t take pop stars seriously at this point? Note that I said that Hit Me Hard And Soft was “nearly” as loved by critics as Brat and Cowboy Carter. That means it drags ever so slightly behind, which I would expect to also be true on year-end lists.
Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies, Passage du Desir
Odds: 18-to-1
Pros: In 2009, Chuck Eddy of The Village Voice bemoaned what he saw as too many indie records at the top of the newspaper’s annual “Pazz and Jop” poll by making up a cruel-but-funny MOR caricature he called Kevin McFrench. This person was “a fake daily-paper hack from Ohio with the corniest, rootsiest, stodgiest, most clichéd and clueless white-bread biz-sucking middle-aged middlebrow Midwestern Springsteen-to-Wilco do-gooder dad-rock critical tastes you ever saw.” Funny enough, Eddy was complaining that there weren’t enough of these writers represented in the poll. (That’s how much he disliked Animal Collective, I guess.)
Anyway: The modern version of Kevin McFrench — with whom I am aligned musically and philosophically in many ways, shoutout to daily-paper hacks from flyover country — would definitely love the Johnny Blue Skies record. (Jack White’s No Name could also go in this slot.)
Cons: If 2009 had a shortage of Kevin McFrench’s, 2024 likely will have a full-on McFrench drought.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens found herself at odds with Beyoncé and her mother, Ms. Tina Knowles, following Owens’ claim last week questioning whether Kamala Harris’ campaign paid for Beyoncé’s endorsement. The controversy escalated after Meta removed Owens’ post, prompting Ms. Knowles to address the claims directly on Instagram.
Owens wasted no time firing back in the comments, accusing Beyoncé of deflecting criticism. “Beyoncé needs to stop posting from her burner account,” Owens wrote. She defended her original post, noting it used the term “allegedly” and cited multiple publications that sought confirmation from both Beyoncé’s team and the Harris campaign but received no response.
Owens also called out Beyoncé’s decision to remain silent, contrasting it with Cardi B’s approach when facing questions in the past. “People share untrue reports on me all the time—do I call Mark Zuckerberg?” Owens remarked, criticizing the apparent involvement of Meta in removing her commentary. She ended her rebuttal with a pointed critique: “Sending your literal mama to defend you as opposed to just responding to journalists asking questions… is childish af.”
The dispute has since sparked intense reactions across social media, with fans and critics weighing in on the exchange. While Beyoncé has yet to respond directly, the exchange underscores the heightened tension between public figures navigating political and cultural debates.