Rihanna is finally headlining the Super Bowl halftime show this Sunday after months of anticipation. Given she’s the only performer this year (with the exception of if she brings surprise guests) and hasn’t released a new album in years, many fans are wondering if this will mark the start of her official return.
Last fall, RiRi appeared to be doing a slow launch, as she contributed two songs, “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again,” to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
Now, it’s also rumored that she might be heading on tour after the Super Bowl, according to a new teaser from Page Six.
“There has been a lot of talk among people in the know, especially in the last week or two, that Rihanna is gearing up to announce a tour,” one insider told the publication. “It seems to be more than just hearsay at this point.”
“Even some members of Rihanna’s team have been kept in the dark. It’s all a big secret, from the details of her halftime show to what’s next — if anything,” another said. However, Rihanna’s team and Live Nation did not return Page Six‘s request for comment.
If true, it would be the perfect time for her to announce, as the Super Bowl increases sales and streams for most performers each year. Plus, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have already gotten fans mostly situated with tickets.
Latto was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Big Energy (Live)”) at the 2023 Grammys over the weekend. While she didn’t take home a win this year, she clearly still had a blast interacting with other stars and musicians at the event.
One of which was Taylor Swift, who Latto recently uploaded a selfie with to Twitter. It’s also a silly one too, as Latto poses with her tongue out and Swift does a cheek kiss. “Swiftie,” Latto captioned the post with champagne glass and heart emojis.
As anyone who was watching the ceremony knows, the celebs were partying hard in full force during the event. Swift frequently drew attention from the camera as she danced and did a similar pose with Bad Bunny and did some other silly wine-mom-energy moves with Jack Antonoff. Oh yeah, and she sparked the internet after interacting with her ex, Harry Styles.
It’s technically not the first time Latto’s been associated with Swift either. In April of last year, a YouTuber mashed up the “Big Energy” instrumental with Taylor Swift’s “22” acapella. The downside is that it’s not Taylor’s re-recorded version, but it’s still a fun remix worth checking out.
Here’s hoping Latto has a chance of making it onto Reputation or 1989 (Taylor’s Versions) in the future.
Janelle Monáe may have gotten their foot in the door as a musician, but these days, newer fans tend to forget that little fact due to their blossoming acting career. So despite Monáe’s schedule filling up with more on-screen opportunities partly due to the success of Glass Onion, they’ve promised to give day-one fans new music to hold them over.
Last month, the triple threat shared a video of them working on new material in the studio. Then finally, a few weeks ago, Monáe released an extended teaser video for their upcoming single, “Float.” But thanks to a viral tweet, the whole track may never see the light of day.
A user on Twitter garnered a lot of attention by tweeting, “Janelle Monáe finally showing off how fine she is instead of dressing like the monopoly man.”
janelle monae finally showing off how fine she is instead of dressing like the monopoly man
Monáe’s signature monochromatic black-and-white fashions, oftentimes suits, were a way to pay homage to their mother and grandmother every time they took the stage. The singer told the Huffington Post, “It’s a dedication to uniformity, and I’m a minimalist by heart, but a lot of it had to do with me wanting to have a uniform like the working class, like my mom and my grandmother.”
Well, once the tweet crossed the desk of the singer, she came back with a playful response: “35.7k likes?? No new tour. hope it was worth it beloved,” closing with the winky kissy face emoji.
Chile lemme go dust off the archandroid because the tweet is at 44k+ likes now… we’re never getting anything from you ever again at this rate pic.twitter.com/lBggLePufy
The original users’ mentions were riddled with angry fans, but they stood firm in their comments, saying that although it was a joke, they meant what they wrote and also respect Monáe’s artistry. Monáe jumped back in to say, “Monopoly man?? [crying emoji] You’re pretty and funny. [kissy face emoji].”
Jay-Z has long been open about his mixed feelings about the Grammys. In his and wife Beyoncé’s 2018 single “Apesh*t,” he famously rapped, “Tell the Grammys, ‘F*ck that 0 for eight sh*t,’” after being nominated eight times that year, but not winning a single award. But still, he will make his impact on the culture known by maintaining a presence at the ceremony each year.
This year, he was super adamant about his wife receiving her much-due flowers. In an interview with Tidal conducted before this year’s Grammys, Jay said he feels that Bey’s seventh studio album, Renaissance was objectively the Album Of The Year.
“Look what it’s done to the culture. Look how the energy of the world moved,” Jay said. “They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world. Every remix is better than the other one. From anybody, we’re just finding these joints out in the street.”
Renaissance, however, did not win the coveted Album Of The Year award, but ended up taking home the award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Songs from the album won several awards — “Break My Soul” for Best Dance/Electronic Recording, “Plastic Off The Sofa” for Best Traditional R&B Performance and “Cuff It” for Best R&B Song.
The aforementioned wins brought her total number of wins up to 32 Grammys throughout her career, making her the artist with the most Grammy awards.
Over the weekend, Lizzo had a blast at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Not only did she take home Record Of The Year for her song “About Damn Time,” but she also was one of the star performers to play during the event.
“Ok… last thing,” she wrote. “Can I say IM SO PROUD OF MY VOCALS!!! Like… I been working on my voice for the last couple years… some people think I’m a born singer but I’m a rapper first! I wanna thank God & my vocal coach for getting me here.”
Ok… last thing. Can I say IM SO PROUD OF MY VOCALS!!! Like… I been working on my voice for the last couple years… some people think I’m a born singer but I’m a rapper first!
Over the years, many fans have admired Lizzo for both her vocal and breath control — as she is also insanely talented at playing the flute.
She also dedicated her win to Prince and Beyoncé during a tearful speech. “I’m just so proud to be apart of it,” she said. “Not only can people do good, but we are good.”
Continue scrolling for some additional fan reactions to Lizzo’s recent post about her Grammys performance.
A lot happened at the 2023 Grammy Awards this weekend, but the leading narrative throughout the evening was Beyoncé’s chase for history. She entered the night a few wins away from breaking the all-time record for most career Grammys, a record she did end up claiming. Congratulatory messages have poured in since then, and now Beyoncé has gotten one from former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Obama shared a tweet about the record-breaking victory and wrote, “Congratulations @Beyonce for making history. Thank you for blessing us all with the music we live our lives to — the songs that keep us singing and dancing and talking. You deserve all this and more! [hearts emoji] [crown emoji].”
Congratulations @Beyonce for making history. Thank you for blessing us all with the music we live our lives to—the songs that keep us singing and dancing and talking. You deserve all this and more! https://t.co/ZdQotKIpwB
Obama, by the way, is also a Grammy winner: Her first nomination came in 2020, for her Becoming audiobook in the Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling) category, and she won. Husband and former President Barack Obama also has a couple Grammys to his name, for his audiobooks of Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race And Inheritance and The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream.
The confusion over Raitt winning out over monster songs by Adele, Beyoncé, DJ Khaled, Gayle, Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and Taylor Swift led to some tweeters differentiating between Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year.
BTW.. Song of the Year is about writing and composition.
Record of the Year is about the recording itself (singing, producer, engineering).
But the official website for the Grammys offered an explainer in December 2017. To sum it up, Record Of The Year “goes to the artist(s), producer(s), and engineer(s) involved in crafting the specific recording (hence ‘record’) of a song,” and Song Of The Year “goes to the songwriter(s) (hence ‘song’) of new material (not including sampled or interpolated material) of a song.”
Raitt won Song Of The Year for “Just Like That,” which she produced and wrote herself. Lizzo shared her “About Damn Time” Record Of The Year victory with producers Ricky Reed and Blake Slatkin, engineers/mixers Patrick Kehrier, Bill Malina, and Manny Marroquin, and mastering engineer Emerson Mancini.
Let’s not waste time, here: the Grammys let us all down by failing to acknowledge Beyoncé’s Renaissance as the Album Of The Year, in favor of the audio equivalent of plain oatmeal. I’m sure Harry Styles is a very nice British boy – distinctive lack of personality aside – but I, and indeed, many, many others fail to see what his album accomplished that Beyoncé’s did not.
Where Styles’ album was a fine example of a middle-of-the-road pop album, taking inspiration from the past 40 years or so of Top 40 radio (I’m putting it nicely – others have argued that it was pale imitation), Renaissance excavated 40 years of Black music history. Beyoncé sought to shine a spotlight on an oft-and-long-overlooked subculture of Black joy and rebellion.
And while the Grammys were certainly happy to make a fuss about her setting the record for most-awarded act ever, shutting her out from Album Of The Year – again – felt like a repudiation, a rejection, of not just Beyoncé’s efforts, but of the validity of the lived experience of the people her album highlighted. It’s a slap in the face.
To add insult to injury, these are the people and this is the scene that has most directly influenced pop music over the past 40 years. All of your faves? They got their swag from queer Black folks. If you ask just about any dance-pop star with a Billboard Hot 100 hit who they were inspired by, you’re going to get the same answers: Britney Spears, Madonna. Well, who inspired Madonna? I’ll wait.
Actually, no I won’t. It was that New York rave culture, where queer Black folks pioneered house and techno, ball culture, and the sampling techniques that permeate modern music today. Look at Sam Smith and Kim Petras winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance last night. That doesn’t happen without the queer Black community opening the door, at the roots of things, laying the foundation for the branches to flourish.
And Beyoncé, who brought that underground movement to the daylight, went out of her way to acknowledge those contributors to the culture. She put Grace Jones on the album. She nodded to the dozens of collaborators and inspirations for that album in both the liner notes and on her website. As my colleague, Alex Gonzalez, pointed out on Twitter, “Both Harry and Beyoncé noticeably took inspiration from LGBTQ+ aesthetics and culture for their respective album eras… but only one of them actually thanked the queer community.”
And musically, she embraced the breadth and range of those contributions, from disco to neo-soul and everything in between. She displayed versatility and depth and grace and vulnerability and gratitude. She, to quote the kids (who are, again, only quoting Black drag queens), ate and left no crumbs.
Harry’s acceptance speech, oddly enough, inadvertently highlighted just how insultingly tone-deaf this pick really was. “This never happens to people like me,” he said. People like who, Harry? British people? Paul McCartney, Sting, and Adele all have several. Guys who were hand-picked and groomed by some of the biggest producers on the planet to be pop stars from their teens? Hey, have you ever heard of Justin Timberlake?
There is literally no category or tag that you could place on Harry Styles that would put him at a disadvantage in today’s society, let alone at an institution like the Recording Academy, which has had a 100-year history of dropping the ball on honoring Black artists, women, queer artists, or people of color in general at best, and outright racism at worst. Harry is, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, a straight, white, rich dude… the people modern society is set up to serve.
You can’t even blame this on the voting process; in a Variety feature about Academy voters, two anonymous members of this “prestigious” group openly admitted they didn’t vote for Beyoncé “because she always wins.” There was true spite behind this robbery, like the heist in Ocean’s Eleven. It wasn’t just about seeing Harry win – it was about seeing Beyoncé, a Black woman whose commitment to excellence in her craft oozes out of every fiber of her being, who has sacrificed so much to be the best at her craft, who shouldered the burden of representing an entire community in her work… lose.
That is truly heinous.
But, it’s also business as usual in America, where we Black folks are told we have to work twice as hard for half as much. If nothing else, last night’s Grammy result adds one more exhibit to the mountainous pile of evidence for this. It’s all just proof that the Grammys, like most everything else, ain’t really for us – and that’s a shame, because America, and its music, owe us so much.
The Grammys: They sure are long! Shout out to my fellow East Coasters who watched the 2023 Grammys until midnight yesterday and got 45 quality minutes of sleep before getting ready for work this morning.
Within all the length of last night’s show, a lot of things happened. Some awards went to their expected recipients, others went to nominees viewers probably forgot were even up for consideration. Some artists put on spectacular performances, others were certainly at least on stage performing music. Some people got their flowers, others would have settled for just a glimpse of a dried-out petal.
With the dust settling now, all of these events can be generally placed into three categories: winners, losers, and surprises. In fact, the highlights of these goings-on have been categorized thusly… by me… below.
Beyoncé took a slight L when she got stuck in traffic and consequently showed up late to the Grammys. That was profoundly overshadowed, though, by one of the biggest moments of Bey’s career: Renaissance won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. In a vacuum, that’s kind of neat, but zoom out: That Grammy was the 32nd of Beyoncé’s career, which is the new all-time Grammy record. The ever-composed Beyoncé was clearly emotional while accepting the award, which goes to show how major the win was not just in music history, but to her personally.
Surprise: Bonnie Raitt/Samara Joy
Bonnie Raitt’s reaction to winning Song of the Year is everyone’s reaction to her winning Song of the Year #Grammyspic.twitter.com/HYcMZK00hc
Beyoncé’s big win wasn’t a shock. You know what was, though? Half of the Grammys in the “big four” categories.
The Best New Artist field was strong and the winner ended up being Samara Joy, a jazz singer who’s a relative unknown when compared to competitors like Anitta, Latto, and Wet Leg.
Then came Song Of The Year.
Up for consideration were songs by Adele, Beyoncé, Bonnie Raitt, DJ Khaled, Gayle, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and Taylor Swift. Looking at that list, clearly, there’s one artist that stands out, and not favorably in terms of contemporary acclaim and pop culture relevance: Raitt. Just like that, though, “Just Like That” won.
Raitt is a legend and a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, but even she was left scratching her head: When her name was called, she gave an open-mouthed look around the room like she just won $100K on a gas station scratcher. That was a fair reaction: “Just Like That” currently has under half a million streams on Spotify. Last year, around 9.5 million people watched the Grammys. So, if those numbers remain similar for this year’s broadcast, that means about 20 times as many people watched “Just Like That” win the award than had actually heard the song before (and that’s being generous by assuming every Spotify listener has only played the song one time).
The Grammys aren’t supposed to be a popularity contest, but cultural relevance should have been a bigger consideration here.
Loser: In Memoriam segment
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Every year, the Recording Academy honors esteemed deceased musicians with its In Memoriam portion of the show. Also every year, they find a way to piss people off. Fans were quick to notice that artists like Gangsta Boo and Aaron Carter weren’t mentioned during the broadcast, which rubbed some viewers the wrong way.
To the Recording Academy’s credit, in a post shared ahead of the show, they shared an In Memoriam list featuring more names than made it onto the broadcast, noting that “some” of them would be included in the video tribute. Carter was on that list, but not the broadcast. They also note that the people on the list all died between January 1, 2022 and December 6, 2022; Boo died on January 1, 2023.
So, the Recording Academy technically has some plausible deniability here, but maybe policies that exclude people who should obviously be named could use some reconsidering.
Winner: Wet Leg
Wet Leg – Alternative Music Album, Alternative Music Performance
Previously, leg was dry. At the Grammys, though, leg was wet: Emerging rock favorites Wet Leg was up for five awards and they took home two of them: Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Longue” and Best Alternative Music Album for Wet Leg.
Harry was one of the evening’s most-nominated artist with seven total nods. He ended the night with a strong winning percentage, too, taking home three awards, most notably picking up Album Of The Year for Harry’s House. That said…
…boy was his performance during the show dull and weird.
He started his rendition of “As It Was” with some backing dancers, all spinning slowly on a rotating platform, like the song’s music video. It was an extremely low-energy environment for a minute or so, all while the relentlessly upbeat song charged on in defiant tonal contrast. It looked as though Styles and company had the stage set up to perform an Adele ballad before switching to “As It Was” seconds before going on. Things didn’t really improve after the intro, either. Styles’ current tour has obviously gone well, as the banner he has hanging in Madison Square Garden indicates, but the watermelon sugar high appears to have worn off since his last arena show.
Winner: Viola Davis
Viola Davis has achieved EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) status. “It has been such a journey, I just EGOT!” pic.twitter.com/YYj4MMJvRg
Congratulations are in order for Viola Davis: She e-got her EGOT! She’s now one of only 18 people to ever do it and it’s thanks in part to last night’s win in the Best Audio Book, Narration, And Storytelling Recording category, for her Finding Me memoir.
Beyoncé was the evening’s leading nominee with nine total nods, but Lamar was right behind her with eight of his own. Despite getting shut out of the main categories, Lamar did well in the hip-hop categories, winning in Best Rap Performance (“The Heart Part 5”), Best Rap Song (“The Heart Part 5”), and Best Rap Album (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers). Furthermore, he did it all while dressed like Goodwill Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
In the Best R&B Song category, Beyoncé came out on top with “Cuff It.” Another Renaissance track, “Virgo’s Groove,” was up for Best R&B Performance, and while that may have felt like an obvious pick there, Muni Long actually pulled off the upset with “Hrs & Hrs.”
That’s not to say, of course, that Long’s win (her first Grammy victory) is inexcusable. “Hrs & Hrs” is an accomplished track, as it was only the second song by an independent artist to top the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, it’s certified platinum, and it achieved a No. 16 peak on the Hot 100. Beating Beyoncé for a Grammy is a tall mountain to scale, so congrats to Long!
Winner: 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Tribute Performance
The Recording Academy put a major focus on honoring hip-hop in 2023, since this year marks the half-century anniversary of the genre’s inception. They went all out with a gargantuan 10-minute performance that spanned eras, featuring stage time from Grandmaster Flash, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Future, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Missy Elliott, Method Man, Nelly, and Too Short, among others. If you’re looking for a hip-hop history lesson, the setlist is a terrific starting point.
To her name, Brandi Carlile has racked up 24 Grammy nominations in her lifetime. She’s usually firmly in the Americana and country categories, but this year, she earned her first rock nominations. She actually dominated on that front, with “Broken Horses” winning Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. While on the surface, Carlile getting rock Grammys might read as off, she performed the track during the broadcast and it was very clearly a rock song, and a pretty good one, too.
Last night, a lot of songs did, but “God Did” was not among them. The DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, and Fridayy song was nominated for Song Of The Year, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song. It won none of those awards.
Then, Khaled and company had to close the show with a performance of the song, which featured Khaled spouting his classic substance-free motivational nuggets. His loud claims of “we the best” or whatever while actual musicians were performing around him fell especially flat, since the Recording Academy just finished declaring on national television that he is in fact not the best.
Loser: Benny Blanco
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Benny Blanco wore that to the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.
The 2023 Grammys were last night (February 5), and watching the broadcast, the event appeared to go off without incident. However, during the “In Memoriam” segment, some fans couldn’t help but notice a few notable musicians were not mentioned during the show.
Some, for instance, wondered why Aaron Carter, who died last November, wasn’t included in the tribute.
in memoriam of aaron carter – you deserved more. more recognition, love & time. thank you for the music that got me through my childhood, shaped me as a person & why i wanted to work in music. i forever love you. #aaroncarter#GRAMMYspic.twitter.com/JOt45YujMG
Hey #GRAMMYs you forgot about a few huge losses this past year. Jeremiah Green – a founding member of #modestmouse & Mimi Parker of @lowtheband …..over 30 yrs of beautiful music ! Gheesh
Some also noticed that Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins wasn’t mentioned, but since he died shortly before last year’s show, he was honored then.
Hours before the program started, the Recording Academy actually published an In Memoriam post on its website. In the introduction, they explain, “The following is a list of artists and industry professionals the music community lost from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 6, 2022. The 2022 Grammys telecast on CBS featured an In Memoriam segment highlighting some of these individuals via a video tribute, and all of these individuals who died prior to its print date are included in the official 2023 Grammys program book.”
Many of the artists missing from the broadcast are included on this list, but not Green, who died on December 31, 2022, outside of the apparent eligibility window for the list. That also explains the absence of Gangsta Boo, whose death was on January 1, 2023.
(@Latto) 
f
oat
(@JanelleMonae) 
You’re pretty and funny. 
(@thatsstra) 
︎ (@memorieskickin) 
– TikTok – theaccidentalcougar 
GRAMMYs 
(@caliiinoel)