Justin Timberlake & Ant Clemons’ ‘Better Days’ Feat. Kirk Franklin Breaks Shazam Record After Inauguration

Following the festivities of the Biden-Harris inauguration on Jan. 20, “Better Days” — a duet by Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons, which was released to streaming services featuring Kirk Franklin — has topped the record for most-Shazamed song in a single day in the United States.

“Better Days” was performed by Timberlake and Clemons during the Celebrating America primetime inaugural special honoring President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to stats released by Shazam, the song was Shazamed more than 90,000 times within 24 hours of the performance, bringing it to No. 1 on the U.S. Shazam chart and breaking previous records held by “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Willie Nelson (heard on Big Little Lies) and “Jenny of Oldstones” by Florence + the Machine (heard on Game of Thrones).

As Billboard previously reported, on the sales front, “Better Days” also saw immediate gains after Wednesday’s inauguration programming. On Jan. 20, the song sold 13,000 downloads, a gain of 15,351% compared to its sales on Jan. 19.

Earlier in the week, Timberlake said he and Clemons had been “deeply honored to perform our new song” for the event “as a celebration of everything this administration represents… as well as a reminder to keep our eyes on the road ahead. We have a lot of work to do, but I’m feeling very hopeful for this country right now.”

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Cardi B Plans to Just ‘Enjoy Life’ in This Show-Stopping Dress

Cardi B stepped out to go shopping in a head-turning ensemble that she happily showed off on Instagram this weekend.

“Enjoy life,” the rapper, dressed in a unique Pierre-Louis Auvray gown, wrote in a post featuring a clip of herself strutting over to her car on Saturday (Jan. 23).

The statement dress was part knit and part sheer, and it hugged Cardi’s body.

“Majin Buu & Goku,” she captioned a photo of herself in the dress, with Offset by her side.

The pair were photographed out in Los Angeles with their masks on (with Cardi’s matching her red dress, of course).

While social media buzzed about the fun, bold look on Saturday, Cardi took a moment to shoot down a negative comment.

“I’m just tryna figure what man is ok with their woman/girl/gf/wife walking out in public with her a– and g string showing,” one person tweeted Saturday , to which Cardi replied: “A confident one who know his b—- a star and bad.”

In another tweet, Cardi clarified her look’s inspiration: “I wasn’t dress like a human anatomy I was dress as a alien. Is very disrespectful to compare human to aliens.”

See her show off the full outfit on Instagram.

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JoJo Siwa Opens Up About Her Personal Life: ‘I’m Really, Really Happy’

Two days after trending on TikTok with her lip-sync performance to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” JoJo Siwa hopped on Instagram Live with a beaming smile to give a glimpse into her personal life.

Siwa’s grin was unwavering as she gushed about the kind messages she’s received in reaction to her latest social media posts.

“I have gotten the most endless amount of love and support. I’m just … I’m really, really happy,” the viral star said on Saturday (Jan. 23). “Now that the world gets to see this side of my life, it makes me really, really happy. I’ve been happy in this land for a minute now. Now that I just get to share that with the world, it’s awesome.”

Later on in her live session, she added, “It’s been 48 hours of the world knowing. It’s been the best 48 hours.”

Siwa took a moment to give a thoughtful answer to a follower’s question of “What label are you?”

“The reason why I’m not ready to say this answer is because I don’t really know this answer,” she candidly said. “I think humans are awesome. I think humans are really incredible people. Right now, I’m super duper happy and I, you know, want to share everything with the world, I really do, but I also want to keep things in my life private until they are ready to be public.”

“Right now what matters is that you guys know that no matter who you love, that it’s OK. It’s awesome, and the world is there for you. There are so many people that are there for you. I know everyone’s situation is different and it might be harder for some people and it might be easier for some people to come out or be themselves, but I think coming out has this stigma around it — that it’s this really, really, really scary thing — but it’s not anymore. There are so many accepting and loving people out there that it’s OK. Of course people are going to say it’s not normal, but it’s your normal. Nothing is normal. Literally not one thing about anybody is normal, and it’s OK to not be normal, it’s OK to be a little different, it’s OK to be a little weird, it’s OK to be a little strange … I think a lot of people are afaid of being different. That’s something we should never, ever be afraid of. That’s something we should be proud of and that we should celebrate,” said Siwa on Instagram Live.

Siwa said she’d also received questions like “How long have you been a part of the community?” and “How long have you been whatever you are?”

Her response: “I don’t know. I think my whole life. Because my whole life, I have really, really been, I just liked people, but I never have fallen in love before. But I always believed that my person was just going to be my person. If that person happened to be a boy, great! And if that person happened to be a girl, great! I think I’m just really happy. I think in life you know when you meet your person, I really do.”

As she continued to let fans in to bits of her personal life during the live chat, Siwa was happy to share how supportive her parents have always been.

“My parents have known,” she pointed out. “My mom said that she’s known for the last two years. She’s like, ‘I just know with you.’ She was like, ‘About two years ago was when I was like, yeah, I don’t think that you only like boys. And that’s totally OK.’ They just have always been so everything and so over-the-top.”

Watch a replay of her full Instagram Live here.

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U.K. Nurse Tells Kate Middleton About Being Asked to Sing Bon Jovi to Dying COVID Patient

The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton praised nurses from U.K. hospitals performing “acts of kindness” for their COVID-19 patients in a new video — including one wife’s musical request.

The Duchess hopped on a video call with nurses from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and commended them for “going that extra mile” apart from their usual job duties. A senior nurse, Vasu Lingappa, told her about one of his dying patients and how the patient’s wife asked him to sing Bon Jovi while holding his hand.

“She said, ‘I can’t come to see you. But can you make sure you sing Bon Jovi and hold his hand?’ If I sing Bon Jovi in my accent, it won’t be appropriate,” Lingappa recalled with a laugh to Middleton. “So I took my phone out and played a YouTube video of Bon Jovi, and I held his hand.”

“That’s what matters so much now, these acts of kindness to the patients that you’re looking after, that are in your care, that family members aren’t able to be there,” Middleton told the nurses after hearing his story.

See the Duchess’ heartwarming video call below:

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Paris Jackson Unveils ‘Eyelids’ Video With Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull

Paris Jackson shared an emotional visual on Friday (Jan. 22) to accompany her collaboration with Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull, “eyelids.”

The black-and-white vignette finds the duo standing — first separately, then back-to-back — in a dark room as a light circles them. “Now I don’t know your name / It wouldn’t matter if I did anymore / Now I don’t know your name / I’m afraid of what’s under the floor,” they belt in the heartbreaking chorus.

Jackson worked with Hull throughout the process of writing, producing and recording her debut album Wilted, which was released in December 2020. “Manchester Orchestra was the soundtrack to the most vital time in my life in regards to mourning and becoming who I am today,” she told Billboard of working with one of her personal heroes. “[Hull’s] voice has guided me through some of the roughest times where I really had to lean into healthy coping skills, and to hear [him] singing lyrics from my heart was one of the coolest things in the world. I remember just being so blown away that I physically leaned back in my chair and was gripping the armrest.”

Watch the “eyelids” music video below.

 

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Is the SAG Award for Outstanding Movie Cast a Good Predictor for Best Picture Oscar?

When the Screen Actors Guild nominations are announced on Feb. 4, all eyes will turn to the top category: outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. That is often looked to as a leading bellwether for the Academy Award for best picture.

Last year, Parasite won the SAG Award for outstanding cast (a first for a film not in English) en route to its Oscar win for best picture (again, a first for a film not in English).

But the two awards don’t always go hand-in-hand. Of the 25 films to win the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture since the category’s inception in 1995 (the awards show’s second year), 12 have gone on to win the Oscar for best picture, 12 have gone on to be nominated for best picture (but not win), and one wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar for best picture. (That was Mike Nichols’ 1996 farce The Birdcage.)

Looking at it from the other direction, of the last 25 Academy Award winners for best picture, all but three were at least nominated for the SAG cast award. The three Oscar winners for best picture that were not SAG-nominated in the cast category were Braveheart (1995), The Shape of Water (2017) and Green Book (2018).

Are there any patterns to what types of films do best in the top category at each show? Speaking very broadly, big, epic films seem to do better at the Oscars. These include Braveheart, Titanic and Gladiator. Smaller, more intimate films seem to do better at the SAG Awards. These include The Full Monty, Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine.

The five films that seem to have the inside track for SAG nominations in the cast category this year are The Trial of the Chicago 7, One Night in Miami, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods and Mank.

Other strong contenders include Minari, The Prom, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and Judas and the Black Messiah.

Here are all the SAG winners for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, separated into three categories based on how well the films did at the Oscars. Note: In the second and third categories, the second title on each line is the name of the film that won the Oscar for best picture.

Won the SAG Award; won the Oscar for best picture

Shakespeare in Love (1998)
American Beauty (1999)
Chicago (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Crash (2005)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
The King’s Speech (2010)
Argo (2012)
Birdman (2014)
Spotlight (2015)
Parasite (2019)

Won the SAG Award; nominated for the Oscar for best picture

Apollo 13 (1995); Oscar: Braveheart
The Full Monty (1997); Oscar: Titanic
Traffic (2000); Oscar: Gladiator
Gosford Park (2001); Oscar: A Beautiful Mind
Sideways (2004); Oscar: Million Dollar Baby
Little Miss Sunshine (2006); Oscar: The Departed
Inglorious Basterds (2009); Oscar: The Hurt Locker
The Help (2011); Oscar: The Artist
American Hustle (2013); Oscar: 12 Years a Slave
Hidden Figures (2016); Oscar: Moonlight
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017); Oscar: The Shape of Water
Black Panther (2018); Oscar: Green Book

Won the SAG Award; not even nominated for the Oscar for best picture

The Birdcage (1996); Oscar: The English Patient

SAG Trivia

Of the 25 winners of the SAG cast award, the film with the largest ensemble cast was Gosford Park (20 actors shared the award). The film with the smallest ensemble cast was Sideways (just four actors — Thomas Haden Church, Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh — shared the award).

Black Panther is the only superhero film to win the ensemble cast award.

The Full Monty, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Parasite are the only winners not to be nominated in any other category at the SAG Awards.

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Luke Bryan Wanted This Top 10 Country Hit, But Morgan Wallen Got It First: ‘Sorry, Luke’

Morgan Wallen has had a successful streak on the Billboard charts this week, and another country superstar wanted to get his hands on one of his new hits: Luke Bryan.

“Sand in My Boots” is the first track on Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which topped the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums in the week ending Jan. 23, and it hit No. 8 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Wallen chatted with his frequent collaborators HARDY, who co-wrote “Sand in My Boots,” and Charlie Handsome on Apple Music Country’s Happy Hour Radio on Friday (Jan. 22) about how the song came to be and how both Wallen and Bryan “fell in love” with it.

“I just had that idea in my phone for forever. And I went in to write with Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne at Smack, right across the street from Big Loud. And I just had this idea called ‘Sand in My Boots,’” HARDY said. “I just had this idea about just a summer love kind of thing. And I wanted to call it ‘Sand in My Boots.’”

“I listened to it. I immediately fell in love with it, man,” Wallen chimed in about his initial reaction to hearing the demo. “I knew I was going to have to change some of your Mississippi sh– off of there, but that’s all right,” Wallen laughed.

However, that “summer love kind of thing” wasn’t meant to be between the song and Bryan. HARDY told Wallen during the interview that the “Play It Again” hitmaker “fell in love with it too,” but he and Wallen didn’t know how he had even heard the demo.

“We were all like, ‘Man, we wanted you [Wallen] to have it. We thought you could make it cool.’ So he missed out, dawg,” HARDY said.

“Sorry, Luke,” Wallen teased at the end.

Since Wallen is still slated to open for Bryan’s Proud to Be Right Here Tour this summer, maybe they’ll get to perform “Sand in My Boots” together soon.

Listen to their entire conversation on Apple Music Country’s Happy Hour Radio here, and listen to “Sand in My Boots” below.

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Grimes Didn’t Give Dave Chappelle COVID-19, Joe Rogan Says

Dave Chappelle tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday (Jan. 22), which led the comedian to cancel a string of shows in Austin, Texas.

Following the news, sleuths on the Internet began to speculate that Grimes infected the star, as she and her partner Elon Musk were photographed hanging out at Stubb’s in Austin with Chappelle, Joe Rogan and a bunch of other comedians earlier this week.

The singer revealed on Jan. 11 (less than two weeks ago) that she also tested positive. “Finally got COVID but weirdly enjoying the DayQuil fever dream…2021,” she wrote via Instagram Stories with a leaf and fairy emoji, over a screenshot of the single art for SZA’s new track “Good Days.”

Rogan, however, says that Chapelle’s COVID diagnosis was not Grimes’ fault. He debunked the rumors via Instagram while announcing the show cancellations. “Because people are asking, I was not exposed to the person who had covid and I have tested negative every day this week,” he wrote. “Also, the person that gave covid to Dave was NOT Elon’s partner @grimes.”

See here.

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Britney Spears’ Conservatorship Is Examined in FX Docuseries: See the Trailer

In an upcoming episode of The New York Times Presents, the FX docuseries will go deep on Britney Spears’ incredible pop-music success and why she’s now in a court battle with her father to take back control of her life.

On Thursday (Jan. 21), a 30-second preview was released of the “Framing Britney Spears” episode, debuting Feb. 5 on FX and FX on Hulu.

“Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport,” reads FX promotional material for the episode. “People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.”

At a November hearing, Spears asked the court to remove her dad, Jamie Spears, as co-conservator of her estate. Spears has been under a conservatorship led by her father since 2008, when she was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold after a hospitalization.

Some familiar faces pop up in the New York Times Presents preview, including former MTV VJ Dave Holmes and #FreeBritney organizer Leanne Simmons. Watch the preview below, and catch the episode Feb. 5 on FX.

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Justin Timberlake & Ant Clemons’ ‘Better Days’ Duet Sees Biggest Sales Boost After Inauguration

The Biden-Harris inauguration festivities on Jan. 20 spurred sales gains for the songs performed throughout the day’s celebrations, including big increases for tunes by Ant Clemons and Justin Timberlake; Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard; and Black Pumas.

Altogether, the songs performed during the daytime show Parade Across America and the primetime event Celebrating America sold 39,000 downloads in the U.S. on Jan. 20, according to initial reports to MRC Data. That’s up 2,000% compared to the 2,000 those same songs sold on Jan. 19. The sales figures include the original and popularized versions of songs covered on the two programs, including Demi Lovato’s cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” and Jon Bon Jovi’s take on The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”

Both Parade Across America and Celebrating America were broadcast on U.S. television across multiple networks and streamed in their entirety on various social networks and website. The 90-minute Celebrating America program was carried live starting at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC and PBS.

The top-seller on Jan. 20 from the two shows was Clemons and Timberlake’s “Better Days,” which sold 13,000 downloads that day — a gain of 15,351% compared to the negligible sum it sold on Jan. 19. The song was released in December but has yet to chart on a Billboard tally. That will likely change come next week, once the new charts (dated Jan. 30, reflecting sales and streaming data for the week ending Jan. 21) are compiled and announced.

The next biggest seller from the two shows was McGraw and Hubbard’s “Undivided,” which moved 8,500 copies on Jan. 20 (up 2,272% from a little under 500 sales on Jan. 19). The tune debuted on a number of Billboard charts (dated Jan. 23) including Country Airplay at No. 19.

Black Pumas had the third-biggest selling song of the day, as “Colors” sold 4,000 — up 11,415% from a negligible figure on Jan. 19. The song is nominated for record of the year at the upcoming Grammy Awards and hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart a year ago (chart dated Feb. 15, 2020).

Other notable sellers from the two shows include Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” (3,000; up 8,716%), Withers’ “Lovely Day” (2,500; up 1,897%), New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” (1,500; up 262%), Katy Perry’s “Firework” (1,000; up 2,292%), and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber (1,000; up 1,894%). (The latter was sung in part by Fonsi, without Daddy Yankee and Bieber, during DJ Cassidy’s Pass the Mic segment on the Celebrating America special.)

“You Get What You Give” had already started to perk up in sales in the days leading up to the show, selling nearly 1,000 on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 combined, thanks to buzz generated by news of the act’s reunion specifically for the inauguration. In a typical day, the song sells a negligible number. The track was released in 1998 and reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in 1999.

News on any significant streaming gains for the performed songs will be reported in the coming days.

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