Usher may have taken some heat from spectators for getting cozy with Alicia Keys during his 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 11, but while he has no apologies for that moment, he does want to walk back something else he did on stage a decade earlier.

Related

While chatting with Charlamagne Tha God and Jess Hilarious on a previously recorded interview that aired during The Breakfast Club on Monday (Feb. 19), the eight-time Grammy winner reflected on a moment from his 2014 MTV Video Music Awards performance alongside Nicki Minaj, during which he got a little handsy at one point. “Have you seen some of your old moments, like when you were on stage with Nicki Minaj and you were headbuttin’ her a–? Why was you so unhinged?” host Charlamagne asked him of the performance, which also included Usher slapping the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper’s bottom.

At first, the “Burn” crooner tried to explain and laugh it off a little. “Absolutely! That was Jamaican culture! So you gotta go to Jamaica. That was just a moment that was fun,” Usher — who just released his ninth studio album, Coming Home, days before the Super Bowl — said of the island nation’s dance culture. “By the way, it was me playing my bass, so I probably would’ve bumped my shoulder or my hand, but I had my bass in my hand and I was playing, so I kind of bopped off her body a little bit. If you go back and look at the video, you’ll understand because I did it there for the first time.”

During the pair’s performance of their 2014 collab “She Came to Give It to You,” the crooner is down on one knee playing his guitar as he bumps his shoulder and his head against Minaj’s backside to the beat before getting up and spanking her behind.

Related

“Oh no it was on beat and everything!” Charlamagne marveled as he reflected on the performance. “It was on beat, and I was like, ‘D–n!’”

“I think I was reaching a bit when I smacked her, though,” Usher admitted. “I shouldn’t have smacked her. I shouldn’t have did that.”

Jess then chimed in, throwing it back to how Usher had earlier in the interview talked about supporting fellow Black artists, “See, you gotta lift her up!”

Replied the crooner, “I was lifting!”

Watch Usher discuss his 2014 VMAs performance on The Breakfast Club below:

Beyoncé was ready for her renaissance back in 2013 when she chopped off her long locks for a stylish pixie cut, and now, she’s explaining why she made the major hair transformation at the time.

Related

“I remember the day I decided to just cut all my hair off. I didn’t have a particular style in mind. It wasn’t an aesthetic choice, but it was a very big emotional transformation and metamorphosis that I was going through,” she told Essence magazine in an interview promoting her new hair-care line Cécred, which launches Tuesday (Feb. 20) on Cecred.com. “So much of my identity as a performer has been connected to flowing hair. Cutting my hair off was me rebelling against being this woman that society thinks I’m supposed to be.”

“Something about the liberation of becoming a mother made me want to just shed all of that,” continued the star, who welcomed her and Jay-Z’s first child, daughter Blue Ivy, in January 2012. “It was a physical representation of me shedding the expectations put upon me. I just wanted it off.”

The superstar went on to say that at the time, her hair was luscious and long, and that her longtime friend and hairstylist wasn’t exactly excited about her decision. So naturally, she took matters — and her hair — into her own hands. “I just got the scissors and chopped it off. It was very intentional. And it was what I needed to do,” Bey revealed. “And after that, I became super brave. It was the first step to many more audacious decisions I made in my life and my career that have led to who I am now.”

That was one of several hair memories that the 32-time Grammy winner, who has more gramophones than than any artist ever, shared with the magazine. The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer revealed that she also struggles with psoriasis on her scalp.  “The relationship we have with our hair is such a deeply personal journey,” she said. “From spending my childhood in my mother’s salon to my father applying oil on my scalp to treat my psoriasis — these moments have been sacred to me.”

She later added in the interview: “Hair is our lineage — it’s our family story.”

See Beyoncé’s Essence cover below:

For Black History Month, Billboard is celebrating by highlighting some of the greatest Black executives in music, and today we’re celebrating, President, Founder and CEO of Femme It Forward Heather Lowery.

Heather Lowery
I’m Heather Lowery, the president, founder and CEO of Femme It Forward.

Heather Lowery
Femme It Forward is a female led entertainment company. Our mission is to celebrate, educate and empower women.

Tetris Kelly
Heather Lowery is a champion for women as president and CEO of Femme It Forward, she uplifts women in music and entertainment. Femme It Forward does everything from presenting concert experiences to honoring accomplishments in music with events like their pre-Grammy high tea.

Heather Lowery
The celebration of women and all the amazing things that we accomplished. Despite our challenges and circumstances. I just want you to know that we see you, we feel you, we breathe you and we are so proud of you.

Tetris Kelly
Heather also creates panels where women can share their ideas and experiences and Give Her Flowers an awards gala highlighting and celebrating outstanding women.

Heather Lowery
I just wanted to #GiveHerFlowers just to celebrate women and music and entertainment. And so now and it’s manifested into a whole night where we give awards to the women in the industry that are doing dope things.

Tetris Kelly
As a partner at Live Nation Heather has created multiple music events. Using those successes and her unique vision she paved her own way and the way for other women to by creating Femme It Forward.

Heather Lowery
I want you to know that you are worthy of celebrating all your wins. All of them big or small.

Tetris Kelly
Today we celebrate President, Founder, CEO and all-around queen Heather Lowery.

Don’t fall down and smack your head on the pavement at this news, but there’s a new Miranda Priestly in town. Vanessa Williams is set to portray Runway‘s intimidating editor in chief in the West End musical of The Devil Wears Prada, the production announced on Monday (Feb. 19).

Related

In a video shared to Instagram, the singer-actress struts through an office in orangey-red strappy stiletto heels, the book in her hands, before throwing her jacket over a desk as only Miranda Priestly could, then sitting down and swiveling around in her chair to remove her sunglasses. “Don’t just sit there,” Williams-as-Miranda says icily to the camera. “Go buy tickets … or something!”

The show — based on the bestselling novel and hit 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep as Miranda and Anne Hathaway as her less-than-fashion-forward assistant — is set to launch in October at London’s Dominion Theatre, and will feature an original score by five-time Grammy winner Elton John, with lyrics Shaina Taub, as well as choreography by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, who previously worked on Kinky Boots, Hairspray and more.

Streep’s iconic portrayal of the powerful editor in chief earned her a 2007 Oscar nomination for best actress. But Williams isn’t coming into the role without her own experience. The singer — whose hit “Save the Best for Last” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in 1992 — has played a powerful editor herself. She portrayed MODE boss Wilhelmina Slater in the hit ABC dramedy Ugly Betty — which also starred America Ferrera — from 2006 to 2010, during which she earned three Primetime Emmy nominations for best supporting actress in a comedy.

Watch the announcement that Vanessa Williams is the next to play Miranda Priestly below:

Forget like a virgin — more like a queen! Madonna not only lived to tell, she lived to laugh it off and recover like the pro that she is after taking a tumble on stage during her Sunday (Feb. 18) show at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.

Related

In multiple fan-captured videos shared online, the Queen of Pop is performing her 1987 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Open Your Heart” during her second night of the Celebration Tour in the Emerald City when her show hit a brief snag. While the seven-time Grammy winner sitting on a chair and singing to a camera, a male dancer in stiletto heels begins to tilt her seat back and pulls her along the stage while running. He suddenly slips and falls, taking Madonna down with him.

Ever the consummate professional, the superstar continues on, rolling over to keep singing her hit before smiling and audibly laughing off the fall.

The pop icon first announced her Celebration Tour in January 2023. The global trek celebrates her four decades of music, and was initially set to kick off in July that year. However, Madonna was hospitalized due to a “serious bacterial infection” over the summer, and was forced to postpone the tour. The delayed trek ultimately began with a series of sold-out shows at London’s O2 Arena, and is set to wrap in late April with five shows in Mexico City.

Related

The Material Girl addressed her health scare during her Oct. 21 show in Belgium. “Less than four months ago, I was in a hospital and I was unconscious, and people were thinking, predicting that I might not make it,” she told fans at the concert. “It’s a f–king miracle that I’m here right now. My mother, god bless her, she must be watching over me. She said, ‘Girl, it’s not your time to go.’”

Watch Madonna recover from her onstage fall like a pro below:

Guitar in hand, Babyface crooned the national anthem at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday (Feb. 18).

“Anthem ready,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) ahead of his performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at this year’s game.

Babyface’s folksy rendition of the standard had his name trending on social media Sunday night.

“That was the most tender lovin’ national anthem ever,” one viewer tweeted.

“I didn’t have ‘Babyface on the acoustic guitar’ as a candidate for best anthem I’ve ever heard … but something about that was awfully powerful. Maybe because he’s from Indianapolis, but I don’t know. That one hit hard,” another noted.

“The best thing the the NBA did this weekend was get Babyface to come sing in his hometown,” agreed another viewer.

Others couldn’t help but comment on a certain meme-ready reaction to Babyface’s vocals.

“Babyface done turned the National anthem into an Adult Alternative Top 40 hit!” one viewer exclaimed on X.

In August, the legendary singer, songwriter and producer scored his first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 specifically as a producer in 23 years, thanks to his work on SZA’s “Snooze.” He’d last appeared in the top 10 as a producer in December 2000, with P!nk’s “Most Girls.” Of Babyface’s top 10 Hot 100 hits in any role (producer, writer or recording artist), seven have hit No. 1. They’ve combined to spend 51 weeks at the summit of the chart.

Watch Babyface sing the National Anthem in Indianapolis at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game below.

Kylie Minogue caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

Watch the 2024 People’s Choice Awards live on NBC, E! and Peacock on Sunday, February 18 at 8 PM ET.

Natasha Bedingfield caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

Watch the 2024 People’s Choice Awards live on NBC, E! and Peacock on Sunday, February 18 at 8 PM ET.

BTS member J-Hope is releasing a new album, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, BigHit Music announced to press and to ARMY on Sunday (Feb. 18).

Hope on the Street Vol. 1 is described in the announcement as “a special album” containing six tracks.

The new music collection is set to arrive alongside a six-part docuseries, Hope on the Street, which will “trail J-Hope’s dance journey” as he explores and meets street dancers throughout the cities of Osaka, Paris, New York, Seoul and Gwangju.

Both will “dive into the theme of dance,” a press release says, “the core of J-Hope’s artistic roots and identity.”

J-Hope previously mentioned the project this past July, during an appearance on fellow BTS member Suga‘s SUCHWITA show.

The first episode of the J-Hope’s docuseries will be released on Prime Video on March 27, with new episodes coming every Thursday and Friday.

The Hope on the Street Vol. 1 album will be available on March 29 at 1 p.m. KST. Fans should mark their calendars for a preorder that is scheduled for Feb. 19.

The project follows J-Hope’s 2022 solo album, Jack in the Box, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. A newly expanded HOPE Edition of the album was released in August 2023. It features the original album tracks, along with three live recordings from J-Hope’s history-making performance at Lollapalooza in 2022 in Chicago, plus two instrumental tracks.

J-Hope is currently completing his mandatory 18-month military service, which began in April 2023.

Lainey Wilson caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

Watch the 2024 People’s Choice Awards live on NBC, E! and Peacock on Sunday, February 18 at 8 PM ET.