Katy Perry, Lionel Richie & Luke Bryan Brought to Tears Over Audition in Tribute to Willie Spence on ‘American Idol’ Premiere

Kya Monée’s 2023 American Idol audition, a heartfelt tribute to late contestant Willie Spence, made everyone in the room emotional on the show’s premiere Sunday night (Feb. 19).

Spence, the Georgia singer who placed second on the 2021 season of American Idol, died in October 2022. He was only 23 years old.

“We grew a very, very close friendship … Losing Willie was just very, very hard for me,” Monée, a singer from Texas who performed a duet of Rihanna and Mikky Ekko’s “Stay” with Spence during Hollywood Week in 2021, said on Sunday’s Idol episode. “He passed in a tragic car accident and I’m still trying to cope with that.”

Through tears, she said, “Willie, he always told me, ‘No matter what, you’ll always be a singer.’ Three days before he passed, Willie was telling me, ‘You have to go back. You have to chase your dream. I’m gonna go with you to American Idol.’ He made me want to do it and I’d really love to make it further. But most of all, I wanna make Willie proud.”

“He was actually supposed to be here with me today for my audition,” Monée told judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. “It’s just very hard to not have that support anymore. But I know he would want me to be here … The song that I’m singing today is a song that we picked together. I’m singing ‘I’m Here’ from The Color Purple.”

Perry, Richie and Bryan were visibly moved by Monée’s performance of “I’m Here,” and agreed that the singer would be advancing on to the next round in the competition.

“That’s how you sing through crying,” Perry commented, leading the trio of judges in a standing ovation for Monée.

Richie wiped away his own tears, handed Monée a handkerchief and embraced her in a hug. “What you’ve given us was everything we’ve been trying to tell all of these kids,” he said. “That performance was so emotional, so heartfelt, so divinely guided in the glorious name of our dear brother Willie.”

“I’ve lost some people in my life. When you go to sing, you just sing like Willie’s still here,” Bryan noted.

“It was on another level. It was so connected to the pain, and everybody’s feeling this loss but we also feel connected together because you are authentic, just like he was,” Perry added.

Watch the moving performance from Monée below.

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Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, Session Man and Hitmaker, Dies at 89

Huey “Piano” Smith, a beloved New Orleans session man who backed Little Richard, Lloyd Price and other early rock stars and with his own group made the party favorites “Don’t You Just Know It” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu,” has died. He was 89.

His daughter, Acquelyn Donsereaux, told The Associated Press that he died in his sleep Feb. 13 at his home in Baton Rouge. She did not cite a specific cause.

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A New Orleans native who performed nationwide but always returned to Louisiana, Smith was one of the last survivors of an extraordinary scene of musicians and songwriters who helped make New Orleans a fundamental influence on rock ‘n’ roll. He was just 15 when he began playing professionally and in his 20s helped out on numerous ’50s hits, including Price’s “Where You At?”, Earl King’s “Those Lonely Lonely Nights” and Smiley Lewis’ “I Hear You Knocking.” Little Richard, Fats Domino and David Bartholomew were among the many other artists he worked with.

In 1957, he formed Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns and reached the top 10 with “Rockin’ Pneumonia,” a mid-tempo stomp which featured the vocals of John Marchin and Smith’s buoyant keyboard playing, and the equally rowdy and good-natured “Don’t You Just Know It.” The Clowns also were known for “We Like Birdland”, “Well I’ll Be John Brown” and “High Blood Pressure.”

One Smith production became a major hit and rock standard, for another performer. Smith and his group wrote, arranged and recorded “Sea Cruise,” but Ace Records thought the song would have more success with a white singer — as Smith learned bluntly from local record distributor Joe Caronna — and replaced the Clowns’ vocals with those of Frankie Ford, whose version became a million seller.

“I was crying as he (Caronna) said that,” Smith told biographer John Wirt, whose Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues came out in 2014. “I had been drinking a little bit. It hurt me to my heart when he told me he was taking that.”

Artists covering “Sea Cruise” and other Smith songs included John Fogerty, the Beach Boys, Aerosmith and Jerry Garcia. In 2005, Ford would deny “stealing” the song, alleging that he had written the words. “Huey sorta went through a period and ‘forgot’ a lot of things,” Ford told Offbeat Magazine.

Smith’s popularity faded after the Beatles arrived and by 1980 he had quit the business, settled in Baton Rouge with his wife, Margrette, and become a Jehovah’s Witness. Like many rock musicians from the ’50s, he fought to be paid and credited for “Sea Cruise” and other hits and spent decades in legal battles and financial trouble. Local musicians, meanwhile, continued to cite him as an inspiration.

“To me he was the man who got more out of simplicity than anybody in New Orleans,” drummer Earl Palmer told Wirt.

In 2000, Smith received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and he was honored a year later by the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame. Admirers would cite him as one of the most vital performers not to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife, 10 children, 18 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren, his daughter told the AP.

Smith grew up in the Uptown section New Orleans, his father a roofer, his mother a laundry worker. As a boy, Smith took up piano, learning by watching his uncle play, and he soon mastered the eight-bar progression that anchored countless blues songs. He played obsessively, sometimes to the annoyance of his neighbors, and in high school he helped start the band the Joy Jumpers.

He was still in his teens when he met another young New Orleans musician, Eddie Lee Jones, who as “Guitar Slim” influenced countless musicians and gave Smith his “Piano” nickname. Lewis’ own work initially drew upon the blues-boogie woogie of Professor Longhair. But he would eventually absorb a wide range of styles, whether the jazz of Jelly Roll Martin or the rock-rhythm and blues of Fats Domino.

“I took up to tryin’ a variety of music other than just one individual style,” he told Wirt. “I like my own style, but my own style is completely different than rhythm-and-blues, or calypso or any of that. It’s just deep down funk.”

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Ariana DeBose Opens 2023 BAFTA Awards With Musical Performance

After winning the BAFTA supporting actress award last year for West Side Story, Ariana DeBose returned to open the 2023 ceremony on Sunday (Feb. 19).

The actress — also known for Hamilton and Westworld — performed an exclusive contemporary song inspired by this year’s nominees on stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Richard E. Grant serves as the host of the ceremony.

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Alongside DeBose, Mercury Prize-winning artist Little Simz was also set to perform and will sing a track from her album, No Thank You. The pioneering hip-hop artist and actress — who has starred in Top Boy (which also stars this year’s BAFTA best-supporting actor nominee Micheal Ward) — has won MOBO, Ivor Novello and BRIT awards.

Last year, iconic Welsh singer Dame Shirley Bassey raised the curtain on the 75th edition of the BAFTAs with a rendition of the classic James Bond theme “Diamonds Are Forever” in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the film franchise.

All Quiet on the Western Front led the pack of nominees for this year’s BAFTA awards with a record-equaling haul of 14 nominations. Netflix’s acclaimed anti-war epic entered the Sunday ceremony competing for best film, director (for Edward Berger), adapted screenplay and supporting actor (for Albrech Schuch) alongside almost every single below-the-line category.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

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Jewel Performs the National Anthem at 2023 NBA All-Star Game

Jewel, a native of Utah, performed the U.S. national anthem ahead of the 2023 NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City.

Jewel, introduced as a “Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actress from Payson, Utah,” sang her take of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Sunday night’s (Feb. 19) matchup between Team LeBron vs. Team Giannis. Guitar in hand, she strummed along and offered a folk rendition of the national anthem.

This year’s All-Star Game took place at Salt Lake City’s Vivint Arena.

Jewel’s latest album, Freewheelin’ Woman, was released in 2022 via her own Words Matter Media.

Watch Jewel sing the national anthem below.

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Meta to Test Verified Subscription Service for Facebook and Instagram

Meta Platforms Inc. is launching a “Meta Verified” subscription service on Facebook and Instagram that allows users to verify their accounts with a government ID.

The company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed Sunday (Feb. 19) on social media that the platform will begin testing the service in Australia and New Zealand. The authentication will also include proactive account monitoring for account impersonation, direct access to customer support and increased account visibility and reach.

The monthly subscription-based plan can be purchased on Instagram or Facebook for $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on iOS and Android. According to a news release, for users to be eligible, accounts must meet minimum activity requirements and submit a government ID.

Meta clarified that there will be no changes to already verified accounts as they test the new plan.

The news release said that the “Meta Verified” service was developed after the platform received an abundance of requests from creators for broader access to verification and account support. The release explained that the service’s goal is “to help up-and-coming creators grow their presence and build community faster.”

The company added that it hopes to expand the service globally soon.

Meta isn’t the first social platform to introduce a paid verified subscription plan. When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he re-vamped Twitter Blue, with a paid plan for users to sign up for $8 a month on the web and $11 a month for iOS. He also replaced the “official” label with a gold or gray checkmark, depending on the account.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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P!nk Addresses Comments About ‘Shading’ Christina Aguilera and ‘Lady Marmalade’ Video Shoot

P!nk has responded to comments that she’s been “shading” fellow pop star Christina Aguilera.

The singer was recently asked by Buzzfeed UK to rank her music videos, and what she said about her apparently less-than-ideal personal experience filming “Lady Marmalade” — her 2001 single with Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim — got folks talking over the weekend.

“Well, there’s ‘Lady Marmalade,’” P!nk said in video interview, looking back at the supergroup collaboration from more than 20 years ago, which was a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. “I’m gonna put that down here at 12. It wasn’t very fun to make. I’m all about fun, and it was like a lot of fuss — and there were some personalities. Kim and Mya were nice.”

After seeing people make assumptions about her choice of words, and her choice to leave out Aguilera’s name from her list of who was “nice” on set, she replied to tweets Saturday night (Feb. 18).

“Y’all are nuts,” she wrote. “Xtina had s— to do with who was on that song. If you don’t know by now- I’m not ‘shading’ someone by telling it over and over and over what actually happened. I’m zero percent interested in your f—ing drama. If you haven’t noticed- I’m a little busy selling.”

P!nk clarified, “And by selling- I mean tickets and albums and bake sales and s—.”

“Also- I kissed xtinas mouth. I don’t need to kiss her a–,” she added.

P!nk had previously admitted that back in the “Lady Marmalade” days, the pair’s egos had clashed.

“We were super young and super new at the whole thing, and I think I’m an alpha, and she’s an alpha,” she noted in a 2017 interview with Andy Cohen. “I’m used to taking my altercations physical and she’s used to having them verbal. We’re just very different, we’re very different. And we were very young and new.”

“You have to learn — women have to learn how to support each other,” P!nk continued. “It’s not taught to each other in the playground.”

P!nk said that the two had gotten past any bad blood, in time: “We became moms. We grew up. We hugged it out. It’s that simple. I feel so good about that.”

See a Buzzfeed UK TikTok clip of her talking about the “Lady Marmalade” video here and her tweets that followed below.

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