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With their triumphant performance Saturday night (Oct. 8) in New York City, Wisin & Yandel displayed their formidable trajectory. Although they became reggaeton fixtures over two decades ago — including in the Big Apple, with performances in iconic clubs like Club Exit and Copacabana for the Latin American diaspora — their Madison Square Garden gig showcased their undisputed stature as legends of the genre.
Clad in Mad Max-esque gear, the Puerto Rican pair appeared onstage and enthralled for about two hours. Fresh off releasing their tenth — and perhaps final — album together, La Última Misión (The Last Mission), Wisin & Yandel performed a mix of classics and new songs from their latest release. Their high energy was felt on a thousand, complete with riveting pyrotechnic effects, captivating back-up dancers, and a set of costume changes that brought more eye candy to the crowd.
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The dynamic duo kicked off their tour in Miami’s FX Arena on Sept. 30, the same day of their album release. They will set foot in major North American cities like Toronto, Houston, Las Vegas, Ontario and Los Angeles. And, in December, Wisin & Yandel are poised to break their own record with a series of 14 homecoming gigs at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, belovedly known as El Choli to locals. That also includes a performance on New Year’s Eve, the first time ever the iconic venue holds a show on said date.
Here are five things that stood out at the Wisin & Yandel MSG show.
Their Apocalyptic Style Is Reinforced With Riveting Pyrotechnic Effects
Wisin & Yandel arrived on stage dressed in Mad Max-esque combative gear, with Wisin in all black, and Yandel in off-white combative attire. There were the pyrotechnic effects in full force to boot, blazing between the fans and performers, and against a Jumbotron that showed a collage of dystopian, Fast & Furious-type visuals with plenty of explosions. A costume change later, the Puerto Rican duo fired up in a shiny, fire-engine red get-up as they continued to captivate fans for nearly two hours.
Latin Pride Is on Full Display
Doing a quick 360, one saw plenty of Latin American flags lofted throughout. Although New York City is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse places in the U.S., there’s no denying that Wisin & Yandel will keep representing Latin pride throughout their next tour stops. “¿Dónde está mi gente Latina?” or “Where are my Latin people!?” will always be a signature call-out in reggaeton.
Nostalgia Is a Significant Factor
Although fresh off releasing a brand-new album, their MSG set was packed with classic bangers. Opening with 2007’s combustible “Ahora Es,” their explosive energy inspired a gigantic throwdown, with concert-goers dancing all around. Whether standing on their seats, thrusting with their beas or moving towards the stair aisles for more space to gyrate, one couldn’t help but burst out with lots of motion, especially when one recalls the yesteryears. The pair spanned through their hits since their chart-topping 2000 album, Los Reyes del Nuevo Milenio, and when they nearly wrapped up with their penultimate number “Rakatá,” all hell broke loose.
“You don’t know how many things are going through my mind right now,” said Wisin in Spanish. “I want to thank all of you for so many years of love and affection. There are many people here who have been fans of Wisin & Yandel for more than 20 years.”
Calling Out All the Single Ladies
Let’s be real, no old school or modern day reggaeton show would be complete without the frequent single-lady call outs. “Where are the Dominican ladies?!” Wisin often shouted in Spanish. The genre first came to notoriety for its lyrical raunch, a quality that has remained at the core of reggaeton. The affection is reciprocated, especially when femininity and feminism have evolved in the last two decades. “Where are the women who are in charge of their household?!” the group further shouts. “Where are the women who like to dance reggaeton?!” (Never forget “Si no estás bailando con ella, ¡salte!”, lyrics from “Rakatá,” “Sexy Movimiento” or “solo para mujeres” songs.) Couples were embraced too, as the kiss-cam went around shooting affectionate pairs.
La Última Misión Tour Is Wisin & Yandel’s Last Stint Together — For Now
New songs from La Última Misión were received with lots of excitement, especially since it marks the revered group’s legendary run as a formidable act of reggaeton. They’ve continued to churn out massive hits — like their recent single “Besos Moja2,” featuring Rosalía, which was highly praised. Because they killed it on stage and performed loads of worthy chart-toppers, and because Wisin & Yandel as a team will come to an end, this is why La Última Misión Tour is one not to miss.
Chlöe Bailey is an R&B diva in her own right. The 24-year-old Atlanta native has carved out her own lane as she discovers her sound outside of Chlöe x Halle, her duo with equally musical genius sister Halle Bailey.
But that doesn’t mean the superstar — with music approval from the likes of Beyoncé — doesn’t need guidance to navigate an industry that has become obsessed with social media crazes from TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.
At the New Yorker Festival on Saturday (Oct. 8), Chlöe, who dazzled in a long-sleeve crystal-embedded dress, chatted with journalist Lauren Michele Jackson after an intimate but rocking performance that had the crowd on their feet, giving a standing ovation.
During the conversation, Jackson asked Chlöe how social media, especially TikTok, affects the creative process of musicians. Chlöe’s hit single “Have Mercy,” which became a major TikTok dance challenge, had the songstress thinking just how much social media affects artists going deeper within themselves during the music-making process.
“Well, before your song’s gonna pop off on TikTok, you know, there was YouTube and the radio and all that stuff,” said Chlöe.
“So no matter which generation we’re in, there’s always something that you want your music to be like, lived on, right? So I think when we program our minds to think about being number one and winning these awards when you’re creating, it suffocates you, and it stifles the process,” Chlöe continued.
With that in mind, Chlöe remembered a quote that legendary producer Quincy Jones — whose decades of hitmaking include credits like the Grammy Award-winning Michael Jackson‘s Thriller — told her.
“He told my sister and I, he said, ‘The second money enters the creative process, God walks out the room,’” Chlöe said.
“That resonated with me because if I’m thinking about all of the things that I’m expecting to get from what I’m about to create, then I’ve already stopped the process right then and there,” Chlöe continued.
“And there’s been so many times where I’ve gotten in my head because yes, you have to have songs or popping singles or whatever, that’s great, but you can’t let it rule you, and you can’t let it control you,” she said. “And now I think why I have been creating so freely and openly right now; it’s because I have a project I’m proud of and have done.”
That’s not all. During one of Chlöe x Halle’s performances, Chlöe was getting major butterflies, while Halle seemed calmed and prepared. However, gospel singers Mary Mary — known for hit singles such as “God in Me,” “Shackles” and “Yesterday” — noticed the duo before they hit the stage, and that’s when Mary Mary gave the two some musical advice they couldn’t forget.
“They turned to us and said, ‘Don’t go out there trying to sing and prove yourself to anyone,” she recalled. “Sing for God, sing to God, and everything else will fall into place.’”
“And I think that is such incredible advice for me when it comes to performing because, yes, when I’m on stage, I want everybody to like me. Yes, I want them to sing the songs. I want them to be engaged and involved, and anytime there’s crowd participation, I want them to participate, but sometimes life doesn’t work out that way,” Chlöe said. “So at least I have to be proud of the passion and the heart that I put out on that stage, and almost say thanks with my gift as I’m using it at that moment.”
The crowd applauded Chlöe for speaking eloquently about her craft. As far as a new single and album, fans will just have to wait for that news.
Sarah Silverman, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Rapaport are among those in Hollywood and the larger entertainment and media industry responding to a recent tweet from Kanye West repeatedly labeled antisemitic by the American Defamation League and others.
In a tweet featuring West’s now-removed Twitter statement, which he posted Saturday night (Oct. 8), Curtis told the rapper that his “words hurt and incite violence.”
“The holiest day in Judaism was last week. Words matter. A threat to Jewish people ended once in a genocide,” she wrote. “You are a father. Please stop.”
Comedian Sarah Silverman addressed what she describes as silence from those outside the Jewish community following West’s statements. “Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on twitter and it’s not even trending,” she wrote. “Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud.”
Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport addressed his previous defenses of West during his public spat with Pete Davidson while calling the rapper a “creep” and arguing that he’s pushing the same rhetoric as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green and those who attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
The Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance denounced the rapper’s comments as “hurtful, offensive and wrong. They perpetuate stereotypes that have been the basis for discrimination and violence against Jews for thousands of years. Words like this tear at the fabric of the Black-Jewish relationship. The Black and Jewish communities must stand together through incidents like this to make clear that trafficking in hateful stereotypes is unacceptable — and that the words of one entertainer do not reflect the views of an entire community.”
Meanwhile, the Creative Community for Peace also condemned his remarks. “In the past week, Ye has spread some of the most vile and age-old stereotypes about Jews to his hundreds of millions of followers,” the organization said. “There should be no place for this kind of hate in our public discourse. We support every entertainer’s right to free speech, but no one has a free pass to target and demonize a minority group with such malice. We are gravely concerned about the impact of Ye’s statements — and how they will affect his fans, particularly young people. At the same time, we hope this can be a moment that ultimately creates better awareness about the dangers of antisemitism for Ye, his fans, and other entertainers. We remain open to dialogue with him about how harmful and fallacious his comments are.”
The comments follow Twitter removing Ye’s tweet on Saturday for violating the platform’s rules after the rapper wrote that he was going to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
“The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda,” he ended the tweet.
Under Twitter’s rules, hateful conduct, or the promotion of violence against, threats or harassment of other people on the basis of several identity-related factors, including race, ethnicity, national origin and religious affiliation, is prohibited in tweets, but also images and handles.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Twitter for comment on West’s violation.
The comment followed Meta’s removal of Instagram posts by West for violating that platform’s policies after he posted text messages between him and fellow rapper P. Diddy claiming he would “show the Jews that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
A spokesperson with Meta confirmed to THR that the company had deleted content from the @kanyewest handle, the rapper’s official Instagram account. While it’s still visible, the account has been restricted. Meta applies its restriction policy following users’ repeated violations and can temporarily prevent them from sharing posts, writing comments or sending direct messages.
While it’s not clear which rule the tweet or Instagram post violated, they — published around the same time as West’s controversial Tucker Carlson interview — have been labeled bigoted and antisemitic by a number of entities beyond Hollywood, including the ADL, which addressed West’s comments on two separate occasions this past week.
“Power. Disloyalty. Greed. Deicide. Blood. Denial. Anti-Zionism. All of these are antisemitic tropes,” the ADL’s Sunday statement reads. “Many of these myths have influenced @KanyeWest’s comments recently, and it’s dangerous.”
On Friday, the American Defamation League also responded to earlier comments made by the rapper and his decision to wear a White Lives Matter shirt.
“The behavior exhibited this week by @kanyewest is deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period. There is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic #antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has,” the organization tweeted on Oct. 7.
Updated 5:24 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9: Added statements from the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance and the Creative Community for Peace.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Paramount is grinning widely this weekend as its creepy pic, Smile, continued to stay atop the chart in its sophomore outing with a projected gross of $17.6 million from 3,659 theaters. That’s a decline of just 22 percent, one of the best holds of all time for the horror genre.
The news was just as good overseas. Smile earned $17.5 million from 61 markets for a foreign tally of $40 million and a global haul of $88.9 million to make the $17 million a major profit generator.
Smile earned more than enough to beat Sony’s new family film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, which opened to an estimated $11.5 million domestically. Sony expects the movie to benefit from the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday on Monday and earn a total of $13.4 million through Monday.
Heading into the weekend, most of Hollywood expected Lyle, Lyle, based on the kids book of the same name, to win the three-day frame, even if narrowly. The film presently has a 68 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences.
The bomb of the weekend is David O. Russell’s star-packed film Amsterdam. The mystery-comedy opened to an estimated $6.5 million from 3,005 locations after getting skewered by critics. It currently rests at a 33 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest of the filmmaker’s career, along with stars Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington. Audiences gave it a somewhat better ranking of a B CinemaScore.
Amsterdam is a New Regency film distributed by Disney. As reviews started coming in, tracking lowered its projection to $10 million, since the film’s target audience — older adults, and especially older females — are more swayed by critics. However, even $10 million proved to be bullish.
Universal, which made Bros, wasn’t left entirely bereft. Overseas, the studio’s George Clooney-Julia Roberts romantic-comedy Ticket to Paradise crossed the $60 million mark ahead of its domestic debut on Oct. 21.
At one point, box office analysts and exhibitors believed that Lyle, Lyle and Amsterdam could both open in the mid-teens.
The Woman King and Don’t Worry Darling rounded out the top five, followed by the Avatar rerelease.
Sony and eOne’s Woman King placed No. 4 with $5.3 million for a domestic total of $54.1 million. The movie’s early foreign total is $10 million, including $1.5 million from its opening in the U.K., where eOne is distributing.
Warner Bros.’ Don’t Worry Darling followed with $2.5 million for a domestic total of $38.5 million and global cume of $69.3 million.
The 3D rerelease of James Cameron’s Avatar continued to wow, earning $2.6 million for a domestic total of $23.3 million. All told, the release from Disney and 20th Century has grossed $71.9 million globally.
Unlike Smile, Bros was hardly happy in its second weekend. The gay rom-com, directed by Nicholas Stoller and co-written by Billy Eichner, tumbled to No. 6 or No. 7 with an estimated $2.2 million for a 10-day domestic total of $8.9 million (the film fell a hefty 55 percent). Eichner took to Twitter last weekend after the film’s fifth-place opening to say that homophobia was a major reason for the poor showing before encouraging everyone to see the film.
Elsewhere, the awards box office gets underway in earnest as Todd Field’s Tár and Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness open in select theaters to promising numbers.
From Focus Features and starring Cate Blanchett, Tár posted the top location average of the weekend and one of the best of the year, or $40,000, as it launched in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. It was No. 1 in three of the cinemas, including the AMC Lincoln Square in New York and the AMC Grove in L.A.
Triangle of Sadness, from Neon, opted for a wider opening footprint, or 10 locations. The Woody Harrelson-starrer posted a location average of $21,007.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Shakira and Ozuna have teamed up for a new song, “Monotonía.”
“Monotonía” will be released on Oct. 19, the singer revealed on Sunday (Oct. 9) on her official social media accounts, where she posted a brief sound clip and an image of the song title atop a heart being stabbed with a dagger.
“Un pequeño rey con una súper reina,” Ozuna commented on Shakira’s Instagram post Sunday afternoon.
Earlier this week, Shakira — who confirmed her split with Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué a few months ago, and said recently that she was going through “the most difficult, darkest hours of my life” — had teased new lyrics on Instagram: “No fue culpa tuya/ Ni tampoco mía/ Fue culpa de la monotonía,” (“It wasn’t your fault/ Nor Mine/ It was the fault of monotony.”)
“Monotonía” will be the Colombian superstar’s follow-up to “Te Felicito” with Rauw Alejandro, which topped the Billboard Latin Airplay chart and also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart. It peaked at No. 10 on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
See Shakira’s announcement below.
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While it hasn’t been officially confirmed that Lady Gaga will play Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, it’s definitely possible — and Margot Robbie is fully onboard with that potential casting.
Robbie, who most recently played Quinn in 2021’s The Suicide Squad, has portrayed the former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist since 2016’s Suicide Squad and said she’d be “so happy” if Gaga took on the role in the Joker sequel.
“It makes me so happy because I said from the very beginning is all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters, the way, like, Macbeth or Batman always gets passed, you know, from great actor to great actor,” Robbie said during a recent interview with MTV News.
She continued, “It’s kind of like someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth or someone, you know? And I feel like in not so many cases are there female characters.” Robbie explained that one of the few female characters that has gotten passed on to other actors is Queen Elizabeth I, but there aren’t many beyond that.
“It’s such an honor to have built a foundation strong enough that Harley can now be one of those characters that other actors get to have a go at playing,” Robbie said of Gaga potentially portraying Quinn. “I think she’ll do something incredible with it.”
Gaga hasn’t yet been confirmed to be playing Quinn in Joker 2 opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime. But the supervillain is known for his on-and-off abusive relationship with Quinn, his former psychiatrist who falls in love with him and becomes his partner in crime.
If Gaga is to take on the role in Phillips’ sequel, her version of the character would exist in a different DC Universe than Robbie’s does, leaving space for both actresses to play the psychiatrist-turned-criminal in separate films.
Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Jacob Lofland round out the cast of Joker: Folie à Deux, which is set to hit theaters on Oct. 4, 2024.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
