ABC/Michael Le Brecht II The backstory behind Jon Batiste‘s Oscar-nominated song “It Never Went Away” from Netflix’s American Symphony is a sweet one. It was written as a lullaby for his wife, Suleika Jaouad [Su-lake-uh Ja-wad], who was battling leukemia, he told Billboard. “She is a best-selling author and couldn’t put pen to paper because the medication blurred her vision badly,”…
L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images When Usher got off the stage after performing for 15 minutes straight during the Super Bowl 58 halftime show, his message was simple: God is great. “God is real, man,” he told Access Hollywood. “The idea that we pray and wonder sometime why things happen the way they do. God’s…
ABC Burna Boy has helped out with the latest G-Star Raw campaign by attaching his hit song “On Form” to the brand’s video. The minute-long visual that was released Monday opens up with Burna surrounded by a group of dancers as they all perform his famed stomp foot dance. Throughout the video, different shots are captured of people…
Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images Lil Jon says performing at the Super Bowl 58 halftime show, where he joined headliner Usher along with Ludacris for their 2004 hit “Yeah!,” took a lot of work. “It was quite a process to do,” Jon tells XXL of putting the show together. “It was a lot of hard work. It was a lot of figuring out the proper…
Cassidy Sparrow/Getty Images for The House of Creed and Remy Martin While Usher was in Las Vegas, he didn’t just rock the Super Bowl halftime show — he also tied the knot. After word came that the singer and his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer Goicoechea, had obtained a marriage license, ABC Audio confirmed on February 13 that…
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic After Usher‘s viral, star-studded performance at Super Bowl 58, which CBS reports was the most-watched game in history, bids came in from artists who believe they should be next in line for the big gig. One of the artists, T-Pain, says a halftime show featuring his many hits is a no-brainer. “What If?…” reads a Super Bowl graphic, alongside…
On this day in Black history, February 13: — In 1907, Wendell P. Dabney established The Union, which became the longest-running Black newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its motto was, “For no people can become great without being united, for in union there is strength.” — In 1920, Baseball Hall of Famer Andrew “Rube” Foster and team owners came together to form baseball’s Negro National League.…
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Killer Mike made headlines at the Grammys February 4 when he was handcuffed and escorted out of the Crypto.com Arena, shortly after winning three rap awards. In an appearance on The View Monday, the Atlanta rapper said he isn’t ashamed about what went down. “All of my heroes have been in handcuffs…
Ethan Miller/Getty Images via ABC Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, J.Cole and Drake are among the hip-hop stars who will be vying for Artist of the Year at the XXL Awards 2024, which launched Monday. Killer Mike, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert are also nominated for Artist of the Year, while the Best New Artist category includes Sexyy Red, Destroy Lonely, Finesse2tymes, Centrel Cee, Teezo Touchdown, Lola Brooke and Rob49. Throughout the week, the XXL Awards board, which is made up of 255 music…
Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images Anybody listening to Usher? A lot of us are, apparently. Thanks to his Super Bowl 58 halftime show, where Usher played some of his biggest hits and welcomed a few special guests like H.E.R., Alicia Keys and Ludacris, his musical catalog saw a rise in streams. Immediately following the performance, Spotify logged a near 550% increase in streams of…