Awards
‘The Apollo’ (About the Legendary Theater) and ‘Apollo 11’ Win Big on Night 1 of Primetime Emmy Awards
This year’s creative arts and other pre-telecast awards are being split into five (count ‘em) nightly shows. The Apollo, an HBO film about the legendary Harlem theater, won the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special on Monday (Sept. 14). This year’s creative arts and other pre-telecast awards are being split into five (count ‘em) nightly shows, leading up to the televised Primetime Emmy Awards next Sunday (Sept. 20). This first night was devoted to reality and non-fiction programming. Apollo beat formidable competition– Beastie Boys Story (Apple TV+), (Michelle Obama’s) Becoming (Netflix), The Great Hack (Netflix) and Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time (Epix). Apollo 11, about the 1969 space launch which put man on the moon, won t...
Katy Perry Accepts Gracies Impact Award From Alliance for Women in Media Foundation & Performs ‘What Makes a Woman’
Katy Perry received the Gracies Impact Award Thursday night (Sept. 10) from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF) for her positive impact on society through her music. Perry not only performed her feminist anthem “What Makes a Woman” off her new album Smile, but she spoke to the true testament of women’s power during her acceptance speech at the 45th annual Gracies Awards. “I believe that women are so strong and versatile and well-equipped to take on so many different jobs,” the pop star declared during her speech. It’s the championing theme of “What Makes a Woman,” which she wrote for her daughter Daisy Dove Bloom. The Smile singer announced the birth of her firstborn on Aug. 27, just one day be...
Shawn Mendes Partnering With Toronto Film Festival For Changemaker Award, Will Perform at 2020 Ceremony
Shawn Mendes will perform at the virtual prize-giving. Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay, Colin Farrell, Jodie Foster are set to introduce prize-winners at the 2020 TIFF Tribute Awards on Sept. 15, Toronto Film Festival organizers said Wednesday (Sept. 9). Canadian pop sensation Shawn Mendes will perform as part of TIFF’s celebrity-driven awards show, which is to air on the CTV network countrywide and stream online. Other presenters set for the TIFF Tribute Awards include Regina King, Delroy Lindo and Bollywood star Tabu, while Chloe Wilde and Tyrone Edwards will host the kudosfest. This year’s honorees will include Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, directors Chloe Zhao, Mira Nair and Tracey Deer and Grammy-winning composer Terence Blanchard. After the coronavirus pandemic ended plans f...
2020 ACM Awards: Carrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and This Dynamic Duo Are Set to Perform
All five of this year’s entertainer of the year nominees will perform on the show. Carrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and the team of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani will perform at the 55th ACM Awards on Sept. 16, as the Academy of Country Music, dick clark productions and CBS announced on Wednesday (Sept. 9). Underwood will perform from the Grand Ole Opry and will honor trailblazing female Opry members by performing a medley of songs by Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton. Underwood teamed with McEntire and Parton to co-host last year’s CMA Awards, sponsored by the rival Country Music Association. Underwood is nominated for the ACM award for entertainer of the year, an award she won at the ceremonies in 2009 and 2010. ...
Taylor Swift Has Already Won Two Grammys for Album of the Year. Could She Win a Third? Should She?
If Swift wins album of the year for a third time, she would join a Grammy Mount Rushmore that consists of Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. Taylor Swift is a Grammy magnet. She has won 10 awards, including two for album of the year. She has lost album of the year just once (when she was a nominee). Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories took the 2013 award, beating Red. So the Nominations Review Committee, which determines the final nominations in the Big Four categories—album, record and song of the year plus best new artist—has to know that if Swift’s current album, Folklore, is nominated for album of the year, it may very well win. Swift has demonstrated broad voter appeal—to both pop and country fans, older and younger members. Swift would make history if she won. She’d be the j...
This Certainly Was a VMAs Fit For 2020
Was it really only last year where the VMAs were held at the Prudential Center in New Jersey — with Megan Thee Stallion relegated to the pre-show, Taylor Swift opening the ceremonies with two songs from her then-new album Lover, and host Sebastian Maniscalco cracking jokes about emotional support animals for “triggered” viewers in attendance? Hard to tell which part of that most makes the 2019 VMAs feel like a lifetime ago, but suffice to say, it was a very different MTV Video Music Awards that greeted fans on Sunday night (Aug. 30). With Brooklyn’s Barclays Center a late scratch as the 2020 event’s planned venue, the night’s performances, awards, and host segments (courtesy of engaging hyphenate Keke Palmer) all at least seemed pre-taped — ac...
Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande Bring ‘Rain On Me’ to the 2020 MTV VMAs During ‘Chromatica’ Medley: Watch
In one of the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards’ unequivocal highlights, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande shared a stage — responsibly, of course, with each wearing face masks — and delivered their No. 1 hit “Rain On Me” to the masses on Sunday night (Aug. 30), as the centerpiece of a larger Gaga medley celebrating her Chromatica album. In a performance that began with Gaga watching the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards on an ancient television, the pop superstar delivered the spectacle and pageantry of VMAs days of yore — first, by pole-dancing around a bunch of mannequins during Chromatica highlight “911,” and later by sitting down at a brain piano (!) for a stripped-down take on “Stupid Love.” She then gave a rousing speech about personal strength and bravery, before giving “Stupid Lov...
Doja Cat Brings Fabulously Tacky Sci-Fi Vibes to 2020 MTV VMAs
The 2020 MTV VMAs were held socially distanced across New York City on the broadcast that aired Sunday (Aug. 30), but when Doja Cat hit the awards show, she took things out of the Five Boroughs — and off planet, for that matter. Strutting around on a set that melded lunar landscape with Tron and surrounded by dancers decked out in outfits that fell somewhere between biohazard and Barbarella, Doja delivered her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Say So” as well as “Like That.” With green hair and a sparkly reptilian body suit, Doja Cat looked like she could’ve stepped out of an episode of the original Star Trek series in all its swingin’ sixties sci-fi garish glory. Featured guests Nicki Minaj and Gucci Mane weren’t present, but she did have a few...
Ariana Grande Shows Love For Lady Gaga and More Best Social Media Moments From the 2020 MTV VMAs
The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards looked a little different this year thanks to COVID-19, but the stars and performers still managed to pull off an impressive, partially-remote takeover of New York City. A variety of artists — from BTS, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga to Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker and Blackbear, JP Saxe and Julia Michaels — graced stages all over town, and Twitter had a lot to say about all of it. The MTV VMAs broadcasted live from Barclays Center (and beyond) in New York City on Sunday (Aug. 30). Check out the full winners’ list here, and see some of the best social media moments and reactions by stars and fans alike below. i’m living for all these vma performances — faouzia (@faouzia) August 31, 2020 Midnight sky is IIIIIITTTTTT — Zara Larsson (@za...
2020 MTV VMAs: Watch CNCO’s Dazzling Live Debut of ‘Beso’
As the 2020 MTV VMAs came to a close, CNCO not only live-debuted its new track “Beso” but the Latin American boy band also performed at the show for its very first time. In 2019, the band played on the red carpet during the VMAs pre-show. The members started the set while singing in — and on top of — parked cars at Brooklyn’s Skyline Drive-In, where Maluma had performed earlier in the night. Days ahead of the show, members Christopher Velez, Richard Camacho, Joel Pimentel, Erick Brian Colon and Joel Pimentel spoke with Billboard, with Camacho saying: “We grabbed the stage and made it ours and played around with the settings that they had.” Watch the performance below.[embedded content] You Deserve to Make Money Even Whe...
How to Watch the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards are going down this weekend, and the ceremony plans to safely celebrate plenty of firsts. The evening’s host Keke Palmer will be the first woman of color to host the VMAs since then-MTV VJ Downtown Julie Brown co-hosted in 1986-87. “It’s an opportunity for representation. Just knowing that someone who looks like me will get the opportunity to see me up there, which will make it more possible for them to see it for themselves. I want to give it my best so I can let them know what’s possible for them — and they can obviously go beyond that,” Palmer told Billboard in an interview Friday (Aug. 28), two days before her big night. But it’s a big night for others taking the stage with the TV debut performances of t...
J.K. Rowling Returns Human Rights Award
J.K. Rowling After launching a series of transphobic tirades on social media, J.K. Rowling has decided to return an award that celebrates human rights and conflicts with “my own conscience.” Late last year, the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) organization honored Rowling with their Ripple of Hope award. The prize is typically given to those who have shown a “commitment to social change.” Past recipients include Barack Obama and Joe Biden. However, in the time since receiving the award, Rowling has done the exact opposite of positively changing society. Instead, the Harry Potter author has repeatedly attacked transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming communities with her wrongheaded opinions on gender identity and sex. “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. I...
