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Beyoncé is Billboard's greatest pop star of the 21st century. Mom Tina isn't surprised

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Beyoncé is Billboard's greatest pop star of the 21st century. Mom Tina isn't surprised

The end of the 21st century is still decades away, but Billboard has already declared its greatest pop star: Beyoncé.

The music magazine on Tuesday revealed that the “Crazy in Love” and “Formation” diva had secured the top spot among 25 generational pop talents, including Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Drake and Lady Gaga. Billboard’s editorial staff selected Queen Bey for her “full 25 years of influence, evolution and impact,” the outlet announced.

“She’s been Beyoncé for 25 years now, and as she continues to challenge herself (and by extension, the rest of the pop world) to find new and different ways to be define [sic] greatness,” wrote Billboard deputy editor Andrew Unterberger, “it doesn’t seem like she’s going to stop being Beyoncé anytime soon.”

As part of its Beyoncé celebration, Billboard published an essay that chronicled the “Single Ladies” singer’s career from her Destiny’s Child days in the late 1990s to her most recent album, “Cowboy Carter.” The career retrospective praised the Houston native’s consistency, her ubiquity across music and other facets of pop culture — including film and fashion — and her “commitment to innovation.”

While the music outlet dedicated thousands of words to Beyoncé’s life and career, the singer’s mom, Tina Knowles, offered a handful in response to her daughter’s latest honor.

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“That’s nice. That’s very nice,” Knowles told TMZ during a brief exchange Tuesday evening on the Sunset Strip.

When the reporter asked whether her family gets “used to those titles” and accolades, Knowles simply responded, “Yeah.”

The “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ’Em” singer has not yet publicly addressed her latest honor.

Knowles, Destiny’s Child’s former costume designer and mother to “Cranes in the Sky” artist Solange, isn’t shy about celebrating her superstar kin. On her Instagram, Knowles hypes her daughters’ magazine covers, album sales and even their nonmusic ventures, such as Beyoncé’s Cécred haircare line and her SirDavis whiskey brand.

On Tuesday, Knowles also touted Beyoncé’s upcoming NFL halftime show. The Grammy winner’s performance will stream Christmas Day on Netflix when the Houston Texans host the Baltimore Ravens at NRG Stadium. Knowles told TMZ that “excellence” is what viewers can expect from the holiday gig.

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Taylor Swift, who soon will wrap her blockbuster Eras tour after nearly two years, secured the No. 2 spot on Billboard’s list. The historic Grammy winner (she is the only artist to win album of the year four times) “is the most famous woman in the world,” according to Billboard. However, the well-meaning praise inadvertently sparked a twofold backlash last week when her ranking was announced. Before Beyoncé landed the top spot, some of Swift’s legion of fans, known as Swifties, called out Billboard about her second-place ranking and made the case for the “Lavender Haze” singer to be No. 1.

“I like Beyoncé but she’s nowhere near Taylor’s level when it comes to impact and numbers,” a fan tweeted last week. Another Swift devotee on X (formerly Twitter) also cited the “Love Story” pop star’s “commercial success” and “record-breaking sales” as reasons for her to claim the top spot.

Adding salt to the wound, Billboard included a controversial snippet of Kanye West’s “Famous” music video in its montage meant to celebrate Swift. The Billboard clip reportedly featured the music video’s infamous wax figure modeled after a naked Swift, prompting Billboard to issue an apology for including the clip “that falsely depicted her.”

“We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error,” the outlet tweeted.

In Tuesday’s Beyoncé reveal, Billboard acknowledged Swift’s accomplishments, lauding her as the “lone artist who really challenged Beyoncé for the top spot” and celebrating her dominance in album sales, streaming and touring. However, she “simply hasn’t been around for long enough to be able to match the expansiveness of [Beyoncé’s] quarter-century of dominance,” the magazine said.

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Still, Swift found success with Spotify, which announced Wednesday that the “Shake It Off” diva was its most-streamed artist of the year. Swift also earned the title last year.

“In her Global Top Artist era,” Spotify tweeted Wednesday. “Congratulations Taylor Swift on the over 26+ billion streams in 2024.”

Joining Swift as the audio platform’s top 10 global artists are fellow Billboard 21st century greatest pop star honorees Drake, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny and Kanye West.

“You guys are unbelievable. What an amazing thing to find out going into our last weekend of eras shows,” Swift wrote to fans Wednesday in an Instagram story. “THANK YOU!”

For Beyoncé and Swift, their respective Billboard and Spotify wins can be a boon as they prepare for the 2025 Grammy Awards. In November, Beyoncé earned 11 nominations, the most of the latest crop of Grammy hopefuls. Top nominees also include Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Swift.

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Who will win the top Grammy prizes? It’s best to stick around, ‘round, ‘round for when the ceremony is broadcast on CBS and streams live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 2

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Film Review: Magnus von Horn Crafts an Evocative Nightmare in ‘The Girl with the Needle’ – Awards Radar

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Film Review: Magnus von Horn Crafts an Evocative Nightmare in ‘The Girl with the Needle’ – Awards Radar

To say Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle is hard to watch may be the understatement of the year. Even when its harrowing sound design doesn’t make the audience subject to agonizing screams that rattle our bones and haunt our minds long after the credits have finished rolling, the movie’s overall presentation destabilizes and shocks the very minute cinematographer Michał Dymek (who also worked with Jesse Eisenberg on A Real Pain this year, demonstrating massive range) distorts several faces in its opening shot. It’s a complex sequence of images to describe in words, especially when feeling it in front of our eyes. However, it must be seen to be believed. 

The film is thoroughly unpleasant, particularly in the context in which von Horn depicts and the protagonist we follow for 123 minutes. For some, that may be a massively hard sell, and it’s understandable why many will not want to go near a movie like this because it doesn’t simply show brutal acts of violence but makes the audience experience each ounce of dread for two brutal hours. The dirty, almost perverse use of black-and-white primes the audience that this will not be a joyful story, and even if there are fleeting moments of hope in Karoline’s (Vic Carmen Sonne) path, they are almost always supplanted by despair and loss. 

Karoline works in a factory during World War I but is struggling to make ends meet after the presumed death of her husband, Peter (Besir Zeciri). Having not heard anything about him ever since he went to war, she has moved on and becomes infatuated with Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), the factory owner, who has also liked Karoline. These moments of love between the two aren’t depicted happily, even if a slight connection begins to blossom. One, however, sees that Jørgen is simply using Karoline to satiate his sexual impulses, which she can’t realize. But since this is a story where pain trumps anything else, their presumptive marriage gets shut down by Jørgen’s mother (Benedikte Hansen), resulting in Karoline being left alone and pregnant. 

Her husband has also returned, morbidly disfigured by the war, and has become an object of attraction for a circus of “freaks” to look at. When he comes back home, Karoline gives him food, but immediately rejects him, wanting nothing to do with the fact that he is now a “monster.” However, after she no longer has a job following her “break-up” with Jørgen, she decides to end it all and sticks a needle in herself to get rid of the baby. The black-and-white subdues the blood and any outright moments of ‘gore’ but makes it even more disturbing when Dymek lingers on her face as the needle slowly penetrates her body. We feel each ounce of the pain she inflicts upon herself, further exacerbated by an unshakably haunting musical score from Frederikke Hoffmeier, recalling the atmosphere Mica Levi laid out through their score in The Zone of Interest

Karoline’s life is ultimately saved by Dagmar Overbye (an incredible Trine Dynholm), the bakery owner who takes a liking to her and promises to help get rid of the baby when she goes into labor. When the day ultimately arrives, Karoline brings her baby to Dagmar, and she is sent to a new family…or so, that’s what women who want to get rid of their newborns think. You see, Dagmar actually kills the babies and disposes of them without their knowledge. This isn’t a spoiler, but what the movie is actually based on – a Danish serial killer who has murdered between 9 and 25 children, including one of her own, from 1913 to 1920 and was sentenced to death in 1921. 

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Her ruling was later amended to a life sentence, but what’s most horrific about von Horn’s depiction of Dagmar is how she has no explanation for why she would do something like this. The second half of the movie attempts (and the keyword is: attempts, she’s beyond saving) to humanize her in developing a close relationship between Dagmar and Karoline, who begins to work for her as a caretaker for the babies before they are “sent” to a new family. Of course, she’s utterly impervious to what is happening until she follows her one day and sees firsthand where they end up. 

But the humanity depicted here is a mere façade in an attempt for Dagmar to manipulate Karoline, whom she thinks is easily gullible. However, when she attaches herself to a baby that will eventually get killed in Dagmar’s bare hands, something clicks within the killer that she didn’t perceive before when it came to Karoline. Unfortunately, von Horn doesn’t explore this path and always portrays the character in a rather cold, ruthless lens. Still, it works in Dynholm’s favor, whose piercing eyes constantly betray what she says to Karoline. But our protagonist can’t realize it since she’s grown to like what Dagmar has brought to her, because she may very well be the only person who likes her for who she is. 

But does she really? It’s in that question that The Girl with the Needle begins to lose itself (and languishingly drag) during its midsection, where its constantly involving (but not too rapid) pace pulled the audience into its evocative nightmare, only for the movie to grind to a halt in developing a relationship based on lies. Despite constantly rock-solid work from Carmen Sonne (who seems like a revelation even after starring in Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland) and Dynholm, von Horn has difficulty translating their connection beyond the dark confines of its black-and-white frame. Of course, this acts as a signifier for what’s to come, and the ultimate reveal is far more disturbing than one thinks, partly due to the most petrifying sound design heard in a movie since Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning 2023 film. 

We never see the babies being killed, but we hear their helpless cries, then turning into terrified screams before they abruptly stop breathing. It’s the year’s most disturbing scene, so hard to stomach it eventually gets repeated in an even more distressing way. The shattering sounds punctuate its morbid aesthetic, which, in turn, burn our retinas and ensure we will never forget what we have seen and heard. Such a moment like this is bound to cause controversy, especially in its depiction of violence against children. But von Horn doesn’t sensationalize, nor does he linger on the killings. They are shocking enough simply because the act itself is so horrible, and one can’t understand why such a person could ever do something like this. 

Visually, it’s also not hard to see the influences Dymek plays with in representing such terror. German expressionism is the most obvious in the black-and-white and grimy, almost otherworldly lens each shot is visualized with, but he even steals Dziga Vertov compositions in its opening extreme close-up of an eye looking at a city. Yet, they don’t feel like outright plagiarism but are always in service of how von Horn wants to portray this tragic tale of hopelessness that, beyond all expectations, ends on a more hopeful note for Karoline. 

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In a world where, at the time, famine, sickness, and poverty sadly plagued most human beings in a post-war setting, von Horn at least ensures that her protagonist gets a fighting chance for survival and happiness. It absolutely won’t be easy, as illustrated in how she has to make ends meet in the movie’s opening section, but her will is strong enough for her to push through the pain and hope that things will get better, at least for her sake. 

Perhaps it may be futile, and maybe the movie does get much colder than it should be, which, in turn, distances us from emotionally latching onto Karoline’s profoundly personal story. Still, there’s no denying The Girl with the Needle’s incredible nightmarish power, which works best when plot efficiency is at its minimum. Most of it is told through its striking visuals and note-perfect sound design, crawling under the audience’s skin before they even have a chance to react to the horror drawn on the screen. It may alienate audiences once more eventually see it, but it’s by design because when the end credits ultimately appear, you will never forget it. 

SCORE: ★★★1/2

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South Coast Repertory founding artistic director Martin Benson dies at 87

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South Coast Repertory founding artistic director Martin Benson dies at 87

Theater director Martin Benson, who co-established the Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory and served as its founding artistic director for 46 years, has died. He was 87.

The theater’s current artistic director, David Ivers, and managing director, Suzanne Appel, announced Tuesday that Benson died Saturday of natural causes.

“Martin was a shining light for South Coast Repertory, a pioneer here and in our field,” Ivers said in a statement. “Kind, thoughtful and deeply curious, Martin was always ready with a poignant word, a handshake of support and an appetite for the work. He will be sorely missed, but his fine example of craft and leadership endures.”

A Northern California native, Benson co-founded the Orange Country theater with fellow founding artistic director David Emmes in 1964, after the two San Francisco State graduates collaborated on a 1963 production of Arthur Schnitzler’s “La Ronde” at Long Beach’s Off-Broadway Theatre.

The company opened its first, 75-seat venue in Newport Beach in 1965 and moved to a 217-seat house in Costa Mesa in 1967. Its current Costa Mesa complex came to be upon raising $3.5 million and receiving a donation of land in 1978 for a 507-seat theater, one now complemented by 336- and 95-seat stages. The Folino Theatre Center was renamed the David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center in 2014.

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South Coast Repertory’s theater complex was renamed the David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center in 2014, in honor of the founding artistic directors.

(Lance Gordon / McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners)

During their tenure, Benson and Emmes established South Coast Repertory as a major player in the regional theater landscape, balancing stagings of classic works with notable commissions and championships of new plays and musicals. The theater gave an early-career boost to numerous now-established playwrights, including Donald Margulies (“Sight Unseen,” “Collected Stories”), Richard Greenberg (“Three Days of Rain”), Craig Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss”) and Jose Rivera (“References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot”).

In 1988, SCR received the Regional Theatre Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement from the American Theatre Wing, highlighting its achievements in new play development. Upon accepting the award, Emmes reaffirmed a commitment “to nurture and support that endangered species, the American playwright, in whose hands rest the future vitality of all our theater,” while Benson added a local note of gratitude: “We want to thank an Orange County audience that has taken some very adventurous leaps with us, and we believe, very satisfying ones, both for them and for us.”

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Martin Benson and David Emmes

Martin Benson and David Emmes, photographed in 2002, founded South Coast Repertory in 1964.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Upon directing South Coast Repertory’s first show — Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” staged at the Newport Beach Ebell Club — Benson went on to helm a total of 119 SCR productions over the next six decades. He won directing honors from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards an unprecedented seven times, three of which lauded his stagings of George Bernard Shaw works (“Major Barbara,” “Misalliance” and “Heartbreak House”).

And one LADCC award honored his world-premiere production of Margaret Edson’s “Wit,” which Benson also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Houston’s Alley Theatre and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1999. He closed his SCR directing career with the 2020 production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar.”

Benson also acted in 11 SCR productions, served as the scenic designer in eight, the costume designer in five and the co-director for one, and also served on the theater’s board of directors. He mentored the next generation of theater leaders, including Oanh Nguyen, executive artistic director of Anaheim’s Chance Theater, who began a Theatre Communications Group New Generations Program residency at SCR in 2010.

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“Martin was a profound influence in my life, and I am deeply grateful for the many years of friendship, mentorship and care we shared,” Nguyen told The Times in an email. “Martin was a mentor to so many. He had a way of believing in people, often before they believed in themselves. And that was definitely the case with me and the Chance Theater.”

Benson and Emmes received the L.A. Ovation lifetime achievement award in 1995, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s Thomas DeGaetani Award in 1998, and the Margo Jones Medal in 2008. In 2011, SCR’s Board of Trustees established the Emmes/Benson Founders Endowment in their honor.

Beyond the stage, Benson was an avid pilot, as well as a tennis and softball player who also built and raced cars as a teenager. Though he built his career in Southern California, he remained loyal to his hometown sports teams: the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco 49ers.

Benson is survived by his stepson Justin Krumb. SCR will dedicate the Dec. 20 performance of “A Christmas Carol” to Benson and dim the theater’s lights in his honor. The theater will also host a celebration of Benson’s life in the new year, in collaboration with his family.

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Pushpa 2 first reviews are out: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna's intense performances impress like never before | Telugu Movie News – Times of India

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Pushpa 2 first reviews are out: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna's intense performances impress like never before | Telugu Movie News – Times of India

The first reviews for Pushpa 2, starring Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, and Fahadh Faasil, are already making waves, and they are overwhelmingly positive. Fans are praising Allu Arjun’s powerful return as Pushpa Raj. The buzz is growing as netizens share their early reviews from the film’s preview shows. Directed by Sukumar, Pushpa: The Rule continues Pushpa Raj’s journey as he rises from a laborer to a key figure in the sandalwood smuggling world.
One reviewer shared on social media, “#AlluArjun stole the show completely with his raw and rustic performance in this mass commercial template by Sukumar. #Pushpa2TheRule is highly supported by #FahadhFaasil who deserves applause for his acting. #RashmikaMandanna adds the required flavor. BGM works perfectly in the elevation scenes. Overall, an entertainer for the mass audience. Special mention: Jathara sequence.”

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh called it a “MEGA-BLOCKBUSTER,” rating it 4.5 stars. He praised Allu Arjun’s performance, calling him “beyond fantastic,” and described the film as a “solid” one with “unexpected twists and turns.”

Several videos from the premiere have also gone viral on social media, with fans raving about the intense sequences between Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna.

Pushpa 2 will see Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, and Fahadh Faasil reprise their roles as Pushpa Raj, Srivalli, and Bhanwar Singh Shekawat. Allu Arjun won a National Film Award for his performance in the first part of Pushpa, which focused on power struggles in the world of red sandalwood smuggling.

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