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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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Movie Reviews

Johannes Grenzfurthner’s ‘Solvent’ (2024) Melds Obsession With Transcendence – Movie Review – PopHorror

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Johannes Grenzfurthner’s ‘Solvent’ (2024) Melds Obsession With Transcendence – Movie Review – PopHorror

After reading our interview with Filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner about his new project, Solvent, I decided I needed to check this film out. Anything involving missing Nazis, decrepit farmhouses, delusional filmmakers, and the director’s actual grandfather had to be awesome, right?

Here’s the synopsis:

While searching for Nazi documents in an Austrian farmhouse, a team of experts uncovers a hidden secret buried in its bowels. American expatriate Gunner S. Holbrook becomes obsessed with solving the mystery, and as his sanity wanes, he must confront an insatiable evil. Can he find redemption before it drains the life out of him?

Solvent (2024) was directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner (Masking Threshold 2022) from a script co-written by himself and Benjamin Roberts (Able Bodies 2022). The film also stars Grenzfurthner, Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Gries, Polish actress Aleksandra Cwen (F Is For Freaks 2019), and Grenzfurthner’s late grandfather, who only appeared in photographs but played a major role in the story.

Solvent tells the story of guerrilla filmmaker Gunner S. Holbrook (Gries) as he films his investigation into the disappearance of Ernst Bartholdi’s (Grenzfurthner) grandfather, Wolfgang Zinggl (Otto Zuckerberg), a Nazi during the Second World War. He has a team of people working with him, including Bartholdi and his ex-girlfriend, Krystina (Cwen). Everyone is there for the adventure, at least at first. Searching the old man’s the dilapidated, mold-encrusted farmhouse proves to be quite the treasure hunt. Photos and documents are found under collapsed ceilings and inside the brittle pages of old books. The mood is almost jolly. Who knows what they’ll find in the next room?

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When the filmmakers stumble on a partially hidden cave on the property, they see no reason not to continue on with their search. However, something terrible happens when Krystina goes into the cave alone, and her reaction to whatever it is has fatal consequences. Yet, despite the death of one member of his crew and the abject refusal of Ernst to allow Gunner back onto his grandfather’s property, the young filmmaker becomes obsessed with what’s lurking in this underground lair.

What Works

Not only does Solvent follow Gunner on his very personal journey through the mind of an insane madman, it takes place in a found footage, first person POV, only showing us what he sees and hears. We don’t get any information that doesn’t come straight from the American’s experiences. I haven’t seen such a clever and compelling use of this filmmaking style since Jozsef Gallai’s I Hear The Trees Whispering (2022). The viewer is chained to the mindset and visuals of the slowly deteriorating Gunner, with no way to look away from everything he experiences. And he makes sure to keep his camera on at all times.

“All life is a rebellion against faith…”

While there’s nothing particularly bloody about Solvent, there are some disturbing visuals, including a dead fish being stuffed into a bag, dozens of bottles of collected urine, a dead mouse in a glass jar that looked a little too real, and an extremely gory shot at the end of the film of a place no pipe inspection camera should ever go. These gruesome images are made worse by the off handed way they’re presented, as if these are just normal things that one does with their time.

I love the idea that what Zinggl has created is a sentient liquid, something that can leech through the ground, infecting anything it comes into contact with. Much like Vonnegut’s Ice-9, anything that this nefarious substance touches will be changed forever, and there is no way to return it to its natural form. No matter how innocent or undeserving, the receiver will always be contaminated. There is no escape and no cure. It’s solvent to both body and soul.

What Doesn’t Work

The voiceover of Jon Gries as Gunner could sometimes be a bit flat, not always reacting well to what was going on around him. This took me out of the film a few times. Although I realize that the countryside rambling and long-winded soliloquies were there to show Gunner’s state of mind, they could be a bit boring. Sometimes realism is not as entertaining as one might hope.

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Final Thoughts

It’s obvious that Solvent is a very personal film for Grenzfurthner. The photos of his grandfather and the treasure hunt through his family’s actual abandoned farmhouse are a love letter to the filmmaker’s heritage, despite the fact that he made his affable familial patriarch into a antisemitic psychopath bent on eternal life in any form. The secondary characters are darkly funny and entertaining, proving to be an uneasy break away from Gunner’s increasing insanity. The multiple layers and subtext in Solvent alone make it worth a watch, and adding the bizarre visuals, creepy locations and contagious psychosis are the icing on the cake.

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President of Tyler Perry Studios Steven Mensch dies in Florida plane crash

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President of Tyler Perry Studios Steven Mensch dies in Florida plane crash

The president of Tyler Perry Studios died in a single-passenger plane crash Friday evening in Florida, according to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office.

Steve Mensch, 62, has been head of the film studio based in Atlanta since 2016. His death was initially reported by TMZ.

According to sheriff’s officials, Mensch was the pilot and the sole passenger of the plane that crashed on a road in Homosassa, Fla., around 8 p.m.

The crash closed parts of Highway 19 and Longfellow Street, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. All lanes were reopened just before 2:30 a.m.

The tragic news comes on the heels of Perry being recently honored by the Paley Center and his new film, “The Six Triple Eight,” his most ambitious film and his bid for major awards. The film opened in select theaters Friday.

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The studio released a statement to TMZ, saying:

“Steve was a cherished member of our team for more than 8 years, and well beloved in the community of Atlanta. It is hard to imagine not seeing him smiling throughout the halls. We will miss him dearly. Our heart goes out to his family as we all send them our prayers.”

Before joining Perry’s studio, Mensch was president of Third Rail Studios — also based in Georgia — where he managed staffing, studio development and general operations until its grand opening in June 2016. Mensch also worked at Turner Broadcasting as director of studio, location operations and strategic production partnerships for about 10 years.

Mensch is survived by his wife and three children.

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SIR Movie Review

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SIR Movie Review

SIR is a Tamil movie directed by Bose Venkat and presented by renowned filmmaker Vetri Maaran, known for his realistic and thought-provoking films. This rural drama, set in the 1960–80s, was released in theaters on October 18, 2024, and is now streaming on Amazon Prime from December 6, 2024. The film delves into the clash between education and societal oppression in a backward village.

Plot Summary:
The story takes place between the 1960s and 80s in a remote village bordering a forest. The influential Kondayya Swami dominates the villagers by exploiting their beliefs, pretending to be possessed by the village deity, Pothuraju. His power is bolstered by associates like Kamalayya, a usurer.

Anjanarao, a schoolteacher, arrives in the village to educate the locals. However, Kondayya sees education as a threat to his authority and repeatedly tries to demolish the village school. Anjanarao’s relentless efforts eventually lead to his mental breakdown.

Decades later, his son Anjayya becomes a government teacher in the same village, continuing his father’s mission to promote education. Despite facing many obstacles for over 30 years, he manages to develop the school. His son Shiva grows up to become a teacher and joins him. However, Shiva’s life takes a turn when his wife, Venkatlakshmi, disappears shortly after their marriage. The villagers blame Shiva’s mental state, but he suspects a deeper conspiracy tied to the long-standing oppression in the village.

What follows is Shiva’s pursuit of truth and the unveiling of the mystery behind his wife’s disappearance and the village’s dark history.

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Analysis:
“SIR” paints a vivid picture of the socio-political realities of rural India in the mid-20th century. The film authentically depicts how ignorance and blind faith were exploited by the powerful to maintain control, sidelining education as a tool for empowerment.
The story revolves around a small village school, a family devoted to education, and the oppressive forces determined to thwart their efforts. The film’s strength lies in its raw depiction of rural life and the intricate detailing of the characters. Each scene feels organic, reflecting the struggles of the era.
Director Bose Venkat deserves credit for crafting a narrative that highlights the generational battle for progress in the face of ignorance and superstition. The blend of intense emotions and a subtle love story adds depth to the plot.

Performances:
The lead actors, including Vimal, Chaya Devi Kannan, and Siraj S, deliver convincing performances that make the characters feel authentic. Their naturalistic acting ensures that viewers see characters rather than actors on screen.

Technical Aspects:
Cinematography: Iniyan J. Harish captures the rustic essence of the village beautifully.
Music: Siddhu Kumar’s background score adds emotional weight to the narrative.
Editing: Srijith Sarang’s crisp editing enhances the storytelling and maintains engagement.

Final Verdict:
SIR is not your typical commercial entertainer. It’s a thought-provoking tale of the rural socio-political system of a bygone era, shedding light on the struggles against blind beliefs and oppression. While its appeal might be limited due to its niche narrative, it is a rewarding watch for those interested in authentic village dramas and social commentary.

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