46 posts categorized "BILLBOARD MAGAZINE"

Dec 05 2016
BILLBOARD Woman Of The Year Madonna On Being Okay With Trump The Person, Not Trump The President, Plus: WOMEN HATE WOMEN Comments (0)

Madonna Billboard(Image  by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott via Billboard)

In Billboard's new cover story, Madonna — the trade publication's choices for Woman of the Year 2016 — speaks articulately about the Trump phenomenon, as well as her own past with the Not-My-President-elect. Fabulously, she is interviews by the politically passionate Elizabeth Banks, who deliciously references their appearance together in the abysmal Swept Away, Madonna's so-far-last starring movie role.

Banks writes:

[Madonna] told me that my audition was funny and that I’d be good in the movie, and I just tried to keep ­breathing. I assume it was in that moment that Guy concluded I’d be the perfect, nubile idiot to cast in Swept Away. I won the part. The next few weeks were surreal for all of us. I had seen Madonna in concert as a teenager and had splurged on tickets for her Staples Center show scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001. Needless to say, that concert was postponed as the world came undone. But a couple of weeks after we met, I watched Madonna finish her Drowned World Tour. Before the music began that night, she started with a prayer for peace: “If you want to change the world, change yourself,” she told the crowd. Through tears, I sang along for the entire show.

On the topic of relevance and ageism, Madonna is painfully on-point:

I don’t ever think about my age until someone says something about it. I feel that I have wisdom, experience, knowledge and a point of view that is important. Can a teenager relate to that? Probably not. But that’s OK. I understand that. “Relevance” is a catchphrase that people throw out because we live in a world full of discrimination. Age is only brought up with regard to women. It’s connected to sexism, chauvinism and misogyny. When Leonardo is 60 years old, no one is going to talk about his relevance. Am I relevant as a female in this society that hates women? Well, to people who are educated and are not chauvinists or ­misogynists, yes.

Saying she felt “like someone died” when Hillary lost, Madonna speaks of interacting with Trump in the past. She is surprisingly even-handed, if clearly a critic:

I did a photo shoot years ago at [Trump’s] Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach [Fla.] for a Versace campaign. He’s a very friendly guy, ­charismatic in that ­boastful, macho, alpha-male way. I found his political incorrectness amusing. Of course, I didn’t know he was going to be running for ­president 20 years later. People like that exist in the world, I’m OK with it. They just can’t be heads of state. I just can’t put him and Barack Obama in the same ­sentence, same room, same job description.

On why so damn many women voted for the cheerfully misogynistic Trump, Madonna goes there fearlessly and ain't lie:

Women hate women. That’s what I think it is. Women’s nature is not to support other women. It’s really sad. Men protect each other, and women protect their men and children.

More of Madonna's pearls of wisdom from this fascinating piece here. Madonna will receive Billboard's Woman of the Year award at Billboard's Women in Music event December 9 in New York City. It airs on Lifetime December 12. 

 
Nov 29 2016
6-PACK — Alaska Doesn't Ask, Isn't Told About Album Sales + Nico: Que Rico! + Another Tragic LGBTQ Suicide + Not Another Gay Resort + Trump Hates Flag-Burners + Brazilian Plane Crash Kills Over 70 Comments (0)

WIDGETABOVE: Alaska here to fill the void created by Lady Gaga's retreat into folk/country/rock.

WIDGETNico Tortorella, tatted and Speedoed up.

WIDGETAustralian 13-year-old kills himself after years of bullying.

Tyrone_Unsworth-500x324RIP Tyrone Unsworth (Image via Facebook)

WIDGETAre gay resorts still a thing? Hawaii's Sunseeker has rebranded, shedding its LGBTQ-specific status

WIDGETTrump randomly declares U.S. flag-burners belong in jail, or should lose citizenship.

Screen Shot 2016-11-29 at 11.00.32 AMSurvivor Alan Luciano Ruschel posted a video immediately prior to the deadly flight. (Video still via Ruschel)

WIDGETPlane carrying Brazilian soccer team crashes in Colombia, kills at least 75 of 81 on board.

After the jump, video posted by Ruschel from aboard the plane prior to the disaster:

Read More

 
Oct 14 2016
Madonna Is BILLBOARD's Woman Of The Year Comments (0)

Tumblr_nuiylfpZc61qhjm0go1_540(GIF via VividSeats.com)

Billboard has announced that Madonna is its Woman of the Year, and she'll collect her prize in NYC in December!

The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group President & Chief Creative Officer Janice Min said of the Queen of Pop:

Madonna is one of a miniscule number of super-artists whose influence and career transcend music. With her creative vision, relentless innovation, and dedication to philanthropic causes, she is an inspiration to hundreds of millions of people around the world, all while shattering every career record out there. She is an important feminist on top of that, a one-of-a-kind artist who’s used her influence to change the conversation around women, sexuality and equal rights.

Perhaps charitably, Billboard lists Madonna's widely—and, I would argue, unfairly—derided Prince tribute as one example of how she has remained a part of the “cultural conversation” in the past year. That, she has! In a myriad of ways.

A number of other assertions in the Billboard piece announcing the honor should be especially gratifying for her fans, since some have been contested:

Her Rebel Heart Tour, which wrapped in March, solidified her status as one of the biggest touring acts of all time. Madonna sold more than 1 million tickets and walked away with $170 million. That makes her the highest grossing solo touring artist in Billboard Boxscore history (the archives go back to 1990) with a staggering $1.31 billion in total concert grosses.

In addition to being the first female pop star with true control of her career and image, Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She's earned 8 No. 1 albums (and 21 top 10 albums) on the Billboard 200 and 12 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. With her 46th No. 1 on the Dance Club Songs chart in 2015, she extended her own record for the most No. 1s on a single Billboard chart. She also holds the record for the most top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 38.

Madonna is slated to receive her award at the 11th Annual Women in Music Event, held December 9 in NYC. It will be filmed for Lifetime, airing December 12.

It will be interesting to see who hands her the award, who shows up, if tribute performances are tied to this appearance and how quickly people being snarking that this award was bought and paid for.

 
Sep 08 2016
6-PACK — Hillary Smiles While Burning RNC + Trump Lies, Media Cheers + Zellweger On Chesney's Sexual Orientation + Gaga Hits #1 (Somehow) + Madonna's Dancer From The Dance + Dead Or Alive Tsunami! Comments (0)

*widget boy cultureHillary points out the obvious inappropriateness of Trump dishing on his classified security briefing, rejects smile advice.

*widget boy cultureTrump lies—blatantly—with impunity. The MSM unconsciously wants him to win. Obama: Stop grading him on the curve.

*widget boy cultureRenée Zellweger indirectly asserts that rumors saying her ex, Kenny Chesney, was gay were false.

*widget boy cultureLady Gaga hits #1 ... with a song that has not even been released. Seems fair.

*widget boy cultureMadonna's Salim “Slam” Gauwloos gives LONG, juicy interview on Blond Ambition, HIV, dance, his dark period.

*widget boy cultureA new Dead or Alive career-retrospective set has 19 (!) discs.

Deadoralive2-e1473315793377-480x558(Image via Edsel)

 
Aug 25 2016
6-PACK — Pulse Survivors' Bills Covered + Boiling-Water Attacker Gets 40 Years + Pro-LGBTQ Vet Slain + Robbie Rogers' Tormentor Punished + Scott Eastwood: Only Pretty On The Outside + Shawn Mendes Can't Have Sex?! Comments (0)

CqtUZKjWAAQkx0PTim Tebow with Pulse survive Rodney Sumter (Image via Instagram @ihollyrod)

*widget boy cultureOrlando will not bill Pulse gay nightclub mass-shooting survivors for their (astronomically expensive) treatment.

*widget boy cultureMan who deliberately poured boiling water on sleeping gay couple gets 40 years in prison. Bye-eee!

Screen-shot-2016-08-25-at-9-26-820x430Tromain Mackall (Image via WDCD)

*widget boy cultureVeteran Tromain Mackall was murdered, his body stuffed into a toolbox. Was it because he was dating a trans girl?

*widget boy culturePlayer suspended for calling Robbie Rogers a “queer” denies it, says he simply swore at him.

*widget boy cultureScott Eastwood's ex-GF died in a car crash and he never called her dad, never sent flowers, never attended her memorial.

*widget boy cultureNewly-18 Shawn Mendes to Billboard: Sex, post-fame, is “impossible”; he “hooked up” with an older woman, but she freaked.

Shawn-Mendes(Image via Billboard)

 
Jul 21 2016
HEAT INDEX — Gains & Losses + Thigh-Ay-Ay! + Nathan Adrian + Model Behavior + Steven Dehler + Adam Goldberg + You've Got Snail + Tightie Whitie Supremacy + Nick Jonas! Comments (0)

ABOVE: And he thinks he needs to lose 14 pounds.

BELOW: And he doesn't think this is perfection.

SUPER-THIGHS ME: Who's yer daddy?

NATHAN ADRIAN LOSES SPEEDO: Thank God for ESPN, the wind beneath my thing.

STREET LIFE: F*cking Young! offers off-duty models.

Models-off-Duty_nyfw_ss17_fy43(Image by Adriano B for F*cking Young!)

STEPHEN DEHLER: He poses for D'Andre Michael, world's mind blown.

THE FULL MONTY: Adam Goldberg lets it all hang out in Rebirth. (Work Unfriendly)

AGrebirth_1Adam Goldberg (Video still via Campfire)

SNAIL TRAIL: An erotic poem, a boy with slugs all over him.

THE TIGHTIE WHITIE ALBUM: All the undies you can stand.

RESPECTING & HONORING LGBT PEOPLE: Nick Jonas on his Pulse speech & more.

19cover_nickdemi_FINALhires(Image via Billboard)

 
Jun 23 2016
Scores Of Music-Industry A-Listers Sign Letter Demanding Gun Control Comments (0)

ClofjLgWgAAw_3B.jpg-large(Image via Billboard)

Billboard has assembled an impressive list of music-industry names for a cover and open letter demanding that Congress act on gun control.

In the preamble, the publication links music, gay rights (the rainbow imagery) and the all-too-easy access to guns in the U.S. in making the point that change is necessary to protect the “life-affirming ritual” of dancing.

(Disappointed Madonna didn't sign on, and am hoping she isn't still of the mind that “guns don't kill people, people kill people.”)

 
Jun 22 2016
What Made Pulse Special Will Bring It Back: Owner Opens Up To BILLBOARD Comments (0)

Billboard talks to Pulse owner Barbara Poma about the Orlando mass shooting and what the bar meant to the community.

In the piece, Poma defiantly vows to reopen the devastated space, which she characterizes as being different from other LGBT spots because of its “warm, welcoming atmosphere that was family-like.”

She says the response to the tragedy has been uplifting:

I can't tell you how many stories I have read over this week that have told me that Pulse was the first gay bar they ever went to, how they were shaking in fear, how they weren't out to their families and how Pulse welcomed them. People who aren't out, people who are exploring, people who are transitioning need a place to do this without judgment, they need acceptance; this is what Pulse was always about.