Spencer Pratt asked fans to buy and stream his wife's music after the couple's LA home burned down.
As a result, Heidi Montag's 2010 album "Superficial" reached No. 1 on the iTunes chart.
Pratt said this would help raise money for their family to rebuild, but the feat is mostly symbolic.
Spencer Pratt may have lost almost everything to the Pacific Palisades fire, but he believes his wife's music career may be what helps them afford to rebuild.
Pratt and his wife, Heidi Montag, are among the dozens of celebrities whose homes burned down in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. But unlike other victims of the fires, who have opted for GoFundMe campaigns to help get back on their feet, the former stars of "The Hills" have devised a much more publicity-friendly plan.
"Please stream any of @heidimontag music on any platforms it will make a huge difference!" Pratt wrote on TikTok Friday alongside photos of himself standing on the ashes of their home, set to Montag's song "Look How I'm Doin."
His campaign triggered a spike in downloads for Montag's 2010 album, "Superficial," which rose to No. 1 on iTunes on Saturday.
Both Pratt and Montag shared their reactions to the news, thanking friends and fans for "rallying behind us in this devastating time," as Montag said in a video on Instagram. But despite the insinuation that more streams will directly result in a significant amount of money for Pratt, Montag, and their family, the couple's feat is likely more symbolic than productive.
iTunes revolutionized the music industry when it was launched by Apple in 2001, solidifying the shift from physical media to digital downloads. But little more than two decades later, it has been rendered mostly obsolete by the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
Unlike music streamers, which charge users monthly subscription fees for unlimited consumption, iTunes relies on individual payments for each download.
Very few music fans still use iTunes regularly, which makes its charts less consequential — and easier to manipulate. The daily, ongoing updates are susceptible to fickle fluctuations in download activity.
"Relatively small organized efforts can lead to the most purchased songs drifting far from what's actually receiving the most attention," Jonah Krueger reported for Consequence last year.
"Because fewer people are shelling out $1.29 to download their own copy of a song," Krueger wrote, "it takes proportionally fewer people to sway the numbers and launch whatever song's being pumped to the top of the charts."
So why do iTunes achievements still cause chatter? Rich Juzwiak argued in Jezebel that it's because artists and their most ardent supporters — people like Montag and Pratt — leverage these charts on social media for headlines and bragging rights.
In other words, the iTunes charts are not reliable sources to determine what people are actually listening to on a macro scale. They're also not likely to make Pratt and Montag rich overnight.
The most reliable source cited by music professionals is Billboard, which ranks albums and songs based on various data points, including iTunes downloads, physical sales, and streaming stats.
Billboard's charts, like the all-genre Hot 100, are updated weekly — and that's where Pratt has set his sights.
"We need radio play, I guess not just iTunes, to get No. 1 on Billboard charts, which is the ultimate goal, cause then it's like, that's a wrap," Pratt said in a TikTok video. "Heidi is the biggest superstar in the world, you know? Obviously not Taylor Swift, but it's like Taylor Swift, Heidi Montag."
But would it really be a wrap? If Pratt's goal really is cold, hard cash for his family, probably not. Montag's songs have not appeared on Spotify or Apple Music's daily charts as of yet. And even if they did, earning reliable income from streaming alone is infamously difficult even for established artists.
Still, Pratt and Montag's desire for money has always been matched by their desire to get (and stay) famous. This streaming campaign might not get them too much of the former, but it will ensure the latter.
Wildfires have broken out in Los Angeles and are raging through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
Stars including Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, and Milo Ventimiglia have lost their homes.
The average house price in the northern LA area is around $4.5 million, per Realtor.com data.
The biggest of the wildfires in Los Angeles has been tearing through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Stars, including Paris Hilton, Milo Ventimiglia, and Billy Crystal, have lost their homes.
The area, located between Santa Monica and Malibu in northern Los Angeles, is home to some of the country's most expensive real estate. The average house price is about $4.5 million, according to Realtor.com data. Ben Affleck, for instance, bought his $20.5 million mansion there in July.
Other celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Keaton, Adam Sandler, Miles Teller, and Eugene Levy, also live in the neighborhood.
The fire started on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades before spreading west toward the Malibu stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. On Wednesday, the city of Malibu issued a statement on X advising residents to prepare to evacuate. By Thursday, it had spread to 27 square miles in the area.
The fire is now also spreading east toward Brentwood and Encino and has burned more than 23,000 acres as of Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire.
Milo Ventimiglia of 'Heroes' watched his home burn down on security cameras: 'Your heart just breaks'
Actor Milo Ventimiglia tells CBS News’ @TonyDokoupil he helplessly watched his home burn to the ground through security cameras. The 47-year-old father-to-be returned to his property to see what was left. pic.twitter.com/jidcR5ZAsY
Milo Ventimiglia, who's known for starring in "This is Us" and "Heroes," watched his home in Malibu burn via security cameras with Jarah Ventimiglia, his wife, who is nine months pregnant.
Speaking outside of his home on Thursday, he told CBS it was "heavy" seeing the extent of the damage.
He said: "You start thinking about all the memories in different parts of the house and whatnot. And then you see your neighbors' houses and everything, kind of around, and your heart just breaks."
Ventimiglia also recalled watching his house burn down: "I think there's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real, and this is happening.' And then, at a certain point, we just turned it off. What good is it to continue watching? We kind of accepted the loss."
He added: "We've got good friends, and we've got good people we're working with. We'll make do. Wife and baby and dog are most important."
Actors Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung, who are married, confirmed on Thursday that their home had burned down, but that their family was safe.
Greenberg shared a photo of the wreckage on his Instagram story, writing: "It was all a dream. Thankfully the family is safe. Thank you to all of the firefighters risking their lives. Stay safe out there."
Mel Gibson said his house burned down while he was recording 'The Joe Rogan Experience'
Mel Gibson told NewsNation on Thursday, that he learned about the fires in his Malibu neighborhood while recording an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" in Texas.
He said: "I was doing the Rogan podcast, and kind of ill at ease while we were talking, because I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I thought, I wonder if my place is still there. But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn't there."
Gibson added: "Obviously, it's kind of devastating. It's emotional. You live there for a long time, and you had all your stuff. "
He said the fact his family was"out of harm's way" was "all I can care about, really."
Paris Hilton said she 'built precious memories' at her destroyed Malibu home
On Wednesday, Paris Hilton shared on Instagram that she was "heartbroken beyond words" to learn that her Malibu home had been destroyed in the fire.
"Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience," Hilton wrote. "This home was where we built so many precious memories."
Although the loss felt "overwhelming," she said she was grateful that her family and pets were safe.
On Thursday, Hilton returned to her home and posted a video of the wreckage on Instagram.
In the caption, she said: "The heartbreak is truly indescribable."
She added: "This house wasn't just a place to live— It was where we dreamed, laughed, and created the most beautiful memories as a family."
Hilton also noted she wasn't alone in dealing with the destruction and the loss of the "irreplaceable pieces of our lives."
Miles Teller and his wife evacuated before the flames consumed their property
"Top Gun: Maverick" star Miles Teller's wife, Keleigh Teller, shared on Instagram on Friday that the couple's Pacific Palisades home was destroyed by the wildfires.
"My family and I have safely evacuated, and we are deeply grateful to be unharmed," she wrote. "I am heartbroken by the devastation caused by the fires, which have tragically destroyed my home."
She also shared more details about her evacuation and urged others to be prepared in an live interview with CNN.
"To be 100% honest, I grabbed my mom's Emmy, a photo of my dad, and a drawing that my mother had done of me and my son," she said.
Billy Crystal's home, where he'd lived with his family for 46 years, was burned to the ground
"We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can't be taken away. We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this," Crystal said in a statement to Business Insider.
"The Pacific Palisades is a resilient community of amazing people and we know in time it will rise again. It is our home," he said.
Beyoncé's mom, Tina Knowles, said her Malibu bungalow was destroyed in the fires
Tina Knowles said in a post on Instagram that her coastal Malibu bungalow had been burned down in one of the blazes.
"It was my favorite place, my sanctuary, my sacred Happy Place. Now it is gone," she wrote.
Knowles, who is also mom to singer Solange Knowles, went on to thank the "brave men and women in our fire department who risked their lives in dangerous conditions."
"This could have been so much worse with out the dedication of the disaster workers and first responders," she added.
Cary Elwes said he and his family evacuated the area safely, but said their house was destroyed
On Wednesday, "The Princess Bride" actor wrote: "Sadly we did lose our home but we are grateful to have survived this truly devastating fire. Our hearts go out to all the families impacted by this tragic event and we also wish to extend our gratitude to all the fire fighters, first responders and law enforcement who worked so tirelessly through the night and are still at it."
Ricki Lake said that she escaped from her house with her dog and 'not much else'
Ricki Lake, the star of the original "Hairspray" movie and her self-titled talk show, wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday that her "dream home" overlooking Malibu was "gone."
In the caption, Lake said she and her husband escaped from the house with Dolly, their dog, "and not much else."
Mark Hamill evacuated his home and described the fire as 'horrific'
Among the at least 130,000 LA residents asked to evacuate their homes was the "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill.
He said on Instagram that he had left his Malibu home on Tuesday with his wife, Marilou, and their dog, Trixie. He described it as the "most horrific fire since '93."
"Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH," he wrote.
Jamie Lee Curtis said 'many' friends had lost their homes
On Wednesday night, "Halloween" actor Jamie Lee Curtis appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and said, holding back tears: "Where I live is on fire right now."
She added: "It's just a catastrophe in Southern California. Obviously, there have been horrific fires in many places. This is literally where I live. Everything — the market I shop in, the schools my kids go to, friends.
"Many, many, many, many, many friends now have lost their homes."
Kate Beckinsale wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday that "the whole of the Palisades being destroyed is unthinkably horrific.
"My daughter and I lived there for most of her childhood and most of her childhood is gone."
The "Serendipity" actor shared several other posts, including one thanking local firefighters and another sharing information about assembling an emergency bag.
Haley Joel Osment thanked those who 'helped as we lose our home'
On Thursday, actor Haley Joel Osment shared that he had lost his home to the Eaton fire in Altadena.
"My heart would be so full every time I drove home - it was such a special place - I loved living there - our forest and our mountains and our homes - all gone," Osment wrote in an Instagram story.
"I am so sorry for the losses that thousands of people are suffering," he added. "I'm trying to etch in my mind the unique details of this lovely town that are gone forever."
R&B singer Jhené Aiko said she wants to 'let suffering be a gift' after losing her home in the blaze
Aiko shared photos of her home on fire in a now-deleted Instagram post. In a separate Instagram post, she said she wanted to "let suffering be a gift, an act of compassion."
"Me and my children's home is gone, burned to the ground with all of our things inside" Aiko wrote on Instagram. "Lord have mercy. Thankful we still have each other. Starting from scratch. My heart is heavy."
Several other stars have also lost their homes due to the fires
Photos obtained by People showed actors John Goodman, Anna Faris, and Anthony Hopkins lost their homes due to the fires.
The home actor Jeff Bridges shared with his family in Malibu was also lost, the Associated Press reported.
The Oscar-nominated actor James Woods wrote on X Wednesday: "All the smoke detectors are going off in our house and transmitting to our iPhones. I couldn't believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one."
"I'm so sad our house is gone. I wish I could have gone back and got more," Montag said as she broke down crying in a video she posted on TikTok on Wednesday.
TMZ meanwhile published footage of Adam Brody and Leighton Meester's home in flames, as well as a photo of Anna Faris' home in ashes.
The songwriter Diane Warren, a 15-time Oscar nominee who has worked with stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, shared on Instagram that her beach house of nearly 30 years was likely gone.
"It looks like it was lost in the fire last nite. There's a rainbow shining on it which I'm taking as a sign of hope for all creatures who have been affected by this tragedy," Warren wrote. "The animals and the rescue ranch are OK tho which is the most important thing. Stay safe everyone."
Meanwhile, Eugene Levy said he got stuck while trying to leave his neighborhood on Tuesday.
"The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon," Levy told The Los Angeles Times. "I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark."
According to photos obtained by People, the "Schitt's Creek" star's home was almost completely leveled by the following day, with only a stone chimney and a charred row of hedges left standing.
Chet Hanks, the son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, wrote in an Instagram story on Tuesday: "The neighborhood I grew up in is burning to the ground rn. Pray for the Palisades."
Britney Spears told her Instagram followers on Thursday that she had evacuated her home.
The singer said that she had left her home in LA and was "driving 4 hours to a hotel."
She added that she had been unable to charge her phone "the past two days" as she had no electricity.
Actor and singer Mandy Moore said in an Instagram story posted on Tuesday that she was also among the residents ordered to evacuate. By Wednesday, the singer said in a follow-up story that she was unsure if her home "made it."
"Honestly, I'm in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family," she wrote in an Instagram post. "My children's school is gone. Our favorite restaurants, leveled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too."
Industry events in Hollywood have been canceled
The Palisades Charter High School was also affected, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The campus was used for films including "Carrie," "Freaky Friday," "Project X," and MTV's "Teen Wolf" TV series.
The premieres for "Wolf Man" and "Unstoppable," scheduled for Tuesday, were canceled.
Wildfires in the western US have been steadily growing bigger and more severe for decades, while the time of heightened risk known as "fire season" has been getting longer each year.
A paper published in 2023 by researchers from the University of California, Irvine, found the human-caused climate crisis is the "major driver" for the state's increase in wildfires over the last quarter century.
"November, December, now January — there's no fire season, it's fire year. It's year-round," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Back in 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned almost 100,000 acres of land in California, affecting famous Malibu residents like Lady Gaga, Gerard Butler, Miley Cyrus, and several members of the Kardashian family.
Kim Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West were widely criticized for hiring private firefighters to protect their $60 million home in Hidden Hills.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Netflix docuseries "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action" premiered on Tuesday.
It explores the controversial rise of Springer's daytime talk show, which gained fame for its brawls.
Former producers describe manipulative tactics they used to get guests riled up and ready to fight.
The unruly guests on "The Jerry Springer Show" were not professional actors — but their infamous brawls were encouraged and teased out behind the scenes, producers say.
Netflix's new two-part documentary, "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action," unpacks the show's outrageous premise and its rise to the top of daytime TV ratings in the late '90s. It features several interviews with former producers, who describe the tactics they used to recruit real people with real problems and coax them into having emotional meltdowns on air.
"Just like any other manipulative situation, you need to instinctually pull out of them those points of tension that create a soap opera," Melinda Chait Mele, a producer who'd been hired from the tabloid world, says in the doc.
"A lot of the guests were earnest. They literally did think they were coming on to solve a problem. You wouldn't believe how many people said to me on the telephone, 'I can't wait to meet Jerry. I really hope he can help me with this,'" Mele tells the camera. "Jerry didn't help anybody with any of it. He just stood there and did his thing."
As the show was gaining popularity and producers were under more pressure to orchestrate shock and awe, Mele hired Toby Yoshimura, a former bartender with no talk show experience. He proved exceptionally skilled at convincing people to publicly air their grievances.
"These are small-town folk, right? And you're really trying to sell it to them, like, 'You've got this great story. We want to give people an opportunity to see that,'" Yoshimura explains. "In order for them to deliver, they have to like you. So you treat them like they're kings."
Yoshimura says producers would send limousines to ferry guests to and from the airport. A "Jerry Springer" guest identified as Melanie says they were also supplied with plenty of alcohol.
"They did everything in their power to get us as crazy as possible," Melanie says. "They were like, 'Go hog wild! Have fun!' And so we got wasted." By the time she arrived on set the following morning, Melanie says she was hungover, sleep-deprived, and "ready to fuck it up." Meanwhile, producers were with her backstage, coaching her on "what to say and how to act."
Yoshimura describes the environment as a "pressure cooker" and admits that some stories went too far. (Some of the show's most controversial episodes include "I'm Pregnant By My Brother" and "I Married a Horse.")
"You had to reach into their brain and tap on the thing that would make them laugh, cry, scream, or fight. You rev 'em up to tornado level, and then you send 'em out onstage," Yoshimura says, adding later, "This was basically the Stanford Prison Experiment, in that you were playing with people's psyches until you get a result."
This methodology was designed to generate higher ratings, which spiked after an episode that saw a member of the Jewish Defense League start a fistfight with members of the Ku Klux Klan.
"It was brilliant. And it rated through the roof," says Richard Dominick, the executive producer for "Jerry Springer" who's widely credited as the show's mastermind. "If you're producing a show that you want to be insane, and unlike anything that's ever been on TV before, there's your goal. That's what you want."
From that point onward, producers were instructed to pursue on-camera confrontations — and for a while, Dominick's method got results. In 1998, Springer even beat out Oprah Winfrey in the ratings for the most-watched daytime talk show, a feat that producers previously thought was impossible.
"There was no question: Jerry and Richard were on top of the world. I mean, the riches that it gave them, and the fame, were very compelling," says Robert Feder, a longtime media critic who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times during the "Jerry Springer" era.
"But what did they have to do in order to achieve it?" Feder continues. "The degree to which Jerry sold himself out, and the degree to which he was complicit with Richard in exploiting the people who came on the show, is something that had serious consequences."
"The Jerry Springer Show" ran for 27 seasons before it was canceled in 2018; Springer died of pancreatic cancer in 2023. In the final years of his life, Springer disavowed his own show and publicly apologized for the role he played, declaring, "What have I done? I've ruined the culture."
"I look at some of the stuff that's being done now, and I go, 'We're kind of responsible for this crap,'" Dominick says in the doc, which pairs the quote with clips from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," and "The Apprentice." He adds: "Maybe I am gonna go to hell."
However, Yoshimura suggests the show's success reflects just as negatively on viewers — including any viewers of the Netflix doc today — as it does on hosts, creators, and producers.
"Look at the history of the show. A guy punches a girl in the face, it gets huge ratings. We put a girl without clothes on the show, everybody loses their mind," he explains. "All you guys wanna talk about is all that shit."
"But, you know, we're the problem," he adds. "If none of that happened, there's no documentary on Netflix. Full stop."
Here are five rising stars to watch this year, according to BI's senior music reporter.
The list includes Addison Rae, Doechii, Jade, Ravyn Lenae, and Shygirl.
Rae is set to release her debut album, while Doechii already earned No. 3 on our 2024 song ranking.
Breakout stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter dominated the pop music landscape in 2024 with fresh hits like "Good Luck Babe!" and "Espresso."
Each year brings a new slate of upstarts who, while familiar to certain niche audiences — Roan was beloved among queer-pop devotees, while Carpenter built her core fan base for years on Disney Channel — manage to harness momentum, skill, and business acumen to arrive on mainstream radars.
Keep reading to see my top picks for musicians to watch in 2025, listed below in alphabetical order.
Addison Rae's rebrand will be studied by pop scholars.
Addison Rae, 24, initially rose to fame in the Charli D'Amelio era of TikTok stardom. Largely known for popularizing dance trends on the app, Rae even appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to demonstrate the most common moves, a now-infamous bit that resulted in backlash for overshadowing the dances' actual creators.
As many internet starlets have done (or tried to do), Rae then pivoted to focus on original music. Her debut single, "Obsessed," was released in 2021 and met with mostly tepid, sometimes mocking reviews.
Rae's follow-up single, "Aquamarine," saw a slight dip in commercial success, but not in quality. She's expected to release her debut album this year, and if her recent string of hits is any indication, it'll be the moment she finally earns the industry respect she deserves.
Doechii is one of the most acclaimed rappers working today.
Doechii became one of the breakout rappers of 2024 off the strength of her summertime mixtape, "Alligator Bites Never Heal," and its standout single, "Nissan Altima," which was named the third-best song of the year in BI's own ranking. She'll compete with Roan and Carpenter for best new artist at the 2025 Grammys, plus she's up for best rap album and best rap performance — categories stacked with A-list nominees like Eminem, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Cardi B.
Not only is Doechii a formidable talent, but she's also an artful marketer. Over the past few months, the 26-year-old has been riding the wave of critical acclaim to put herself in front of new audiences, staging standout performances everywhere from Camp Flog Gnaw to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and NPR's "Tiny Desk." Each set is punctuated with idiosyncratic fashion risks and the seemingly effortless flow she's become renowned for.
Hip-hop-heads have long foreseen Doechii's rise, but it's only a matter of time before she's everywhere.
Jade is set to become a solo star following her success with Little Mix.
Jade, aka Jade Thirlwall, broke into the music industry in 2011 as one-fourth of the popular British girl group Little Mix.
Four became three in 2020, when Jesy Nelson left the group to make reductive hip-hop knock-offs. The remaining trio announced a hiatus in 2021 to focus on solo projects.
Superstars have come out of groups in the past — Beyoncé from Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake from *NSYNC, Harry Styles from One Direction — and if Jade continues down the trail she's been blazing, she very well could be the next name on that list.
The now-mononymous artist, 32, released three solo singles in 2024, each as thrilling as the last. The first, "Angel of My Dreams," was widely praised for its avant-garde music video, conceptual lyrics, and experimental structure; it was crowned as the year's No. 1 best pop song by Stereogum and third-best overall by The New York Times.
Its follow-up, "Midnight Cowboy," is a bass-heavy banger that features a sexy spoken-word intro by "Barbie" star Ncuti Gatwa, while "Fantasy" is a disco-infused burst of energy that's spurred ahead by a set of remixes with Channel Tres and Alex Chapman.
Jade is harnessing her existing star power in all the right ways: to execute outré ideas, bring in the coolest collaborators, and put a fresh spin on existing pop trends.
Her debut solo album is expected to arrive this year, but fans won't have to wait long for another delicious breadcrumb; her new single, "It Girl," is already available to pre-save.
Ravyn Lenae has already worked with heavy hitters in the music industry.
Ravyn Lenae's 2024 sophomore album, "Bird's Eye," featured collaborations with Childish Gambino ("One Wish") and Ty Dolla $ign ("Dream Girl"), plus a co-writing credit for Anderson .Paak on the standout track "Love Me Not." SZA, who previously recruited Lenae to open for her 2017 "Ctrl" tour, said it was one of her favorite albums of the year.
It's not hard to see why Lenae, 25, has earned respect from contemporary legends. Much like SZA's own sophomore album "SOS," "Bird's Eye" is a seamless blend of R&B, Motown soul, and disco-pop, with glimmers of reggae, bossa nova, and soft rock. With her genre-blending sensibility, there's truly something for everyone.
"It felt really natural to acknowledge the things I listen to and the things that make me excited about music," Lenae told The Cut. "I want to be able to touch every single part of my brain, so that might be a lot of different genres."
Shygirl has the potential to become the next club-music queen.
Given the cultural obsession with Charli XCX's "Brat" that dominated the conversation this summer, Shygirl's rise to stardom seems imminent.
The 31-year-old singer, rapper, and DJ has been anointed as Charli's heir apparent, opening for both her 2024 UK arena tour and the Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan before remixing "365" for "Brat and It's Completely Different But Also Still Brat." But Charli isn't the only club-music royalty who's taken notice. Shygirl's latest EP, "Club Shy," welcomes a euphoric cast of collaborators into the fray, from SG Lewis and Boys Noize to Empress Of, Lolo Zouaï, and Danny L Harle.
Timothée Chalamet portrays Bob Dylan in James Mangold's new film "A Complete Unknown."
He spent five years preparing for the role, which included learning to sing and play guitar.
Chalamet performs live throughout the film, instead of using prerecorded vocals or instruments.
Timothée Chalamet went method to play Bob Dylan for James Mangold's new biopic "A Complete Unknown" — an immersive, yearslong exercise that saw the actor hone his singing voice, learn to play guitar, and even master the harmonica.
"A Complete Unknown," which arrived in theaters on Christmas Day, follows a young Dylan in the early 1960s as he embeds himself in (and later extricates himself from) the Greenwich Village folk scene, alongside other real-life legends like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger.
Chalamet is joined by Monica Barbaro as Baez, Edward Norton as Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. All of them performed live while shooting the film.
However, the extra prep time actually worked in Chalamet's favor.
Unlike his costar Elle Fanning, who plays a renamed version of Dylan's girlfriend Suze Rotolo, Chalamet wasn't a huge Dylan fan before he was cast in "A Complete Unknown." To learn as much as possible in that five-year window, he watched old videos, scavenged for bootlegs, and familiarized himself with Dylan's extensive catalog. He also worked with a team of coaches to embody the musician, from voice and guitar to dialect and movement.
By the time he'd perfected his Dylan portrayal, Chalamet was ready to perform live on set, singing and strumming entire songs from "I Was Young When I Left Home" to "The Times They Are A-Changin.'"
"You can't re-create it in the studio," Chalamet told Rolling Stone. "If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice."
Mangold told Variety that he was prepared to dub Chalamet's performances with studio recordings, instead of using the live takes. He changed his mind when he heard Chalamet sing "Song to Woody" in the film's first musical scene.
"We shot that in the first five or six days," Mangold said. "And there was a whole backstage thing with Timmy saying, 'I want to try it live.'"
Even though, as Mangold admitted, "some of the sound and music direction people were like, 'It's not a good idea,'" he let Chalamet try it out: "And he was phenomenal."
"Not only that, he proved the brilliance of the method," Mangold continued. "There's this moment where he finishes that song and he holds a note and just keeps hitting the low string on the guitar over and over again, and he's just his eyes are kind of boring into Woody, and he's just holding this note, and it gave him chills… That could not have happened if there was an earwig in his ear."
During a separate interview with Variety, Chalamet praised Mangold for his risky yet rewarding decision to use the live recordings. (Chalamet's prerecords were released on the album's soundtrack, but never used in the film.)
"Kudos to Jim, who really had his eye, the whole movie, on the fact that, to watch actors doing karaoke really isn't interesting," Chalamet said.
"Timmy's not the only person who's ever done that, that's true for most of the actors in my movies doing dialects, they don't just do it and fall out of it the second the scene ends," Mangold recently told Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio.
"You're trying to make it something you don't have to think about," Mangold explained. "So, if you're turning it on and off, you're kind of making yourself hyper-aware of it. If you're just deciding to live in it, that's a whole other deal."
Barbaro also worked with a vocal coach to approximate Baez's famous soprano
By that time, Baez was already an established folk singer, renowned for her wide vibrato and, in Dylan's own words, "heart-stopping soprano."
"The sight of her made me high," Dylan wrote of Baez in his 2004 memoir. "All that and then there was her voice. A voice that drove out bad spirits. It was like she'd come down from another planet."
Barbaro wasn't a trained singer before she was cast as Baez, but like Chalamet, she worked extensively with vocal coach Eric Vetro.
Barbaro sang live throughout filming — duetting with Chalamet for their climactic performance of "It Ain't Me Babe," for example — though due to the technical finesse that Baez is known for, Barbaro told Rolling Stone that she was more open to overdubs than Chalamet was.
"Getting to play next to him and hear the harmonies of our voices and the accompaniment, so complementary of each other — that was a career highlight," Barbaro told BI's Palmer Haasch.
"I'm so glad we waited until that point to meet each other and to work with each other," Barbaro continued. "It was more true to a Bob and Joan version of the meeting that we'd have these musical proficiencies, that we could collaborate and play together."
She's also the only character who was given a name different than her real-life counterpart, in this case Suze Rotolo, the artist, political activist, and eventual author who died in 2011 from lung cancer.
Rotolo met Dylan in the early 1960s shortly after he moved to New York City, where Rotolo was working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They quickly fell in love and moved in together in Greenwich Village.
Director James Mangold confirmed to Rolling Stone that Fanning's character Sylvie Russo is meant to closely resemble the real Rotolo, rather than be a "half-Suze, half-fictional" creation.
"It was a character who I felt — and I think Bob very much agreed when we talked early on — was the only one who wasn't a celebrity and an icon in and of themselves with a kind of public persona," Mangold said. "Everyone else is up for the gauntlet and has been in that game a long time. And Suze was just a real person."
"In many ways," he added, "Elle plays our access point or more normal kind of citizen, if you will, among all these eccentric characters. She's much more like someone we know."
According to Fanning, Dylan asked Mangold not to use Rotolo's real name, because she was "a very private person and didn't ask for this life."
"She was obviously someone that was very special and sacred to Bob," Fanning said in a separate Rolling Stone interview.
The movie accurately depicts the couple's first meeting in 1961 at a Riverside Church hootenanny, per Rolling Stone. At the time, Dylan was 20, while Rotolo was 17.
"Right from the start I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen," Dylan wrote in his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One."
"She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves," he continued. "We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid's arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard."
In Dylan's recollection, Rotolo was embedded in the New York art scene as a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer, in addition to her work with civil rights committees. She'd grown up in Queens, he said, and was raised in a "left-wing family." It's been reported that both her parents were members of the American Communist Party.
"Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of '1001 Arabian Nights.' She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a kind of voluptuousness — a Rodin sculpture come to life," Dylan wrote. "She reminded me of a libertine heroine. She was just my type."
Not long after their first encounter, Dylan said he ran into Rotolo's sister, Carla, and asked if he could see Rotolo again.
"She said, 'Oh, she'd like to see you, too,'" he recalled. "Eventually we got to be pretty inseparable. Outside of my music, being with her seemed to be the main point in my life."
By early 1962, Dylan and Rotolo had moved in together, even though her family disapproved. (Dylan described Rotolo's mother, Mary, as "very protective" and disapproving of Dylan's "nameless way of life." Rotolo's father, Gioachino, died when Rotolo was 14.)
Rotolo had a major impact on Dylan's artistic taste and political views
In his memoir, Dylan said he began to broaden his horizons once Rotolo entered his life. She loaned him poetry books, introduced him to works by Arthur Rimbaud and Bertolt Brecht, and took him to local hang-out spots for artists and painters. He was particularly fond of off-Broadway productions and local museums.
"A new world of art was opening up my mind," Dylan wrote.
"A Complete Unknown" also correctly notes that Rotolo inspired Dylan to write topical songs, including "The Death of Emmett Till" and "Oxford Town."
"A lot of what I gave him was a look at how the other half lived — left-wing things that he didn't know," Rotolo told writer David Hajdu in his book "Positively 4th Street."
"He knew about Woody [Guthrie] and Pete Seeger, but I was working for CORE and went on youth marches for civil rights, and all that was new to him," she explained. "It was in the air, but it was new to him."
After the commercial failure of Dylan's self-titled debut album, he pivoted from folk covers to writing his own songs, influenced by Rotolo's poetry and his expanding political awareness. These formed the bedrock of his 1963 sophomore album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." Rotolo cemented herself in music history by posing with Dylan for the cover art, the pair walking arm-in-arm down Jones Street.
In her 2008 memoir, "A Freewheelin' Time," Rotolo said the album cover was beloved for its "casual down-home spontaneity," which was unusual for the "perfectly posed" trends of the time. She said it embodied the image of "rebellion against the status quo."
"The songs had something to say," she wrote. "It was folk music, but it was really rock and roll."
Before 'A Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' was finished, Rotolo went to study art in Europe, leaving Dylan heartbroken in New York
In the summer of 1962, Rotolo left New York to study art at the University of Perugia in Italy. ("A Complete Unknown" shows Russo leaving for 12 weeks. In real life, she was gone for six months.)
Dylan channeled his lovelorn yearning into songs like "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," a much-celebrated highlight on his sophomore album; "Down the Highway," which includes a lyric about his lover taking his heart "away to Italy;" and "Boots of Spanish Leather," later included on his third album, 1964's "The Times They Are a-Changin.'"
The couple shot the album cover for "A Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" after Rotolo returned in January 1963. But their romantic relationship wouldn't last much longer.
As both parties recalled, Dylan's fast-growing fame eroded their trust and intimacy. Rotolo also said she took issue with Dylan's "paranoia and secrecy."
In "A Complete Unknown," the couple fight about Dylan's reluctance to discuss his pre-New York life in the Midwest. Russo specifically needles him about changing his name, which matches the recollections in Rotolo's memoir; she'd found out that Dylan's real name was Robert Allen Zimmerman when his draft card fell out of his wallet. "It was suddenly upsetting that he hadn't been open with me," she wrote. "I was hurt."
"People make up their past, Sylvie," Dylan counters in the movie. "They remember what they want. They forget the rest."
According to Fanning, Dylan himself added a line to the screenplay for the fight scene, which takes place before Russo leaves for Italy.
"It was something like, 'Don't even bother coming back,'" Fanning told Rolling Stone. "We know the arguments were real, so maybe he was remembering something — or regretting something that he said to her."
Even after they stopped living together, Rotolo said she and Dylan still spent time together
In August 1963, Rotolo moved out of their shared apartment on West 4th Street to live with her sister instead.
"I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth, and lies that living with Bob entailed," Rotolo wrote in her memoir. "I was unable to find solid ground — I was on quicksand and very vulnerable."
Shortly after, Rotolo discovered she was pregnant and had an illegal abortion, which she said sent her into a depression. At the same time, Dylan's rumored affair with Joan Baez (Rotolo described him as "a lying shit of a guy with women, an adept juggler") and his long-simmering tension with Rotolo's family ("For her parasite sister, I had no respect," Dylan sings in "Ballad in Plain D," a song he later said was a mistake to release) put strain on their relationship.
However, the young couple continued to spend time together — or, as Rotolo put it in her book, they were "caught in the whirlpool of indecision that is tortured young love." She also described their connection as an "addiction."
Though Rotolo said they'd "ostensibly broken up" by late 1963, Dylan regularly visited Rotolo's apartment and called whenever he was out of town. Still, she felt increasingly suffocated by Dylan's mystique and the worship of his fans. She feared people were only nice to her to get close to him and, she wrote, lost a sense of herself in the process.
"It wasn't easy; even when broken, the bond between lovers tends to hold in unpredictable ways," Rotolo wrote. "But I knew I was not suited for his life. I could never be the woman behind the great man."
It's unclear exactly when the couple cut ties for good, but sometime in 1963 or 1964, Rotolo realized she had to walk away. Dylan agreed, she wrote, with a "resigned sadness."
In 1965, ahead of Dylan's spring tour in England, Rotolo said she got a call from his manager about updating her passport.
"This was another cue for me to sever another tie," she wrote. "Slowly untying all those entanglements. I said thank you but no."
In "A Complete Unknown," Russo is present for the climactic event: Dylan's electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
In real life, Rotolo wasn't there to see Dylan enrage his friends and fans with rock music; Dylan was already living at the Chelsea Hotel with his future wife, Sara Lownds, by the time he performed at the festival in July 1965. Lownds was also pregnant with their son, Jesse.
"During our time together things became very complicated because so much happened to him so fast," Rotolo wrote in her memoir. "We had a good time, but also a hard time, as a young couple in love."
Dylan's memoir includes a similarly enigmatic description of their breakup.
"The alliance between Suze and me didn't turn out exactly to be a holiday in the woods," he wrote. "Eventually fate flagged it down and it came to a full stop. It had to end. She took one turn in the road and I took another. We just passed out of each others' lives."
"A Complete Unknown" stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan during his rise to fame in the '60s.
The movie's climax is Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Dylan performed with an electric band, causing him to be ostracized from the folk scene.
James Mangold's new film "A Complete Unknown" reaches its climax when Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) takes the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, drawing boos from the crowd and disgust from his peers.
But out of all the performances Dylan gave in the '60s, what made this one so controversial? To understand its outsize significance in Dylan's career, as well as music history at large, it's important first to rewind.
The Newport Folk Festival was cofounded in 1959 by jazz promoter George Wein and music manager Albert Grossman. (The latter is best known for representing Dylan between 1962 and 1970.)
Dylan made his debut at the annual event in 1963 alongside Joan Baez, a close collaborator who was already a folk superstar. He returned the following year for a solo set in his typically sparse style — guitar, harmonica, raw vocals — and sang now-beloved tracks like "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Chimes of Freedom."
Dylan amassed an adoring crowd in 1964 and became known as one of the festival's biggest draws. He was expected to return for the 1965 edition, alongside friends and folk staples like Baez and Pete Seeger.
It was also expected that Dylan would deliver another solo acoustic performance. Instead, the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is better known as the night Dyan went electric.
'An artist can't be made to serve a theory'
The original script for "A Complete Unknown" was based on Elijah Wald's 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties."
Wald recounts how a 24-year-old Dylan took the stage with an electric guitar, breaking with convention and shocking — even enraging — the crowd who gathered to hear traditional finger-picked tunes.
Instead, Dylan opened with "Maggie's Farm" ("Well, I try my best to be just like I am / But everybody wants you to be just like them / They say 'Sing while you slave' and I just get bored") and "Like a Rolling Stone" ("When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose / You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal"), backed by a full band.
Before the performance, Dylan had been growing agitated with the expectations placed on him by fans and the media, who were hailing him as the bastion of protest music. However, according to Baez, Dylan wasn't particularly interested in politics beyond its service to his songwriting. His music leaned more toward commentary than activism.
"I think what happened with Bobby is the same as with The Beatles. They are really talented, but they don't want to accept responsibility for what's going on," Baez said in 1967. "And the minute they write a song that was sort of saying, 'I'm on this side or that,' then everybody's going to jump all over them for being part of a cause, and they don't want it."
At the time, the folk scene was all about social awareness and advocacy. Baez was a fixture at protests and civil rights marches, for example, while Seeger was avidly pro-worker and tracked by the FBI for suspected ties to communism. By contrast, Dylan avoided political events throughout the '60s and even declined to denounce the Vietnam War, a cause that united many of his contemporaries. (When asked to do so by Sing Out! in 1968, he replied, "How do you know that I'm not, as you say, for the war?")
Dylan's girlfriend in the early '60s, Suze Rotolo, said he balked at the idea of getting boxed in — as a person or a musician — in her 2008 memoir "A Freewheelin' Time."
"The old-left wanted to school him so he would understand well and continue on the road they had paved, the one that Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and others had traveled before him. They explained the way of the road and its borders," she wrote. "Bob listened, absorbed, honored them, and then walked away. An artist can't be made to serve a theory."
In short, Dylan didn't feel beholden to the folk tradition. So, on that pivotal day in Newport, he decided to swap his acoustic guitar for the famed Sunburst Fender Stratocaster.
"When Dylan took the stage with that unprecedented amped-in performance, he fatefully intertwined folk with rock 'n' roll," Rolling Stone reported. "But more immediately, he was harassed by the audience, who booed him loudly and called him a traitor to the folk genre."
The dissenters included Seeger, who had supported Dylan's career since they met years prior in Greenwich Village. Seeger was also a prominent member of the festival's board of directors and has been credited with booking Dylan for the lineup.
Not everyone was horrified. Johnny Cash was famously supportive of his friend's shift toward rock, while Baez later told Rolling Stone, "I just thought he was very brave to do it, even though I didn't like the sound of it. But I learned to like it, because he was still writing wonderful stuff."
Still, Dylan was shouted off the stage in Newport after just three songs. After a brief intermission, he returned with his acoustic guitar to play "Mr. Tambourine Man" and, fittingly, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." The crowd cheered for these songs, but bootleg videos show Dylan looking stoic.
'Judas!'
In the following years, Dylan was ostracized from the folk community. Fans thought electric Dylan was an out-of-touch sell-out, less authentic than acoustic Dylan, and they weren't afraid to let him know.
"A Complete Unknown" shows a furious concertgoer screaming "Judas!" at Dylan in Newport, which actually did happen — only it happened several months later in Manchester, England, during Dylan's 1966 world tour. (He'd just released "Blonde on Blonde," which has since been vindicated by fans and critics as one of his best albums.)
One fan identified as Lonnie, who attended the Manchester show in question, is quoted in C.P. Lee's 1998 biography "Bob Dylan: Like the Night."
Lonnie told Lee he doesn't regret how the crowd treated their one-time hero: "It was like, as if, everything that we held dear had been betrayed," he said, adding, "We made him and he betrayed the cause."
Ironically, the immediate backlash seemed to reinforce the very reason Dylan stepped back from folk music in the first place.
In his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One," Dylan said his admirers had been acting increasingly possessive. "Screw that," he wrote. "As far as I knew, I didn't belong to anybody then or now."
Dylan's rebellious streak made him perfectly suited for the rock world, which embraced him with open arms.
Dylan refused to play at the Newport Folk Festival for another 37 years before he finally returned in 2002. By that time, change and genre-hopping had become not a sticking point for Dylan's fans but a key part of his allure.
Once again, he sang "Like a Rolling Stone." This time, it was met with applause.
It's not long before viewers are introduced to 20-year-old Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), an already-established performer in the Greenwich Village folk scene. In her first scene, Baez takes the stage at Gerde's Folk City and sings "House of the Rising Sun," the fourth track on her self-titled debut album, released in 1960.
"Joanie was at the forefront of a new dynamic in American music," Dylan recalled in the 2009 documentary "Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound."
"She had a record out, circulating among the folk circles," he continued, "and everybody was listening to it, me included. I listened to it a lot."
In "A Complete Unknown," Baez's performance at Gerde's is followed by Dylan's. He sings "I Was Young When I Left Home," leaving the movie version of Baez awestruck.
The star-crossed encounter kicks off a fruitful collaboration and passionate romance, despite Dylan's existing relationship with Sylvia Russo (Elle Fanning).
In real life, however, Baez had gone to Gerde's specifically to see Dylan.
"Somebody said, 'Oh, you've gotta come down and hear this guy, he's terrific,'" Baez told Rolling Stone in 1983. "And so I went down with my very, very jealous boyfriend, and we saw this scruffy little pale-faced dirty human being get up in front of the crowd and start singing his 'Song to Woody.'"
"I, of course, internally went completely to shreds, 'cause it was so beautiful," she continued. "But I couldn't say anything, 'cause I was next to my very, very jealous boyfriend, who was watching me out of the corner of his eye and trying to mentally slaughter Dylan, I think. And then Bob came over and said, 'Uhhh, hi' — one of those eloquent greetings — and I just thought he was brilliant and superb and so on."
The movie depicts Dylan and Baez starting a sexual relationship after another chance encounter, when Baez stumbles upon Dylan performing "Masters of War" in a coffee shop. Notably, this takes place in the throes of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when the world seemed on the brink of nuclear armageddon. After kissing at the coffee shop, the pair return to Dylan's apartment.
In real life, Baez was instrumental in introducing Dylan to a larger crowd
Dylan and Baez became an unofficial musical duo in the early '60s, encouraging each other to refine their songcraft (she as a singer, he as a writer) and regularly performing duets at Baez's concerts.
In the 2009 Baez doc, one friend described the pair as "quite a force at that time," adding, "I think she had a crush on him. I know he had a crush on her."
The details of Dylan's life can be difficult for historians to confirm, given his penchant for myth-making and obfuscation. (He even asked Mangold to include an inaccurate scene in "A Complete Unknown," according to actor Edward Norton, apparently just for kicks.) So, it's unclear exactly when Dylan and Baez's relationship became romantic.
When Rolling Stone asked Baez how long they'd been involved, she replied, "You mean what period of three months was it? Um, Bob and I spent some time together. I honestly don't know what the year was."
Baez wasn't interested in drugs, which she said caused her to feel disconnected from other musicians, including Dylan. She also wanted Dylan to be more politically active outside his music, leading to a rift between them.
In 1965, a few months before the famous Newport Film Festival that saw Dylan "go electric," he invited Baez to join him on tour in England — but neglected to invite her onstage for any show. This trip is scrubbed from the timeline in "A Complete Unknown," but by all accounts, it was the death blow to their relationship.
"I just sort of trotted around, wondering why Bob wouldn't invite me onstage, feeling very sorry for myself, getting very neurotic and not having the brains to leave and go home," Baez told Rolling Stone. "That would be the best way to describe that tour. It was sort of just wasted time."
Dylan also traced their split back to 1965 and, more specifically, the frenzy of his newfound fame.
"I was just trying to deal with the madness that had become my career, and unfortunately she got swept along, and I felt very bad about it," he said in the Baez doc. "I was sorry to see our relationship end."
"A Complete Unknown" depicts Dylan and Baez duetting at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, but this didn't happen in real life; they were on the outs by then. (They did sing at the festival together in 1963 and 1964.)
Even after their relationship deteriorated, their connection fueled their art
Many fans believe Baez inspired notable Dylan songs, like the iconic 1965 hit "Like a Rolling Stone" and 1966 song "Visions of Johanna," though he's never confirmed either theory.
In 1968, Baez released her ninth album, "Any Day Now," comprised entirely of Dylan songs. Her 1970 compilation album, "The First Ten Years," includes six Dylan covers, including her much-loved version of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." She also released the 1972 song "To Bobby" as an open letter to Dylan, begging him to engage with the protest movement.
A few years later, Baez wrote the heart-wrenching ballad "Diamonds & Rust," which was shaped by an emotional phone call with Dylan.
"Well you burst on the scene / Already a legend / The unwashed phenomenon / The original vagabond," she sings. "You strayed into my arms / And there you stayed / Temporarily lost at sea / The Madonna was yours for free."
Baez later described "Diamonds & Rust" as "the best song of my life."
"The really, really good stuff comes from down deep," she told Rolling Stone in 2017, "and that was how strongly I was affected by Bob in the relationship and everything. It'd be stupid to pretend otherwise."
"I love that song 'Diamonds & Rust,'" Dylan said in the 2009 documentary. "To be included in something that Joan had written — ooh. I mean, to this day, it still impresses me."
"Diamonds & Rust" was released in 1975 on Baez's album of the same name. Later that year, Dylan invited her to join the Rolling Thunder Revue tour alongside a wide cast of their contemporaries, including Joni Mitchell and the Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn.
In the Baez doc, Dylan said he remembers her as "completely in her element" during that time, while Baez characterized the tour as fun and carefree — a departure from her typical activities as a social activist. The experience seemed to mend a bridge between them, however temporarily.
Dylan and Baez performed a few more duets before cutting ties for good
The pair reunited at a 1982 Peace Week concert at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, performing a three-song set together: "With God On Our Side," a cover of Jimmy Buffett's "A Pirate Looks at Forty," and "Blowin' in the Wind," which Dylan had written shortly after they met.
Dylan's guest appearance at the anti-nuke event came as a shock to the crowd, given that he'd declined to denounce the Vietnam War and generally avoided political events.
The following year, when Rolling Stone asked Baez about Dylan's state of mind at the show, she demurred.
"I really have no idea. But I love singing with him," she replied. "He isn't in tune, the phrasing is nuts, and he always wants to do a song I've never heard before."
The magazine also asked if the couple would ever get back together, "when they're both 60 or something." Baez replied, "Spare us, please. Both of us."
Baez came to discover she'd only been added to the bill because the promoter thought it would boost sales. In her 1987 memoir, "And a Voice to Sing With," Baez said she wasn't treated as an equal performer and was largely ignored by Dylan backstage.
After a few haphazard duets in Germany, Dylan stopped inviting her to share the stage with him, so she decided to quit the tour. In her book, Baez described Dylan as tired and disoriented when she said goodbye in his dressing room. She told him their touring together didn't work out, and he said, "That's too bad." She also wrote that he ran his hand up her skirt.
"Goodbye, Bob," Baez wrote. "I thought maybe I shouldn't write all this stuff about you, but as it turns out, it's really about me anyway, isn't it? It won't affect you. The death of Elvis affected you. I didn't relate to that, either."
The two musicians haven't been seen together since. While they did cross paths at a 2010 White House event to celebrate civil rights-era music, Baez said she didn't try to greet him.
"The chances of him just walking past me would be too awful a scenario," Baez told Rolling Stone. "It would just bring up feelings that aren't necessary."
"I learned a lot of things from her," he said during his acceptance speech. "A woman with devastating honesty. And for her kind of love and devotion, I could never pay that back."
Last year, Baez told Variety that she was not in touch with Dylan, though she didn't harbor any resentment. "I may never see him again," she said, "and that's OK too."
The 12-minute performance at NRG Stadium in Houston, Beyoncé's hometown, featured live debuts of several tracks from her latest album, "Cowboy Carter," plus multiple duets with special guests — including Beyoncé's 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter, who joined the performance to line dance during the final song.
Here's every song on Beyoncé's Christmas Day setlist, listed below chronologically.
'16 Carriages'
"16 Carriages" was released alongside "Texas Hold 'Em" as the single's B-side. It has been nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 2025 Grammys.
'Blackbiird'
Beyoncé performed "Blackbiird" with Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts — a cover of the 1968 classic by The Beatles, which was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement.
'Ya Ya'
The 20th track on "Cowboy Carter" is a country-rock banger that interpolates two hits from 1966: Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."
"Ya Ya" was hailed by critics as a standout upon the album's release and will compete for best Americana performance at the Grammys in February.
"My House'" was released at the end of 2023 as a single ahead of Beyoncé's 2023 film, "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé."
'Spaghettii, 'Riiverdance,' and 'Sweet Honey Buckiin'
Beyoncé brought out Shaboozey to perform a medley of their collaborations on "Cowboy Carter," including "Spaghettii," a Grammy nominee for best melodic rap performance.
Following his featured role on "Cowboy Carter," Shaboozey had a breakout year with his own hit, "A Bar Song (Tipsy)." The country-pop anthem topped the Hot 100 for 19 weeks, tying Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" for the longest streak in history.
'Levii's Jeans'
Beyoncé welcomed Post Malone to the stage for a duet of "Levii's Jeans," the 17th track on "Cowboy Carter," and Grammy nominee for best pop duo/group performance.
Like Beyoncé and Shaboozey, Malone had a big year. He released his own country album, "F-1 Trillion," in August." The tracklist included collaborations with Nashville legends like Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, and Chris Stapleton.
James Mangold's new film "A Complete Unknown" is a Bob Dylan biopic.
Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo.
"A Complete Unknown" arrives in theaters on December 25.
James Mangold's highly anticipated film "A Complete Unknown" follows Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan during his rise to renown in the early '60s.
The movie, which hits theaters on Christmas Day, also stars Monica Barbaro as the legendary folk singer Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a renamed version of Dylan's girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo.
Here's how the cast compares to the real-life people they're playing in "A Complete Unknown."
Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in his early days as a musician in New York City.
Chalamet is an Oscar-nominated movie star known for a slew of acclaimed films, including "Call Me By Your Name," "Lady Bird," "Beautiful Boy," "Little Women," "The French Dispatch," "Dune," and "Dune: Part Two."
And yet, Chalamet recently told Stephen Colbert that "A Complete Unknown" is "the movie I'm proudest of in my career."
"A Complete Unknown" begins in 1961, when Dylan moved to New York City as a teenager. He released his self-titled debut album in 1962 and quickly became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene, leading many critics to label him "the voice of a generation."
After releasing a few beloved folk albums, Dylan made a divisive pivot toward rock 'n' roll, punctuated with his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The controversy was documented by Elijah Wald in his 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties," on which the movie's script is based.
Today, at 83, Dylan is known as one of the most influential and prolific singer-songwriters of all time. He has won 10 Grammys out of 38 nominations, as well as the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, which he accepted in 1991.
Monica Barbaro plays Joan Baez, another prominent folk singer and activist.
Barbaro got her start in TV, landing recurring roles in shows like Lifetime's "Unreal," NBC's "Chicago P.D.," and ABC's "Splitting Up Together." She earned her breakthrough movie role as Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick."
Like Chalamet, Barbaro was not trained as a singer or guitarist before being cast as Joan Baez, who helped Dylan lead the '60s folk revival. She worked with vocal coach Eric Vetro to approximate Baez's famous soprano.
When Barbaro had a chance to speak with Baez over the phone, she said she reassured the musician, "This is all done out of respect."
"She's just like, 'I'm just outside listening to the birds.' She is Joan. She's not so concerned with protecting [her legacy] or hovering over it," Barbaro told The Hollywood Reporter. "She signed over her songs [to the film], all her arrangements. She and Bob are sort of similar, in that they're not so obsessed with dictating this idea of who they are and who they were. They've been in the public eye for so long."
Baez, 83, also received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Elle Fanning plays Sylvie Russo, aka Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend at the time.
Fanning, who originally costarred with Chalamet in 2019's "A Rainy Day in New York," was a huge Dylan fan before she was cast in "A Complete Unknown."
"I had posters of him on my wall and wrote his name on my hand every day, partly to be cool," Fanning told The Hollywood Reporter. "I worked with ['We Bought a Zoo' director] Cameron Crowe when I was 13, and he played Bob Dylan a lot. He would play 'Buckets of Rain' over and over again. That's when it started."
Fanning's character Sylvie Russo is based on Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend in the early '60s. She died in 2011.
Rotolo was cemented in music history when she posed arm-in-arm with Dylan for the cover of his sophomore album, 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." She also influenced Dylan's left-wing politics and inspired the song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," among others.
According to Fanning, Dylan asked the filmmakers to avoid using Rotolo's real name because she was "a very private person and didn't ask for this life."
Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger, a fellow musician and early mentor for Dylan.
After Benedict Cumberbatch dropped out of the movie, Norton — renowned for movies like "Fight Club," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Birdman," and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" — was hired to portray folk pioneer Pete Seeger.
Seeger's expansive catalog includes the labor-movement anthem "The Hammer Song" and the crossover hit "Goodnight, Irene," both of which Seeger recorded with his folk quartet The Weavers in 1950. He also wrote the patriotic classic "This Land Is Your Land."
Seeger met Dylan in Greenwich Village shortly after the younger singer arrived in town. He is known as one of Dylan's earliest supporters, credited with getting Dylan on the lineup for the Newport Folk Festival. However, according to legend, Seeger was disturbed by Dylan's electric performance at the 1965 edition. Some claim he even tried to cut the sound while Dylan was onstage.
Throughout his life, Seeger was outspoken in support of civil rights, workers' rights, and anti-war efforts, among other causes. He died in 2014 at age 94.
"Narcos" star Boyd Holbrook plays the country-rock icon Johnny Cash.
Holbrook is being hailed as a scene-stealer for his performance as Johnny Cash in "A Complete Unknown."
Cash and Dylan officially met at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, but they had already been exchanging letters as fans of each other's work.
"I had a portable record player that I'd take along on the road, and I'd put on 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off," Cash wrote in his autobiography, per Far Out magazine.
"After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was," Cash continued. "He wrote back almost immediately, saying he'd been following my music since 'I Walk the Line,' and so we began a correspondence."
Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, gave Mangold, the director, access to letters that Cash and Dylan exchanged in this era. He told Rolling Stone they became "an instrumental voice in the movie."
The two musicians maintained a close friendship until Cash died from complications of diabetes in 2003. He was 71.
Scoot McNairy plays Woody Guthrie, the legendary folk singer who influenced Dylan.
You may recognize McNairy from "Argo," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," or one of two other films released in 2024: "Speak No Evil" and "Nightbitch."
Before the year ends, McNairy will return to the silver screen as Woody Guthrie, widely known as Dylan's personal hero. Guthrie rose to fame in 1940 with his topical album "Dust Bowl Ballads," which chronicles the Great Depression's effects on American Midwesterners. He continued to sing about anti-capitalist and anti-fascist themes throughout his career.
By the time Dylan arrived in New York, Guthrie was being treated in New Jersey for Huntington's disease.
The movie dramatizes their first encounter, including an emotional performance of Dylan's "Song to Woody," with which he serenades Guthrie in the hospital. Chalamet told Rolling Stone that after filming the scene, he went home and "wept." (In reality, Dylan wrote the song after he and Guthrie had already met, per the magazine.)
Guthrie died in 1967 at age 55.
Dan Fogler plays Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager.
Dan Fogler is best known for the "Harry Potter" spinoff franchise "Fantastic Beasts," in which he played the no-maj character Jacob Kowalski.
In "A Complete Unknown," Fogler portraysAlbert Grossman, Dylan's manager from 1962 to 1970. Grossman helped Dylan become an influential figure in the era's folk revival, but his aggressive and intimidating business tactics also earned him a controversial reputation, according to TeachRock.org.
Grossman died in 1986 of a heart attack. He was 59.
Since it was launched in 1958, well over 1,000 songs have reached the coveted No. 1 spot, but far fewer have reigned long enough to reach double-digit weeks — or, even more impressively, surpass that milestone.
According to Billboard, only 4% of all No. 1 hits have topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks or more. All 45 songs that have achieved the feat are listed below, in chronological order.
1. "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone
"You Light Up My Life" was the first song in history to chart at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
2. "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John
"Physical" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
3. "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men
"End of the Road" charted at No. 1 for 13 weeks.
4. "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston
"I Will Always Love You" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
5. "I Swear" by All-4-One
"I Swear" charted at No. 1 for 11 weeks.
5. "I'll Make Love to You" by Boyz II Men
"I'll Make Love to You" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
7. "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
"One Sweet Day" charted at No. 1 for 16 weeks.
8. "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" by Los Del Rio
"Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
9. "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton
"Un-Break My Heart" charted at No. 1 for 11 weeks.
10. "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112
"I'll Be Missing You" charted at No. 1 for 11 weeks.
11. "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight" by Elton John
"Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
12. "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica
"The Boy Is Mine" charted at No. 1 for 13 weeks.
13. "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas
"Smooth" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
14. "Maria Maria" by Santana featuring The Product G&B
"Maria Maria" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
15. "Independent Women, Pt. 1" by Destiny's Child
"Independent Women, Pt. 1" charted at No. 1 for 11 weeks.
16. "Foolish" by Ashanti
"Foolish" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
17. "Dilemma" by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland
"Dilemma" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
18. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
"Lose Yourself" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
19. "Yeah!" by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
"Yeah!" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
20. "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey
"We Belong Together" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
21. "Gold Digger" by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx
"Gold Digger" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
22. "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce
"Irreplaceable" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
23. "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
"Low" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
24. "Boom Boom Pow" by The Black Eyed Peas
"Boom Boom Pow" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
25. "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas
"I Gotta Feeling" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
26. "We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris
"We Found Love" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
27. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell
"Blurred Lines" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
28. "Happy" by Pharrell Williams
"Happy" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
29. "Uptown Funk!" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
"Uptown Funk!" charted at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
30. "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
"See You Again" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
31. "Hello" by Adele
"Hello" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
32. "One Dance" by Drake featuring WizKid and Kyla
"One Dance" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
33. "Closer" by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
"Closer" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
34. "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran
"Shape of You" charted at No. 1 for 12 weeks.
35. "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber
"Despacito" charted at No. 1 for 16 weeks.
36. "God's Plan" by Drake
"God's Plan" charted at No. 1 for 11 weeks.
37. "In My Feelings" by Drake
"In My Feelings" charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks.
Drake holds the record for the most solo entries on this list, with three of the longest-running chart-toppers in history.
38. "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
Nearly three decades years after its release, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" returned to No. 1 in December 2022 for its milestone 10th week atop the chart.
The holiday classic is Carey's third song with double-digit weeks atop the Hot 100, making her the third artist and first woman ever to achieve the feat thrice.
In 2024, the song experienced another holiday surge, earning its 17th total week at No. 1 and surpassing "One Sweet Day" as Carey's longest-reigning hit on the Hot 100.
Taylor Swift famously sang, "You know I love the players, and you love the game." But when it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs, it looks like she loves them both.
The megastar is back in action for her second NFL season, supporting Kelce and the Chiefs in their first three home games against the Ravens, Bengals, and Saints.
We rounded up the best photos of Swift from each appearance so far.
Swift attended her first game at Arrowhead Stadium in September 2023.
"This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell," she told Time. "We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I'm grateful for, because we got to get to know each other."
"By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple," Swift continued. "I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date."
For her second appearance, she brought her longtime pal Blake Lively.
Swift and Lively watched the Chiefs defeat the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey — where Swift had performed three sold-out concerts just a few months prior.
The October game drew the highest viewership for a Sunday TV show since the Super Bowl, NBC Sports reported.
"I think it's fun when they show who all is at the game. I think it brings a little more to the atmosphere, brings a little bit more to what you're watching," Kelce said during an episode of his "New Heights" podcast.
"But at the same time, I think they're overdoing it a little bit," Kelce continued. "For sure, especially for my situation. I think they're just trying to have fun with it."
Swift has struck up a close friendship with Brittany Mahomes, who's married to Kelce's teammate.
Just a few days before the release of "1989 (Taylor's Version)," the rerecorded version of her fifth album, Swift watched the Chiefs take down the Los Angeles Chargers.
Swift wore a black turtleneck and a red teddy coat in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Swift spent most of November 2023 on the road for the South American leg of The Eras Tour. Kelce even flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to watch Swift perform — and received an onstage shout-out in return.
She returned to Kelce's side in early December when the Chiefs took on the Green Bay Packers. It was her first time watching Kelce's team lose.
She wore a vintage Chiefs sweatshirt for the team's next home game.
The store's owner, Chris Harrington, told Business Insider he originally thought Swift's order — which totaled $1,200 for curated vintage pieces — could be fraudulent.
Instead, she wore one of those pieces at Arrowhead Stadium in December, causing a surge of traffic to Westside Storey's website.
"We've had hundreds of orders over the last 48 hours," Harrington told BI. "Sometimes our online store lights up after a Chiefs game when we win, but this is 100 times more than that, and we lost the game. It was the Taylor effect."
She brought her dad and friends to cheer for the Chiefs in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Swift hit the road to watch the Chiefs defeat the New England Patriots on the latter's home turf. She even convinced her father, Scott Swift, to swap his traditional Philadelphia Eagles gear for a Chiefs sweatshirt.
Several friends accompanied Swift, including Alana Haim, stylist Ashley Avignone, and backup singer Melanie Nyema.
Swift spent Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium.
Even though the Chiefs lost to the Las Vegas Raiders on December 25, 2023, Kelce praised Swift and her family for making the day special.
"It's been a very interesting, very fun year having the two of them dating, the attention that's been focused on the Chiefs," Clark Hunt told CNBC. "Our female audience has grown leaps and bounds."
Kelce scored two touchdowns in Buffalo, New York, with Swift in the stands.
Swift joined Kelce's family to watch the Chiefs advance through the NFL playoffs — including his brother, Eagles center Jason Kelce, who lost his shirt in the frenzy.
She saw Kelce and his teammates become AFC champions.
Swift watched the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens in the 2024 AFC Championship Game, securing their spot in Super Bowl LVIII. She even joined Kelce on the field to celebrate the win.
Swift flew from Tokyo to watch the Chiefs play in Super Bowl LVIII.
Sure enough, she made the trip in time to watch the Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, with friends like Lively, Lana Del Rey, and Ice Spice in tow.
The superstar geared up for her second NFL season in September 2024.
Swift was back in Kansas City on the evening of September 5, 2024, as the Chiefs took the field for their first game of the season against the Baltimore Ravens.
She donned an all-denim getup and thigh-high red boots.
Swift wore a vintage Chiefs T-shirt for Kelce's second home game of the season.
Just a few days after attending the MTV Video Music Awards in New York (and giving her boyfriend a shout-out onstage), Swift was back in Kansas City to watch the Chiefs defeat the Cincinnati Bengals.
She also watched the Chiefs beat the Saints at Arrowhead Stadium.
After skipping two of Kelce's games in Atlanta and Los Angeles, Swift returned to Kansas City in style — wearing over $50,000 worth of jewelry and designer clothing — to cheer for the Chiefs against the New Orleans Saints.
The home team won 26-13, their fifth consecutive win of the season.
Swift cheered when the Chiefs beat the Buccaneers with a touchdown drive in overtime.
One day after Swift wrapped the final US leg of the Eras Tour in Indianapolis, she was back in Kansas City to watch the Chiefs take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Despite a touchdown from the Buccaneers in the final minute of regulation play, the Chiefs rallied in overtime to score a winning touchdown.
The singer was on duty again to watch the Chiefs defeat the Denver Broncos.
Swift arrived at Arrowhead Stadium with Kelce's mom, Donna. The pair cheered as the Chiefs clinched a narrow defeat against the Los Vegas Raiders.
A few weeks later, she watched the Chiefs win again at Arrowhead Stadium.
Swift wore her boldest gameday outfit yet for the Chiefs vs. the Houston Texans, pairing a statement red coat with a faux fur lining from Charlotte Simone with a vintage Chanel bucket hat.
Kelce and the Chiefs beat the Texans 19-27, adding another win to their dominant season. (To date, the Chiefs have only lost three times with Swift in the stands.)
Blake Lively's past controversies resurfaced during a recent public backlash.
The actor has been in the spotlight following the release of her movie "It Ends With Us."
Lively has accused her costar and director, Justin Baldoni, of sexual harassment and damaging her reputation.
Blake Lively is no stranger to scandal.
The 37-year-old actor has attracted feud rumors since the start of her career, when she landed her breakout role in 2005's "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."
Public discourse about Lively's conduct reached a fever pitch during the promotional cycle for her latest box office hit, "It Ends With Us." Now, Lively has filed a lawsuit accusing her costar and director, Justin Baldoni, of sexual harassment and manufacturing outrage on social media to damage her reputation.
Here's a look at some of Lively's biggest controversies over the years.
Lively and her "Gossip Girl" costar Leighton Meester reportedly "avoided each other like the plague" while filming.
While their "Gossip Girl" characters swung wildly from the ultimate BFF duo to toxic frenemies almost every other episode, off-screen, Lively and Meester were said to have had a frosty relationship.
The CW teen drama ran for six seasons between 2007 and 2012. Lively played the effortlessly cool, free-spirited Serena Van der Woodson, the foil to Meester's controlling queen bee Blair Waldorf.
New York Magazine reported in 2008 that the two stars were said to "avoid each other like the plague" while on set shooting the show's early seasons, with tensions running so high that their castmates were forced to "choose sides."
"Blake and Leighton have never been best friends, and never professed to be. Blake goes to work, does her job, and goes home," a publicist for Lively said at the time, per Harper's Bazaar.
However, speaking to Vanity Fair for a retrospective on the series published in 2017, showrunner Joshua Safran said the pair got on fine on set.
"Blake and Leighton were not friends. They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair," he said. "Yet the second they'd be on set together, it's as if they were."
In the same article, recurring cast member Michelle Trachtenberg denied rumors of a full-blown feud between the two.
"It's funny," she said. "Because when we were filming, there was, 'Leighton hates Blake, Blake hates Leighton, everyone hates Blake, everyone hates Leighton, everyone hates Chace,' and blah, blah, blah. It really wasn't. We were all chill. It was cool."
Incidentally, as of 2024, Lively and Meester do not follow each other on Instagram. Meester does, however, follow two of her other costars, Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley.
Rumors swirled that Lively was somehow involved in Armie Hammer's exit from "Gossip Girl."
Hammer had a four-episode arc on the series during its second season. He played Gabriel Edwards, a conman who briefly dated Lively's character.
In response to the question, Hammer diplomatically said: "Let me just say that was a tough show to film, and I didn't end up actually filming all of the episodes I was supposed to because it was such a tough film."
"Really? Literally, you said, 'Get me out of this'?" Cohen asked.
"It was also like, 'Get him out of here,'" the actor said.
Cohen followed that up by asking whose love interest he played in the series, prompting Hammer to drop Lively's name.
Chelsea Handler, who also appeared on the talk show, joked, "Sounds like she was the problem."
Cohen added: "It sure does, Chelsea. That's exactly what I was thinking."
"No, no, that's not what I'm saying," Hammer replied, laughing awkwardly.
In 2012, Lively and Ryan Reynolds married at a slave plantation in South Carolina. Reynolds said the couple didn't know about the venue's history until after their ceremony.
Reynolds apologized for the decision in a 2020 interview with Fast Company after the couple was called out for the hypocrisy of a joint statement — accompanied by a $200,000 donation to the NAACP Legal Defense — they shared on Lively's Instagram following the murder of George Floyd by police.
Reynolds said they chose Boone Hall based on Pinterest photos and only realized it was a "place built upon devastating tragedy" after the event.
Reynolds added that after learning of Boone Hall's history, the actors had another wedding at home years later.
Lively has not addressed the backlash over her wedding venue.
Lively's now-defunct lifestyle website ran a fashion editorial that romanticized the Antebellum South in 2014.
Two years after her wedding at Boone Hall, Lively launched a lifestyle website called Preserve.
Titled "Allure of Antebellum," the photo shoot featured a white, blonde-haired model in a floppy hat, high-heeled pumps, and a leopard-print mini-skirt.
In the accompanying article, the unnamed author wrote about the "innate sense of social poise" and "unparalleled warmth and authenticity" of the pre-Civil War era women.
"The term Southern Belle came to fruition during the Antebellum period (before the Civil War), acknowledging women with an inherent social distinction who set the standards for style and appearance," the Preserve article read.
"These women epitomized Southern hospitality with a cultivation of beauty and grace, but even more with a captivating and magnetic sensibility."
The publication of the editorial immediately attracted criticism, with Refinery29 arguing: "The authors use the word antebellum in a misty-eyed, nostalgia-tinged way that completely ignores the brutality endured by Southern women not lucky enough to be born into privilege."
A year later, in October 2015, Lively shuttered the site, explaining to Vogue in an interview that it was because she and her team had "launched the site before it was ready."
Lively is rumored to have had a falling out with her "A Simple Favor" costar, Anna Kendrick, although their costar denied any friction.
Lively and Anna Kendrick starred alongside each other in the 2018 movie "A Simple Favor."
According to reports, the two had a falling out on the set of the film.
Claire Parker, cohost of the popular podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club, previously said in a TikTok video that by the end of the movie, Lively and Kendrick "were not speaking," citing an unnamed studio source.
While neither Lively nor Kendrick has addressed the rumors, their costar Henry Golding has denied the claims of a feud, saying he thought the two stars got on "reasonably well."
Despite this, fans have continued to speculate about sensing tension between the two stars — who are set to reunite for a sequel next year— in jointinterviews.
After a clip from a resurfaced 2016 interview went viral, Lively was criticized for being rude to a journalist.
ReporterKjersti Flaa interviewed Lively and her costar, Parker Posey, about the film "Café Society" in 2016.
In the video, Lively offered a snarky response to Flaa after she congratulated the actor on her pregnancy.
"First of all, congrats on your little bump," Flaa said, kicking off the interview.
"Congrats on your little bump," Lively responded, although Flaa was not pregnant.
Later in the interview, Lively challenged Flaa for asking a question about clothes. The actor also seemed to ignore Flaa in parts of the interview and angled her body toward Posey.
"It actually took me a while to get over the experience," Flaa previously told Business Insider, adding, "I have met moody celebrities, but nothing like this interview."
Flaa told MailOnline that Lively's comment was particularly hurtful because she wasn't able to conceive.
"It's true that the comment hurt me because I was never able to have kids myself, but of course Blake did not know that so I can't blame her for the pain that I felt," she later told BI.
Lively sparked outrage among sexual assault survivors for defending Woody Allen.
Lively's 2016 film "Café Society" was directed by Woody Allen.
Two years before "Café Society" premiered, The New York Times published an open letter by Dylan Farrow, Allen's adopted daughter, reiterating the accusation that he groomed and sexually assaulted her as a child.
In the 2014 essay, Farrow called out Hollywood stars like Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone, and Scarlett Johansson for working with Allen in recent years and ignoring the allegation against him.
"Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse," she wrote.
During the press tour for "Café Society," French comedian Laurent Lafitte cracked a joke about Allen dodging accountability during the opening ceremony for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Later at the festival, Lively made it clear she disapproved of Lafitte's material.
"I think any jokes about rape, homophobia, or Hitler is not a joke," Lively told Variety. "It was more disappointing for the artists in the room that someone was going up there making jokes about something that wasn't funny."
At the same event, Lively also said she hadn't read Ronan Farrow's new op-ed in the Hollywood Reporter, in which the investigative reporter defended his sister and criticized powerful people for "sweeping aside her allegations."
"I don't want to speak on something I haven't read," Lively told Vulture. "I think that's dangerous. It's definitely something that being at the festival, the media these days, you come to a film festival about film and people talk about all different types of things. You know? That can be definitely tricky to navigate."
"It's amazing what Woody has written for women," she told the Los Angeles Times, adding that she did not consider Allen's personal life while shooting the film.
"It's very dangerous to factor in things you don't know anything about," Lively said. "I could [only] know my experience. And my experience with Woody is he's empowering to women."
In 2018, Lively posted in support of Hollywood's anti-sexual harassment initiative Time's Up, writing, "I'm honored to be a part of this movement. The time is NOW!"
Farrow replied, "You worked with my abuser, @blakelively. Am I a woman who matters too?"
She shared an edited photo on Instagram to promote her beverage line. The photo showed Lively sitting in a chair by a warped pool with a comically enlarged thumb and a lemon floating above her head.
According to People, she captioned the photo: "I'm so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products! Now you know why I've been MIA."
Lively later deleted her post and shared a note on her Instagram Story apologizing to the British royal and her own followers.
"I'm sure no one cares today, but I feel like I have to acknowledge this. I made a silly post around the 'photoshop fails' frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I'm sorry. Sending love and well wishes to all, always," she wrote.
Lively faced backlash for the way she promoted "It Ends With Us," a film about a woman experiencing domestic violence.
"It Ends With Us," a film in which Lively plays Lily Bloom, a woman experiencing domestic abuse, opened in theaters on August 9, 2024.
In a promo video shared on the film's official Instagram account, Lively encouraged people to watch the film by saying: "Grab your girls, wear your florals!"
Lively also leaned into method dressing, opting for florals in almost every outfit she wore during the press tour, which some fans criticized as tone-deaf.
In a TikTok video that's been viewed more than 4 million times, a woman who identified herself as a domestic violence survivor accused Lively of promoting the movie like it's "the sequel to Barbie."
Elsewhere, the actor could be seen using interviews and events for the film to cross-promote her brands, including her hair care line, Blake Brown.
A promotional email for Lively's beverage line, Betty Buzz, also shared a recipe for making a cocktail using her husband's gin brand, The New York Times reported.
As fans noted, Lively's approach contrasted starkly with that of her costar and director, Justin Baldoni, who was praised for highlighting the movie's weighty themes during his interviews.
It didn't help that the two were also pitted against each other following rumors of a feud between them.
The charity Women's Aid also criticized the marketing around the movie, sharing a statement with the BBC that read: "Despite domestic abuse being a key theme of the film, much of the marketing has ignored this and viewers have not been warned about the potentially distressing content."
Lively has since accused Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and orchestrating a smear campaign to "bury her."
According to the filing, obtained by Business Insider, Lively's strategy for promoting "It Ends With Us" — which drew backlash for making light of the film's themes — was "in accordance with the marketing plan created and delivered by the film's distributor Sony."
The marketing plan directed the cast to avoid discussing sad or heavy themes, in order to frame the film as "a story of hope."
At the same time, Lively alleged that Baldoni "abruptly pivoted" his talking points in an attempt to explain why he'd been unfollowed by much of the film's cast and crew on social media — apparently prompted by Baldoni's inappropriate behavior on set.
"To that end, he and his team used domestic violence 'survivor content' to protect his public image," the legal filing reads.
As Business Insider previously reported, Baldoni hired a public-relations crisis team, including veteran PR manager Melissa Nathan, as rumors swirled that he was on the outs with Lively and other castmates. According to Lively's lawsuit, Nathan's team helped Baldoni orchestrate an online smear campaign against Lively, partially to distract fans from speculating about his conduct on set.
"He wants to feel like she can be buried," a publicist working with Mr. Baldoni wrote in a message to Nathan, per the legal complaint.
"You know we can bury anyone," Nathan replied.
A rep for Baldoni called the allegations "shameful" and "categorically false" in a statement to Business Insider.
A rep for Lively told The New York Times, "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."
Every year, celebrities try to capitalize on the holiday season by releasing festive music.
Singers like Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, and Michael Bublé managed to perfect the cheesy art form.
Others, like Taylor Swift, CeeLo Green, and Sia, released forgettable or cringeworthy Christmas albums.
The Christmas album is one of music's most storied and cheesy traditions.
While some celebrities have perfected the seasonal art form — either by reviving old classics or putting their own spin on the festive genre — others would've been better off leaving it alone.
Our six favorite and six least favorite examples are cataloged below, with each batch listed in chronological order.
Mariah Carey's "Merry Christmas" is the only modern Christmas album that can be considered a classic.
Mariah Carey's timeless Christmas album features many covers of classics and three original songs. The star, of course, is "All I Want for Christmas is You," which is so timeless that it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 a full 25 years after its release, and has continued to top the chart every holiday season since.
"There are the classics — the standards that everybody grew up with — and then there are the reinterpretations or new originals," Dave Bakula, a senior analyst for Nielsen Music, told The New York Times. "Mariah lives in that sweet spot of both."
Ariana Grande described "Christmas and Chill" as her "favorite body of work."
Ariana Grande's surprise-released Christmas EP experienced a surge in popularity after she added some of the project's six original songs to her 2019 Sweetener World Tour setlist. That year, it even surpassed "Thank U, Next" as Grande's most-streamed album.
"my favorite body of work," she wrote on Twitter. "she is rising from the dead ! thank u new listeners of christmas n chill and hello everyone that is just now discovering it. i'm so happy."
"The first thing you need to know about 'Christmas and Chill' is that, unlike most celebrity Christmas albums, it contains zero covers. Nay, this is an entirely original work; Grande does not perform a playful riff on 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' because she is too busy staying inside, having tons of unhinged sex to a trap beat," Handler wrote.
Michael Bublé's "Christmas" is his most-loved album.
Michael Bublé's essential Christmas album is entirely comprised of classic covers, from "Jingle Bells" to "Santa Baby" — but "Christmas" actually benefits from Bublé's lack of originality. His rich, Rat Pack-worthy voice is perfectly suited to retain the chestnut-roasting, spirit-brightening, holly-jolly magic of the holiday season.
Justin Bieber's "Under the Mistletoe" is a surprisingly fun listen.
These days, Justin Bieber's brand may not scream "holiday cheer," but his 2011 album "Under the Mistletoe" molds the genre to suit his sound.
Anyone who convinced Busta Rhymes to hop on a delightfully unhinged cover of "Drummer Boy" (Bieber's trap-tinged version features the lyric "Playing for the king, playing for the title / I'm surprised you didn't hear this in the Bible") deserves a spot on this list.
"A Legendary Christmas" is endearingly cheesy, thanks to John Legend's charm.
John Legend's aptly titled "A Legendary Christmas" includes eight covers (including his much-debated woke version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Kelly Clarkson) and six jazzy original tracks, which are equal parts endearing and cheesy. (When it comes to holiday music, cheese is the whole point.)
Legend is ideally suited for this kind of project, which would've fallen flat without the sincerity that defines his voice and brand. "A Legendary Christmas" was even nominated for best traditional pop vocal album at the 2020 Grammy Awards, alongside other legends like Elvis Costello and Barbra Streisand.
Sabrina Carpenter's "Fruitcake" is a fresh and charming take on holiday themes.
Save for the closing track, "White Xmas," Sabrina Carpenter's "Fruitcake" is full of original bops, each equally as catchy as the last.
Much like Grande's EP, "Fruitcake" blends contemporary pop production, wintry innuendos, and Carpenter's signature wit to great effect: "A Nonsense Christmas" is a festive twist on her viral hit, "Buy Me Presents" is a cheeky ode to Santa as the ideal romantic suitor, while "Cindy Lou Who" stands out as the sole genuine tear-jerker.
David Hasselhoff's "The Night Before Christmas" has been widely panned.
Davis Hasselhoff's Christmas album would be endearing if it had leaned into the weirdness (like, why does this exist?). Instead, it's just plain bad. As CBC Music put it so elegantly, the "Baywatch" star's attempt to recreate holiday classics was just "incredibly unnecessary."
Unfortunately, Taylor Swift's "Holiday Collection" is peak cringe.
Taylor Swift was still a teenage country darling when she released "The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection" and botched seasonal favorites like "Last Christmas" and "Silent Night." As Courteney Larocca previously wrote for BI, her "Santa Baby" cover is the EP's worst offender: "It's difficult to listen to her croon about how she's been an 'awful good girl' while trying to flirt her way into a light blue convertible without gagging."
Even though "The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection" features two original songs from this generation's preeminent lyricist ("Christmases When You Were Mine" and "Christmas Must Be Something More"), neither is executed well enough to rescue the experience.
Seth MacFarlane takes himself way too seriously on "Holiday for Swing."
Seth MacFarlane has a surprisingly robust singing voice, but it's hard to separate his brand from "Holiday for Swing" — especially if you associate his vocals with Brian, the talking dog from "Family Guy." The album barely reimagines any of its holiday classics and takes itself way too seriously for MacFarlane's boyish comedy instincts.
"CeeLo's Magic Moment" is underwhelming and unnecessary.
"CeeLo's Magic Moment" was an obvious extension of CeeLo Green's rebrand as the family-friendly coach on NBC's "The Voice," a much duller version of the iconic Gnarls Barkley singer who once gave us transcendent jazz-pop-funk fusion hits like "Crazy."
As a result, "CeeLo's Magic Moment" comes across as forced and contrived.
Sia's "Everyday is Christmas" is underwritten and forgettable.
Do you remember (or even know) that Sia released a Christmas album within the last decade?
The powerhouse singer tried to infuse a bit of tropical funk into the holiday season with "Everyday is Christmas," but it just doesn't work the way she clearly intended. As Katherine St. Asaph wrote for Pitchfork, the album "feels inconsistent and underwritten, like opening a gift where someone's forgotten to remove the tags."
Gwen Stefani's "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" is the antithesis of cool.
Making holiday music is always a bit of a risk; it usually reeks of a cash grab, rather than a serious artistic pursuit. That can be a death knell for pop stars who already have to fight against that anti-artistic stereotype.
Such is the case for Gwen Stefani, who used to make albums like "Return of Saturn" and "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." but now makes flavorless country-pop about being married.
For many fans, Stefani's fourth solo album, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas," punctuated her unfortunate fall from the cool-girl pedestal. The album bears no hint of personality or idiosyncratic spin — just Stefani delivering the billionth faithful rendition of "Jingle Bells" and dueting with her husband, Blake Shelton, on the cookie-cutter title track.
Modern Christmas songs are gaining popularity alongside classic holiday tracks.
Artists may be motivated by the seasonal streaming boost for holiday music.
Our 15 favorites include hits by Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Sabrina Carpenter.
Come December, everyone is bound to hear the seasonal staples, from Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" and, of course, reigning queen of year-end festivities Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
But if you're looking to enjoy newer additions to the holiday music canon, look no further.
Many singers are eager to dabble in sleigh bells, stocking-stuffer puns, and Yuletide cheer — and surely the annual streaming boost for holiday favorites is a compelling factor.
Our 15 favorite modern Christmas songs are listed below, in chronological order of release.
"8 Days of Christmas" by Destiny's Child
"8 Days of Christmas" was released as the lead single from Destiny's Child's 2001 holiday album of the same name. The R&B hit was cowritten by Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Errol McCalla Jr. and interpolates the traditional carol "The 12 Days of Christmas."
"Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber
"Mistletoe" was released as the lead single from Justin Bieber's 2011 Christmas album, "Under the Mistletoe" — a time when many young Beliebers dreamed of kissing him beneath the seasonal sprig. The song was certified 3x platinum by the RIAA in 2021, nearly a decade after its release.
"Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande has described her 2015 EP "Christmas & Chill" as her "favorite body of work," but she originally dipped her toe into holiday tunes with 2013's little-known collection "Christmas Kisses."
"Santa Tell Me" was included with the special edition of "Christmas Kisses," released exclusively in Japan in 2014 before the song was released worldwide.
"Santa Tell Me" later received radio promotion and a music video, which has accumulated over 300 million views to date. Earlier this year, it rose to a new peak of No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Glittery" by Kacey Musgraves featuring Troye Sivan
Kacey Musgraves and Troye Sivan performed "Glittery" as a duet during her 2019 variety special, "The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show," which aired on Amazon Prime.
Musgraves cowrote the gentle ballad with Daniel Tashian, who also cowrote the majority of tracks on her Grammy-winning album "Golden Hour."
"We wrote 'Glittery' really quickly. It had this easy groove to it, and I thought conga drums would be perfect on it and kind of give it a Marvin Gaye type treatment," Musgraves told i-D magazine. "It's a sweet little song. And then Troye Sivan joined me during the special for it. I think the imagery in that scene might be my favorite. I just want to eat it."
"Two Queens in a King Sized Bed" by girl in red
Girl in red, aka Marie Ulven, is renowned for writing intimate indie-pop songs about sapphic love. As the title suggests, her 2020 holiday single "Two Queens in a King Sized Bed" fits nicely within that tradition.
"It's about the beauty of Christmas and being young and not having too much stuff and just wanting to be together and cuddle and never leave bed," Ulven told The Line of Best Fit.
On the song's subtly festive production, she explained, "I feel like that's the new Christmas vibe, it's the Gen Z Christmas vibe."
"Another Year" by FINNEAS
FINNEAS — better known as Billie Eilish's producer and brother, Finneas O'Connell — released "Another Year" as a single in 2020, in the thick of COVID-19 isolation.
Written and produced by O'Connell alone, the song serves as a reminder that quality time with loved ones is precious, yet never promised.
"Here we are tonight, drunk by the firelight / The future could be bright though no one's sure about it," he sings in the second verse. "And if the ending's sad, at least these times we've had / The good outweighs the bad, you wouldn't know without it."
"I wrote this song this time last year but if I had known what would happen in the following 12 months, I wouldn't have changed a line," O'Connell explained on Instagram. "Hope it gives you a little comfort."
"'Tis the Damn Season" by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift's "'Tis the Damn Season," while not strictly a holiday carol like her 2019 single "Christmas Tree Farm," should still be considered one of the great December anthems.
Released as the fourth track on "Evermore," the second of Swift's 2020 sister albums, "'Tis the Damn Season" captures the specific yet universal experience of returning to your hometown for the holidays and getting swept up in the nostalgia.
"Home to You (This Christmas)" by Sigrid
"Home to You (This Christmas)" is a festive spin on Sigrid's own single "Home to You," an ode to connection and belonging that was recorded for the Amazon movie "The Aeronauts."
"'Home To You' has always had a Christmas spirit since we wrote it," the Norwegian singer said in a press release. "It's about my hometown and the house I grew up in with my family. I always go back for Christmas, so it felt natural to make a Christmas version. I hope it'll give some cozy vibes when it's getting darker outside."
"So Much Wine" by Phoebe Bridgers
From 2017 through 2022, Phoebe Bridgers would release annual Christmas covers and donate the proceeds to charity.
The 2022 installment in the series, Bridgers' take on the Handsome Family's "So Much Wine," is the perfect wintery blend of peaceful and melancholic.
Bridgers assembled a star team to reimagine "So Much Wine," including her go-to producers, Tony Burg and Ethan Gruska. The song even features backing vocals from Bridgers' then-fiancé, Paul Mescal.
"Snow in LA" by PJ Harding and Noah Cyrus
"Snow in LA" is a more somber take on the holiday music tradition. The duet between PJ Harding and Noah Cyrus, who also share writing credits, is a "dark Christmas song for what feels like a pretty dark time," the duo said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
"It's reminiscent of traditional Christmas carols (with all their reverence and hope) but contrasted by images of catastrophic climate change and looming fascism that represent so many of our fears for the future," they said.
"Last Christmas" by Remi Wolf
Remi Wolf took on a bonafide pop classic by Wham! with her signature zeal. Her cover of "Last Christmas" was released in 2022 as one in a set, paired with the '30s ballad "Winter Wonderland."
"Silver Second" by quinnie
Quinnie, aka Quinn Barnitt, became a breakout indie-pop star in 2022 when her song "Touch Tank" went viral on TikTok. Later that year, she released "Silver Second" as a tender tribute to her family members, depicting them as huddled together in the winter months.
"In part, I wrote it knowing that my grandmother wasn't doing so well, and hoped to express the importance of being uber present, especially during the holiday season," quinnie wrote on Instagram.
"A Nonsense Christmas" by Sabrina Carpenter
"A Nonsense Christmas" was originally released in 2022, capitalizing on the viral popularity of Sabrina Carpenter's ad-libbed "Nonsense" outros during her Emails I Can't Send Tour.
Carpenter's self-described "Christ-smash" later became the core of her Netflix holiday special, as well as the highlight of her 2023 EP "Fruitcake" — but don't neglect the rest of the tracklist, which is stuffed with festive pop gems like "Santa Doesn't Know You Like I Do," "Buy Me Presents," and "Is it New Years Yet?"
"DJ Play a Christmas Song" by Cher
"DJ Play a Christmas Song" was released as the lead single from Cher's 2023 album "Christmas." It became her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in over two decades, since "Song For The Lonely" in 2002.
This year, she released three new duet versions with Kelly Clarkson, Giovanni Zarrella, and Belinda.
"Better Than Snow" by Norah Jones and Laufey
"Better Than Snow" was released in 2023 in a two-song pack called "Christmas With You," paired with a cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
The duet between Norah Jones and Laufey, who share writing and production credits, juxtaposes the season's cold weather with the warmth of romance and intimacy.
"It's more a national holiday than a religious one," Laufey told The Boston Globe of her upbringing in Iceland. "It's the one time of year we can romanticize the terrible snowy weather."
Keep reading for the RIAA's complete list of diamond-certified songs, in chronological order of certification date.
1. "Something About The Way You Look Tonight / Candle in the Wind" by Elton John
"Something About the Way You Look Tonight / Candle in the Wind" became the first-ever song to be certified diamond on October 9, 1997.
In fact, the RIAA recognized the song's multi-platinum success two years before the diamond award was officially established. It remains the only physical single in history to be certified diamond and the highest-certified song released in the '90s.
2. "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
"Baby" was certified diamond on May 9, 2013.
3. "Not Afraid" by Eminem
"Not Afraid" was certified diamond on June 10, 2014.
4. "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga
"Bad Romance" was certified diamond on May 29, 2015.
5. "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons
"Radioactive" was certified diamond on July 6, 2015.
6. "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
"Thrift Shop" was certified diamond on November 19, 2015.
7. "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
"Poker Face" was certified diamond on November 30, 2015.
8. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen
"Call Me Maybe" was certified diamond on September 28, 2016.
9. "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
"Uptown Funk" was certified diamond on October 18, 2016.
10. "Roar" by Katy Perry
"Roar" was certified diamond on June 22, 2017.
11. "Royals" by Lorde
"Royals" was certified diamond on December 8, 2017.
12. "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor
"All About That Bass" was certified diamond on January 23, 2018.
13. "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber
"Despacito" was certified diamond on January 27, 2018.
14. "Firework" by Katy Perry
"Firework" was certified diamond on February 13, 2018.
15. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
"Lose Yourself" was certified diamond on February 28, 2018.
16. "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem featuring Rihanna
"Love the Way You Lie" was certified diamond on February 28, 2018.
17. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring Pharrell and T.I.
"Blurred Lines" was certified diamond on June 6, 2018.
18. "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas
"I Gotta Feeling" was certified diamond on June 6, 2018.
19. "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock
"Party Rock Anthem" was certified diamond on June 6, 2018.
20. "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic
"Counting Stars" was certified diamond on August 20, 2018.
21. "Closer" by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
"Closer" was certified diamond on September 17, 2018.
22. "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line
"Cruise" was certified diamond on October 10, 2018.
23. "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
"Dark Horse" was certified diamond on December 12, 2018.
24. "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars
"Just the Way You Are" was certified diamond on January 11, 2019.
25. "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran
"Shape of You" was certified diamond on January 24, 2019.
26. "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran
"Thinking Out Loud" was certified diamond on February 8, 2019.
27. "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe
"We Are Young" was certified diamond on June 13, 2019.
28. "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
"I'm Yours" was certified diamond on June 24, 2019.
29. "The Hills" by The Weeknd
"The Hills" was certified diamond on June 28, 2019.
30. "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
"See You Again" was certified diamond on September 24, 2019.
31. "God's Plan" by Drake
"God's Plan" was certified diamond on September 25, 2019.
32. "Congratulations" by Post Malone featuring Quavo
"Congratulations" was certified diamond on October 8, 2019.
33. "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
"Trap Queen" was certified diamond on November 8, 2019.
35. "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran
"Perfect" was certified diamond on December 20, 2019.
36. "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift
"Shake It Off" was certified diamond on March 13, 2020, making Swift the first female artist in US history to have both a diamond-certified single and album (2008's "Fearless").
37. "Happy" by Pharrell
"Happy" was certified diamond on May 6, 2020.
38. "Meant to Be" by Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line
"Meant to Be" was certified diamond on August 17, 2020.
39. "Grenade" by Bruno Mars
"Grenade" was certified diamond on October 2, 2020.
40. "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People
"Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People was certified diamond on October 13, 2020.
41. "All of Me" by John Legend
"All of Me" was certified diamond on October 13, 2020.
42. "Baby Shark" by Pinkfong
"Baby Shark" was certified diamond on November 5, 2020.
43. "Rockstar" by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage
"Rockstar" was certified diamond on November 9, 2020.
44. "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" by Post Malone and Swae Lee
"Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" was certified diamond on November 9, 2020.
45. "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith
"Stay With Me" was certified diamond on November 12, 2020.
46. "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus
"Party in the U.S.A." was certified diamond on December 7, 2020.
47. "Sicko Mode" by Travis Scott featuring Drake
"Sicko Mode" was certified diamond on December 9, 2020.
48. "Bodak Yellow" by Cardi B
"Bodak Yellow" was certified diamond on March 8, 2021, making Cardi B the first female rapper in history to have a diamond-certified single.
49. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was certified diamond on March 25, 2021.
50. "Sorry" by Justin Bieber
"Sorry" was certified diamond on March 29, 2021.
51. "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train
"Hey, Soul Sister" was certified diamond on April 7, 2021.
52. "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
"Low" was certified diamond on April 22, 2021.
53. "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots
"Stressed Out" was certified diamond on April 30, 2021.
54. "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra
"Somebody That I Used to Know" was certified diamond on May 6, 2021.
55. "That's What I Like" by Bruno Mars
"That's What I Like" was certified diamond on May 21, 2021.
"Without Me" was certified diamond on February 1, 2023.
101. "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur
"Say You Won't Let Go" was certified diamond on February 15, 2023.
102. "Earned It" by The Weeknd
"Earned It" was certified diamond on February 16, 2023.
Although it was released as the lead single from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film soundtrack, "Earned It" was also included on The Weeknd's sophomore studio album "Beauty Behind the Madness" — the first album in history to have three diamond-certified songs on its tracklist.
103. "Take Me to Church" by Hozier
"Take Me to Church" was certified diamond on March 15, 2023.
104. "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga
"Just Dance" was certified diamond on April 12, 2023.
105. "Need You Now" by Lady A
"Need You Now" was certified diamond on April 17, 2023.
106. "Sweater Weather" by The Neighbourhood
"Sweater Weather" was certified diamond on April 19, 2023.
107. "Better Now" by Post Malone
"Better Now" was certified diamond on April 20, 2023.
108. "I Fall Apart" by Post Malone
"I Fall Apart" was certified diamond on April 20, 2023.
109. "Circles" by Post Malone
"Circles" was certified diamond on April 20, 2023.
110. "We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris
"We Found Love" was certified diamond on April 27, 2023.
111. "Beautiful Crazy" by Luke Combs
"Beautiful Crazy" was certified diamond on June 12, 2023.
112. "Ni**as in Paris" by Jay-Z and Kanye West
"Ni**as in Paris" was certified diamond on June 12, 2023.
113. "Wake Me Up" by Avicii
"Wake Me Up" was certified diamond on June 16, 2023.
114. "Fuck Love" by XXXTentacion featuring Trippie Redd
"Fuck Love" was certified diamond on June 18, 2023.
115. "California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
"California Gurls" was certified diamond on June 21, 2023.
116. "Stay" by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber
"Stay" was certified diamond on June 23, 2023.
The hit collaboration marks Bieber's fourth diamond single, tying Perry for fifth place among all artists.
117. "No Hands" by Waka Flocka Flame featuring Wale and Roscoe Dash
"No Hands" was certified diamond on July 20, 2023.
118. "Riptide" by Vance Joy
"Riptide" was certified diamond on July 27, 2023.
119. "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish
"Bad Guy" was certified diamond on July 31, 2023.
120. "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt
"Body Like a Back Road" was certified diamond on August 1, 2023.
121. "In da Club" by 50 Cent
"In da Club" was certified diamond on November 1, 2023.
122. "Levitating" by Dua Lipa
"Levitating" was certified diamond on November 6, 2023.
123. "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi
"Someone You Loved" was certified diamond on November 8, 2023.
124. "Young Dumb & Broke" by Khalid
"Young Dumb & Broke" was certified diamond on December 6, 2023.
125. "Heaven" by Kane Brown
"Heaven" was certified diamond on December 7, 2023.
126. "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers
"Mr. Brightside" was certified diamond on January 12, 2024.
127. "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey
"Don't Stop Believin'" was certified diamond on January 26, 2024.
128. "Yeah!" by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
"Yeah!" was certified diamond on February 9, 2024.
129. "In The End" by Linkin Park
"In The End" was certified diamond on February 27, 2024.
130. "In Case You Didn't Know" by Brett Young
"In Case You Didn't Know" was certified diamond on March 19, 2024.
131. "Diamonds" by Rihanna
"Diamonds" was certified diamond on April 22, 2024.
132. "Wow." by Post Malone
"Wow." was certified diamond on April 23, 2024, becoming Post Malone's ninth diamond single.
"Let It Go" was certified diamond on May 13, 2024.
134. "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj
"Bang Bang" was certified diamond on May 23, 2024.
135. "Needed Me" by Rihanna
"Needed Me" was certified diamond on May 31, 2024.
136. "Work" by Rihanna
"Work" was certified diamond on May 31, 2024. The song was originally released with a Drake feature, but he is not credited for the certification on the RIAA's website.
137. "Umbrella" by Rihanna
"Umbrella" was certified diamond on May 31, 2024.
138. "Stay" by Rihanna
"Stay" was certified diamond on May 31, 2024, becoming Rihanna's seventh diamond single.
She holds the record among female artists, second only to Post Malone for the all-time record — despite her last album being released over eight years ago.
Rihanna reacted to the historic news on X, writing, "ain't no back n forth."
139. "Give Me Everything" by Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack, and Nayer
"Give Me Everything" was certified diamond on June 6, 2024.
140. "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals
"Heat Waves" was certified diamond on June 6, 2024.
141. "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd
"Save Your Tears" was certified diamond on June 20, 2024.
142. "Die For You" by The Weeknd
"Die For You" was certified diamond on June 20, 2024, becoming The Weeknd's seventh diamond single.
He is now tied with Rihanna for the second-most in history — trailing only Post Malone, who holds the record with nine.
143. "Drowning" by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie featuring Kodak Black
"Drowning" was certified diamond on June 25, 2024.
144. "E.T." by Katy Perry
"E.T." was certified diamond on July 1, 2024.
145. "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry
"Teenage Dream" was certified diamond on July 1, 2024, becoming Katy Perry's sixth diamond single.
She is now tied with Bruno Mars for the third-most in history.
"Teenage Dream" was released as a single from Perry's 2010 album of the same name, along with "Firework," "California Gurls," and "E.T" — the first and only album to have four diamond-certified songs on its tracklist.
146. "Chandelier" by Sia
"Chandelier" was certified diamond on July 3, 2024.
147. "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC
"Thunderstruck" was certified diamond on July 8, 2024.
148. "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
"Livin' on a Prayer" was certified diamond on July 23, 2024.
149. "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
"Empire State of Mind" was certified diamond on July 24, 2024.
150. "Middle Child" by J. Cole
"Middle Child" was certified diamond on July 24, 2024.
151. "When It Rains It Pours" by Luke Combs
"When It Rains It Pours" was certified diamond on August 14, 2024.
152. "Hurricane" by Luke Combs
"Hurricane" was certified diamond on August 14, 2024.
153. "No One" by Alicia Keys
"No One" was certified diamond on August 16, 2024.
154. "Happier" by Marshmello featuring Bastille
"Happier" was certified diamond on August 19, 2024.
155. "Goosebumps" by Travis Scott
"Goosebumps" was certified diamond on August 28, 2024.
156. "No Guidance" by Chris Brown featuring Drake
"No Guidance" was certified diamond on November 12, 2024, becoming Drake's sixth diamond-certified song.
He's tied with Bruno Mars and Katy Perry for the third-most in history, trailing The Weeknd (seven), Rihanna (seven), and Post Malone (nine).
157. "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls
"Iris" was certified diamond on November 15, 2024.
158. "Starships" by Nicki Minaj
"Starships" was certified diamond on November 18, 2024.
159. "Lovely" by Billie Eilish and Khalid
"Lovely" was certified diamond on November 18, 2024.
160. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was certified diamond on December 6, 2024.
161. "No Role Modelz" by J. Cole
"No Role Modelz" was certified diamond on December 10, 2024.
162. "Hey Ya!" by Outkast
"Hey Ya!" was certified diamond on December 13, 2024.
163. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" by Beyoncé
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" was certified diamond on December 17, 2024.
164. "Halo" by Beyoncé
"Halo" was certified diamond on December 17, 2024.
Over 150 songs have been certified diamond and 33 artists have multiple songs on the list. They're all listed below.
1. Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber's "Baby" was only the second song in history to be certified diamond on May 9, 2013.
Bieber received a second diamond certification in 2018 as a featured artist on "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.
His third award was bestowed in 2021 for his smash hit "Sorry." He earned his fourth in 2023 for "Stay," a duet with The Kid LAROI.
2. Eminem
Eminem's "Not Afraid" was the third song in history to be certified diamond on June 10, 2014.
"Lose Yourself" and "Love the Way You Lie" both received the award in 2018.
3. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga received two diamond certifications in 2015 for "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face."
She added a third to her collection in 2023 with "Just Dance."
4. Imagine Dragons
Imagine Dragons has four diamond-certified songs, the most of any band in history.
"Radioactive" earned the band's first diamond award on July 6, 2015. It was followed by "Demons" and "Believer" in 2021, and finally "Thunder" in 2022.
5. Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars has six diamond-certified songs, the third-most of any artist in history: "Uptown Funk," "Just the Way You Are," "Grenade," "That's What I Like," "When I Was Your Man," and "Locked Out of Heaven."
6. Katy Perry
Katy Perry earned her first diamond certification for "Roar" on June 22, 2017.
She received two more in 2018 for "Firework" and "Dark Horse." Her fourth award was bestowed in 2023 for "California Gurls" featuring Snoop Dogg.
Perry added two more in 2024 for "E.T." and "Teenage Dream," bringing her grand total to six. She has the second-most diamond awards among women, trailing Rihanna (seven).
Perry's "Teenage Dream" is also the first and only album in history with four diamond songs on its tracklist.
7. Pharrell
Pharrell earned a diamond certification in 2018 as a featured artist on Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," which he also cowrote and produced.
His hit single "Happy" received the award in 2020.
8. Florida Georgia Line
Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" was certified diamond on October 10, 2018.
The country duo received a second award in 2020 as a featured artist on Bebe Rexha's "Meant to Be."
9. Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran received three diamond certifications in 2019 for "Shape of You," "Thinking Out Loud," and "Perfect."
10. The Weeknd
With seven diamond-certified songs to his name, The Weeknd is tied with Rihanna for the second-most in history.
The Canadian singer earned his first diamond certification for "The Hills" on June 28, 2019. He received three more in 2022 for "Blinding Lights," "Starboy," and "Can't Feel My Face."
His fifth certification came in February 2023 for "Earned It," the lead single from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film soundtrack.
Finally, "Save Your Tears" and "Die For You" were both certified diamond on June 20, 2024.
11. Drake
Drake's "God's Plan" was certified diamond in 2019.
The rapper received a second diamond certification in 2020 as a featured artist on Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode," and a third in 2021 as a featured artist on Future's "Life Is Good."
He added two more in 2022 for "Hotline Bling" and "One Dance," plus another in 2024 for "No Guidance," bringing his grand total to six.
He's tied with Bruno Mars and Katy Perry for the third-most in history.
12. Post Malone
Post Malone holds the record for the most diamond-certified songs with nine to his name. He earned his first in 2019 for "Congratulations."
He received two more awards in 2020 (for "Rockstar" and "Sunflower") and an additional two in 2022 (for "White Iverson" and "Psycho" featuring Ty Dolla $ign).
He added three more to his collection in 2023 with "Better Now," "I Fall Apart," and "Circles."
Finally, in 2024, Malone's hit single "Wow." became his milestone ninth diamond-certified song.
Later that year, she received a second award as a featured artist on Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" and a third for her single "I Like It."
14. Maroon 5
Maroon 5 earned two diamond certifications in 2021 for "Moves Like Jagger" and "Girls Like You."
The band's third award was bestowed in 2022 for "Sugar."
15. The Chainsmokers
The Chainsmokers' hit collaboration with Halsey, "Closer," was certified diamond on September 17, 2018.
The EDM duo received two more awards in 2022 for "Don't Let Me Down" featuring Daya and "Something Just Like This" featuring Coldplay.
16. Twenty One Pilots
Twenty One Pilots received their first diamond award in 2021 for "Stressed Out."
The following year, they received a second for "Heathens," the lead single from the soundtrack of the DC Comics film "Suicide Squad."
17. Swae Lee
Swae Lee earned a diamond certification in 2020 for "Sunflower," a collaboration with Post Malone for "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse."
He received a second award in 2022 as a featured artist on French Montana's "Unforgettable."
18. Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" were both certified diamond on August 29, 2022, nearly 40 years after their release.
19. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis earned their first diamond certification in 2015 for "Thrift Shop" featuring Wanz.
Seven years later, the duo earned a second for "Can't Hold Us" featuring Ray Dalton.
20. Halsey
Halsey received her first diamond certification in 2018 as a featured artist on "Closer" by The Chainsmokers.
Her solo smash hit "Without Me" was the milestone 100th song to receive the award on February 1, 2023.
21. Rihanna
Rihanna earned her first diamond certification in 2018 as a featured artist on Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie."
She received her second in 2023 for "We Found Love," her smash collaboration with Calvin Harris, and her third in 2024 for "Diamonds."
On May 31, 2024, Rihanna collected four more diamond plaques for "Needed Me," "Work," "Umbrella," and "Stay," setting a record for the most among female artists. She now has seven diamond singles, sitting in second place behind Post Malone.
22. Kanye West
Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021, received his first diamond certification that same year for "Stronger."
His second award was bestowed in 2023 for "Ni**as in Paris," a single from his joint album with Jay-Z, "Watch the Throne."
The rapper received two more awards in 2024 for "Bang Bang," the hit collaboration with Jessie J and Ariana Grande, and "Starships."
26. Pitbull
Pitbull received his first diamond certification in 2022 for his hit collaboration with Kesha, "Timber."
He earned a second award in 2024 for "Give Me Everything" featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack, and Nayer.
27. Jay-Z
Jay-Z's hit collaboration with Kanye West, "Ni**as in Paris," became his first diamond song in 2023.
The Brooklyn rapper received his second diamond award in 2024 for "Empire State of Mind," his famous duet with Alicia Keys.
28. Luke Combs
Luke Combs has three diamond songs to his name, the most of any country singer: "Beautiful Crazy," "When It Rains It Pours," and "Hurricane."
29. Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys received two diamond certifications in 2024 for "Empire State of Mind" and "No One."
30. Travis Scott
Travis Scott received his first diamond certification in 2020 for "Sicko Mode." His second award was bestowed in 2024 for "Goosebumps," a hit single from his sophomore album.
31. Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish's signature song, "Bad Guy," was certified diamond on July 31, 2023.
The following year, Eilish received her second award for "Lovely," a collaboration with Khalid released for the "13 Reasons Why" soundtrack.
32. J. Cole
J. Cole received two diamond certifications in 2024 for "Middle Child" and "No Role Modelz."
33. Beyoncé
Beyoncé received two diamond certifications in 2024 for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" and "Halo," both singles from her 2008 album "I Am... Sasha Fierce."
According to a press release from the RIAA, Beyoncé now has the most certified titles for a female artist with 103 total across her discography.
Selena Gomez is engaged to Benny Blanco after a year and a half of dating.
Gomez shared pictures of the engagement ring on Instagram on December 11.
The two musicians have collaborated on several songs, starting in 2015 with Gomez's album "Revival."
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco first collaborated on a song together in 2015. Nine years later, they are engaged.
The news comes a year and a half after Gomez and Blanco began dating and a year after they went public as a couple. The newly-engaged musicians have shared a lot of digital PDA since telling fans they were romantically involved.
Here's a detailed timeline of their relationship.
October 9, 2015: Gomez releases 'Revival,' which includes two collaborations with Blanco
Blanco has built a reputation as a sought-after pop producer, helping to create mega-hits like Kesha's 2009 breakthrough "Tik Tok" and Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" in 2010.
Blanco began making his own music in 2018. The following year, he released "I Can't Get Enough" as a stand-alone single.
The song features Gomez, who sings the lead vocal in English, and J Balvin, who sings his verse in Spanish. It was coproduced by Tainy. All four artists appear together in the music video.
Blanco promoted the song on Instagram, sharing several photos of himself cuddling with Gomez on set.
"Benny has a cool way of bringing people together, even in the weirdest ways," Gomez said in behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot.
October 26, 2020: Blanco seems to throw shade at Gomez while promoting a new song with her ex-boyfriend
Blanco started working with Bieber in 2009 and told Variety the two musicians were like "brothers." The pair worked together on hits like "Eenie Meenie," "Love Yourself," and "Cold Water."
"Justin's not one of those cookie-cutter pop artists," Blanco said. "Like you know, they're like, 'This is my new single and here's my makeup line.' And he's like, Justin's like, 'Yo. I have a pimple and I have anxiety today.' He's always been upfront about that stuff."
Gomez had unveiled her own makeup line, Rare Beauty, earlier that year. Fans were quick to interpret the comment as a thinly veiled insult.
At the time, representatives for Blanco did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment, nor did he publicly address the backlash.
August 25, 2023: Gomez releases 'Single Soon,' coproduced by Blanco
Gomez and Blanco teamed up again for "Single Soon," released as a standalone song.
Earlier that summer, Gomez posted a TikTok shouting her status as single to a group of football players. "I'm single, I'm just a little high maintenance," the singer said in the video.
December 2023: Gomez and Blanco become Instagram official
In late 2023, fans began to speculate that Gomez and Blanco were dating.
Gomez confirmed her romance with Blanco in her Instagram story on December 7, 2023. She shared a photo of the couple cuddling and a photo of herself wearing the letter "B" on her left ring finger.
When fan accounts picked up the news, some reacted with disappointment or concern — mostly due to Blanco's perceived insult from 2020, as well as his enduring friendship with Bieber, whom Gomez accused of emotional abuse.
She also addressed a critic who alluded to Blanco's "cookie-cutter" comment, saying Blanco is "still better than anyone I've ever been with."
Throughout the month, Gomez continued to post photos with Blanco on Instagram. She shared another black-and-white shot of the couple cuddling on December 12, 2023, and a photo of him kissing her cheek on December 30, 2023.
Blanco even made it onto Gomez's Instagram grid that month; he appears twice in a slideshow she posted with the caption, "New York, my favorite moments w you this week."
January 3, 2024: The couple has their first public outing at a basketball game
Blanco and Gomez sat courtside at Crypto.com Arena to watch the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Miami Heat.
"She seems to be really feeling herself at the moment," a source close to Gomez told People. "Maybe that's Benny or maybe that's just where she's at personally and professionally."
"Everyone is so happy that she's happy," the source added.
January 7, 2024: Gomez brings Blanco as her date to the Golden Globes
Gomez attended the 2024 Golden Globes as a nominee; she earned a nod for best performance by a female actor in a TV series, musical or comedy, for "Only Murders in the Building."
Although they didn't walk the red carpet together, Gomez and Blanco weren't shy about PDA inside the event.
March 8, 2024: Gomez shares birthday Instagram tribute for Blanco
Gomez posted in her Instagram feed celebrating Blanco's 36th birthday, sharing a roundup of pictures with the caption: "Happy birthday baby! Your emotional endurance, positive disposition, unbelievable talent (that blows me away), undeniable humor and loving, kind heart absolutely kill me. I love you @itsbennyblanco."
May 24, 2024: Blanco says he didn't realize he was on a date with Gomez on their first date
Appearing on an episode of SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show," Blanco said he didn't realize his relationship with Gomez had turned romantic during their first date.
"She was like, 'Hey, you want to hang out,' and I was like, 'Yeah,' we go and we hang out," he said. "I remember sitting there, and she's like, 'Well, I would have worn something different for this date, and I was like, 'What? We're on a date?'"
Blanco said they continued hanging out and described Gomez as his "best friend."
In the interview, Blanco said he wanted to marry Gomez but hadn't planned anything yet. He also said his next goal was to have children.
July 22, 2024: Blanco shares tribute for Gomez's 32nd birthday
In the Instagram post, Blanco reshared the photo from the music video of his 2019 song "I Can't Get Enough" and shared a new photo of Gomez holding a white teddy bear.
"I used to play a teddy bear in ur music video and now i get to b urs in real life… happy bday bb ! i love u!" he captioned the post aluding to the music video for their collaboration back in 2019.
Gomez commented on the post: "I love you 🧸."
September 9, 2024: Gomez reacts to Blanco's comments about marriage and shares she can't have kids
During Gomez's Vanity Fair cover interview in September 2024, she was asked about Blanco's wishes to get married.
"He can't lie. After the interview, I was dying laughing. Like, 'Anything else you wanted to put out there?'" She said, adding later that neither she nor Blanco are in a rush to get married.
"I haven't ever said this, but I unfortunately can't carry my own children," Gomez said. "I have a lot of medical issues that would put my life and the baby's in jeopardy. That was something I had to grieve for a while."
She added she's "in a much better place" about the situation."At the end of the day, I don't care. It'll be mine. It'll be my baby," she said.
November 20, 2024: Gomez says she shares so much about Blanco on social media because she sees a future with him
When asked about why she has been very public about her relationship with Blanco, Gomez told The Hollywood Reporter: "I guess this is the safest I've ever felt in one, and I see a future with this person. And when you put a little bit out there, people are not as hungry to hunt you down."
Gomez was asked about Blanco again during an interview with CBS Sunday on November 30, but this time about her thoughts on Blanco's inclusion in 2024's People's Sexiest Man Alive issue.
"That's my man," Gomez said.
"I'm really, really lucky." Selena Gomez opened up about her relationship with Benny Blanco, calling him her best friend, biggest supporter and now one of People's "Sexiest Men Alive." https://t.co/uBGatfUbGSpic.twitter.com/vD2ax2hJKY
Gomez announced that she and Blanco are engaged on Instagram on Wednesday evening. She marked the engagement with a slideshow of pictures showing the ring and captioned the post: "Forever begins now…"
In the special, Foxx reveals that he suffered a stroke while he was filming a Netflix movie in Atlanta.
"Atlanta saved my life. The internet was trying to kill me, though. The internet said that Puffy tried to kill me," Foxx says, referring to the stage name Combs used in the '90s. "That's what the internet was saying. I know what you're thinking. 'Did he?'"
Foxx waits a beat for laughter and then assures the crowd that he's not connected to Combs' legal troubles.
"Hell naw, n****. I left them parties early. I was out by 9," Foxx says. "'Something don't look right, n****. It's slippery in here, n****."
Throughout his career as a rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records, Combs was famous for throwing lavish events with star-studded guest lists, including annual white parties in the Hamptons.
Back in 2018, Foxx told Stephen Colbert that he "started hanging out with Puff back in the day" and he would "watch him throw parties." Foxx also joked that Combs showed up to one of his own parties with the FBI in tow.
"Puff was always sort of dangerous," Foxx said, "so he had all kinds of people following him."
In September, Combs was arrested and indicted on racketeering and sex-trafficking charges by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Prosecutors allege Combs orchestrated sexual performances called "Freak Offs," described in his indictment as "elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded."
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and his lawyers have said he will fight the charges at a trial scheduled to begin May 5.
There's been no suggestion from prosecutors that other celebrities will be charged in the case, though US Attorney Damian Williams said in response to a question from Business Insider that "nothing is off the table."
Later in the comedy special, Foxx discusses his post-stroke recovery and brushes with death, telling the audience that he didn't walk toward the clichéd light — but he did see a tunnel.
"It was hot in that tunnel. I thought, shit, have I gone to the wrong place?" he jokes. "I looked at the end of the tunnel and I thought I saw the devil saying, 'Come on.' Or was that Puffy?"
He then cracks a joke about the March raids on Combs' Florida and California mansions, during which law enforcement said they seized "various Freak Off supplies" that included narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.
"If that was Puffy he had a flaming bottle of Johnson and… no, I'm just kidding," Foxx said.
A rep for Combs did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concluded on Sunday in Vancouver.
The tour was an unprecedented financial success, becoming the first to gross over $2 billion.
It was a spectacle of endurance and nostalgia that will be difficult for any artist to replicate, Swift included.
Twenty-one months, 149 shows, and about 484 hours of singing and dancing later, Taylor Swift took her final bow on the Eras Tour on Sunday.
"You guys have made this into something completely unrecognizable from anything I've ever done in my life," Swift told the crowd in Vancouver. "With your traditions, with your passion, with the way you care about this tour — it's unparalleled. I've never experienced anything like it."
The Eras Tour has been widely celebrated as a cultural phenomenon and money-making marvel. Swift's tour boosted local economies across the globe, from the US to the UK to Singapore. Fans shelled out thousands to see their idol perform a marathon of hits from across her catalog (plus a few surprise deep cuts), a spectacle that stretched for over three hours every night. At the end of it all, the Eras Tour became the first tour in history to gross over $2 billion, Swift's production company confirmed to The New York Times.
But while all that may be true, there's reason to believe not even Swift's commercial juggernaut has the power to forever alter the touring landscape. The Eras Tour will go down in history as a high watermark for the industry, one it will be difficult for any artist to reach again — Swift included.
As a literal billionaire, Swift's Eras Tour set a standard that's impossible for most artists to meet. In an industry where you have to spend money to make money, the majority of performers who aren't global superstars don't have that much money to spend. In fact, the costs of touring are so high that even major acts like Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and The Black Keys are canceling dates or entire tours.
By contrast, Swift has devoted nearly two decades to building her loyal consumer base and billion-dollar fortune. She's one of a the few stars who's perfectly capable of traveling the world, employing a crew of hundreds, and bringing her elaborate stagecraft to life without worrying about the upfront costs.
Yet even those who do have the resources don't necessarily have a desire to mount a tour as intensive as Swift's. Billie Eilish, who broke Swift's own record as the youngest artist in history to win album of the year at the Grammys in 2020, is now three albums deep and currently touring in support of "Hit Me Hard and Soft," which also garnered critical acclaim.
In Swiftian terms, that puts Eilish in her "Speak Now" era, riding a similar wave toward success. Seven or eight albums down the road, would she be able to stage a three-and-a-half-hour retrospective of her career, a feat that requires months of intensive cardio and dance training? Probably. Would she want to? Probably not.
"I'm not doing a three-hour show, that's literally psychotic," Eilish told fans in May, per Billboard. "Nobody wants that. You guys don't want that. I don't want that. I don't even want that as a fan. My favorite artist in the world, I'm not trying to hear them for three hours. That's far too long."
For many artists, it probably is. But Swift is a rare breed. Pulling off the Eras Tour demanded a special blend of ambition, financial freedom, physical endurance, fan worship, mass commercial appeal, and, let's be honest, self-congratulatory bravado that, at least at this time in music history, is unique to Swift alone.
In "The Eras Tour" concert film, Swift admitted that people were initially skeptical about the concept — but she's accomplished, wealthy, beloved, and stubborn enough that she could ignore her doubters.
The eras theme was also particularly smart positioning for Swift at this moment in her career. After Swift's former label sold her catalog without her permission in 2019, she began rerecording and rereleasing her first six albums, a project that asked fans to rekindle their love for her old music — and their old selves.
Two of these rerecorded albums, "Fearless" and "Red", were unveiled ahead of the Eras Tour, while two more, "Speak Now" and "1989," were announced by Swift onstage. The two endeavors worked in conjunction to legitimize each other, infusing fresh tunes into the tour's acoustic sets and giving Swifties the feeling that no matter how deep Swift was into the nearly two-year length of her tour when they saw her perform, she was still fresh off of a new release.
Swift signed a new label contract ahead of "Lover," so she owns outright every album she's released since then. Once she has released the final two installments of the "Taylor's Version" series, ("Reputation" and "Taylor Swift") the "Taylor's Version" project will be over. Similarly, the specific conditions that allowed the Eras Tour to flourish will never recur.
Of course, Swifties still have plenty to look forward to. She is famously prolific, so another brand-new album in the coming years isn't out of the question.
But even if Swift could release another 11 albums and, in another 18 years, launch the Eras Tour Part Two, would she want to? All signs point to no.
"I'll never forget the call when I explained my idea of the concept for the Eras Tour to my team. At the time, I was working on the 'Midnights' album and if we were to do what I've always done, I would've embarked on planning the Midnights Tour," Swift wrote in her new photo book.
"But there's nothing I hate more than doing what I've always done."