For Madonna‘s million of fans, the legend is Woman of the Year every year. However, for 2016, Billboard have bestowed her the honor.
The Pop queen will be presented with the award on December 9th in NYC, with the ceremony airing December 12th on Lifetime.
Ahead of the broadcast, the star sat down with the publication to dish on a whole host of topics – including ageism, sexism, Donald Trump‘s election win, staying relevant, and more.
In the last month, the entertainer has completed her lengthy ‘ANTI World Tour’, picked up the ‘Shoe of the Year’ award at the FN Achievement awards and started work on her new TV series ‘Bates Motel.’
All of this has done little to stop her from fulfilling her obligations to the cast and crew of ‘Oceans 8’ in which she stars in alongside Sandra Bullock, Helen Bonham Carter and Mindy Kaling.
Now tasked with rivalling Iggy Azalea, Young M.A. and Siya, Dej Loaf seeks to reignite interest in her promising career with the brand new effort ‘Hold it Down.’
I’m so beautiful, shoutout my beautician. Keep up the good work, baby, you’ve got potential. Stay way from them lames, stay independent.
Hoping it will outperform the efforts which followed her 2014 cut ‘Try Me’, the song follows the unveiling of her ‘All Jokes Aside’ mixtape which hit the net in April.
Scribbled in history books for some good and not-so-good reasons, 2016 brought with it some of modern music’s most memorable moments.
Now, as the year draws to a close, TGJ is reflecting on 31 moments that rocked – and to some degree shaped – the Urban and Pop musical landscape as we know it.
Next we’ll take a royal walk down memory lane as Queen of Pop Madonna officially became Queen of the Road…
From The Vault venture back ten years to a time when a premium Pop star was on the cusp of releasing her biggest single to date.
This week’s pick is Beyonce’s humungous hit ’Irreplaceable.’
Written by Ne-Yo and Mrs Carter, the track was produced by Norwegian maestros Stargate and was issued as the third single from the artist’s sophomore solo album ‘B’Day.’
With its now inked-in-pop-culture catchphrase “to the left, to the left,” the song stands as one of the sassiest breakup offerings of all time. Its Folk-meets-Pop production also helped popularize acoustic guitar-led songs among mainstream acts. Indeed, many a subsequent smash rested its back on the sound of the omnipresent hit.
Commercial, ‘Irreplaceable’ remains Beyonce’s biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100, spending a glorious 10 weeks at the top; it was also a chart topper on the Hot Hip-Hop/R&B and managed to take over the world scoring Top 10 placements in Australia, the UK, France, Canada and Italy.
************
Anthony Mandler directed the visual which depicted Bey taking a literal approach to the song’s lyrics. She’s seen throwing her ex-bae out of her house and recollecting everything she got for him when they were together. Prior to meeting her upgrade, she’s shown serving up her trademark fierceness throughout – proving she can channel Sasha on a mid-tempo too. The vid also serves as the debut of Bey’s all female band The Mamas’s.
The clip was included in her first video anthology for the ‘B’Day’ LP and was nominated for Video Of The Year at the 2007 MTV VMA’s.
************
As much as we love post-2013 Beyonce and her “unconventional” ways, we do miss the artist that was ready to perform at the opening of a door and that released songs which still had even a tiny flair of “made for radio” to them.
Whatever the case, it’s been fascinating experiencing the star’s growth over the last decade: a transformation from singer of Pop tunes to a mogul in full charge of her career.
Salute, to an artist who – even ten years later – remains irreplaceable.
Kevin Hart‘s filmography continues to reach higher ground.
Following the questionable and widely panned effort that was ‘Get Hard‘, the comedian seeks to create and release fun and uplifting content via Hartbeat Productions and Columbia Pictures.
The latter has teamed up with him to reboot the classic movie ‘Jumanji‘ with help from Nick Jonas and Jack Black.
Why fans of the original (which starred Robin Williams) have good reason to look forward to it?