Awards / Awards Shows

Cardi B was back in action this weekend at the AMAs ... which wasn't expected, as the show came just 9 days after Takeoff's funeral.

The rapper made a surprise appearance Sunday at the award show, where she put on a big performance alongside GloRilla -- and she was in full MC mode, spittin' to their collab song 'Tomorrow 2' and looking energetic as ever.

She was also dressed to impress for national TV ... rocking a tight body suit that showed off her signature curves. Although she flashed big smiles, no one would've been shocked had she canceled, but Cardi was a trooper.

The AMAs outing marks one of the first times she's surfaced publicly since attending Takeoff's memorial service on Nov. 11 in Atlanta.

She and her husband Offset had been laying pretty low in the wake of the murder, but Cardi was the consummate professional Sunday night. No sign of Offset at the ceremony, but his wife definitely held it down for both of them.

The stars were shinin' BRIGHT at the American Music Awards ... and it looked like everyone was having the time of their lives behind the scenes at one of music's biggest nights!

Kelly Rowland, Måneskin, Lionel Richie, and Meghan Trainor were just a few of the big names pulling up to the Microsoft Theater in L.A. Sunday night -- Taylor Swift and Smokey Robinson were even huggin' it out when the cameras weren't rolling.

Country singer Dustin Lynch and Machine Gun Kelly cheesed for a photo together ... and it looks like MGK's still trying to keep some social distance with that wild outfit!!!

Sabrina Carpenter and Gayle also met up with Taylor between breaks ... and the 3 were lookin' fabulous together -- maybe a possible collab in the future? 👀

Chris Brown says he was supposed to put on a big tribute to Michael Jackson during the AMAs this weekend -- but claims honchos pulled the plug last minute out of nowhere.

The singer posted a lengthy video Saturday that shows him in a dance rehearsal with a group of people ... and he's putting on some serious MJ-inspired moves to a few classic hits, which Chris says would've been part of a showstopping number during Sunday's broadcast.

The songs featured include "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Starting Something" and "Thriller." Presumably, this is in line with the 40th anniversary of Mike's best-selling album.

Chris's original caption reads, "U SERIOUS?" He followed up in a later comment, writing ... "WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown." IG users are mostly in support of Chris, openly asking why they scrapped it if it was this good.

Of course, there's speculation as to why CB's performance may have been nixed. Frankly, he's controversial ... even all these years later. Michael himself is obviously also polarizing ... especially in more recent years with the allegations highlighted in the documentary "Leaving Neverland."

Still, Chris's tribute would've been a nice full-circle moment -- the guy has famously done MJ tributes in the past, like in 2010 when he did a big one at the BET Awards ... a year after Michael had died.

There's also the nonstop comparisons made between himself and the King of Pop. Akon recently brought it up again, saying Chris could've been as great if he had a cleaner crew.

Shaggy is heading to the Grammys again thanks to his "Com Fly Wid Mi" album, but musical accolades aren't the only thing fueling his drive ... he's very much about giving back, these days.

We caught the reggae icon at LAX, and this time he couldn't deny it -- it absolutely was him recently speaking to inmates at Michigan's Genesee County Jail.

Shaggy was the guest speaker for the graduation of IGNITE ... which stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education.

Through the program, inmates are given tools to successfully reenter society -- as Shaggy explained to us, ex-cons typically have a hard time adjusting to life on the outside.

Shaggy says he works with a company called Colour Bank that offers inmates financial literacy courses -- and credit cards to use with the education they've earned!!!

With over 4 decades in showbiz and a new Best Reggae Album nom, Shaggy wants to leverage his success to help anyone in need going forward ... and he left us with some wisdom he learned from the late Notorious B.I.G.

Quoting Biggie's final interview, Shaggy reacted to the string of violence in the music community as of late, saying artists should become responsible for the content they make once they hit it big ... especially because they're able to influence so many.

Kendrick Lamar is set up to do a bunch of damage at the 2023 Grammy Awards with 8 nominations ...  and he's celebrating by dropping off a new music video from his "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" album.

K-Dot's vid for his "Rich Spirit" single debuted Wednesday, and the visual finds the Compton-bred rapper comfortable in his own skin -- and a pair of sparkling cowboy boots!!!

The music video was directed by "White Men Can't Jump" reboot director Calmatic and features Kendrick and himself fighting off demons in a barren apartment -- similar to the one seen on the 'Mr. Morale' album cover.

Kendrick has one of the highest Grammy counts as a rapper with 14, and he's now the first artist to have his first 4 albums get nominated for Album of the Year.

He didn't win the previous 3 times, but there's no shame there -- sad fact is, no hip hop album has ever received the Album of the Year award.

Denzel Curry, who's cut from the Kendrick cloth, openly disagreed with this year's noms ... but ensured K-Dot got his props this time around.

'Mr. Morale' opened up to big numbers in May -- 295K out the gate to make it Kendrick's fourth No. 1 album.

Celebrated lyricist Denzel Curry jumped out in front of the inevitable "Grammy snub" convo as noms came out Tuesday, and with just a few exceptions ... he says the Recording Academy missed again.

Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, DJ Khaled, Jack Harlow and Future were all nominated for Best Rap Album but aside from the first 2, Denzel insisted he could name 10 acts more deserving of slots in the category -- and then he did!!!

He cited fellow MCs Freddie Gibbs, Joey Bada$$, JID and Smino as clear-cut snubs, and said he feels the Grammys care more about money, mainstream acts and "half-ass s**t" than actual culture.

Denzel's acclaimed 2022 "Melt My Eyez See Your Future" also didn't earn any nominations ... which seems like the real reason he was pissed, but the Florida rapper says his rant was bigger than himself.

If the Academy cares, DC did have one more positive note -- giving GloRilla her just due as her "FNF (Let's Go)" hit is up for "Best Rap Performance." Baby steps?

The Country Music Awards has some interesting moments Wednesday night ... and one of the baddest-ass moments was divorcées Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, and Kelly Clarkson rockin' out together.

The 3 singers joined forces for Country's biggest night in Nashville ... bringin' it all for a rendition of Kelsea's latest hit, "You're Drunk, Go Home." Needless to say, the crowd was lovin' it.

TMZ broke the story ... production sources for the CMAs told us the trio was planning the powerful performance last month -- doing a song all about female empowerment, and about guys who hit on women at bars after getting plastered.

As you know, Kelly and Carly both filed for divorce in June, 2020 ... Kelly from Brandon Blackstock after 7 years of marriage, and Carly from Michael Ray after less than a year.

As for Kelsea, she pulled the plug on her 5-year marriage with Morgan Evans -- the 2 finalized their divorce a week ago. She's been very open about how tough divorce can be ... recently posting an emotional confessional from the bathtub.

Huge night in L.A. Saturday, when musical legends were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

How's this for an impressive list ... Dolly Parton, Eminem, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.

It was almost overload taking it all in ... Sheryl Crow inducted Pat Benatar and hubby/collaborator Neil Giraldo. Sheryl said Pat "rocked as hard as any man but still maintained her identity as a woman."

But wait, there's more. Janet Jackson bestowed the Musical Excellence Award to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Bruce Springsteen presented Jimmy Iovine with the Rock Hall's Ahmet Ertegun Award. Bruce also paid tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis, singing "Great Balls of Fire" and "High School Hop" with John Mellencamp.

And Lenny Kravitz did the honors for the enduringly awesome Lionel Richie! LK said Lionel's music was "the soundtrack of my life, your life and everyone's life." Then he threw in some cornball humor ... naming all the folks who followed Lionel "would take, well, all night long."

Dr. Dre inducted his longtime pal and musical partner, Eminem. Dre said he was thunderstruck when he found out Em was a white guy ... "That completely f***ed me up!"

Eminem sang "My Name Is," "Forever," "Not Afraid" ... with assists from Steven Tyler and Ed Sheeran.

Eminem was humble, saying, "I’m not supposed to be here tonight," following his set. "One, I’m a rapper; two, I almost died from an overdose; and three, I really had to fight my way through ... I’m a high school dropout with a hip hop education."

As for Dolly, Pink did the honors, after which Dolly proclaimed ... "I'm a rock star now!" She added, "I still got rock and roll down in my country soul."

Parton closed the show with her most iconic song, "Jolene," as others joined in ... others, as in Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo, Simon Le Bon, Rob Halford and the Eurythmics.

Britney Spears is trashing Selena Gomez for something she said 6 years ago -- even though signs point to them being pretty good friends today.

The singer delivered a bizarre message Tuesday that looks to be aimed in Selena's direction -- based on the caption anyway. BS cites a specific line Selena dropped at the 2016 American Music Awards, which references women showing their bodies on social media.

She writes, "Don't you just love the nerve of women who stand firmly getting awards and speak on their beliefs about not showing their bodies on Instagram ???!!!!! They say "This is NOT something I would do" yet those women are the very ones who get 4 million dollar budget videos made about sucking and licking on homemade ice cream!!!!"

Britney goes on to say she thinks it's hypocritical for someone engaging in a sexually suggestive music video to criticize others for showing off their curves for the Gram.

The clues she mentions all point to Selena. Like we said, SG's the only person in recent memory who touched on "bodies on Instagram" while also going on to star in a 2020 music video featuring ice cream cones. The song is "Ice Cream" by K-Pop girl band BLACKPINK.

The IG post is still live on Britney's page, but she's edited the caption to just show 3 roses.

Selena's loyal fans definitely see it as a diss, and they're telling Britney to back off. Frankly, her attack seems to be coming out of nowhere ... and the even stranger thing is Selena was one of a few celebs who attended Britney's wedding this year.

Of course, we know Britney's fully leaned into posting her nudes online ... despite controversy it's stirred, especially among her own family members.

As usual, it's hard to make sense of Britney's POV. There is a trend, though ... less and less people on her side as she posts some weird and unprovoked hot takes.

Selena, for her part, hasn't responded to this. Something tells us she won't.

Originally Published -- 7:04 AM PT

Kelly Clarkson, Kelsea Ballerini and Carly Pearce all have one very significant life experience in common, and it's not just being super talented and famous ... they're all recent divorcees and will be hitting the stage together for the first time to sing about lousy men.

Production sources from the upcoming Country Music Association Awards tell TMZ the trio are planning a very big and powerful performance of Kelsea's song "You're Drunk, Go Home" next month.

The song's all about female empowerment, about guys who hit on women at bars after they've had too much to drink. Both Kelly and Carly were on the song's original release -- and Kelly actually got drunk herself when they got together to record it -- so they clearly all have a good time together.

Both Kelly and Carly filed for divorce in June 2020 ... Kelly from Brandon Blackstock after 7 years of marriage and Carly from Michael Ray after less than a year.

TMZ broke the story ... it was in March when Kelly and Brandon reached a settlement -- she got primary custody and he gets $115,000 a month in spousal support until 2024.

As for Kelsea, she pulled the plug on her 5-year marriage with Morgan Evans in August, and she's been very open about how tough divorce can be ... recently posting an emotional confessional from the bathtub.

So, given the shared lifetime experiences, the whole girl gang collab at country music's biggest night makes a whole lotta sense.

Nicki Minaj and Latto are at each other’s throats ... arguing about which Grammy categories their songs belong in and there's nothing sacred in this war, as they're both putting private convos on front street.

Both rappers had been subtweeting each other for weeks about the Grammy's decision to move Nicki’s smash hit “Super Freaky Girl” from the Rap category to Pop, and Thursday night the feud erupted like a volcano.

As Nicki sees it, Latto should have spoken up in her defense ... seeing as how the Grammys left her record, “Big Energy,” in the Rap category, despite having the same bubbly pop sound.

Nicki then began to retweet Barbz who were dissing Latto's silence on the subject ... prompting Latto to tweet, she "can't win for losing." That's when Nicki posted a DM convo where Latto agreed with Nicki's viewpoints, but said she didn't like the fact Nicki put her in the beef.

Then the gloves really came off.

Nicki called Latto a "Karen" and "Scratch-Off" ... posted more DMs, including one where she turned down Latto's attempt to collaborate on the "Big Energy" remix.

Latto fired back, calling Nicki a 40-year-old bully, and uploaded a recorded phone conversation they had on the Grammy topic ... and you hear both women going at it!!!

Latto accused Nicki of having "only child syndrome" because, at one time, she was the only female rap star in the game -- to which, Nicki scolded her with, "You didn't do your research!"

As of now, there's no resolution, and fans don't expect one.

German track star Luz Long battled Black American star Jesse Owens during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin -- while Hitler watched -- but instead of treating each other like enemies, the men became close friends.

And, now, Luz's famed silver medal from the long jump is on the block at SCP Auctions ... one of the most important medals in Olympic history.

Owens won four gold medals during the '36 Games ... and became a global superstar almost overnight. But, one of the medals almost never was ... 'cause Jesse was one missed jump away from failing to qualify for the medal round of the long jump.

That's when Carl Ludwig "Luz" Long -- born across the world and in very different circumstances than Jesse -- approached his competitor and offered him some advice.

“Why don’t you draw a line a few inches in back of the board and aim at making your take-off from there," Luz said to Jesse, saying, "You’ll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. What does it matter if you’re not first in the trials?”

Owens later talked about what those words meant for him, and did for his performance.

“Suddenly all the tension seemed to ebb out of my body as the truth of what he said hit me. Confidently, I drew a line a full foot in back of the board and proceeded to jump from there. I qualified with almost a foot to spare.”

In the finals, Long and Owens battled, both breaking the previous Olympic record in the process. In the end, Jesse, with a jump of 8.06 meters, beat Luz, and won the gold medal ... while LL took silver.

Luz, could've been mad, jealous, or even seen Jesse as the enemy, but instead was actually the first to embrace the man who just dashed his dreams of Olympic gold.

"You forced me to give my best,” Owens told Luz.

After receiving their medals, in one of the most courageous moments in Olympic history, Jesse and Luz walked side by side around the stadium, waving to the 110,000 spectators in attendance.

And remember, one of those people was Adolf Hitler ... who was annoyed a Black man dominated the Games, exposing his lies about race.

“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler,” Owens later said.

“You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”

Berlin, 1936, is the last time Jesse and Luz would see each other. The German track star was killed in 1943 during World War II at the age of 30.

However, shortly before his death, Long wrote a handwritten note to his friend Jesse, where he sadly predicted his impending death, and asked a favor.

"My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my [son], and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying -- tell him how things can be between men on this earth.⁣"

In 1951, years after the letter, Owens fulfilled his promise and met Luz's son. Jesse would later serve as his best man at his wedding.

Now, nearly 90 years after he won the medal, Luz's granddaughter, Julia Kellner-Long, the daughter of the son Jesse befriended, has decided to put the medal on the block as a way to keep her grandpa's memory alive.

The auction for the medal -- estimated to be worth between $500K and $1 million -- ends this weekend

Kodak Black is screaming conspiracy against BET after his hit record "Super Gremlin" lost to Latto's "Big Energy" for "Song of the Year."

An upset Kodak went the distance in airing out his grievances ... targeting BET exec Connie Orlando, who's instrumental in all the network's music programming.

According to Big Yak, Connie was in cahoots with the female empowerment movement beforehand, and only invited artists like himself and EST Gee to generate bigger public interest.

The Hip Hop Awards ratings reportedly skyrocketed 34% from last year's tally, but Kodak wants J Prince to restart his award show talks after many rappers shared similar issues with last year's Grammys.

Kodak says GloRilla's "FNF" anthem should have taken the crown, and threw plenty of slander toward Latto ... calling her a "hating ass mutt" and "Frappucino."

Despite Kodak's opinions, Latto's "Big Energy" recently made history as the longest-running female rap song on the Billboard Hot 100 -- a whopping 49 weeks and counting!!!

The 2 rap stars have been at odds since Latto featured Kodak on her "777" album last spring ... when she suggested he was being difficult over clearing the song after his advances were rebuffed -- setting off a war between camps.

Joey Bada$$ made a powerful statement at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards ... urging rappers to stop delivering messages that lead to their demise, or the death of others.

During his performance of his "2000" album cut “Head High," Joey lined up 12 backup dancers ... each with a slain rapper's name embroidered on their hoodie.

In chronological order of their deaths, Joey honored Scott La Rock, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Big L, Soulja Slim, XXXTENTACION, Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, King Von, Young Dolph, Trouble and PnB Rock -- all who fell victim to gun violence between 1987 and last month ... when PnB was killed. 😕

Joey went on to argue rappers are spurring their own genocide, and preached the culture needs to take accountability for the message it's delivering to kids.

He also slammed the popular slang term "op" a.k.a. enemy ... contending that war is being fought within rappers' own circles.

The New York rapper isn't the only one from his rap generation to decry the rap murder rate -- just a few weeks ago, Rich Homie Quan told us the "shoot 'em up, bang-bang music" is a problem for everyone who hears it.

When "MJ: The Musical" meets "The Producers" ... you get a little something like this.

John Branca -- one of the guys behind Broadway's biggest spectacle right now -- went backstage Friday night with his wife, Jenna, to meet the show's lead star ... Myles Frost, who plays Michael. They had a cool little photo-op moment together -- flashing smiles and looking sharp.

'MJ' has been playing since earlier this February -- after a lot of delays, due to COVID -- and so far ... it's a smash hit. Not only has it been commercially successful, but it has sat well with critics too ... even snagging a handful of Tonys this year, including for Frost.

He won Best Actor in a Musical -- and 'MJ' has won some technical Tonys too, such as Best Choreography, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. It's about Mike's real-life 1992 Dangerous tour, and the show gives a BTS glimpse at some of his imagined rehearsals.

Of course, it also covers a ton of MJ hits along the way ... with his signature dance numbers to boot. There was controversy around this at first, but most of that seems to have fallen by the wayside, especially this many months into a long and consistent run.

George and Amal Clooney brought out some of their most famous friends in NYC to christen a new award show ... with guests including Michelle Obama, Drew Barrymore, Cindy Crawford and more.

The star-studded event went down Thursday at the New York Public Library. The Albie Awards, named after Justice Albie Sachs -- and hosted by George and Amal -- were about honoring folks who have taken a stand against injustice.

Of course, the power couple was front and center the whole night ... and they certainly looked the part. Amal wore a bedazzled Versace gown, while GC rocked a tux.

Unclear if she was at the show, but Michelle Obama was spotted entering The Albie Award's after-party at The Mark Hotel following the event.

Among the final celeb guestlist ... Clooney's co-star Julia Roberts, John Krasinski, Meryl Streep, Gayle King, Drew Barrymore, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

Dua Lipa and Lori Harvey also pulled up to the event. Of course, Dua Lipa recently made headlines with the soon-to-be former host of "The Daily Show" Trevor Noah as the two were spotted hanging out in NYC.