Latest news with #AliveintheCatacombs'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Weeknd Teases Possible About-Face on Retiring Stage Persona: ‘It Could Also Just Be a Rebirth'
For the past few months, The Weeknd has been teasing that his sixth album and upcoming movie of the same name, Hurry Up Tomorrow, could mark the end of the unpredictable stage character that has taken over singer Abel Tesfaye's life for more than 15 years. After suggesting to The New York Times recently that the film à clef he wrote, stars in and produced — which eerily matches some of his own career high, and low, points — likely marks his last release as The Weeknd, he told EW that the door is still cracked. Speaking to the magazine at the recent CinemaCon festival alongside director Trey Edward Shults and co-star Jenna Ortega, Tesfaye said the movie (which opens on Friday) feels like the final nail in the coffin of the complex Weeknd character. More from Billboard The Weeknd & Playboi Carti Kick Off After Hours Til Dawn Tour in Arizona: 8 Best Moments Queens of the Stone Age Announce 'Alive in the Catacombs' Concert Film, Album Amyl and the Sniffers, Royel Otis Lead Finalists for 2025 AIR Awards Or, perhaps, it could be the kick-off to a second life? While he has been adamant that he plans to keep making music, Tesfaye told EW, 'It feels like it [the end of the Weeknd]. I mean, I've kind of toyed with the idea in the past with albums,' he added, noting that this isn't he first time he's considered doing away with his sometimes swaggering, sometimes beat-to-a-pulp alter ego. 'But it could also just be a rebirth. Who knows?' he said. In January, Tesfaye, 35, said that he planned to retire his alter ego following the conclusion of the album trilogy that began with 2020's After Hours and includes 2022's Dawn FM and wrapped up with January's Hurry Up Tomorrow. 'It's a headspace I've gotta get into that I just don't have any more desire for,' he said of his stage name at the time. 'You have a persona, but then you have the competition of it all. It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it.' The Weeknd entered the public consciousness in 2011 when he put out the House of Balloons mixtape and worked to keep his face and identity secret at first, finally revealing himself to the wider world at Coachella in 2012. Flash forward billions of streams and four Grammys later and he's one of the biggest acts on the planet. The movie was inspired by what should have been a triumphant moment that went sideways. Tesfaye has described becoming undone when he suddenly lost his voice completely during a stadium show in L.A. in 2022. In the film, he plays a fictionalized, insomnia-wrecked version of himself, also named Abel, who is taken on a wild ride by alluring stranger Anima (Ortega). 'I tried to make the movie in a way where, for his fans and people who want to approach it at that level, I hope it's very satisfying and you get a good meal out of it,' Shults, who co-wrote the psychological thriller's screenplay with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim told EW in February. The director said that it was an 'absolute possibility' that the project would be the Weeknd's final chapter, adding 'And for people that aren't his fans and don't know anything about him or even care about the final capping of the Weeknd, I think you still have a great movie to go through.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Queens of the Stone Age Couldn't ‘Over-Rehearse' for Paris Catacombs Concert Film: ‘You Go Down There & All the Plans Are Off'
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has some sage advice for anyone who finds themselves in a difficult situation. 'If you're going through hell,' Homme says, 'keep going.' More from Billboard Queens of the Stone Age Announce 'Alive in the Catacombs' Concert Film, Album Billboard & Global Venture Partners Launch Billboard Africa Here's What Fans Think of SiR Claiming Drake Had His 2024 Toronto Show Canceled Easy for him to say: He's one of the few lucky souls who has left the Paris Catacombs, the subject of his band's new film and the final home to more than 6 million deceased Parisians following an 18th-century effort to fix Paris' overcrowded, dilapidated cemetery system. Homme has long been fascinated by the underground burial site, visited by more than a half-million people each year, and chose the dark and foreboding underground capsule as the central motif for Queens of the Stone Age's new project Alive in the Catacombs, a concert and concept film directed by Thomas Rames and produced by La Blogothèque. 'This place is like trying to run on a sheet of ice,' Hommes explains in the accompanying documentary Alive in Paris and Before, shot by the band's longtime visual collaborator Andreas Neumann. 'You have no idea how much time has passed up there, up above, and no time has passed below. It's the same time, all the time, every time.' It's easy to get lost in the maze-like film as it wanders through the subterranean tunnels and ossuaries buried deep beneath the City of Light. The film captures Homme at a low point in 2024, having to cancel a major European leg of the band's tour due to a cancer diagnosis from which he has since recovered. Performing in the Catacombs had been a lifelong dream of Homme's, and he pushes though the pain to delivery a carefully arranged performance of music from the band's back catalog, 'stripped down bare, without taking away what made each one wonderful,' band member Dean Fertita explains in the documentary. The band recruited violinist Christelle Lassort and viola player Arabella Bozig to repurpose tracks like 'Paper Machete,' 'Kalopsia' and 'Villains of Circumstance'; while each song was performed acoustically, Homme was adamant the project not simply feel like 'Queens of the Stone Age Unplugged.' 'When you go into the Catacombs, there are 6 million people in there, and I think about, 'What would you want to hear if you were one of those people?'' Homme said Wednesday night (June 4) during a Q&A in Los Angeles following a screening of the film. 'I'd want to hear about family and acceptance and things I care about. A lot of the songs we picked are about the moment you realize there's difficulty and the moment you realize you're past it, so a lot of the songs we picked were about letting the people down there know it's all right and that we care about them.' Homme said the challenges of the performance was that unlike a traditional concert where the band plays to the audience, 'We're in the belly of this thing. The ceiling is dripping and it's an organic thing that's really dominating.' The Paris Catacombs were built during a time of great upheaval in French society, as revolution completely reshaped civic life and laid siege to the political fabric of the French monarchy. There are no coffins or headstones in the Catacombs, with the bones of the princes and kings mixed with peasants and non-nobility. The band shot the entire film in one day, Homme said, securing permission from the historical group that oversees the Paris Catacombs to shoot on a day the space was closed to the public. 'We didn't over-rehearse; we just rehearsed twice,' Homme said. 'It's not supposed to be perfect. You try to make a plan, but you go down there and all the plans are off.' Fans can preorder the film in advance on Queens of the Stone Age's website; fans who order the video before Saturday will also receive the mini-documentary film. Watch the trailer below: Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Joey Bada$$ Says Jay-Z Wanted to Manage Him Early in His Career
Joey Badass sat down with Red Bull for a story published Tuesday (May 13), during which he talked about almost signing with Jay-Z's Roc Nation and his relationship with 50 Cent. When he talked about almost signing with Roc Nation back in 2010, Joey blamed it on an old manager and a lack of communication because Jay-Z didn't want to sign him to a label deal, he actually wanted to manage the up-and-coming Brooklyn rapper. 'It was a chain of communication that I didn't have any part in,' he revealed. 'Jay is my favorite rapper, even to this day, and within a year of being in the game, he wanted to sign me. But he didn't want to sign me as an artist, he wanted to manage me. I had a manager at the time and I always wonder if that's how it got botched.' More from Billboard Queens of the Stone Age Announce 'Alive in the Catacombs' Concert Film, Album Amyl and the Sniffers, Royel Otis Lead Finalists for 2025 AIR Awards El Alfa Confirms Retirement With El Último Baile 2025 Farewell Tour Dates Billboard reached out to Roc Nation for comment. He then talked about his role as Unique on Power Book III: Raising Kanan and what he's learned working with the show's executive producer 50 Cent. 'He's a very interesting individual; he surprised me,' Joey said of the Queens mogul. 'Not that I didn't think he was smart, but I think he's much smarter than people may think. His mind is very interesting and very multidimensional. He reminds me a lot of myself, like, how he thinks. It was really dope to have some one-on-one time with him to understand his level of thought.' When it comes to playing Unique — a rival drug dealer to Kanan and his mother Raquel — he says he's in character as soon as he puts on his vintage early '90s clothes on. 'As soon as I land on set and I put them clothes on, it's just time, you know? I'm in there. I'm in that mindset, I'm in that mode. I'm in that frame of thought.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
