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The Beatles‘ The White Album is, to put it mildly, strange. A fictional hero from adventure stories, an American historical figure, and an event in India inspired one track from The White Album. Here’s how that all went down.

1 song from The Beatles’ ‘The White Album’ was social commentary and a joke

The White Album is one of the oddest ducks in popular music history. It careens wildly between styles, embracing folk, rock, pop, vaudeville, blues, children’s music, and the avant-garde. While the record includes a lot of experiments, listeners tend to remember some of its radio-friendly tracks like “Blackbird,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and “Ob-la-Di, Ob-la-Da.”

Somewhere in between the commercial and the experimental is the unusual folk ditty “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” The track is about the title character killing a tiger. The tune goes back and forth between portraying the killing as tragic and heroic.

Top choreographers from film, television, and digital media celebrated remarkable achievements at the World Choreography Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. The event highlighted the changing landscape of dance performance across different entertainment channels.

Fatima Robinson was a standout winner in the Motion Picture category for her revolutionary work on “The Color Purple.” Her choreography for the musical piece “Push da Button” surprised judges with its innovative mix of dance forms, which included hip-hop, African dance, tap, jazz, and Jamaican moves. Robinson intentionally used accessories such as handkerchiefs, scarves, and canes to enhance Taraji P. Henson’s performance.

“I gave her movements, so she had somewhere to go, and it wasn’t just a flat performance on stage,” Robinson said of her choreography approach for the piece.

Parris Goebel dominated the evening, winning two trophies. She won the Television Award Show/Special category for her choreography in the Super Bowl...

Fatima Robinson (“The Color Purple”) and Parris Goebel (“Super Bowl Lvii Halftime Show”) took home top honors at the World Choreography Awards.

The awards were handed out on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

Other winners included Tessandra Chavez for her work on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and Jon Boogz for Starz’s “Blindspotting.”

In a statement to Variety, founder and producer Allen Walls said, “I congratulate all of tonight’s nominees and winners. This Awards Show illustrates our intent to highlight the depth of exceptional talent in our industry. In our 14th year, there were over 275 submissions. We are the Oscars of Dance.”

Robinson fused hip-hop, dance, African history, tap, jazz and even Jamaican moves as she crafted the musical numbers in “The Color Purple.” One highlight was “Push da Button” performed by Taraji P. Henson’s Shug Avery. Robinson made sure there were plenty of props including handkerchiefs, scarves and even a cane.

About 70 years ago, Art Garfunkel formed his first musical duo when he noticed he blended voices nicely with an elementary school friend named Paul. He formed his second one several decades later when he discovered a similar chemistry with his eldest son, Art Garfunkel Jr. After years of performing together on concert stages all across the globe, they released their debut LP last week Father and Son. They’ve dubbed themselves “Garfunkel and Garfunkel.”

Right now, Garfunkel and Garfunkel are sitting in a conference room at New York City’s Pierre Hotel,...

Exclusive: Vertical has acquired U.S. rights to Sharp Corner, an indie psychological thriller, starring Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) and Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), which scored positive reviews out of the Rome Film Festival and TIFF, where the deal was completed.

The film, based on the Scotiabank Giller Prize-nominated short story from Russell Wangersky, will be released next spring.

Sharp Corner follows Josh McCall (Foster), a hapless family man, and his wife Rachel (Smulders) as they escape the city for an idyllic country house — the perfect setting to raise their six-year-old son, Max (William Kosovic). But on their first night at home, a fatal car accident disrupts their plans. Rachel would rather erase the event from her memory, but Josh finds himself drawn to the tragedy and becomes obsessed with saving the lives of the car accident victims at the sharp corner in front of his house.

It’s been nearly a decade and a half since Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed at the American Film Institute’s tribute to Mike Nichols in Los Angeles. The time in between then has been marked with Garfunkel’s four-year struggle to regain his voice after being diagnosed with vocal cord paresis, followed by a delayed Simon & Garfunkel North American tour that never materialized and Garfunkel’s public denouncement of his former bandmate.

However, their long-standing feud has seemed to reach a healing point. Speaking with The Sun, Garfunkel...

Exclusive: Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire), Andrea Riseborough (Birdman) and Anson Boon (1917) are leading under-the-radar thriller Good Boy, from director Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi) and producers Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor), Ewa Piaskowska (Essential Killing) and Jerzy Skolimowski (Eo).

Filming recently completed on the movie at studios in Warsaw and on location in Yorkshire, UK, with HanWay films set to introduce footage to buyers at the upcoming American Film Market in Las Vegas.

The synopsis reads: “Nineteen year old Tommy likes his life as a criminal, and leads his friends in acts of horrifying violence, until one night he is kidnapped by a stranger, Chris (Graham). Waking up with a chain around his neck in the basement of an isolated home, Tommy (Boon) finds himself at the centre of a dysfunctional family dynamic as Chris and his mysterious wife Kathryn (Riseborough) try to make Tommy a “good boy”, in a process of forced rehabilitation.

Men will literally become fixated on car accidents that keep happening on a dangerous road near their new house instead of going to therapy. At least, that’s the case for Ben Foster’s Josh in “Sharp Corner,” an often remarkably well-acted psychological thriller about a pitiful man who can’t stop looking out from his home in the hopes passing cars will crash. It’s a work that serves as yet another strong showcase for Foster, who has been great in standout leading roles in “Leave No Trace” and “Hell or High Water.”

Now this new film from writer-director Jason Buxton (“Blackbird”) gets to where it needs to in one piece (even as its many motor vehicles do not), further proving to be another sturdy character study that is made into something greater by a fantastic Foster.

“Sharp Corner,” which premiered Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival, is...

Marvel Comics has long come under fire for failing to properly compensate writers and artists. That's why so many of the company's biggest names now produce independent comics despite once being responsible for many of Marvel's most iconic stories. 

Jen Bartel was discovered on social media and later worked for both Marvel and DC, first on promotional tie-ins, and later with jaw-dropping cover art. Perhaps best known for being the main cover artist on Rainbow Rowell's She-Hulk run, Bartel - who was employed as a freelancer - also redesigned Captain Marvel's costume for her comic's relaunch last year. 

She also co-created the Blackbird for Image with Sam Humphries and won two Eisner Awards for her work as a cover artist in 2019 and 2022.

For those of you wondering why she's no longer illustrating covers for Marvel Comics, Bartel set the record straight recently with a series of X posts...

When Shatara Michelle Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares” premieres Thursday night at the BlackStar Film Festival, it will, like all productions, be the result of the work of many. In the case of the “Test Pattern” filmmaker’s sophomore feature, it will also be the result of the work of many people who united together behind a set of “production community guidelines” that Ford and their producers shared with the cast and crew during every step of the film’s production.

These guidelines were originally shared in the official press notes for the film, but they were so striking, so heartening, that IndieWire is now sharing them in full below. And while one of the tenants of these guidelines holds that mistakes will be made — and Ford is quick to note that these concepts “aren’t perfect” — there’s much here that any production could and should be inspired by.

Americana music has been in the midst of a huge surge in recent years. The genre went from the realm of older folk musicians to a mainstream force with clear influence on the charts. And with the industry expanding, so is the number of major contenders for Grammys. Let’s take a broad look at this year’s top contenders so far.

There are a couple of especially mainstream contenders we need to address first. Noah Kahan is arguably the biggest Americana artist alive right now, but last year he was ignored in the field and relegated to a single Best New Artist nomination, which he lost to Victoria Monet. There is reason to believe, however, that this year he will finally get some well deserved genre nominations: significantly, Kahan got an important Artist of the Year nomination at the Americana Music Honors and Awards this year, which signals support...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter reimagined country music through her own musical lens. Now, other Black musicians in the genre — from Brittney Spencer and Tanner Adell to Joy Oladokun, Breland, and more — are painting selections from throughout her catalogue with their own rustic palettes for Apple Music’s Nashville Sessions: Beyoncé Covered collection.

“Beyonce has opened a door that’s going to be really hard to close,” singer and songwriter Tiera Kennedy told Apple Music. The Alabama native reimagined “1+1” for the covers collection, blending country with R&b. Beyoncé did the...

IATSE is continuing its push to unionize visual effects workers, this time setting its sights on Apple Studios.

The guild announced Friday that it has filed for a National Labor Relations Board election after a supermajority of the 17 employees across six Apple series have signed authorization cards.

They have also already asked management at Apple Studios to voluntarily recognize their VFX workers’ union. Deadline has reached out to the studio for comment.

The employees under the proposed bargaining unit work across shows including Bubbi, Jiminy, Foxtrot, Government Cheese, Surface and Blackbird. The roles that IATSE is seeking to represent include VFX Production Supervisor/Manager, VFX Associate Production Manager, Senior VFX Coordinator, VFX Coordinator, VFX Assistant Coordinator, VFX Production Assistant, VFX Witness Camera Operator, VFX Production Artist, VFX On-Set Supervisor, VFX On-Set Production Supervisor/Manager, Lead VFX, Data Wrangler, VFX Data Wrangler, and VFX Jr.

As it continues to press forward with its campaign to organize visual effects workers, IATSE has made a bid to represent a small group of these professionals who work on Apple television series.

On Friday the union announced that it had submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to represent 17 workers at six Apple Studios LLC shows including Bubbi, Jiminy, Foxtrot, Government Cheese, Surface and Blackbird. The union is seeking to represent roles such as VFX production supervisor/manager, VFX coordinator, VFX production assistant, VFX witness camera operator and VFX on-set supervisor, among other classifications. According to IATSE, a “supermajority” of the proposed bargaining unit has signed union authorization cards.

In a statement, VFX lead data wrangler Liam Mazarra said he was “proud to stand with my colleagues at Apple Studios as we build a more just and promising future for the visual effects community.” Mazarra added, “As...

When Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” hit the top spot on Billboard’s Hot country songs chart, she became the first Black woman to achieve the feat in the chart’s 80-year history. The tune blending elements of country, Western music, pop and soul reigned supreme for 10 weeks as her Cowboy Carter album emerged as a cultural piece of art that sparked think pieces about Black artists reclaiming the genres they created to social media essays about Queen Bey’s next-level greatness and virtuosity.

“Texas Hold ‘Em” eventually dipped to No. 2, only to be supplanted by a new artist with a connection to Beyoncé: her two-time Cowboy Carter collaborator Shaboozey. The 29-year-old’s anthemic blend of country and rap on “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” released two weeks after Cowboy Carter, danced to the top of the charts. And, for the first time in Billboard history, two consecutive Black artists held the No.

Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney recently took their friendship to the next level. The Beatle hosted a party at his home that featured one of the most star-studded guest lists of all time. Attendees included musicians, talk show hosts, and movie stars. Austin Butler, who was at the party, spoke about what it was like to attend and watch Swift control the music.

Taylor Swift controlled the music at a party thrown by Paul McCartney

In a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Butler and Kimmel spoke about a party they’d attended at McCartney’s house.

“Last time I saw you was at maybe the craziest party I’ve ever been to in my whole life,” Kimmel said, adding, “It was one of those insane parties where like Tom Hanks is going, ‘Oh my God, can you believe who’s here?’”

People like Meryl Streep, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen,...

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It’s a vinyl world — we’re just spinning in it.

Over the last few years, artists from Taylor Swift to Beyoncé to Billie Eilish have released exclusive editions of their studio albums, giving music fans another reason to collect their favorites on vinyl.

Vinyl records have continued to explode in popularity, recently even outselling those little circular things called CDs. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (a.

US filmmaker Carson Lund’s debut feature Eephus has been acquired for France by Capricci, with a theatrical release plotted for the first half of 2025.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation is handling world sales on the film that premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last month.

The New England-set comedy drama unfolds as a construction project looms over a small-town baseball field, leaving a pair of Sunday league teams to face off for the last time over the course of a day.

The cast includes Keith William Richards, Wayne Diamond and Keith Poulson, with a voice cameo by celebrated director Frederick Wiseman.

Related Images is a column in which filmmakers invite readers behind the scenes, into their sketchbooks, or otherwise through the looking glass to learn more about their creative processes.Elene Naveriani's Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.I've always wanted to delve into the intricate processes behind filmmaking—the collaboration between various creative minds. Observing how these people work together to bring cinematic visions to life has always fascinated me. I often wished to peek onto the process or have a quick glance at the work that was done before the filming.I find it incredible to witness how initial ideas gradually become more concrete and visual, eventually transforming into the moving images we see on screen.In this spirit, I'd like to share a particularly precious and insightful stage of the work we did for Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023). This experience offers a unique...

*Major Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season Finale*

It has been said countless times before that Marvel Studios and the MCU do not like to leave loose ends. Although the finale of X-Men ’97 was one of the most iconic episodes of the animated series, Marvel Studios also completed the loop after 31 years!

With Wolverine uttering one iconic line to Magneto during the finale of X-Men ’97, the mutants really came full circle 31 years back when the Og X-Men: The Animated Series was released in 1992 and fans were really impressed with Marvel’s ability!

Magneto in X-Men ’97

“The brave are always the first to die”

It was 1992 when Magneto said an iconic line in the original animated show X-Men: The Animated Series. When the mutants (including Wolverine) chose to get in the Blackbird to face Bolivar Trask and Master Mold to save President Robert Kelly, Magneto considered it a suicide mission.

Awful secrets and gorgeous swimwear are present in equal measure in this bizarre drama featuring a lightly-clad Hurley on top telenovela form

After Blackbird, the traumatising spy-thriller bankrolled by and starring Irish dancer Michael Flatley, filmgoers thought they were safe – for a while – from bizarre and eccentrically acted dramas set in luxury paradises. But now, at the age of 22, actor and model Damian Hurley has written and directed a softcore erotic mystery drama set in the Caribbean starring his sexy mum, Elizabeth Hurley … to whom he gives a full-on sapphic love scene with a nightclub singer. As this woman’s head slinks south after a lingering kiss, Mr Hurley brings his camera very candidly indeed to what could only be described as an imminent moment of oral pleasure. We know the phrase Too Much Information … but what about Too Much Content? Too Much Freud? Or just … Too Much?

Continue reading.

Paul Walter Hauser has joined the already-stacked cast of Marvel’s upcoming superhero romp The Fantastic Four.

The casting news for Marvel’s The Fantastic Four just keep coming in. We recently learned that Julia Garner would be playing Silver Surfer, one of Fantastic Four’s most notorious villains, in the new film adaptation.

Now, word comes via Variety that Paul Walter Hauser is also joining the film. Unfortunately, that’s all we know at the moment; Marvel is keeping his role secret for now. Hauser has previously appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell and AppleTV+’s excellent Blackbird with Taron Egerton.

Hauser is joining an all-star cast that includes Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (aka Mr Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (the Thing).

Fantastic Four are also known as Marvel...

Foo Fighters kicked off their 2024 tour (get tickets here) on Wednesday, May 1st at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas, Texas, and paid tribute to hometown hero Dimebag Darrell during the show. Fittingly, Dave Grohl dedicated “My Hero” to the late Pantera guitarist.

In fan-filmed video (watch below), Grohl starts playing “My Hero” on guitar and addresses the crowd: “This one’s for everybody. Actually, you know what, since we’re here in Dallas, I’m gonna dedicate this one to an old friend. He lived around here. His name is Dimebag Darrell. How ’bout that? We’ll sing it for Darrell.”

Get Foo Fighters Tickets Here

From there, Grohl leads the crowd in a rousing sing-along, as the rest of the band joins in halfway through for an impassioned performance of the classic Foo Fighters hit.

Grohl has spoken of his friendship with Dimebag in the past, even recounting a...

A month so staggering in quality new releases that a new Mad Max film from George Miller barely cracked the top five, May kicks off the summer movie season with a bang. From the best American film of the year to a long-awaited U.S. release from the director who topped last month’s list, and much more, check out my picks of the best movies arriving this month below.

17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)

Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...

Fresh off Beyoncé’s record-breaking, genre-defying new album, CNN is examining country music’s post-Cowboy Carter reckoning in a new documentary.

Produced by CNN FlashDocs, Call Me Country: Beyoncé and Nashville’s Renaissance is streaming today exclusively on Max. Per the logline, the 42-minute film “examines this reckoning in the genre straight from the country music capital of the world” through interviews with musicians and analyses by culture and country music experts. (Beyoncé was not involved with the CNN documentary.)

Stream 'Call Me Country' on Max

The Grammy-winning superstar became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with the release of Act II: Cowboy Carter, which follows Renaissance as the second installment in a potential series of albums. She previously said she did not feel “welcomed” by the country music world when she first tried to enter the genre. Upon releasing her eighth studio album,...

Netflix has acquired the series “Calabasas” from executive producers Kim Kardashian, Emma Roberts and “Pretty Little Liars” creator I. Marlene King, Variety has confirmed.

Based on the 2021 book “If You Lived Here You’d Be Famous by Now” by Via Bleidner, the upcoming series follows a 16-year-old sheltered Catholic school girl who’s thrown into unfamiliar territory when she transfers to Calabasas High. King is set to write the series adaptation and serve as showrunner.

Kardashian is executive producing with King and her partner Lauren Wagner via Long Lake Media. Additional executive producers include Roberts, Karah Preiss and Matt Matruski for Belletrist Productions and Alexandra Milchan under her Crescentline banner. The project is currently in development at Netflix.

“Calabasas” reunites Kardashian and Roberts, who worked together on Parts 1 and 2 of “American Horror Story: Delicate.”

Kardashian is a Calabasas resident herself, with the city often appearing on the reality series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians...

Exclusive: Kim Kardashian’s foray into film and TV continues with another high-profile sale, this one hitting close to home for the reality star and entrepreneur. After a competitive bidding that went through the week, sources tell Deadline that Netflix has landed for development Calabasas, a TV series which Kardashian is executive producing with her American Horror Story co-star Emma Roberts, Pretty Little Liars creator I. Marlene King and Alexandra Milchan (Tár). Insiders say there were two other offers from major buyers with Netflix putting in the winning bid by week’s end.

Calabasas is based on the book If You Lived Here You’d Be Famous By Now by Via Bleidner, with King set to write the adaptation and serve as showrunner.

In the vein of The O.C. and Beverly Hills 90210, Calabasas follows Via, a 16-year-old sheltered Midwestern Catholic school girl whose world is turned upside down...

Ania Trzebiatowska has compiled an eclectic selection of fiction and non-fiction titles for the third annual Sands International Film Festival, which kicked off Friday evening in St Andrews, Scotland.

Mounted across this weekend in the ancient university town, Trzebiatowska — also a full-time programmer at Sundance — runs the festival with an impressive gang of part-time student programmers from the University of St. Andrews, a partner on the festival alongside Joe and Anthony Russo’s Agbo. The Avengers: Endgame filmmakers are connected to the town through Joe’s eldest daughter, who studied at St Andrews. The two Russos were in the building this evening.

“I love the energy of this town. I love how warm everyone is and how enthusiastic the students are,” Joe Russo said opening the event. “It permeates the experience of being here. And it’s such an incredible backdrop for the festival for those reasons. It’s great...

Beyoncé’s masterful new album, Cowboy Carter, is now available on vinyl.

The limited-edition vinyl editions of Cowboy Carter come pressed in three colors — red, white, and blue — and feature alternative album artwork. Additionally, the album is available in a standard black vinyl format. There are also limited edition CD copies, and several bundles with Cowboy Carter-related merch. You can find more details on Beyoncé’s website.

Over the weekend, commemorating the album’s physical arrival, Beyoncé signed a number of copies at Supervinyl in Los Angeles. See the photos she shared of the moment — and check out the artwork and color vinyl options available — below.

Previously, there was some controversy about physical editions of Cowboy Carter, as fans discovered the vinyl omitted several tracks, including “YA YA,” “Spaghettii,” “The Linda Martell Show,” and “Flamenco.” Currently, those songs are still not listed on the tracklist for the vinyl sold on Beyoncé’s website.

Chris Farley is coming back to the big screen via a biopic about the late comedian’s life and career, our sister site Deadline reports.

Paul Walter Hauser, whose work on Apple TV+’s Blackbird earned him a Primetime Emmy Award, is set to play Farley in the movie, which is being directed by Josh Gad. Lorne Michaels, credited for discovering Farley and giving him his big break on Saturday Night Live, will produce through Broadway Video.

More from TVLineMovie About SNL's 1975 Premiere Casts Its Not Ready for Primetime Players - See PhotosCentral Park Is 'Done' After Three Seasons at Apple TV+,...

Lily Allen is throwing some shade at Beyonce amid the release of her album Cowboy Carter.

The 38-year-old singer and actress, who is married to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, had some harsh comments to make during an appearance on a podcast this week.

“Have you heard the Beyoncé album?” Miss Me? podcast host Miquita Oliver asked.

“I’ve heard a few bits,” Lily answered. “The Miley Cyrus one and I listened to the Blackbird one… I have to listen to the whole thing from start to finish.”

Keep reading to find out more…

After Miquita pointed out that Beyonce “looks great,” Lily said that the superstar must be “getting some help.”

“She’s got a great team of stylists, great hair people, she works out, [she’s] got access to the best personal trainers in the world—She’s Beyoncé,” Lily said.

Lily then explained why she found the “Jolene” cover...

Sir Paul McCartney is a fan of the Cowboy Carter rendition of his song, Blackbird, which he originally wrote in 1968.

“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird,'” McCartney wrote Thursday on Instagram. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!”

Beyoncé called him to discuss the song before recording it. “I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it,” he wrote. “I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the...

The best pop stars are full of surprises. Beyoncé surprised everyone by releasing her version of The Beatles’ “Blackbird.” Paul McCartney had a strong reaction to the cover on social media. Fascinatingly, the original song was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement.

Paul McCartney said Beyoncé understood the message of The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’

So many classic artists across genres have put their own spin on Beatles songs. Some of the R&b icons who covered Fab Four tracks include Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and Prince. Beyoncé added her name to that canon with her cover of “Blackbird,” a folk ditty from The White Album.

In a 2024 Instagram post, Paul himself heaped praise on Queen B’s “Blackbird.” “I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird,'” he wrote. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message...

Paul McCartney has nothing but praise for Beyoncé’s cover of “Blackbird.”

In an Instagram post shared Thursday, McCartney said he gave the superstar his blessing to include her rendition of The Beatles’ classic on Cowboy Carter. “I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it. I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song,” he wrote.

McCartney also shared that he’s “so happy” with Beyoncé’s cover, as she “does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place.”

Over the years, McCartney has given various answers as to what the song was written about, from being inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird while the Beatles were in India, to penning it...

Paul McCartney has praised Beyoncé for her interpretation of “Blackbird,” calling it “a magnificent version” that “reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place.”

“I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!” McCartney wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday.

“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it. I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now.

Paul McCartney is addressing Beyoncé’s cover of “Blackbird,” featured on her new album Cowboy Carter.

“Blackbird” comes from the double album by The Beatles also known as The White Album. The song was written by Paul and John Lennon, and was inspired by the Civil Rights movement in America in the ’50s and ’60s.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I am so happy with @beyonce’s version of my song ‘Blackbird’. I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” he said on social media.

“I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!”

“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it,...

Paul McCartney applauded Beyoncé’s rendition of the White Album classic “Blackbird” in a statement posted Thursday on the Beatles legend’s social media.

“I am so happy with [Beyoncé’s] version of my song ‘Blackbird,'” McCartney wrote alongside a photo of the singers together. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out.

We know that Beatles fans all have their favorites, and now we want to know yours. Over Memorial Day weekend, The Beatles Channel (Ch. 18) will play the band’s 100 most popular songs — according to you, the real experts — during the annual “All Together Now” special.

The Beatles ChannelAll Together Now 2024Listen on the App

Listen on the App

Tune in to hear the countdown starting May 24, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, on The Beatles Channel (Ch. 18).

Stream the countdown in full anytime, anywhere, on the SiriusXM app.

Directions: Select 10 songs from the list below. Voting ends April 17 at 11:59pm Et.

Memorial Day weekend is a time to remember our family, friends, and loved ones. If you’d like to be a part of this year’s “All Together Now” countdown, here’s your chance to introduce your favorite song on air. Please submit a dedication via voice memo to beatles@siriusxm.

Jack White was greeted with a bouquet of flowers recently. They were from Beyoncé.

On Tuesday, the musician shared a photo of the (literal) flowers Beyoncé sent him after she released her album Cowboy Carter, and they included a sweet note acknowledging how he inspired her new record.

“I just wanted you to know how much you inspired me on this record,” Beyoncé wrote, signing it: “Sending you my love.”

White shared a photo of the flowers on her Instagram, thanking Queen Bey for the gesture.

“What a sweet gesture...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is a landmark provocation that dares the country music establishment to look itself in the eye. Nashville has spent decades marginalizing Black women like Linda Martell and Rhiannon Giddens, and outright ignoring the likes of Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. Beyoncé, inspired at least partially by the ugly fallout from her appearance alongside the Chicks at the CMAs in 2016, is now playing a game of chicken with Music Row. Are they really going to ignore one of the most prominent Black artists of the last 20 years when she comes to the gates of their white picket fences? And, if so, how are they going to reconcile that with their insistence that of course we aren’t racist with the fact that Beyoncé has proven that she knows exactly what she’s doing and why.

Every choice Beyoncé has made on Cowboy Carter betrays a...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is galloping on Spotify and bringing other Black country-based artists for the ride.

Since the album’s release on Friday, the number of first-time listeners for acts like Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Shaboozey — who all appear on Cowboy Carter — has increased in the past week.

Spencer saw an uptick of 170 percent in first-time listeners, Roberts and Tanner Adell both went up 125 percent, and Tiera Kennedy’s first-time listens were increased by 110 percent. Spencer, Reynolds, Adell and Kennedy collaborated with the Grammy-winning superstar on a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” the second track on Cowboy Carter.

From left: Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts, Willie Jones and Tiera Kennedy

Willie Jones, who appears alongside Beyoncé on “Just for Fun,” saw an uptick of 75 percent in first-time listeners, and Shaboozey, who is featured on “Sweet/Honey/Buckiin’” and “Spaghetti,” went up 70 percent.

And the Beyoncé effect wasn’t just...

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt. Those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century across over 1,100 premieres.

Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.

All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)

In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...

From the start of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé makes it clear this ain’t your typical country album. Opening epic “Ameriican Requiem” is part gospel, part-Queen, part-Buffalo Springfield as the artist lays out both her intentions and lineage. “Used to say I spoke ‘Too country’/And the rejection came, said I wasn’t ‘country ‘nough’/Said I wouldn’t saddle up/But if that ain’t country, tell me what is?” she sings from the gut, after listing off her bona fide country credentials.

Like everything Beyoncé has done, specifically in...

Beyoncé is making sure her fellow Black female artists in the country space are getting their flowers too.

Amid the release of her highly-anticipated country album Cowboy Carter on Friday, the Grammy-winning singer sent flowers and cards with sweet messages to K. Michelle and Mickey Guyton to show her appreciation for what they have already done in the genre.

“Thank you for opening doors for me, queen. Keep shining. Love and respect, Beyoncé,” she wrote to Guyton, along with a stunning bouquet of white flowers.

In her card to K. Michelle, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer said, “You’re killing it! I love what you’ve been doing and I know it’s not easy to enter a new space. Sending you positivity and respect. I hope to meet you one day. Love, Beyoncé.”

Guyton became the first Black female solo artist to be nominated for a Grammy in a...

These boots were certainly made for walkin’!

On Friday evening, Nancy Sinatra celebrated Beyoncé sampling her iconic 1965 single “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” on the Cowboy Carter standout “Ya Ya.”

“To have a little piece of one of my records in a @Beyonce song is very meaningful to me because I love her,” Sinatra wrote on X. “She represents what is great about today’s music and I’m delighted to be a tiny part of it.”

“This may be the best sample of ‘Boots’ yet! And the beat goes on…...

The second track on Cowboy Carter — Beyoncé’s country album on the cover of which the singer wears red, white, and blue, and carries an American flag — is a take on a song by notoriously British band, The Beatles. At first glance, the cover of “Blackbird,” while beautiful, may seem like an outlier. Other artists featured on the album include country icons like Dolly Parton, Linda Martell, and Willie Nelson. The Beatles’ song makes more sense on the album than it may initially seem, though.

Beyoncé covers The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ on ‘Cowboy Carter’

Cowboy Carter features a luminous, true-to-the-original cover of “Blackbird.” Beyoncé sings the song, accompanied by the harmonies of Black country artists Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Brittney Spencer, and Reyna Roberts. The folky, White Album classic is an unexpected addition to the country album. It’s also a crucial one.

Paul McCartney, who wrote the song in 1968, explained his inspiration for “Blackbird.

Among the guests appearances on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter are a few newer names country fans may recognize. Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts pop in to sing with Beyoncé on “Blackbiird,” a reimagining of the Beatles 1968 song “Blackbird” (the “ii” signifies the LP is the second installment in the singer’s three-album project).

Adell is a rising country star who dropped her debut album, Buckle Bunny, last summer. Her inclusion on Cowboy Carter is of note because she seems to have manifested it herself. In February,...

Beyoncé has so many audacious culture-clash triumphs all over Cowboy Carter. But one of the most stunning moments is also one of the simplest: her version of the Beatles classic “Blackbird.” Paul McCartney wrote the song in the summer of 1968, inspired by the American civil rights movement. All that history is right there in Beyoncé’s version. She keeps the folkie Paul guitar, complete with the squeaks, but adds her heavenly gospel-soul harmonies. What she does with the word “arise” is incredible in itself.

It’s a stroke of Beyoncé...

Beyoncé has officially released Act II: Cowboy Carter, the follow-up to her Grammy-winning album Renaissance.

Featuring a 27-song tracklist, this is not only Beyoncé’s first country album, but it’s also the second installment in a potential trilogy or series of albums beginning with Renaissance.

Earlier this week, she released the complete tracklist on her Instagram, which includes a cover of Dolly Parton’s classic hit “Jolene,” as well as a collaboration with genre legend Willie Nelson on a song titled “Smoke Hour.” Post Malone is also featured on the track “Levii’s Jeans,” while Miley Cyrus is a guest vocalist on “II Most Wanted.”

On Friday, Cyrus and Post Malone took to social media to celebrate the album, with the latter calling it “beautiful.” Cyrus also wrote in an Instagram post, “I’ve loved Beyoncé since long before I had the opportunity to meet & work with her. My...

Grab your cowboy hat, because Act II: Cowboy Carter, the next installment of Beyoncé’s Renaissance project, has officially arrived. Stream it below.

The second act kicked off in February with the album announcement and dual drop of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” which confirmed this project as country-inspired. Shortly after, Beyoncé revealed that this album was born of an experience where she didn’t feel welcomed, and the process of writing and recording Act II has encouraged her to take a deep dive into the rich history of Black artists in country music.

She’s enlisted a crew of serious heavy hitters to join her on the journey, including icons Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Miley Cyrus and Post Malone also guest on Cowboy Carter. Linda Martell, the first Black woman to ever play the Grand Ole Opry, gets a moment to take center stage, too.

Update: Beyoncé has...