Live from New York | Pop Recap #29

Happy Sunday everyone!!! This week was exciting, kicking off with an Eagles Super Bowl win and ending with the SNL50 special! Let’s get into it.

🗞️ Making Headlines

The 50th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live airs tonight at 8PM on NBC! The three hour special will include appearances by way too many iconic alumni, former hosts and musical guests to list in this newsletter. They include:

• Adam Driver

• Ayo Edibiri

• Bad Bunny

• Dave Chappelle

• John Mulaney

• Kim Kardashian

• Martin Short

• Miley Cyrus

• Paul McCartney

• Paul Simon

• Pedro Pascal

• Peyton Manning

• Quinta Brunson

• Robert De Niro

• Sabrina Carpenter

• Scarlett Johansson

• Steve Martin

• Tom Hanks

• Woody Harrelson

For a full list of who you can expect to see in Studio 8H tonight, read here. Willie Geist and Leslie Jones, with correspondent Matt Rogers will kick off the evening with red carpet coverage starting at 7PM.

The Oscars are taking place on March 2, and presenters are beginning to be announced. They include Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Elle Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, John Lithgow, Amy Poehler, June Squibb, Bowen Yang, Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

Pop Fact of the Week: Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week! Fun fact, Alec Baldwin has hosted the show the most (17 times), while Dave Grohl has performed as musical guest the most (16 times).

In this edition...

• 🎥 On Screen

• 🎭 On Stage

• 🎵 In Music

• 💗 Pick of the Week

🎥 On Screen

• We got several new trailers during the Super Bowl, including for Mission: Impossible 8 (and yes, Tom Cruise is risking his life again for the sake of cinema), the live action of Lilo and Stitch, and the live action of How to Train Your Dragon.

• Season 3 of Euphoria has finally entered production, but without some familiar faces. Algee Smith, Nike King and Storm Reid are among those not returning. But it has been revealed that Spanish pop star Rosalía has joined the cast, along with Marshawn Lynch and Kadeem Hardison.

• A sequel to Goonies is in the works, and Steven Spielberg is returning to producer.

🎭 On Stage

• Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Phillippe will star as Belle and the Beast in the North American tour of Beauty and the Beast, kicking off this summer.

• Maleah Joi Moon and Brandon Victor Dixon have announced their final performances in Hell’s Kitchen. Dixon’s final bow will be on March 9, while Moon’s last show is on March 30. Jade Milan has been announced to take over the role of Ali.

🎵 In Music

• Selena Gomez has announced a collaboration album with her fiancee and Grammy-nominated record producer, Benny Blanco. I Said I Love You First releases on March 21.

• The Jonas Brothers are celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band with a special fan convention. Jonascon will take place on March 23 at American Dream Mall in New Jersey.

• The Backstreet Boys have announced a residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, kicking off this July.

• Halsey has announced For My Last Trick: The Tour, set to kick off in Concord, CA on May 10.

• Alessia Cara’s new album Love & Hyperbole just released, and she has announced a tour of the same name, set to kick off in Boston, MA on April 6.

💗 Pick of the Week

The Super Bowl was last Sunday and I want to do a series of picks specifically about the big game.

1. Of course, I have to shoutout the Philadelphia Eagles for defeating the Chiefs and saving us from having to watch Mahomes and company gloat about a three-peat. I truly can not put into words the extreme joy I felt watching the Chiefs score zero points the entire first half.

2. I was overall underwhelmed by the commercials this year, however. They either relied on celebrity star power, but none were super noteworthy, or they got very weird to the point where they were uncomfortable to watch (I’m thinking of you Coffee Mate, and you Mountain Dew, and you Tubi…seriously why were there so many weird ones this year.) My pick for the best Super Bowl commercial goes out to Nike this year. Featuring a supreme lineup of women sports stars, including Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, and JuJu Watkins, and narrated by Doechii, this spot was full of girl power.

3. Lastly, the big one…Kendrick Lamar!!! This Super Bowl halftime show was phenomenal. What I loved most about it was how theatrical it felt. There was a storyline, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, that explored the political state of America. And yes, he played into the beef with Drake too, performing both “Not Like Us,” with a Serena Williams cameo and “Euphoria.” I did feel the setlist leaned heavily into his new album GNX, so if there was anything I’d truly critique, I wish he performed some older hits like “Money Trees.” But overall, I loved the imagery, SZA was great, and the energy was everything. Lamar became the first rapper to headline the halftime solo, and I think he did the milestone justice. Let me know your thoughts of the performance on social media. 

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xx Kat