Music

A recent viral video accusing Colleen Ballinger of wearing blackface and performing "Single Ladies" has it all wrong ... and new footage lays out exactly what happened.

The clip shot back in 2009, made rounds Wednesday ... showing the popular Youtuber and two men performing the Beyoncé classic. Ballinger appeared to be in blackface during the number ... and was slammed on social media as a racist.

However, new video -- obtained by TMZ -- shows a different perspective. Prior to "Single Ladies," Colleen performed a song from the musical "Wicked" with Oliver Tompsett, one of the musical's stars.

Colleen wore green face paint for the tune with Tompsett -- like the Wicked Witch of the West -- and went into "Single Ladies" immediately after the song wrapped.

The sequence of back-to-back songs left zero time for Colleen to wipe off the green paint, resulting in the now-viral video accusing her of wearing blackface for "Single Ladies."

As we reported ... Colleen's under fire for what many have considered inappropriate behavior toward minors as well as racism.

Drake kicked off his "It's All a Blur" tour in Chicago last night with no shortage of stage flair, including a moment where he spits his new poetry alongside a hologram of his younger self.

The megastar rapper lit up the United Center opening with his emotional “Look What You’ve Done" record as younger Drizzy bobbed his head wearing a Chicago Cubs' jersey.

Drake blitzed through 48 songs before the night's end and used various stage props to highlight the hit records ... paying tribute to the city's late hometown hero Virgil Abloh with a life-sized hologram of the fashion pioneer who passed away in November 2021.

The "certified lover boy" also reminded the crowd where babies come from while performing alongside a giant sperm cell.

Ghostface from the iconic "Scream" series also made a cameo, as did 21 Savage, who's co-headlining the shindig.

Ricky Martin and Jwan Yosef are calling it quits after 6 years of marriage.

The Puerto Rican pop star and Jwan announced they're getting a divorce in a joint statement Thursday.

They wrote, "We have decided to end our marriage with love, respect and dignity for our children and honoring what we have experienced as a couple all these wonderful years."

They went on ... "Our greatest desire now is to continue having a healthy family dynamic and a relationship centered on peace and friendship to continue the joint upbringing of our children, preserving the respect and love we have for each other."

The now-separated couple shares two young children, daughter Lucia and son Renn. Ricky also has two twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, both of whom he'll continue to raise as a single parent. All four kids were born via surrogates.

Ricky and Jwan first connected on Instagram in 2015 and six months later they began dating after meeting in London. They formally came out as partners on the red carpet at the 2016 amFAR Inspiration Gala and got engaged that same year. Two years later, they tied the knot.

Journey's co-founding guitarist, George Tickner, is dead ... according to his former bandmate, Neal Schon.

Schon, Journey's longtime lead guitarist, announced Tickner's passing Thursday with a social media post saying, "Journey Junkies, I have some very sad news. George Tickner, Journey’s original rhythm guitarist and songwriting contributor on their first three albums, has passed away."

He added, "Our condolences to his family and friends, and to all past and present band members. So heartbreaking. I think we need to do a group hug."

Tickner was the original rhythm guitarist, when he formed Journey in 1973 ... along with Schon and bassist Ross Valory.

Interestingly, he bowed out of the band in 1975 -- before they became hitmakers, selling more than 100 million records -- because he wanted to pursue a career in medicine, and he was serious about it. George earned a scholarship to attend Stanford Medical School.

He never fully gave up on music, though ... he was reportedly writing and doing local performances as a hobby.

George rejoined his Journey bandmates -- and subsequent members like Steve Perry -- back in 2005 when the group got its star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That's him rocking that sweet handlebar mustache.

Prior to Journey, George was a member of Frumious Bandersnatch, a psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley in the late '60s.

Neal's post didn't mention a cause of death. George was 76.

Trinidad James is a big fan of Drake getting a fresh coat of pink for his fingernails before heading out on tour -- and he's offering to help take Drizzy's manicure to the next level.

We got the "All Gold Everything" rapper Wednesday at LAX, and asked him about Drake's unveiling of his new look.

Trinidad's been getting his nails painted and bejeweled for years ... and he's thrilled to see another mainstream artist like Drake joining the ranks. We've seen Lil Yachty and Machine Gun Kelly do their nails, but Drake's the biggest hitmaker to jump on the wave.

The way TJ sees it ... there's a gender stigma around manicures, and he says it's good for Drake to break out of the box.

As we reported, Drake showed off his pink nails Monday on social media ... right before starting his highly anticipated tour with 21 Savage.

Get this ... Trinidad says some of his nail sets cost $7,000 and he gets his nails done 4 times a month. We're confident the cost wouldn't scare off Champagne Papi if he were inclined to do that kinda upkeep.

It finally happened ... after months of trying to link up, Lil Wayne got to meet LSU hoops star Flau'jae Johnson -- and now, TMZ Sports has learned the two are getting to work on a rap collab!!

The "A Milli" spitter and the Tigers guard got to see each other face-to-face for the first time in New Orleans on Sunday ... after Weezy's surprise performance at the ESSENCE Festival.

The two shared a big hug backstage ... and then they posed for a couple pics. They got to exchange some quick words too -- before Wayne had to get to his other obligations.

But, sources close to Weezy tell us following their connection ... they've now put the wheels in motion on a new song -- with plans to get things started on it ASAP.

Of course, Wayne has been trying to get this all going since April ... when he said on ESPN during the women's NCAA tournament that he wanted to connect with Johnson -- an aspiring rapper who's signed to Roc Nation.

At the time, Johnson was stoked about the Wayne shoutout ... tweeting, "Imagine Winning A National Championship Your FRESHMAN Year! Then Getting A Lil Wayne Feature Right After ??! What is life."

Before this Los Angeles native in her ladybug outfit was acting in movies like 'Scooby-Doo' and "Lemonade Mouth," she was just enjoying her summer popsicles, becoming a child star and leading her high school's step team.

Before releasing (just one) of her hits -- "Girls Like Girls" in 2015, her singing career started back in well over a decade ago when she joined the all-girl group, The Stunners, which consisted of 5 members including Tinashe ... She's a true triple threat!

Need one more hint? She enjoys sharing vacay pics with her girlfriend, "The Bachelor" star Becca Tilley.

Coco Lee, famous for voicing Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney's "Mulan," has died by suicide.

Coco's sisters, Carol and Nancy, say she attempted suicide at home Sunday and was sent to a hospital, where she slipped into a coma and died on Wednesday despite attempts to save her life.

Coco suffered from depression for years, her family says, and she sought professional help ... but her condition drastically deteriorated over the last few months and she ultimately took her own life.

In addition to her work with Disney, Coco performed an Oscar-nominated song, "A Love Before Time," in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as part of a three-decade career as a singer.

Coco was born in Hong Kong but attended middle school and high school in San Francisco, where she was crowned 1991's Miss Teen Chinatown.

She was the first Chinese singer to go big in America, with her song "Do You Want My Love" reaching No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Dance Breakout chart way back in 1999.

Coco's family is remembering her for working "tirelessly to open up a new world for Chinese singers in the international music scene, and she went all out to shine for the Chinese."

She was 48.

RIP

Keke Palmer's boyfriend Darius Jackson -- who's also the father of her child -- isn't backing down after publicly shaming her wardrobe choice for Usher's show and now says her sheer fit reflects poorly on their family.

Darius is defending his initial comments on Keke's sexy outfit after catching a ton of heat for his critique -- specifically, he said she shouldn't wear such a revealing outfit because she's a mother.

In doubling down, Darius said Wednesday ... "We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is."

Unapologetically, he added ... "This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case."

The controversy started Wednesday afternoon when Darius quote tweeted a video showing Keke in a sheer dress as Usher serenades her at his Las Vegas residency. Darius said, "It's the outfit tho.. you a mom."

Tons of folks lashed out at Darius in the replies, but now he's sticking to his guns.

Colleen Ballinger's fall from grace is taking her to a new low -- she's getting raked over the coals for an old video of her in blackface, while singing a Beyoncé hit.

The YouTuber/comedian -- famous for her viral character Miranda Sings -- is again in the crosshairs of critics who dug up the problematic clip from her past ... a video showing Colleen with dark makeup on her mug as she sings along to "Single Ladies."

Unclear exactly what year this went down, but based on the Miranda Sings YouTube page, it seems to be sometime in 2017 or 2018 ... and while it's an unlisted post, it is still up. Some of the comments claim the blackface video was offered as an exclusive sneak peek to folks who bought Colleen's book, "My Diarrhe."

The resurfacing of the video comes at a very interesting time, because Colleen was recently accused of racism in another context -- resurfaced texts allegedly sent pertaining to her 2016 Netflix show, "Haters Back Off."

The texts, attributed to someone working with Colleen at the time, were about auditions they were conducting for the show, and the sender claimed Colleen made a crack about a Black actor ... allegedly saying, "WHERE IS HE" -- referring to the guy being very dark in bad lighting.

Of course, this latest backlash is on top of recent grooming allegations ... with people accusing her of reaching out to young fans in inappropriate ways.

Colleen responded to those claims in a bizarre apology video ... which had her singing/explaining away the behavior. It was deemed as tone-deaf, and didn't help.

Things are heating up for Nelly again, 'cause the dude's about to get a helluva lot richer after selling the rights to half of the music he's cranked out ... including his biggest hits.

Sources close to the rapper tell TMZ ... Nelly secured a $50 million deal for 50% ownership over his entire catalog -- which includes 8 albums and a ton of #1 singles that helped define pop culture in the 2000s.

We're told Nelly is teaming up with a company called HarbourView Equity Partners for this, which is forking over the dough to lock up some of his best-known songs ... such as, "Ride Wit Me," "Dilemma" and of course, "Hot in Herre." Obviously they're getting more than just that ... but those tracks are, by and large, the ones Nelly's perhaps best-known for.

In fact, a couple of these songs won him Grammys -- he snagged a statuette in 2003 for "Dilemma" (Best Rap/Sung Performance) and another that same year for "Hot in Herre" (Best Male Rap Solo Performance). He has another Grammy to his name for "Shake Ya Tailfeather."

No word yet on which parts of Nelly's catalog -- besides the above-mentioned singles -- now belong to HarbourView ... but considering the wide range of tunes he has under his belt ... you gotta figure there's more goodies in the vault that they'll now have a claim to.

It's a lot of money, obviously -- so it's great news for Nelly. Interestingly enough, things are going swimmingly for Nelly in other departments of his life ... including his business ventures, like his alcohol brand, MoShine.

Plus, he's not even done making music at this point in his career ... the guy produced a full-on country album, "Heartland," in 2021 -- and we're hearing part 2's on the horizon as well.

Seems like Cardi B and Offset's latest public beef is buried ... after publicly going after each other over cheating rumors, they're gettin' close again, publicly, in Paris.

The married artists were all over each other outside the Balenciaga fashion show Wednesday, posing for the camera as a group of onlookers snapped some pics of the happy couple.

The crowd went nuts as the 2 stepped out, and Cardi was cheesing pretty hard while hand-in-hand with her boo -- a good sign things have died down from last week's public spat.

As we reported, she wasn't holding back on Offset after he posted -- then scrubbed -- a claim that she hooked up with another dude, calling him out on Twitter Spaces for the world to hear.

She denied the cheating rumors, and even said Offset would get beat with a bottle if he ever said that stuff to her face.

Safe to say the dust has settled -- especially with no bottle marks on Offset's face.

We covered the drama in a recent episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.

Jennifer Lopez's new alcohol brand drew a lot of questions and even some criticism from folks who thought her household was booze-free -- but she's setting the record straight.

The triple-threat entertainer hopped on IG Tuesday to both plug her just-launched spritzer line, Delola, and defend herself against fans who were apparently calling her out over it ... namely, the fact Jen has, historically, sworn off booze in the public eye.

Check it out ... Jennifer says she's aware of certain people raising an eyebrow about this business venture, and she addresses it head-on -- which also includes a confession.

She says while it's true she didn't drink for a long time while coming up, that changed about 10-15 years ago ... at which point, Jen says she began to enjoy the occasional cocktail. J  Lo says there's photographic evidence of this and that it's well-documented, BTW.

Another point of clarification ... Jen says she drinks responsibly and doesn't get "s***-faced." As she says herself, she just sips a little to be social and to relax/cut loose a bit. And as far as why she chose a spritzer as her alcohol of choice, she says it's light and relatively healthy.

One specific dig she did not address -- but which is certainly being discussed -- is Ben Affleck's alcoholism ... something he's battled for years, and which he seems to have kicked after stints of rehab, including a very famous one that roped in his ex, Jennifer Garner.

As we've reported ... he's had his ups and downs with alcohol, and JLo's been getting a lot of disapproval on that front too -- especially for advertising it on the 4th of July, no less.

Ben has said nothing about it himself, so you gotta figure he's on the same page as his wife -- and that Delola isn't a problem in the blended Affleck-Lopez family ... who looked quite happy and in sync this weekend.

India.Arie doesn't like the fact Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe show off a lot of skin during their performances -- but that criticism has the Internet ripping her as a boomer.

The veteran neo-soul singer issued a scathing rebuke of the 2 artists' live-show choices -- namely, their tendency to bare their bodies onstage ... which was again on display this past weekend during Essence Festival, where both MTS and JM grabbed the mic.

Their respective sets went viral ... in Janelle's case, it was because she ended up flashing the audience -- revealing her right breast (which had a nipple pasty). She's had a habit lately of dropping her top, but has said she feels comfortable in her own skin.

As for Meg, she didn't really do anything too crazy ... just a little twerking of her booty, which she always incorporates into her routines, and for which she's kinda become famous.

In any case, India wasn't feeling the perceived peep show they put on, and she sounded off about it on IG, saying ... "The issue is what is CONTEXT. Humanity does EVERYTHING. But does EVERYTHING BELONG IN A STAGE. No. is everything for KIDS? No."

She continues, "So when we as a culture make something like this mainstream -- it shows a lack of discretion and discernment. To those in the comments who laugh at anyone who wants these things for our culture, you certainly have that right."

India adds this though ... "Just as many folks have the right to want our MAINSTREAM International export -- our Music -- to show us in a respectful light. I'd like to on the record saying: this wont age well and that's my issue." She finishes by saying she loves Janelle and Meg, but just not how they're choosing to express themselves in this regard.

Her critique, although somewhat apologetic, is getting roasted by fans dropping memes and GIFs mocking India.

Essentially, she's getting branded a prude and an old head, who should keep her comments to herself ... and let the younguns live!

Taylor Swift fans overseas are crossing their fingers for an email from Ticketmaster, letting them know if one of her concerts will be in their future ... and there's reason to worry after last year's ticket sales fiasco.

Swifties looking to attend one of the singer's shows in places like London, Dublin, and Liverpool are supposed to be getting a drop in their inbox Wednesday, informing them if they'll get a code to buy tickets or be put on a waiting list.

Ticketmaster's made it clear ... seats will be sold on a "first come first serve basis" for those blessed with codes.

Folks with the golden email can only scoop up 4 seats, and they'll get their unique code sent to them the evening before their show's tickets go on sale -- tickets for Dublin go on sale next week and other concerts follow according to date.

As we reported, fans were furious back in November when the public sale for Taylor's US leg of the Eras Tour was canceled, following a mad scramble for tickets, and major scalper interference that inflated prices to as much as $20k a pop. Oh, and the site crashed.

Taylor dragged Ticketmaster after the mess, echoing what a lot of her fans had already complained about. The company was even hit with a lawsuit and had to answer to Congress.

It's Independence Day, when America forged its own path forward and down an uncharted path -- something Hollywood loves to celebrate ... which they did plenty of this year!

The sun was out Tuesday, as were the rest of Tinseltown's biggest stars -- who were catching rays, hanging with loved ones, cooking up grub ... and enjoying the holiday that is, essentially, the U.S.A.'s birthday. Of course, most everyone was on theme, too.

Among the A-listers who posted pics showing off their planned festivities ... Jana Kramer, Kim Kardashian, Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was dressed as Uncle Sam), Paula Abdul, Rumer Willis, Gretchen Rossi, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelly Ripa, Cheryl Burke, Billy Ray Cyrus and Snooki.

Another interesting 4th post that went up amid a reported tumultuous time ... one from Kyle Richards' husband, Mauricio Umansky, from whom she's said to have recently separated.

Based on the family-friendly pics he posted -- which also feature Kyle front and center -- you wouldn't think anything's amiss ... even though KR herself said they've been going through a hard time of late, but denying any hint of a looming divorce in their future.