From MTV's hottest artists to Barbie in the Middle East, here's what's happening in entertainment.
'23 VMAs
With just over a month to go before the 2023 MTV Music Video Awards, the network has released this year's nominees.
Taylor Swift leads all artists with eight nominations, including major categories like Video of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. SZA checked in with six nods, while a slew of other artists are tied at 5 nominations each.
The ongoing Hollywood writer's strike will likely impact the show, as it has other award shows this year. That means showrunners will have to get creative when selecting a host and creating segments to keep the show interesting.
The ceremony is set for September 12 at Newark, N.J.'s Prudential Center.
Travis Tour
Fresh off the release of his fourth solo studio album, UTOPIA, Travis Scott is set to hit the road.
Scott took to Instagram to confirm the news and announce U.S. and European dates will be publicized soon.
The tour will be Scott's first since Astroworld, which was marred by crowd crush in Houston that left 10 people dead and dozens others injured. Litigation around the deadly festival is ongoing and just as recently as two days ago, it was revealed that Scott settled with a third family who lost their 14-year-old son in the melee.
The announcement also comes days after a slated show at the Pyramids of Giza was cancelled by Egypt's Musicians Syndicate which cited Scott's image as going against its societal values.
The wild success of the Barbie movie won't be escaping the Middle East after all.
The film is set to debut in theaters this weekend after a three-week delay. It was set to go live two days before the rest of the world on July 19, however critics in the region wanted to censor parts of the movie that did not align with their societal values.
For example, there were concerns in the United Arab Emirates over LGBTQ+-related dialogue, according to Variety. Barbie isn't the first movie to face this type of reaction. This year, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was not released in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, presumably because of a "Protect Trans Lives" flag that appeared in a scene of the movie.
Tech apprenticeship platform Multiverse became a unicorn with a $1.7 billion valuation, after raising $220 million in a Series D round. As companies across the country face challenges in hiring and retaining tech talent, Multiverse says it's trying to offer a solution with a new way to train and hire workers that can serve as an alternative to college and corporate training. Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America of Multiverse, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cheddar's Kristen Scholer caught up with all-time NBA great Shaquille O'Neal in his hometown of Newark, NJ, working with Icy Hot to repair rundown basketball courts around the country. The Hall of Famer also spoke about the current NBA finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors and had a lot of praise for the Warrior's guard Stephen Curry. "He's the greatest shooter of all time. I had a conversation with Stephen A. [Smith], where does he rank? He's a special player. He has his own category," Shaq said.
On this episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Gemma Burgess, CEO of Ferguson Partners, explains what people are looking for in an employer, and how to convey positive work culture to potential employees; Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, breaks down how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home; Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, discusses Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, joins Cheddar to discuss Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
