Grammy-winning, multi-Platinum producer and artist benny blanco today unveils “Graduation” with Juice WRLD alongside a video starring blanco and Juice WRLD plus Hailee Steinfeld, Justice Smith, Olivia Munn, Dove Cameron, Ross Butler, Noah Cyrus, Tommy Dorfman, Tony Revolori, Lil Dicky, Maddie Ziegler and more.
The video is directed by longtime collaborator Jake Schreier, The track samples the Vitamin C classic of the same name and follows the pair’s previous collaboration, “Roses” with Brendon Urie, streamed more than 200 million times to date.
“Graduation” follows blanco’s Gold-certified debut album FRIENDS KEEP SECRETS—streamed more than 1 billion times to date—which featured the global smash hit “Eastside” with Halsey and Khalid, now certified four times Platinum in the U.S. and two times in the U.K. (where it reached #1), with many other accolades worldwide. Earlier this year blanco released the chart topping “I Can’t Get Enough” with Selena Gomez, J Balvin and Tainy, streamed hundreds of millions of times and now nominated for an MTV Video Music Award.
Born and raised in Reston, VA, benny blanco is an American record producer, songwriter, musician and recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a five-time BMI Songwriter of the Year award winner, 2017 iHeartRadio Producer of the Year award winner and four-time Grammy winner.
As a producer and songwriter, blanco is responsible for hundreds of millions of album sales worldwide due to his work with artists including Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Halsey, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kesha, Sia, The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, Wiz Khalifa, Kanye West and many more. He is also the founder of two labels in collaboration with Interscope Records: Mad Love Records and Friends Keep Secrets.
20-year-old genre-warping musician Juice WRLD established himself as a Chicago-area native who shunned major streaming services and built a massive following on Soundcloud. Within weeks of debuting a video for his smash hit “All Girls Are The Same” in February 2018, Juice landed a record deal with Interscope Records. Soon after signing, his May 2018-released single “Lucid Dreams,” and “All Girls Are The Same,” climbed to the #1 and #2 spots on Soundcloud’s Top 50 chart, and shortly thereafter brought Juice his Billboard Hot 100 debut, on the same day his first full-length project, Goodbye & Good Riddance, was released via Grade A Productions/ Interscope Records. “Lucid Dreams” is now certified five-times-platinum by the RIAA, peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 and earned over a billion streams in 2018.
Goodbye & Good Riddance has spent over 60 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at #4, and has received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Billboard, TheFADER and more. On March 18, 2019, Juice’s second studio album, Death Race For Love, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with 165K equivalent units.
The album marked the second-biggest streaming week of any 2019 album to date with over 200 million global streams. Also this year, Juice WRLD opened for Nicki Minaj on her European tour, performed at Coachella for the first time, graced the cover of Billboard Magazine, sold out a headlining North America tour, and won Top New Artist at the Billboard Music Awards. He was nominated for Top New Artist at the 2019 BET awards, and will perform at the iHeartMedia awards in September.
Kid Cudi has been forced to cancel his tour after breaking his foot at Coachella over the weekend. During the fest’s Weekend Two on Sunday night, the rapper went to the hospital with a broken foot after jumping off the stage at the Sahara Tent. (more…)
The Canadian actor, director, screenwriter and producer Xavier Dolan will be the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes. He will be joined by French-Senegalese screenwriter and director Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic, director, and writer Todd McCarthy. They will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard section, which showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs.
This year, 18 films have been selected, including 8 first films. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex.
When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on Wednesday May 15, 2024.
XAVIER DOLAN – President Actor, director, screenwriter, producer Canada
An actor since the age of four, Xavier Dolan directed and starred in his first feature film, I killed my mother, which was a big hit at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2009. This was followed by Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways, presented at the Festival de Cannes in 2010 and 2012 at Un Certain Regard, where they were enthusiastically received. In 2013, Tom at the Farm was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. With Mommy, he is awarded several prizes, including the Prix du Jury at the 2014 Festival de Cannes and the César for Best Foreign Film. Grand Prize winner at the 2016 Festival de Cannes with It’s only the end of the World, he returns to Competition with Matthias & Maxime in 2019. After a few notable roles with other filmmakers, such as his performance in Xavier Giannoli’s Lost Illusions in 2021, for which he was nominated for a César for Best Supporting Actor, in 2022 he directed the series The Night Logan woke up. Xavier Dolan was a member of the Jury in 2015, and now chairs the Un Certain Regard Jury.
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MAÏMOUNA DOUCOURÉ Screenwriter, director France, Senegal
Her first professional short film, Maman(s), was selected for nearly 200 festivals around the world and won more than 60 awards, including the Jury Prize at Sundance, the Best Film Award in Toronto and the 2017 César for Best Short Film. In 2019, Maïmouna Doucouré receives the Gold Fellowship Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures. Released in 2020, Cuties, her first feature film, wins the Best Director Award at Sundance and a Special Mention from the International Generation Jury in Berlin. The film’s lead actress, Fathia Youssouf, won the César for Best Actress. Her second feature-length film, Hawa, produced in 2022 with Prime Vidéo, was also presented in Toronto. Maïmouna Doucouré is currently working on her next feature film about the legendary Joséphine Baker.
ASMAE EL MOUDIR Director, screenwriter, producer Morocco
Asmae El Moudir studied cinema at the Moroccan University and at La Fémis in Paris. She has directed several award winning short films. She completed her Al Jazeera television documentary, The Postcard, in 2020. The Mother of all Lies is her first independent documentary feature premiered at the 2023 Festival de Cannes where it won the Un Certain Regard Directing Prize. The film also won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary. The film is screened at Toronto, Sundance, Melbourne, Busan, Karlovy Vary as well as many festivals around the world and won more than 25 awards. Asmae El Moudir is nominated for the PGA Award and the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Doc. Most recently, she won the IDA Award (International Documentary Association) for Best Director. The Mother of All Lies was also shortlisted in the international features section of the Oscars 2024.
An international actress who works in French, English and German, Vicky Krieps has appeared in Joe Wright’s Hannah (2011), Philippe Claudel’s Before the Winter Chill(2013), Anton Corbijn’s A most wanted Man(2014), Ingo Haeb’s The Chambermaid Lynn(2015), Raoul Peck’s The Young Karl Marx(2017), and starred alongside Daniel Day Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread(2017). In 2021, she defended two films selected for the Festival de Cannes, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island in Competition and Mathieu Amalric’s Hold me tight. The following year, she returned with two young German and Austrian directors in the Un Certain Regard section: Emily Atef’s More than Ever and Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which won her the Un Certain Regard Jury’s Best Actress Award in 2022. She will soon be seen in Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt and Hot Milkby Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
TODD MCCARTHY Film critic, director, writer United States
Todd McCarthy is a Cannes veteran – his first was in 1970 – who for decades covered the Festival for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Among his books are the definitive biography “Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood”, “Kings of the Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System” and “Fast Women” about female race car drivers. He won an Emmy Award for his documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Genius and is currently working on a project set in Hollywood just after World War II.
Do LaB kicked off its return to Coachella Weekend Two on Friday, April 19 with a couple standout surprise performances and a full lineup of electronic and crossover talent. Check out highlights from the first day of Weekend Two at the Do LaB stage below.
Prolific French DJ and hitmaker DJ Snake performed a special hip-hop set as the headlining surprise guest of the night.
Versatile trap and hip-hop influenced fan favorite TroyBoi performed as the other Do LaB surprise set of the night.
Additional previously announced day one programming featured acts like Juelz, HoneyLiv, CocoRosie, Alleycvt, Yung Singh, and more.
Stay tuned for notifications on announcements, surprise sets, and more by visiting the link here. Set times for the remainder of the weekend can be found here, along with more general info on Do LaB in the press release here. Additional photo selects from each day can be found here (photographer name listed in file name for photo credits).
The Do LaB stage at Coachella provides a preview of the brand’s flagship boutique festival, Lightning in a Bottle. The five day Lightning in a Bottle experience fuses a top tier musical lineup, immersive art installations, cause-driven educational programming, and a variety of yoga and movement programming within a sprawling lakeside venue in beautiful Buena Vista Lake, California.
Taking place over Memorial Day Weekend on May 22-27, LIB 2024’s musical programming highlights include Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake, M.I.A., Skream, Tycho, ISOxo, Tipper, Fatboy Slim, CloZee, Nora En Pure, Bob Moses, Honey Dijon, Damian Lazarus, and several more.
More info on LIB can be found on their website here and in the official press release here, along with the media application here.