<![CDATA[SMALL SCREEN GIRL - Pop Culture]]>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 02:11:43 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[#WCW: Zendaya]]>Wed, 20 Oct 2021 12:00:00 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/wcw-zendaya
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Actor. Singer. Activist. Emmy-winner. Fashion Icon. 

At just 25 years-old, Zendaya is blazing a trail few can even fathom, let alone follow. Now she’s the youngest woman to ever win the 2021 CFDA Award for Fashion Icon to the surprise of absolutely no one.  

Even if you’ve lived in a cave, you’ve at least heard the collective gasps as the “Dune” star dazzles on the red carpet again and again, thanks to visionary stylist, Law Roach, and her trademark fearless chic. From a structured Balmain gown that made her look like a marble statue come to life at the Venice Film Festival, a futuristic architectural Loewe creation and beyond, Zendaya will forever be turning heads on the red carpet, in magazines, and on the big screen.  

Check her out in the sci-fi epic “Dune” in theaters and HBO Max on October 22.

]]><![CDATA[Did Christina Aguilera Top Herself In The "Reflection" Remake?  Listen Here.]]>Mon, 31 Aug 2020 01:18:47 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/did-christina-aguilera-top-herself-in-the-reflection-remake-listen-here
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​Wise people often say that you’re only in competition with yourself.  For Christina Aguilera, that's literally the case.
With Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan dropping on Disney+ on September 4th, Grammy-winning diva got the chance to update “Reflection,” the 1998 song from the animated film’s soundtrack.  

To say she topped herself is an understatement.  She SNAPPED.

The 2020 version of “Reflection” is grittier and heartrendingly intense, thanks to haunting percussion and Xtina’s powerful pipes that have only flourished in the 22 years since the first version.  

Fans might remember Christina struggling to hit an insanely difficult note during the behind-the-scenes special of the first song.  In the current version, Christina obliterates that challenging note (at 3:06) with a chill-inducing vocal run that just might have her snagging an Oscar nomination in 2021.  

Which version is your favorite?  Watch both below and hit up the comments section.
]]><![CDATA[Ciara Shares An Adorable 'Dose' Of Working Motherhood]]>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 03:26:34 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/ciara-shares-an-adorable-dose-of-working-motherhood
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When Ciara isn't injecting the airwaves with infectious bops, she is leveling up motherhood. In an adorable Instagram video, Ciara is rehearsing the energetic choreography for her new single, "Dose," with her daughter, Sienna, in her arms.
She writes, "this is what a rehearsal looks like for me now:) She cried when I tried to put her down, so this was the result ❤️. She loves #Dance #MomLife #Dose."

The video sheds a freakin' adorable light on life as a working mother and that even celebrities are just like us (except for the money and the private planes and glam squads). If Ciara can muscle through rehearsal with a 17-month-old in her arms, maybe my child-less self can get through the day without whining about a nap?

"Dose's" pep-rally inspired video premiered for last week, and with its release Ciara (Hot Mama if you're nasty) added another title to her growing resume: director. Who says women can't have it all and then some?

​Photo Credit: ebony.com
]]><![CDATA[Watch Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato Demolish The Patriarchy In Powerful 'Fall In Line' Video]]>Thu, 24 May 2018 04:11:59 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/may-23rd-2018
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​If Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato’s diva-tastic performance of “Fall In Line” at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards didn’t make you want to demolish the patriarchy, the official video definitely will...  
“Fall In Line” featuring Demi Lovato is the second single off her upcoming album, “Liberation," and a full-on anthem for female empowerment.  In the satisfyingly emotional video that eerily evokes the bleakness of  Handmaid’s Tale-eque and The Matrix, Aguilera and Lovato are lifelong friends imprisoned for fighting against masked men and society that finds their agency dangerous. 

They fight their way to the wildflower-studded fields of freedom they were torn from in childhood through sheer will and fierce vocal runs. 

Christina Aguilera is no stranger to making bold statements—see the early ‘00s when she wore assless chaps and bikinis, under-cleavage and fought for her own sexual freedom—and with that voice she doesn’t need a microphone to be heard.  Lovato holds her own against Christina’s trademark pipes.  Their voices blend beautifully in a song that inspires to intensely that Xtina may have created an entirely new genre of music called Empowerment Ballads.  And it's exactly what we need in these troubled times.

Shortly after sharing release of the video, Aguilera took to Twitter to lend some insight into the clip and her united front with Demi Lovato.
Christina Aguilera’s Liberation album drops on June 15, and you can catch her own tour this fall.  Watch the brilliant “Fall In Line” video below!
]]><![CDATA[#WCW: Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira]]>Wed, 07 Mar 2018 06:06:44 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/wcw-black-panthers-lupita-nyongo-and-danai-guirira
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Last Sunday, the celebrities put on their best custom couture and borrowed gemstones and hit the red carpet for the 90th Academy Awards.  Shockingly, almost everyone looked absolutely gorgeous.  From Taraji P. Henson's sensual, gauzy black gown to Emily Blunt's ethereal silver creation, the award's show was a parade of stunning. 
My immediate favorite and thus my selection for Women Crush Wednesday was the lovely and lethal combination of Black Panther's  Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira.  While Gurira rocked an understated blush dress and accessorized with diamonds and a soon-to-be-copied-everywhere silver hair tattoo; her friend Nyong'o opted for a glittering gold and black creation that was both her expected combination of daring and damn sexy.  Her hair was inspired by traditional Rwandan hairstyles called Amasunzu, per Lupita's Instagram account. 

​These women didn't just look like snacks. They looked like a 12-course tasting menu of all your favorite things.

It's undeniable that Oscar-winner Lupita and Danai are two of the most stunning women in the world.  But one of the most beautiful things about them is their enduring friendship that began in 2007 and has taken from to Gurira's Tony-nominated off-Broadway play, Eclipsed to starring in one of the biggest movies in cinematic history, and now the Oscars.  Wakanda and best friends forever!

Photo Credit: tumblr.com
]]><![CDATA[My Galentine's Day Brunch Guestlist]]>Mon, 12 Feb 2018 06:30:00 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/my-galentines-day-brunch-guestlist
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Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is famous for many things, like making waffles the official fifth food group, a seething hatred of libraries, and her eternal optimism.  One of the best, though, has to be Galentine's Day.  It falls on February 13 and it involves "ladies celebrating ladies" over brunch.  Who needs roses and chocolates when you've got sisterhood and mimosas?  

So I couldn't help but wonder: if I had eight seats to fill at my Celebrity Galentine's Day brunch table, what fabulous ladies will occupy them?  After far too much soul-searching, here are my final answers.
Photo Credits: deadline.com; glamour.com; justjaredjr.com; Chrissy Teigen's Instagram; cbc.ca; bet.com; tumblr.com 
]]><![CDATA[Justin Timberlake And Chris Stapleton Recapture Country-Lite Magic with 'Say Something']]>Fri, 26 Jan 2018 05:53:08 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/justin-timberlake-and-chris-stapleton-recapture-country-lite-magic-with-say-something
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When Justin Timberlake waded into a snow-dusted field replete with charging horses, a pristine creek and sun-drenched wheat to announce that his new album, Man Of The Woods, would honor his home state of Tennessee, we could almost hear the banjos, fiddles, and washboards.  And people had plenty of offered various temperatures of hot takes at the idea of the white superstar who spent decades making traditionally black music only to seemingly backtrack to country after a few foot-in-mouth kerfuffles. 

Yet as he dropped a new single and corresponding video every week leading up to the full album release on Feb. 2, they have included anything but.  Until now.  On Thursday, JT dropped the enthralling and country-lite “Say Something” featuring country star Chris Stapleton.
When Timberlake and Stapleton performed at the CMA Awards in 2015, it was nothing short of electric, and it's just good sense that they'd try to recapture that lightning in a liquor bottle.  The result is the eclectic, and brilliantly layered up-tempo that finds Timberlake at a drum machine and on the guitar, explaining his inability to speak on certain subjects and emotions.  “Say Something” with Timberlake’s and Stapleton’s voices blending like whiskey and coke, is a glimpse into the JT’s head with melodies and harmonies from disparate genres floating together to make some glorious hybrid.  It’s country, it’s pop, it’s blues.  It’s dope.  Note: Vevo reports that the video was filmed as one continuous shot, and that is a feat worth saying A LOT about.  Wow.
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Oddly enough, I hope this is the direction Man Of The Woods is going instead of the muddled hip-pop of the previous songs.
The Timbaland and Danja-produced “Filthy,” the first released single, is a funkadelic, futuristic banger that makes use of Timberlake's natural twang and some Prince-esque stylings, even if lyrically it’s disappointingly sanitized.  The video features a Timberlakean robot that will haunt your nightmares grinding with scantily clad dancers.  Thematically, the song was so jarring from the aesthetics and sound foreshadowed in the trailer, it’s difficult to initially appreciate just its unrepentant swagger.  That bassline alone is enough to get even the uptightest of booties shaking.  
“Supplies” is even harder to love, even though it reunites the once dynamic producing duo of JT and The Neptunes. While there’s more personality and emotion here, the tinny-ness of Timberlake’s vocals, the annoying yet infectious chorus, and vocal percussion that sounds like a macaw with a sinus infection makes it hard to grasp the #RelationshipGoals romance of the message. “Some shit's 'bout to go down, I'll be the one with the level head / The world could end now / Baby, we'll be living in The Walking Dead / 'Cause I got supplie-ie-ies.” If there is such a thing as hillbilly trap music, this might be it.

With one single to go before Man Of The Woods is released and Timberlake makes his polarizing appearance at the Superbowl (my inside source says his set will be “fire”), this lifelong fan hopes that he can see the forest through three the trees.

What is your favorite single off Justin Timberlake's new album? How are you excited about his Superbowl appearance? Hit up the comments below.

Photo Credit: billboard.com
]]><![CDATA[Black Girl Royal Magic: Actress Meghan Markle Engaged To Prince Harry]]>Tue, 28 Nov 2017 06:47:24 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/black-girl-royal-magic-actress-meghan-markle-engaged-to-prince-harry
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Surprising no one, His Royalty Highness of Hotness and British Things announced his engagement to girlfriend, American actress and humanitarian Meghan Markle on Monday. And y'all, he proposed to her while she was making chicken. Take notes everyone: Lawry's doesn't just make your food taste better, it fosters a romance for the ages.

Now I've now I've never really been that interested in the royals before. I mean, Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton seem lovely and about as dry as an English tea biscuit. So why do I care now? I'll let Issa Rae take this one:
I've long predicted that Prince Harry, the wild child of Kensington Palace, was down for the swirl and he proved me right. He and Meghan seem genuinely in love, and now melanin will officially be entering the royal bloodline. Can you imagine The Temptations Christmas album echoing through the palace or Meghan showing the Queen how to make slammin' collard greens? Because I totally am.

Can you imagine Cinderella as a black woman? I always have but now there will actually be a black woman in a crown (Shoutout to Ariana Austin who married an Ethopian prince in September). Black Girl Royal Magic has a beautiful ring to it.
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Check out how Twitter celebrating the the newest American Princess:
]]><![CDATA[An Open Letter To Justin Timberlake: Don't Do It]]>Thu, 28 Sep 2017 05:57:34 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/an-open-letter-to-justin-timberlake-dont-do-it
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Dear Justin Timberlake,
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As a proud stan for 17 years, I feel like we have the kind of relationship in which we can be honest with each other.  I mean, I stuck with you during the Britney Spears years, the cornrows and the decades-long hellatuses between albums.  I traveled to NYC for the release of your first solo album and I saw you on your last tour FIVE times in two different states.   Sometimes I worry that I'm on some sort of list.  
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But I can't worry about that when reports are swirling that you are close to becoming the official half-time act for the 2018 Super Bowl.

Please understand when I say the following: 
​You seem like a reasonable celebrity hellbent on world domination, so I'm sure you'll appreciate these receipts: ​
You don’t get political…and the NFL is a minefield right now.  Thanks to Sunkist Satan’s horrifically racist comments and now actions, he has managed to shift an all-but-forgotten about police brutality protest started by now blackballed ex-player-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick into a debate patriotism and forced allegiance to the flag.  Despite donating to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the occasional benefit concert, you’ve generally avoided emphatic statements about politics and race (which I don't have a huge problem with).  And when you tried, it hasn’t ended well. 

​Now just participating in the NFL’s biggest event is a very real political statement you may not be ready to make and will invite questions you may not be equipped to answer (Psst: All lives matter isn't the answer).  You pick up choreography damn fast, so follow your friend Jay Z's move, and sit this one out.  I'd prefer you take a knee.  

There’s no reason to do it.  It's one thing when people know you sans last name.  It's another entirely when you're identified solely by initials.  JT, you have wheelbarrows of Emmys and Grammys.  You were nominated for an Oscar this year.  You still hold the record for the most physical copies of an album sold in a single week.  I can pick out your voice and bucket-playing in the background of "'Yonce."  

Performing at the Super Bowl won't further your career, especially when it’ll be under the judgy spotlight of protests and Trump tweets.  Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is nothing.  You could just release a new song instead.  Or guest-star on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  Leave the Super Bowl half-time show to the Left Sharks and country stars.

You made a movie with Woody Allen, an infamously alleged rapist.  You will have enough uncomfortable questions during promotion for Wonder Wheel.  You’re on your own with that one, dude.
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People still haven’t forgotten your last Super Bowl performance.  No one remembers the outcome of the 2004 Super Bowl, because the half-time performance ended with Janet Jackson’s bare breast.  Like everything else, when you fuck up, you do it BIG.  While I will always think the ramifications of one bare breast flashed on stage for .3 seconds was incredibly overblown, I can’t deny that time has allowed me the fully grasp the racial and sexual implications of that unfortunate “wardrobe malfunction" and the consequences afterwards.  Unless Miss Jackson is joining you on that stage, stay the hell away from it.

You should know better.  Even as a lifetime fan, I can’t deny that your staggering success can at least partly be attributed to your white male privilege.  As a white man who has built a career off of performing R&B, you don’t get to be ignorant.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t appreciate and make millions off of black music but ignore or side-step the mistreatment of black and brown people in this country.  You are better than the Miley Cyruses and Katy Perrys and Kim Kardashians, who wear offensive, exploit and profit from offensive caricatures of blackness while ignoring the very grim realities and struggles.  ​I’ve expect more of you and I've always gotten it.   Now is not the time to drop the ball.  I am a black woman before I am a fan of yours. 

That’s my only allegiance.  

Love,
​SSG
]]><![CDATA[Taylor Swift's New Single Is A Shade-Free Letdown]]>Sat, 26 Aug 2017 11:30:00 GMThttps://www.smallscreengirl.com/pop-culture/taylor-swifts-new-single-is-a-shade-free-letdown
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There’s nothing better than strong women tapping into their power.  We’ve seen it with Shonda Rhimes causally mentioning how she owns Thursday nights (and with her move to Netflix, she’ll soon own the remaining six).  We’ve seen it with Serena Williams both owning her greatness on the court and embracing her black girl magic (soon to be black girl motherhood) outside of the court.  We’ve seen it with the revolutionary release of Beyonce’s Lemonade–a love letter to black womanhood and a stunning memoir to forgiveness. 
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This does not include Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do”—an incongruously peppy single from her upcoming new album, reputation, that aims for scalding pettiness but lands on blandly pitiful.  
With a beat borrowed from Right Said Fred's “I’m Too Sexy” and laughably weak sang-spoken lyrics, there’s nothing shady, gasp-worthy or even memorable about Swifty’s new single that warranted the tediously planned fanfare of deleting her social media earlier this week and CGI-ed snakes and to declares that the Old Taylor “is dead.”  This is the emo, faux-reinvention of a melodramatic teenager, not a 27-year-old woman.

For a songwriter who loves to name names, Swift is too scared to call out her enemies by other than vague references and even more feeble threats.  “I got a list of names, and yours is in red, underlined.  I check it once, then I check it twice,” she pants like some demented Santa Claus. 

The “tilted stage” seems like a mosquito-esque jab at the production of Kayne West's Pablo tour.  West outed her happily approving the perceived diss in last year's "Famous" in an earlier phone call.  Taylor is still Lena-Dunham-levels of ignorant about the gravity of continuing to play innocent, helpless victim to the mean, scary black man.

In 2017, when Nazis are marching in the streets, their leaders have taken residence in the White House and everyone’s rights are under attack, the fact that Taylor chooses to sing about perceived slights to her kingdom and image in order to continue the nearly decade-old "feud" with the guy who made her A-list famous is as white privileged and tone-deaf as screaming into a sheet cake while white supremacists  terrorize your city.  #53Percent

And Tay-Tay and her single aren't doing a damn thing, the water-logged message is defiantly problematic.

“Look what you made me do!” is what The Joker cackles to a Batman, hogtied with electrified silly string, before detonating a series of bombs in Gotham City. 

“Look what you made me do!” is what you shriek when your brother tackles you into a bookcase, making you break your mother's favorite vase.

“Look what you made me do!” is what the abuser yells to his battered wife in a Lifetime movie and real life.

It is not the feminist anthem of an empowered woman or even an indulgent clapback to the haters.

It’s not a message worthy of ABC’s new #TGIT promo.  Pretty sure T-Swizzle has a chronic Affluenza, anyway.  Hell, it’s barely cool enough to be the canned track to the cold open of an episode of a Kendall Jenner’s inevitable reality show.
The most offensive, oh-no-she-didn’t insult doesn’t come from the song itself, but rather from a still of the upcoming video—set to debut at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards this Sunday.  It’s shockingly similar to Beyonce’s “Formation” Superbowl performance and brilliant Lemonade film.  And she did it with such scathing blatancy that it can only be straight-up appropriation. 

She saw a legendary artist she'll never outshine--Grammys be damned--make a brilliant piece of art that wasn't for her, and she pillaged pieces from it anyway.   

T-Money doesn't have the range, and thankfully people are hip to her obviously Beckying.  If Taylor Swift’s intention was to break the internet, she totally did just in all the wrong ways. Look what you made Twitter do!  
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