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With tickets now officially on sale for The Lion King here at Fandango, we spoke exclusively with director Jon Favreau, who has followed up his work helming the 2016 live-action redo of The Jungle Book with another groundbreaking effort here. He tells us how the highly anticipated new version is different while still honoring both the original movie and the iconic stage adaptation, the challenges of accomplishing such changes, and how the casting bridges the various versions and generations. And yes, he lost his mind over learning Beyoncé would be involved.

Fandango: Beyoncé is obviously a big deal for this movie.

Jon Favreau: Yes.

Fandango: I read that you wanted her involved so bad you were willing to work around her schedule. Did you have to coordinate much in that regard?

Jon Favreau: Sure, she's very busy. She's doing a lot. She was directing Homecoming, making Lemonade, her family got larger while we were working together. And between touring and albums, she really has a prolific career in many areas. She's an artist and a singer and a performer and very involved. She has a lot of things going on. But she's incredibly engaged and committed, and so what was wonderful was that when we did get together to work, she was exceptional, as you can imagine in her performance, but also really gives everything a lot of thought. She's very hard-working and puts a lot of thought into things, and would often be so extremely well-prepared that she was clearly working on a lot on this even when we weren't together.

The 2019 BET Awards were handed out Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Beyoncé was nominated in four categories and won in one:

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist
Beyoncé (WINNER)
Ella Mai
H.E.R.
Solange
SZA
Teyana Taylor

Congrats!

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) celebrated its unparalleled roster of music legends, past and present, at the 34th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards on Thursday. The event recognized special honorees and the songwriters and publishers of the most-performed ASCAP songs of the past year on the R&B/hip-hop, rap and gospel charts.

Winning Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs included The Carters' "Apeshit" written by Beyoncé, Kiari “Offset” Cephus, Quavious "Quavo" Marshall and Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter. Congrats!

Shop the beyhive.v1 Collection now at shop.beyonce.com!

Shop Beyonce posted a new video on Instagram that is teasing something new dropping on the website on June 11!

During the recent "Homecoming" For Your Consideration Event, Emmy members recieved promotional DVDs with the film. As we can find out on the back cover of the DVD, Beyoncé has submitted the documentary for the 2019 Emmy Awards in 7 categories! See below.

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Steve Pamon, Erinn Williams

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has teamed with producer and content creator Steve Jones to broadcast a special on the WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Foundation annual flagship charitable costume event, The Wearable Art Gala, for the first time in its three-year history. Founded by Tina Knowles Lawson and Richard Lawson, the WACO performing arts space located in North Hollywood is described as a creative center where art can truly occur and provides actors, artists, and youth a place to explore their talents.

Taking place this Saturday, the gala theme this year is A Journey to The Pride Lands, a nod to Disney’s upcoming Jon Favreau-directed The Lion King live-action remake which features the voice of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Knowles-Carter serves as the event’s co-chair along with Solange, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Emmy-winner Tiffany Haddish is master of ceremonies.

The gala also recognizes Tyler Perry and other individuals for their contributions to the entertainment industry and world at large, through their art. Award presenters are Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis and author Shaka Senghor.

Jones is the executive producer of the primetime special through his Brand Maverick Entertainment company. This will mark his third collaboration with the network following the docuseries Black Love, one of OWN’s most-watched unscripted series debuts in network history and the Motherly Love special.

OWN Presents: Inside WACO’s Wearable Art Gala airs June 11 at 10pm ET/PT.

WACO Theater will host the Third Annual Wearable Art Gala on Saturday, June 1, 2019. Co-Artistic Directors Tina Knowles Lawson and Richard Lawson founded the event, which is presented by SheaMoisture, to celebrate art and raise funds for the non-profit gallery and performance complex WACO Theater Center.

The theme for the 2019 Gala is A Journey to the Pride Lands, based on the upcoming Walt Disney feature, THE LION KING, opening nationwide July 19th. Gala guests are encouraged to create their own wearable art attire inspired by the ideals of African tradition that are at the heart of the upcoming film which stars Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar. The film is directed by Jon Favreau and utilizes pioneering filmmaking techniques to bring the treasured characters to life in a whole new way.

WACO Theater center proudly welcomes back beauty and personal care brand SheaMoisture as the Presenting Sponsor for the 2019 Wearable Art Gala. The brand has been a consistent supporter of WACO programs since 2016, working closely with the Center to passionately foster art and education initiatives for underserved youth.

Nominations for the 2019 BET Awards were announced last week. Beyonce is nominated in four categories! The show, which is in its 19th year, airs live from downtown Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater on Sunday, June 23.

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist
Beyoncé
Ella Mai
H.E.R.
Solange
Sza
Teyana Taylor

Best Group
Chloe X Halle
City Girls
Lil Baby & Gunna
Migos
The Carters

Netflix’s critically-acclaimed concert special Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé reached 1.1 million U.S. viewers on its April 17 premiere date, according to data newly provided by Nielsen via its SVOD Content Ratings system.

Introduced in October 2017, SVOD Content Ratings measures the viewership of subscription video on demand (SVOD) services via audio recognition software installed in 44,000 U.S. homes that contain Nielsen's TV set meters. While the highly-secretive Netflix has stated in the past that Nielsen's ratings are “not even close” to being accurate, it is the most reliable measure yet of SVOD viewership data.

According to the numbers compiled by Nielsen, the audience for Homecoming was 63% African American on the day of its premiere and 55% over its first seven days, more than any other Netflix original film or series analyzed to date (the closest was Bird Box with 24%). Hispanics, meanwhile, made up 15% of viewers, while Asians comprised 5%.

Beyoncé recently penned a note in honor of former first lady Michelle Obama as one of TIME’s most influential people.

"Loving Michelle Obama wasn’t much of a choice. It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we weren’t exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful.

When I first met her, I was embraced by a warm, regal, confident woman who possessed a reassuring calm, on the eve of President Obama’s historic first Inauguration.

The way she looked, walked and spoke, in that warm but authoritative tone, we saw our mothers and sisters. She was strong and ambitious and spoke her mind without sacrificing honesty or empathy. That takes a lot of courage and discipline.

Reaching more female customers has been a top priority for Adidas since 2015, when it announced the company strategy that’s still guiding it today. Then, as now, sales to women were a disproportionately small slice of the total business—as they generally are at big sneaker brands, which historically haven’t designed for or marketed to women anywhere near as much as they have men. For brands that can win them over, women represent a lot of potential dollars.

That’s essentially why Adidas has teamed up with singer and global superstar Beyoncé, CEO Kasper Rorsted acknowledged on a company earnings call today. While the company’s women’s business has been growing strongly, it remains a “particularly strong opportunity for us because it is an underrepresented part of our business… we’re still by no means where we need to be,” he said. “There’s no doubt that Beyonce will help us in this area.” The first limited products from that collaboration will release toward the end of this year, he added.

The singer has a reach few in the world can match. On Instagram alone she has 127 million followers; just for the sake of comparison, mega-star Rihanna has about 70 million. After she and Adidas first announced their partnership, the shots she posted on the social network collectively drew tens of millions of likes and hundreds of thousands of comments. At a moment when pop stars seem to be more effective at selling sneakers than pro athletes, Beyoncé could have a noticeable effect on the company’s sales to women, especially since Adidas has found in the past that people such as influencers are a more effective way to reach women than athletes anyway.

Beyoncé makes her 60th appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as "Before I Let Go (Homecoming Live)" debuts at No. 75 (on the list dated May 4). The single, released April 17 as a bonus track on her Homecoming: The Live Album, bows after its first full week of tracking.

The cover of the 1981 hit by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, which reached No. 13 on the Hot Soul Singles chart (now Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs) enters with 6.9 million U.S. streams in the week ending April 25, according to Nielsen Music. It also starts at No. 28 on Digital Song Sales with 6,000 downloads purchased in the same window.

Though "Go" doesn't yet make the all-genre Radio Songs chart, the single has claimed a fast start at R&B/hip-hop radio, bursting 45-27 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay with 7.2 million in audience in the week ending April 28.

In addition to its Hot 100 start, "Go" also opens at No. 45 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (which, like the Hot 100, blends streaming, sales and airplay data). Homecoming, meanwhile, ascends 7-4 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and 4-2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts following its first full tracking week.

The 2019 Billboard Music Awards were held last night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Beyonce and Jay-Z were nominated in three categories, out of which they won two awards:

Top R&B Tour
Beyoncé & JAY-Z (Winner)
Childish Gambino
Bruno Mars

Top Rap Tour
Beyoncé & JAY-Z (Winner)
Drake
Travis Scott

It’s a big week for Beyoncé on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the diva claims a pair of concurrent top 10 albums for the first time.

Her 2016 album Lemonade re-enters the list at No. 9 following its wide streaming release, and Homecoming: The Live Album jumps 7-4 after its first full chart tracking week of activity. Further, two more Beyoncé albums dot the list, as both I Am… Sasha Fierce and her self-titled set re-enter the tally.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new May 4-dated chart, where Lemonade re-enters at No. 9, will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on April 30.

Homecoming: The Live Album rises 7-4 after its first full chart tracking week of activity, earning 57,000 equivalent album units (up 47%) in the week ending April 25. The album gains in both SEA and TEA units, but declines in album sales (8,000; down 43%). On the April 26-dated chart (reflecting the tracking week ending April 18), the album debuted on the list from just two days of activity, as it was released on April 17.

Mufasa isn’t the only reigning royal in these Pride Lands.

The internet collectively bowed down when, in November 2017, Disney confirmed that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter had joined the cast of Jon Favreau’s photo-real virtual-production remake of The Lion King. The music icon plays Nala, the childhood friend of Simba (Donald Glover) who re-encounters the exiled prince in adulthood, now as a fully-grown, powerful, unquestionably indomitable lioness.

So, how did Favreau convince a queen to get in formation with this King?

“I’ve got the Beyhive in my house,” chuckles the director, who wasn’t specifically aware that the singer was in play for the role until he reached out to her on a casting whim. “I’ve seen her live and she’s a unique talent, to say the least,” he says. “And when I finally spoke to her after reaching out, although her persona onstage is bigger than life, she’s very down to earth and is very much dedicated to her family and having a life that is human-scale.”

That, Favreau reasons, helps to explain why Knowles-Carter (as she’s being officially credited in the film) agreed to play Nala, which marks her first feature film role since 2013’s animated Epic (and prior to that, 2009’s Obsessed). “I think that part of it is that she’s got young kids, part of it is that it’s a story that feels good for this phase of her life and her career — it’s a very positive story, it’s a classic that a lot of people feel very emotionally invested in — and I think she just really likes the original very much,” says Favreau. “At the end of the day, she’s also an actor and it’s a great bunch of people to work with and a project that I think she felt was going to be special. And then of course, there are these wonderful musical numbers that she can be involved with, and my God… she really lives up to her reputation as far as the beauty of her voice and her talent.”

Beyoncé’s surprise-released Homecoming: The Live Album debuts at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart with 38,000 units earned from just two days of tracking activity (with 14,000 of that sum in album sales). The album dropped with no warning in the very early hours of Wednesday, April 17, and the tracking week for the chart ended on April 18. (Billboard’s album charts’ tracking week runs Friday through Thursday.)

Homecoming: The Live Album was released to digital retail and streaming services shortly after the premiere of Beyoncé’s Homecoming film on Netflix at 12:01 a.m. on April 17. Both projects chronicle Beyoncé’s headlining performances at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Homecoming: The Live Album is Beyoncé’s eighth top 10 album as a soloist. She also recently visited the top 10 as one-half of The Carters (alongside husband Jay-Z) with 2018’s No. 2-peaking Everything Is Love.

It’s possible that Homecoming: The Live Album could rise higher on next week’s Billboard 200 chart (dated May 4), after its first full tracking week of activity.

Beyoncé officially launched the #BeforeILetGoChallenge on her Instagram Story Monday night, just days after her documentary "Homecoming" was released on Netflix.

The trailblazing singer dropped a surprise live album of her legendary 2018 Coachella performance along with the documentary, which debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart this week.

The album features the bonus track "Before I Let Go," a cover of Frankie Beverly & Maze's black cultural anthem, which has sparked a viral dance challenge.

Queen Bey promoted the hashtag with a bee and heart eye emoji on her Instagram Story, a rarity for the singer, who has only used the IG function a few times.

She shared dozens of video submissions from dancing fans who flawlessly stepped to "Swag the right/ surf the left/ Work the middle 'til it hurt a little."

Go to her Instagram profile to watch all the videos!

Three years after its release, Beyonce’s Lemonade album has been added to streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music. Previously, in order to hear the album or watch the accompanying film fans had to be subscribers to TIDAL, the music service co-owned by Beyonce and Jay-Z.

The streaming version of the 13-track, Grammy-winning album includes an original demo version of “Sorry.” Lemonade, which dropped exactly three years ago, features guest appearances by The Weeknd, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar.

Beyoncé released on her website t-shirts seemingly responding to fans demands with graffiti style messages of 'Where is the FWT DVD?'. The shirts cost $40 and come in pink, white, yellow and blue and feature the main admat from the 2016 world tour. Shop now!