So with 2023 about to go into the history books I thought what better way to look back at some of the biggest entertainment stories of the year? We are a little under 6 hours left until midnight and I could just let it go without a last post on a topic that I have dedicated much of my adult life to. Entertainment and Music are the two biggest topics we cover on a variety of my shows so I will do my best to wrap up the year with this post. No, it’s not my end-of-the-year show that deals with everything but this is my ode to those who were front and center all year. So without further ado here is a look back on the biggest entertainment and music news of 2023.
January started with the hip-hop community dealing with the sudden death of Lola Chantrelle Mitchell better known as Gangsta Boo the first musical death of the year but not the last. She was only 43. Shortly after her death, we learned that one of the pioneer drummers of funk passed away Fred White the drummer for Earth, Wind and Fire died he was 67. We also lost gifted guitarist Jeff Beck who was 78, and Robbie Bachman drummer for the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive died at the age of 69.
One of the biggest celebrity deaths that hit me pretty hard would be the death of Lisa Maria Presley who died at the age of 54 from a bowel obstruction. She was last seen with Austin Butler promoting the movie about her father which is absolutely AMAZING if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it she didn’t look well during her last appearance but I thought nothing of it until the news broke. I am not someone that really believes in curses but it would seem that this family is cursed.
We also lost David Crosby from Crosby, Stills & Nash he was 81. Cindy Williams the actress who brought Shirley Feeney to life on the hit show Laverne & Shirley died at the age of 75. Lisa Loring who was just enjoying a revamp in the character she brought to life known as Wednesday Adams died at age 64. One of my favorite groups lost one of its members when David Jolicoeur also known as Trugoy the Dove from DeLa Soul died at the age of 53.
Now I would be forever haunted by my mother’s ghost if I didn’t report that the person I was named after had passed away. Well, kind of. Adam Rich was on the show Eight is Enough back in the day playing the character Nicholas. My mother saw the name and thought it was a great name and thus I was given the name. My father named me Nicholas for other reasons too many to get into here but Adam Rich died at the age of 54 from a fentanyl overdose.
One of the biggest entertainment stories crashed with the world of the NFL when Michael Oher accused his adopted parents Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy of stealing millions from him. If their names sound familiar it’s because there was an Academy-nominated movie made about their life with Michael Oher you may have heard of it The Blind Side. Michael claimed that the Touhys had given themselves Power of Attorney over his life and were taking his earnings from the movie and more. The Tuohys counter by saying that they’ve always looked out for Michael and paid him anytime they got paid. For those of us who loved the movie, this was a little heartbreaking and it has never really gotten resolved so I guess we will learn more about it in 2024.
As much as I would love to ignore this Taylor Swift was everywhere in 2023 and it was nauseating. Turn on football she is there, turn on the radio she’s on it, go to the movies she is there I mean it was completely disgusting how they pushed her on us this year. Don’t even get me started on how shitty her album was. I am so sick of how she is pushed on us as little Miss Sunshine when she is completely the opposite. Don’t be surprised if she and her football boyfriend end up getting married since he is her 13th especially when her record or ticket sales slump then she will get a divorce pay him a huge sum of money and write all about it. This is her 5 year plan you will see.
The Flash was probably one of the biggest movie disasters in recent memory but I do not blame the studio as much as I blame the star of the film who caused frequent delays to it being released. I loved seeing the OG Batman in this movie so I was somewhat happy with it could it have been better yes of course but it was good. Most of the world doesn’t agree with me on this one though. Speaking of comic books Marvel had the worst year it has ever had with many of its releases for the year bombing. Walt Disney the company that owns Marvel also had a rough year with not one real smash hit the entire year in fact most estimates have Walt Disney as having a $1B+ loss.
In streaming news, for some reason, HBO Max rebranded as Max which is one of my favorite streaming apps outside of Paramount. The Sphere in Vegas opened up to everyone’s amazement in fact comedian Bert Kriesher went to the U2 concert there and was all over social media crying because the entire Sphere and spectrum of the show was absolutely beautiful according to him.
Two of the biggest guy punches of deaths this year to me were Tina Turner and Paul Reubens. Tina Turner died at 83 while Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens died at 70 from cancer that he kept from everyone. These deaths were probably the biggest punches to my gut because they played a big part in my life. I could type all day for the ones we lost but this is already longer than I wanted so to see a complete list click here.
Even though this wasn’t entertainment or music-related the fires in Hawaii were devastating with over 100 people dead and many more missing and no one seems to talk about this complete FREAK fire anymore I must mention it as it was probably the biggest story of the year until Donald Trump the first former president to be indicted was indicted for actions related to the January 6 riots. These are probably the two biggest non-music or entertainment stories that deserve our attention.
The biggest movie of the year was Barbie. You can hear my complete thoughts on this movie when my new show “The B. Review” launches in 2024. It made a worldwide total of $1,441,820,453 with The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming in second with $1,361,367,353 Oppenheimer came in third with $952,034,000 coming in fourth was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 $845,555,777 and rounding out the top 5 movies for 2023 is Fast X with $704,875,015.
The Biggest album is Morgan Wallens’s One Thing at a Time followed by Taylor Swift’s money grab of 1989 Taylor’s Version. Two country albums well one country album and another one that was just a money grab with nothing really changing on the album. Some people have Taylor as outselling Morgan but when you add up the units Morgan beats her with total album sales for his ONE album at 2,770,500 verses Taylor Swift’s biggest album of 1989 Taylor’s Version only selling 2,175,000 now if you add her album of Speak Taylor’s Version she will sell more but we are talking about single albums. Congrats Morgan Wallen.
That’s my wrap-up…kind of. To see my full review be looking out for my End of the Year special which will be on Nick B. TV Roku exclusively.
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A PROSPEROUS 2024!!!
