Television

Announcement, Appearance, Interview, News, Television

T-Boz Cameo In Teaser For ABC’s Girl Group Drama Series ‘Queens’

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Aside from her busy tour schedule on the TLC ‘Celebration of CrazySexyCool‘ tour, T-Boz has lent her time to ABC to star in a Mockumentary on the fictional 90’s hip-hop girl group, The Nasty B’s, for the upcoming drama series, ‘Queens‘, airing on Oct 19.

The promotional trailer is called ‘Beneath The Hits’, a nod to the hit VH1 documentary series ‘Behind The Music’, and features commentary from other real life music stars such as Ashanti, Tyrese and Cam’ron, which adds to the authentic feel you get from a story on a girl group that doesn’t really exist.

In a bid to give it a true taste of 90’s nostalgia, T-Boz opens up about the realities of the music business and her thoughts on The Nasty B’s. “The music industry has a way of swallowing you up and then spit you out, quick”, she says. “But the Nasty B’s? Those girls be jamming”, she adds. “They are seriously talented”.

Tyrese later adds comments about being fond of the many after party’s he experienced during the reign of The Nasty B’s, and Ashanti says she was ‘devastated’ when the group broke up. Cam’ron also appears and will have a reoccurring role in the show.

‘Queens’ follows four women in their 40’s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had in the 90’s when they were legends in the hip-hop world!

Starring Eve as Brianna aka Professor Sex, Naturi Naughton as Jill aka Da Thrill, Nadine Velazquez as Valeria aka Butter Pecan and Brandy as Naomi aka Xplicit Lyrics.

Taylor Sele as EricJones and Pepi Sonuga as Lil Muffin also star.

‘Queen’ will air on ABC and stream on Hulu from Oct 19.

Watch the official trailer:

Announcement, Television, Tribute

Normani Pays Homage To TLC During Her ‘Wild Side’ VMA Performance

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Normani and the members of her former group Fifth Harmony have always been huge fans of TLC, and they would always show them love, praising them as inspirations in interviews and covering their songs in various shows.

Normani has paid some more homage this week, when she deservedly was presented with the opportunity to perform her latest single, “Wild Side“, at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, and she did not disappoint!

Normani delivered the TV debut of “Wild Side” in a TLC inspired silver metallic outfit that drew from the group’s 1999 “No Scrubs” video. Normani was joined by a group of backup dancers in similar outfits that accompanied Normani as she danced across the stage.

Normani’s performance for the song, which samples Aaliyah’s “One in a Million”, also featured choreography very reminiscent of Aaliyah’s music video for the hit 1996 track.

She then gave us a raunchy dose of Janet Jackson inspired choreography, when she brought out singer Teyana Taylor out on stage, strapped to a human shaped platform, where she then seductively danced around and over Teyana, very much like Janet seduces a fan during the segment on her own tour.

Fans were also quick to point out the similarities and excitedly took to Twitter:

https://twitter.com/dlceszn/status/1437232826299166721?s=19

What were your thoughts on the Normani VMA performance?

Interview, News, Television, Tribute

Kiely Williams Star of ‘BET Presents The Encore’: “3LW Were Inspired By TLC”

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Kiely Williams is a founding member of the R&B girl group 3LW, whose platinum self-titled debut album, ‘3LW‘, was released in 2000, with hits such as “Playas Gon Play“, “No More (Baby I’ma Do Right)”, and “I Do (Wanna Get Close To You)”, taken from the follow-up album, 2002’s ‘A Girl Can Mack’.

After Kiely ended her time with 3LW, which also consisted of members Naturi Naughton, Adrienne Bailon, and Jessica Benson (replacing Naturi in 2003), she took the opportunity to join another girl group in 2002 with Adrienne — The Cheetah Girls — along with Raven-Symoné and Sabrina Bryan — for the Disney franchise, until 2008.

Kiely has been most notably quiet since the groups ended, focusing on family life, but she has finally broken her silence this year, as she is one of the stars of ‘BET Presents The Encore‘, an experimental reality show to see how nine former R&B stars can come together to form a super girl group!

She spoke with BET’s Noteworthy this week to talk all things girl groups, and admits that she has a real passion for 90’s R&B. When the hosts asked Kiely about the 3LW influences from other girl groups before hers, Kiely proudly reveals that her group was very inspired by the style and the individual characteristics of the legendary TLC!

“We modeled ourselves after, I guess more TLC, with the idea that each person had their own individual style, and not having like, one main lead singer”, Kiely states about the magical formula that helped TLC stand out from the crowd. “People sung, people rap, people danced, people did everything”.

“We did it that way, rather than like with The Supremes model, where there is a lead singer and back up singers”, Kiely continues. “So, we definitely modeled ourselves after TLC, but still in our own little way. The idea for 3LW was little women, that we are — we might be small, but we are mighty! We know our business”.

TLC have always been supportive and open to other girl groups doing their thing, as they never saw girl groups as competition — they would rather compare themselves to guy groups like Bell Biv Devoe and Boyz II Men!

Back in 2001, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes told MTV News that she indeed was a fan of 3LW. “Let’s see, I like 3LW. The first time I saw the ad, I did think it looked like a JCPenney ad”, Lisa jokes. “But, it took me to watch the video of the girls in action, and they are adorable. They are doing their [thing]”.

“Look, this is how it is”, Lisa concludes. “Anybody can copy TLC — either you got it, or you don’t.”

Kiely reveals why she loves girl groups so much. “For me personally, growing up, I was always a fan of Total, Xscape, Brownstone, the list can go on and on. But I love R&B girl groups. I love 90’s R&B in general. I think it was the best era”.

Watch ‘BET Presents The Encore’ every Wednesday 10/9c on BET

Announcement, Appearance, Television, Tribute

Spice Girls’ Mel B Takes On TLC Classic “Waterfalls” For Spain’s ‘Masked Singer’

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The Spice Girls have always been vocal about being huge fans of TLC and were inspired by them. Their influence could be heard on many of the tracks on the debut Spice Girls album, ‘Spice‘, in 1996.

Scary Spice Mel B was unmasked this week on the Spanish version of the popular television show, ‘The Masked Singer‘ (titled ‘Mask Singer Adivina Quién Canta’), where she performed for five weeks as Medusa the Jellyfish.

Melanie B decided to step it up a notch during week 5, and performed a notable TLC classic, 1995’s “Waterfalls“, from the Diamond-certified ‘CrazySexyCool‘ album. Mel even added a portion of Left Eye‘s iconic rap to her performance!

The judges on the panel initially thought that it was Australian star Kylie Minogue under the mask and even thought that it could be Mel’s Spice Girl bandmate, Geri Halliwell!

The British singer assured after being unmasked during her time at the Spanish ‘Mask Singer’ that although she had a bad time due to the tremendous weight of her mask, it was one of the fun things she has done. Mel previously took part in the British version of the show last year.

Mel B’s bandmate, Melanie C, previously worked with TLC member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in 2000, where they both scored their first ever UK number one on the single, “Never Be The Same Again“.

Last year, she tweeted about her fond memories of Lisa, saying “Never Be The Same Again, my 1st UK No1 & my collaboration w/ the wonderful Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes. Myself & the @spicegirls were huge @OfficialTLC fans. Couldn’t believe my luck when I had the opportunity to work w/ her. And she was perfect”.

Melanie C finally met T-Boz and Chilli in 2018 for the first time in London, and admitted that she found it very emotional. “I was so excited to meet them and I just burst into tears because it made me think of Lisa”.

What did you think of Mel B’s performance of “Waterfalls”?