entertainment

"Almost Like Praying" borrows one of the most recognizable verses and one of its most beloved voices from  West Side Story , Leonard Bernstein's musical interpretation of   Romeo and Juliet   set in 1950s New York City. The story centers on the tragic romance of Tony and Maria, and the tensions that come to fatal blows between Tony's gang, the Jets, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang led by Maria's older brother, Bernardo. One of   West Side Story 's most moving moments lies in "Maria," the ballad Tony sings once he realizes he's fallen for the soft-spoken stranger. He adores everything about her, even the sound of her name: "Say it loud and there’s music playing/Say it soft and it’s   almost like praying ." Miranda's throw to the verse is perfect and thoughtful, considering both the name of the hurricane and his passion for musical theater. He further strengthened the  West Side Story  tie by bringing Rita Moreno into the fol...

For many Dashboard Confessional followers, likely including known fan Taylor Swift , "Hands Down" feels like a time capsule of the early 2000s. It conjures up images of unrequited middle-school crushes, Myspace Top 8 lists, and AIM away messages typed in Comic Sans. For Carrabba, though, the song's victorious finale — "You stood at your door with your hands on my waist / And you kissed me like you meant it" — vividly recalls a scene from his life that seems lifted straight out of a rom-com. "Whenever I sing the line 'The streets were wet and the gate was locked / So I jumped it,' I can remember it," he said, referencing the same swoon-worthy verse. "I can remember how the street felt under my sneakers, I remember finding the locked gate, jumping over the other side and unlatching it from the inside. And I think of it every single time without fail when I sing that line."

Cardi B 's "Bodak Yellow," the debut major-label single that quickly turned the New York rapper into a cultural sensation, is now the No. 1 song in the U.S.,  topping  the  Billboard  Hot 100 as of Monday (September 25). The news comes after the song  sat  in the No. 2 spot behind Taylor Swift's " Look What You Made Me Do " for a few weeks. The latest chart info finds "Bodak Yellow" on top and Post Malone's "Rockstar" debuting at No. 2, pushing Swift down to third.

Between the  X Factor   clips and the tour footage from concert films like 2013’s   One Direction: This Is Us , and its follow-up,   One Direction: Where We Are , Styles’s personality shines, as does the intensity of his talent. But his music videos show that his charisma lends itself especially well to productions with a flair for the dramatic. Not just anyone can pull off a “Jailhouse Rock”-era Elvis impression, hang with masked ballerinas in the desert, or fly through the air with the greatest of ease sans-trapeze. Styles can. Read on to see the proof.

Migos’s work ethic in the studio majorly impressed Gucci — they recorded “I Get The Bag” in a single day and came up with everything on the spot — and working with Offset proved to be no different. “He’s just driven and he’s super talented,” Gucci said. “The Migos in general, I feel like they’re the dopest group out right now. Individually, all of them are amazing. They’re so different, but at the same time, they’re all hard-working. One thing I can say about working with [Offset] by himself is, he’s serious. He don’t play around. He’s trying to make the best verse he ever made every time I’ve seen him in the studio.” Keep your eyes peeled for the “Met Gala” video coming soon, and check out  Mr. Davis  when it arrives on October 13.

I was struggling with a lot stuff," he said. "I was not confident in my ability to just leap back onto a set. It took a lot of work. Even up to the last minute, there was so much doubt and so much fear. Genuinely. Ultimately, I thought it would be best to push through all that. My thinking was that it would help me, [and] it really did." It turns out that getting back to work was exactly what O'Brien needed to feel like himself again. However, that doesn't mean he's the same person he was 18 months ago. "I've learned a lot from the past year of my life. In a lot of weird ways, it made me grow," O'Brien said. "I was really angry for a long time. At this point I'm really at peace with it and really happy that I'm OK." American Assassin  hits theaters September 15 .