Hoda's signing off, Mean Girls is turning 20, and SZA is teasing LANA (again) | Popping In, Vol. 4
Popping in to share some pop culture moments from the week that were just too pop to handle.
Chappell Roan’s first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 might have been ‘Good Luck, Babe,’ but this week has been quite the opposite for me. Between not getting tickets to SWEAT at MSG (and missing Lorde and Addison Rae, yes, I’m still bitter) and now Chappell pulling out of All Things Go, somebody in the concert world must have it out for me.
I hope you all had a fabulous rest of the week since we spoke on Wednesday’s podcast episode. If you didn’t listen yet, here’s a quick TLDR on what you missed:
Lady Gaga released ‘Harlequin’, the companion album to her upcoming film Joker: Folie a Deux
Sabrina Carpenter kicked off her Short n’ Sweet Tour (keep your fingers crossed that my concert bad luck doesn’t persist)
Kesha is set to release a new studio album in 2025 under her new independent record label ‘Kesha Records’
Hell is not hot enough for P. Diddy
But while you’re here, let’s dive into some more moments from the week that were just too pop to handle, shall we?
Hoda Kotb announces she’s leaving the TODAY Show
Everyone can agree that the best part of staying home from school when we were younger was watching the morning talk shows, right? Morning talk shows are very important to me, so when I read that Hoda would be leaving the TODAY Show on Thursday, it definitely stung a little.
“I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old because I started thinking about that decade like, what does that decade mean? What does it hold? What's it going to have for me? And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new. I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of the time pie that I have, I feel like we only have a finite amount of time."
Though we won’t be starting our mornings with her come 2025, she’s still going to be part of the NBC family, which just feels correct.
Bratz launches Mean Girls collab in celebration of the 20th anniversary
Yes, you read that right - Mean Girls is turning TWENTY next month. Insane, I know. What’s even more insane is how tempted I am to buy a Cady Haron doll at my big age of 29, but when you see her, you’ll get it.
I mean, can you even deal with how gorg these dolls are!? Just me? Anyway…
The dolls will be released throughout October at 8 AM, with Cady being released on October 3rd (duh), Regina on October 17th, and Gretchen and Karen in a 2-pack on October 31st.
In addition to these grool dolls, Mean Girls will also be rereleased in theatres on October 3rd and October 6th to celebrate two decades of the ultimate chick flick. Tickets are available here.
SZA shares that ‘LANA’ will serve as her third studio album
Everyone’s favorite liar (I say with jokingly with love) put her tastebuds to the test on an episode of Hot Ones this week and shared some details on her next project with us. Now if you’re not in the loop, SZA started teasing this project in December 2023 and then completely abandoned ship.
We’re finally getting some clarification on what to expect, and she shared it in one of her best get-ups.
“I’m so excited for my album/” she said and hinted at it coming soon. Though I’m not going to bug out over this just yet, I’ll take any crumbs of a new SZA project being on the horizon.
New tunes this week
And that wraps up volume 4 of Popping In! Thanks for reading + listening. I’ll catch you all on the podcast on Wednesday. 💖