NEWS
Daddy Yankee photographed on Sept. 22, 2021 at the Faena Forum in Miami.
Mary Beth KoethTwo months after announcing that Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2022 will host its first-ever Spanish-language countdown live from Puerto Rico, Billboard can unveil the first confirmed guests.
ABC and MRC Live & Alternative announced Tuesday (Dec. 7) that the 50th annual televised celebration will feature global Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee with a hometown performance in his native San Juan, as well as actress and singer Roselyn Sanchez as one of the co-hosts to oversee the end of year festivities on the island.
The inaugural Spanish-language countdown, which coincides with the celebration of San Juan’s 500th anniversary of its founding, is set to take place on the grounds of the Puerto Rico Convention Center and DISTRITO T-Mobile with host Seacrest overseeing New Year’s festivities in Times Square.
“We are very excited to host Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2022 on our island and to count on this high-caliber event to project the greatness of Puerto Rico and our people,” said Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi in a statement. “This celebration not only allows Puerto Ricans to enjoy this great historic event; it also speaks to diverse communities around the world that our Island is ready to receive tourism and foster economic development. We have so much to offer as a destination, and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve will be a testament to all that Puerto Rico has to offer.”
Additionally, Grammy-winning superstar Ciara will celebrate her fifth year taking over the Los Angeles party with music by DJ D-Nice. Emmy-, Grammy- and Tony-winning actor Billy Porter will co-host the Central Time Zone countdown from New Orleans. Liza Koshy, who was the show’s correspondent in 2019, will make her return alongside Seacrest in New York. And, for the third consecutive year, Jessie James Decker will return as the Powerball correspondent.
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2022 will air live on Friday, Dec. 31, starting at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Puerto Rico’s countdown is set for 11 p.m. ET.
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest is produced by MRC Live & Alternative, which is owned by MRC. MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard.
NEWS
No matter what you thought of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, there was only one undisputed winner by the end of it all: the reaction community in the worlds of streaming and YouTube. Your favorite content creators broke down the bars, reacted to all the most shocking moments, and helped this showdown become one of hip-hop's most culturally significant and resonant moments in a long time... For better or worse. See, the battle's technically not over yet, but only because the 6ix God's idea of victory is clearly quite different. In his federal defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group – his label – for releasing K.Dot's "Not Like Us," he named various content creators who allegedly helped boost the track's widespread popularity and, as a result, its supposedly defamatory nature.
Furthermore, the specific allegation that Drake brings up in this highly controversial lawsuit is that UMG "whitelisted" copyright claims for YouTubers, streamers, etc. concerning "Not Like Us." This means that they would be able to monetize their content without facing a copyright claim from UMG over "Not Like Us," and this isn't really an allegation because various creators have backed this up. But a few important (alleged) caveats that people are talking about online need to be clear. First, "whitelisting" supposedly happens on behalf of a record label behind a song like the West Coast banger, and UMG is instead the distributor of that track. Secondly, as rapper and online personality ScruFaceJean brings up as seen in the post below, tracks like "Push Ups" were also "whitelisted" by its team.
Along with Jean, many other of your favorite content creators spoke out against this Drake lawsuit. Zias! and B.Lou, for example, spoke with their lawyer about the possibility of countersuing for emotional distress, as they found the Toronto superstar's accusations and his implication of them very disturbing and misguided. NoLifeShaq also dragged The Boy through the mud, calling him "soft" and positing that, whether "whitelisting" happened or not, they would react to "Not Like Us" accordingly as they did to his own tracks.
In addition, it's important to bring up that many others fans have pointed to how Drake excitedly used streamers to generate hype and reaction clips for his own diss tracks against Kendrick Lamar. The most direct example is with Kai Cenat, whom he texted to "stay on stream" before dropping "Family Matters." Ironically, the Twitch giant appears in this clowned-upon defamation lawsuit as an example of what the OVO mogul's accusations and implications are. And one more thing: there is no direct link between monetization and algorithmic boosting on sites like YouTube. With all this in mind, content creators seem to feel almost insulted at the idea that they only reacted to the two biggest rappers in the world beefing with each other because one of them would allow them to make money. If Drizzy knew the first thing about the reaction community, maybe he wouldn't have included this...
