Tony Drovetto is MoPOP's Content Marketing Manager.
I.C.Y.M.I.: 'The Mandalorian' Season 2 Debuts on Disney+, Dua Lipa Announces Nominees for 2020 American Music Awards + More!
Greetings, fellow pop culture aficionados, and welcome to week 38 of our I.C.Y.M.I. (In Case You Missed It) blog series, where we recap a handful of trending tidbits from the past week(s) in popular culture, in case you missed them.
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Last week, we shared a touching moment from Dolly Parton's impromptu performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This week, we start with the return of The Mandalorian to Disney+, with season 2 of the popular Star Wars series debuting today, October 30, on the streaming platform. Read on!
The Mandalorian Returns to Disney+
The wait is over for new episodes of Star Wars' live-action television series The Mandalorian, which released the first episode of its second season on Disney+ this week.
Pedro Pascal returns as The Mandalorian/Din Djarin and the show continues to follow the story of the blaster-wielding bounty hunter's journey since being hired to retrieve "The Child," a.k.a. Baby Yoda. The trailer for season 2 (embedded above) looks to explore more of the child's origins, with our helmeted hero tasked to deliver the creature to a "race of enemy sorcerers" called the Jedi. Interested? Yeah, me too.
Unfortunately, with new episodes out every Friday, there's no binge-watching available for us this weekend. But at least it gives us something fun to look forward to each week!
2020 American Music Awards Nominees Announced
Pop music phenomenon Dua Lipa, one of two keynote speakers at this year's annual MoPOP Pop Conference, appeared on "Good Morning America" this past week to reveal a handful of nominees for the 2020 American Music Awards.
The Weeknd and Roddy Ricch lead this year's group of nominees with eight apiece. Megan Thee Stallion follows closely with five nominations while Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Bad Bunny, and DaBaby received four each.
Lipa earned a pair of nominations herself, with the 25-year-old up for Favorite Female Artist (Pop/Rock) and Favorite Song (Pop/Rock) for her track "Don't Start Now." Lipa is also set to perform at the the 2020 show, which airs Sunday, November 22 on ABC. Head to theAMAs.com for all the details and to check out the full list of nominees!
What Else To Catch Up On This Weekend
- As of this writing we're a mere three-and-a-half days to Election Day 2020, but there's still time for you to get involved. If you haven't checked it out already, our Be Heard-Vote! campaign encouraging civic participation has a lot of handy resources available to help you with the political process. Plus, we've been pushing out a steady stream of voting content to help raise awareness. This week, our pop culture presidents bracket wrapped up with Mary McDonnell's 'Battlestar Galactica' role of Laura Roslin besting Martin Sheen's 'The West Wing' portrayal of Jed Bartlet. News of Roslin's exciting victory even reached McDonnell herself, plus some of her more prominent fans. Our one-on-ones with local arts organizations stressing the importance of voting also continued, as we heard from Taproot Theatre Company and Seattle Opera. Our 'Into the Vault' series exploring artifacts from MoPOP's permanent collection took a closer look at a 1996 voter's guide from Artists for a Hate Free America. And we highlighted the work of local artist Kimberly Tieu, who spent this past weekend creating a piece of vote-inspired chalk art outside of MoPOP's doors.
- Saturday marks everyone's favorite horror holiday and to celebrate we compiled 40 freaky songs for your Halloween playlist. There's also still time to answer the prompt 'what horror movie character are you?' by taking part in our spooky personality quiz. And for our 'It's Coming From Inside the House!' online watchalong fans, we're inviting you to help us pick the horror flick we celebrate at our virtual program's season finale next month. Just drop a comment on these Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook posts and let us know what scary films you feel have defined 2020's tumultuous times.
- And finally, our milestone series celebrating 20 years of MoPOP has hit its home stretch, with entry No. 17 touching on the 2018 creation of MoPOP's new mission statement and core values.
What'd We Miss?
Now that we've filled you in on a few things, what do you feel we failed to mention? Let us know in the comments, or hit us up with a suggestion on social media. We'll look to include your ideas in our next edition of I.C.Y.M.I.
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