Harry Potter's magic hit Hogwarts a while ago. The magic of Harry Potter being in rap lyrics hit Daniel Radcliffe on today's season 13 finale of Hot Ones.

In the interview, Radcliffe was asked by host Sean Evans to break down his iconic character's "name-checks" in rap history — lines mentioning the world of Hogwarts. Radcliffe proceeds to have the time of his life.

“I didn’t know there was a history of Harry Potter turning up in rap lyrics!" Radcliffe pleasantly admits on the show. "That's very cool!"

Radcliffe sat in the hot wings hot seat to promote "building a lot of Lego" because of the pandemic, and also his role as Prince Frederick in the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt interactive special, Kimmy vs. the Reverend.

Radcliffe's rap lyrics du jour came from Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, and CupcaKke. CupcaKke's entry was a little different than the others. Evans instead quoted a sexually explicit tweet from the 23-year-old Chicago rapper. Radcliffe laughed out loud, the pure soul that he is, immediately.

Hip-hop's relationship to Harry and co. traces back to the beginning of the film franchise (2001-11), according to a video breakdown from Genius from 2018, specifically citing songs like Jedi Mind Tricks‘ 2003 “Tibetan Black Magicians." Radcliffe has also shown his own ability in the rap game before on Jimmy Fallon.

Earlier in the interview, Radcliffe, a geek in the world of British quiz shows, mourned the recent loss of Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.

"You could really tell how much he really loved competition and the game of it," he says. “He loved seeing people who were really smart do well and that is an essential joy of a quiz show”

Radcliffe was himself a whole category on the quiz show back in 2019. “The moment I see a question of myself on a quiz show and I don’t get excited is the moment I know I’ve kind of died a little bit inside," he jokes.

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• See All of EW's Harry Potter Covers 
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• Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek wishes he'd met his wife earlier in life

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Omar Sanchez

It was another late day on set in New Mexico when Luis Gerardo Méndez, the star and executive producer of the upcoming road-trip comedy Half Brothers, noticed George, the set goat, getting restless. It was always around 11 p.m., Méndez says, that George would start to signal he was done for the day by kicking people's legs.

"I'm done with this. I'm done with this. I want to go to bed," Mendez remembers thinking. "One day he ate a whole barrel of his food because someone left it there. Like, four times more than he was supposed to eat. The next day on set, he was inflated."

Like George, Méndez's character in Half Brothers is a charming straight shooter, at times to a fault. The film (in select theaters Friday) tells the story of a Mexican aviation engineer named Renato (Méndez), who heads to the United States after learning that his estranged father (Juan Pablo Espinosa) is terminally ill. Although bitter about his dad's long absence in his life, Renato takes the trip, running into his half-brother, Mexican-American Asher (Connor Del Rio), and a lovable goat (sometimes affectionally called Renatito) along the way.

Méndez, who's currently in Mexico City and sporting a cop-ready mustache for his next role in Narcos: Mexico, worked with director Luke Greenfield (Let's Be Cops) and screenwriters Eduardo Cisneros and Jason Shuman for Half Brothers. Through the story of Renato and his evolving relationship with his father, his half-brother, and Americans, the team aimed to accurately portray "the perspective of the immigrant," the 38-year-old tells EW.

Méndez's star began to rise in his home country of Mexico in the early 2010s. He starred in the dark comedy The Noble Family, which took the box office by storm in 2013 and became one of the highest-grossing Mexican films ever. He went on to appear in Cantinflas, Mexico's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards, and to star in and produce Club de Cuervos, Netflix's first Spanish-language original series.

To prepare for his breakout role Stateside, Méndez worked with A-list acting coach Larry Moss. He also drew from his own memories. In a series of flashbacks early in Half Brothers, a young Renato watches his father leave their home for the U.S. during Mexico's financial crisis of 1994-1995, which left a wave of broken homes in a mass migration of Mexicans to the United States. The spike in migration rate ultimately led to a growing fear among some Americans of incoming mass unrest (see: outgoing President Donald Trump calling people caught crossing the border "animals" and "rapists.") Half Brothers has multiple scenes depicting detention centers near the border.

Méndez, who comes from a family of doctors in Aguascalientes, recalls firsthand what the financial crisis was like. "I remember my father losing his apartment," the actor says. "The only property he had at the moment. He lost it because of the crisis… It's not like Mexicans want to go to the States because they like the better weather, right? No, man! It's because they didn't have opportunities in Mexico. No one wants to leave their home."

In the film, Renato has a bone to pick with almost everyone around him, perhaps due to others' continued mistrust of him. In an early scene, Renato lashes out at a probing American journalist in a meeting, asking, "Why do you guys always think the Unites States is a symbol of success?"

That question crystallizes the movie's message. "We wanted to portray the theme of migration into the States with a lot of dignity," Méndez says. But rest assured, Half Brothers is no grim drama; it's often broadly comic. "I'm hoping families in the States around Christmas can watch and open a conversation about [migration]," Méndez says.

And you know what they say: La risa es el mejor medicina. Laughter is the best medicine.

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• Haters, 'Vete': Bad Bunny is Spotify's most-streamed artist of 2020

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Omar Sanchez

The man born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio sits atop 2020's streaming mountain with 8.3 billion streams. Following Bad Bunny is Drake, who was crowned Spotify's most-streamed artist of the decade last year. Third place goes to J Balvin, followed by the late rapper Juice WRLD and Grammy-shunned singer the Weeknd.

Bad Bunny started 2020 cooking with his February studio album YHLQMDLG, which was recently nominated for the Best Latin Pop or Urban Album at the Grammys. Then came the first surprise album, Las Que No Iban a Salir, which translates to "the ones that weren't going to be released." Even more recently came another surprise drop, El Último Tour Del Mundo, a 16-song collection featuring collaborators like Rosalia and Jhay Cortez.

The most-streamed song of 2020 on Spotify is the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights," with almost 1.6 billion streams. The After Hours crooner was one of the most notable snubs of this year's crop of Grammy nominees, earning zero nods despite the commercial success and generally positive reception of his 2020 album, and he registered his displeasure on Twitter.

"The Grammys remain corrupt," the Weeknd wrote. "You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…"

Billie Eilish was named Spotify's most-streamed female artist for the second year in a row, followed by Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and Halsey.

Cracking the top five of Spotify's most-streamed podcasts this year was Michelle Obama's eponymous interview show. The Michelle Obama Podcast, a Spotify original, came in behind podcasts from NPR, the New York Times, Joe Rogan, and Barstool Sports.

See below for more results from this year's Spotify Wrapped roundup.

Most Streamed Artists (Globally)

1. Bad Bunny
2. Drake
3. J Balvin
4. Juice WRLD
5. The Weeknd

Most Streamed Female Artists

1. Billie Eilish
2. Taylor Swift
3. Ariana Grande
4. Dua Lipa
5. Halsey

Most Streamed Albums Globally

1. YHLQMDLG, Bad Bunny
2. After Hours, the Weeknd
3. Hollywood's Bleeding, Post Malone
4. Fine Line, Harry Styles
5. Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa

Most Streamed Songs Globally

1. "Blinding Lights" by the Weeknd
2. "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I
3. "The Box" by Roddy Ricch
4. "Roses — Imanbek Remix" by Imanbek and SAINt JHN
5. "Don't Start Now" by Dua Lipa

U.S. Most Streamed Artists

1. Juice WRLD
2. Drake
3. Lil Uzi Vert
4. Post Malone
5. Taylor Swift

U.S. Most Streamed Female Artists

1. Taylor Swift
2. Billie Eilish
3. Ariana Grande
4. Halsey
5. Megan Thee Stallion

U.S. Most Streamed Tracks

1. "The Box" by Roddy Ricch
2. "Blinding Lights" by the Weeknd
3. "Blueberry Faygo" by Lil Mosey
4. "ROCKSTAR (feat Roddy Ricch)" by DaBaby, Roddy Ricch
5. "Life Is Good (feat Drake)" by Drake, Future

U.S. Most Streamed Albums

1. Legends Never Die, Juice WRLD
2. Eternal Atake (Deluxe) — LUV vs. The World 2, Lil Uzi Vert
3. Hollywood's Bleeding, Post Malone
4. After Hours, The Weeknd
5. Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, Roddy Ricch

Most Popular Podcasts

1. NPR News Now
2. The Daily
3. The Joe Rogan Experience
4. Call Her Daddy
5. The Michelle Obama Podcast

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Omar Sanchez

Camila Cabello is being interviewed atop a kitchen island in Shawn Mendes' new Netflix documentary In Wonder when she's taken back to a memory from four or five years ago, when the now Grammy-nominated couple were single and backstage at a Taylor Swift show getting to know each other. She just went over to say "Hi," Cabello tells the camera. Then came the pleasantries. Then came the song they wanted to write. Then came the Jingle Ball tour they did together. Then came the four or so years they couldn't see each other.

"And that's really when the f---ing saga got started," she says.

Cabello and Mendes' relationship is a linchpin in Mendes' documentary, 90-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews that dropped ahead of his fourth studio album Wonder. In Wonder gives audiences an inside look at the Canadian singer circa winter 2019, when he was in the headlines for canceling a performance in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He had gotten laryngitis, a swelling of the vocal chords. Through the eyes of acclaimed music director Grant Singer (The Weeknd, Taylor Swift), Mendes and his closest counsel are interviewed at length as Mendes stares at his career's mortality (albeit briefly) dead-on.

Here are three of the most revealing moments from the documentary, including Mendes' detailing Cabello's jaw-dropping reaction when she realized "Treat You Better" was about her and Mendes looking back on the ever-so-fleeting Vine fame.

The car ride where Cabello realized "Treat You Better" was about her. "Everything is about her," Mendes adds.

While gazing outside a car window with Airpods locked in, Mendes recalls a car ride with Cabello in New York. A song of his came on, he says. Cabello asks, this is about me, right?

"Yeah it's about you. Everything's about you. They've always been about you," Mendes says.

Mendes adds: "I'm rhyming off the songs. Treat You Better, all these songs. She's like "Oh my god." She literally had no idea." Mendes goes on to tell the audience that he compares writing a song about his relationship with Cabello to taking a picture of the moon with your iPhone — a pic in the camera roll that pales in comparison to the real thing. "And you're like, 'It's not supposed to be captured.' You know? It's just supposed to be for us."

Mendes' lung-bursting "Treat You Better" was released back in June 2016, peaking at six on the Billboard charts. Two years later, Mendes' first No. 1 came as a collab with Cabello (her second) for "Señorita."

Mendes is asked about starting out his career "making Vines for the love of it."

In 2014, a feature story on Mendes described him as "a sweet-voiced, dreamy-faced 15-year-old Canadian singer whose name, at the moment, is inextricably connected with the words 'Vine sensation.'"

Six years later, Mendes is asked about what it's like to come from the now-defunct app where he gained fame for doing cover songs.

“So this thing you start doing in your bedroom, making Vines for the love of it. Is it hard to protect that pure thing that started it all?" a male voice asks Mendes early in the documentary. Mendes nods with a gentle yes.

One of Mendes' early TikTok covers was "Say Something” from A Great, Big World and Christina Aguilera. Mendes' manager Andrew Gertler says in the documentary that he happened to find Mendes after a simple Google search for the original song, which Gertler had just recently heard for the first time. Gertler ran into Mendes' video, one of the first search results to pop up.

"Reached out, and we Facetimed Shawn and his mom" Gertler says. "Immediately Shawn starts grilling us with questions about how the music business works, why he might need a manager."

Mendes' fans are evolved.

Popstar fandom has largely gone virtual in 2020. But, just a year ago, Mendes was staring outside the window of his hotel room in Rio De Janiero, Brazil when a mob of young fans were sprinting to the front of the building. Why? "Maybe it's 'cause I just posted the Instagram of the sunset," Mendes casually says. "Doesn't mean that i'm down there."

Somehow, Mendes was discovered by his fans by posting a simple photo seeing out into the sunset — most likely the result of the internet research hustle of young teens.

The original post seems to have been deleted (you can see it in the documentary), although he did post a touching thank you to the guests he brought on stage during the Rio performance.

Related:

• Shawn Mendes strips his soul bare in first In Wonder documentary trailer
• Shawn Mendes drops new single 'Wonder,' the title track of his next album
• Taylor Swift responds to Scooter Braun selling masters to her first six albums

Author:Omar Sanchez - Source: EW