It feels like just yesterday when the Late-Night TV Music world consisted of little more than artists sitting in their basements, singing their latest numbers into their propped-up phones. Well, we’ve come a long way since then — for better and worse, based on the trio of surreal set pieces that graced the airwaves on Tuesday night.
Let’s begin with Ty Dolla $ign, who apparently decided to perform his new single By Yourself — which ironically includes Jhene Aiko and DJ Mustard — whilst strolling on what seemed to be either a) The patio and cabana attached to the floating house of a tech billionaire with no taste; b) The empty set of a religious talk show and/or real-estate informercial; c) The afterlife. I’m sure I’ll never know — mainly because by the time he wrapped up, I had already switched over from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Which is where I was treated to the sight of Lous and the Yakuza (which, FYI and BTW, is actually just one person), singing her groovy number Amigo while engaging in a spirited game of tug of war (and other relationship metaphors) with six dancers in some sort of underground bunker-slash-existential void-gateway to hell. Of course, once you’ve been underground, the only place left to go it over the top. No surprise: That’s precisely where you’ll find K-Pop superstars BlackPink, whose Jimmy Kimmel Live performance of Lovesick Girls was naturally set in what can perhaps best be described as the parking lot of a highway rest-stop convenience store from an ’80s science-fiction movie. Or something like that. To be honest, I can’t really be sure. But I do know this: After all that, I’d be happy to watch somebody sing into their phone.
https://youtu.be/aT5B9tnwFcc
https://youtu.be/8jMJMZ-iO20
