Entertainment
Why Luther Vandross is trending after the Grammys
OK, so you’re going to see a lot about Luther Vandross, Kendrick Lamar, Cher, and the Grammys on your feed today.
The setting? The 68th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. The category? Record of the Year. The announcement? Here’s what happened.
Onstage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, Cher was about to present Lamar with his fifth Grammy of the night — an evening in which the rapper made history. Set to read out the winner for Record of the Year, the Goddess of Pop opened the prized envelope — however, she thought the winner would also be on the event’s teleprompter. After a brief moment, she then read out the winner from the card: Lamar’s ballad with SZA, “luther.”
But what Cher actually said was “Luther Vandross,” naming not Lamar or SZA but the all-time music legend who passed away in 2005, prompting social media to erupt.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
“luther” does have Vandross at its core, with the track sampling his 1982 hit with Cheryl Lynn “If This World Were Mine,” which was a cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 duet.
The song, from Lamar’s freshly Grammy-awarded 2024 album, GNX, was written by Lamar and SZA with Ink and Sam Dew, and produced by Sounwave, Kamasi Washington, Jack Antonoff, Scott Bridgeway, M-Tech, and roselilah. “luther” took home two Grammys on Sunday, including Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance.
During Sunday’s acceptance speech, producer Sounwave paid tribute to Vandross, saying, “First and foremost, let’s give a shout out to the late great Luther Vandross. It was very, very, very important to keep the integrity of this record.”
Mashable Top Stories
Up next was Lamar, who also honoured Vandross, saying, “This is what music is about.” (The artist did take a moment to say the artist’s full name aloud with a smile, which felt like it cleared the Cher air.)
“This is special for me, I gotta take my time,” he said. “Because it’s one of my favorite artists of all time, and they granted us the privilege to do our version of it. When we got that clearance, I promise you, we damn near all dropped a tear because we know how much young miss Cheryl Lynn poured into that record. And being able to put our vocals over it, it proves that we were somewhat worthy to be just as great.”
“When we got that clearance, I promise you, we damn near all dropped a tear.”
Lamar then thanked 68-year-old Lynn — “If you out there, listening, watching, we appreciate you,” — and mentioned that the only proviso on using the sample for “luther” was no cursing.
Now, here’s the part I want you to take away from the whole trending moment: SZA’s speech. The artist thanked Lamar “for lifting me up,” before giving the audience one hell of a moving reality check.
“What I really wanted to say is, please don’t fall into despair,” said SZA. “I know that right now is a scary time. I know the algorithms tell us that it’s so scary and all is lost. There’s been world wars, there’s been plagues, and we have gone on. We can go on. We need each other.”
Later on the red carpet, SZA was asked by Entertainment Tonight about Cher’s “Luther Vandross” moment and she put it straight, saying, “We share the frequency of the song, like, that’s his frequency that allowed us to win and allowed it to be memorable, so she’s not wrong. And she’s from that era, she probably really knew Luther Vandross.
“Of course, her brain and her energy is connecting that energy to the energy that we’re sharing,” she added. “We’re mooching off of what Luther already gave us, so we’re grateful. I wish I could speak to him. Thank you, Luther.”
You can watch Lamar, SZA and Sounwave’s acceptance speech above and check out the full list of winners at the 2026 Grammys.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for April 5, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re an animal lover.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Pouch perfect
The words are related to animals.
Mashable Top Stories
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe pouch-bearing animals.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Marsupials.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
NYT Strands word list for April 5
-
Wombat
-
Koala
-
Bilby
-
Marsupials
-
Opossum
-
Kangaroo
-
Wallaby
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for April 5, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
A spigot.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
SPOUT
Mashable Top Stories
Hurdle Word 2 hint
A leg exercise.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
LUNGE
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
Hurdle Word 3 hint
Fire.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
FLAME
Hurdle Word 4 hint
To smash into.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
CRASH
Final Hurdle hint
Gleam
Hurdle Word 5 answer
SHINE
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Terrifying Viral Web Series Makes Its Big Screen Debut
By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated
The wait is over. After years of anticipation, Backrooms is finally here. The first trailer was dropped on March 31, 2026, and the surreal dimension audiences were introduced to in the amateur web series is finally coming into its own. The A24 production was directed by none other than Kane Pixels himself, Kane Parsons.
When Parsons filmed his masterpiece web series, he was a 17-year-old high school student with an experimental eye behind the camera. The Backrooms (Found Footage) follows a young filmmaker as he wanders into another dimension consisting of a labyrinth of rooms in a yellow-walled institutional setting. His work was noticed by Atomic Monster, the studio of horror great James Wan, director of The Conjuring movies and the Insidious franchise. Parsons still isn’t old enough to pop champagne at his movie’s premiere, but his maturity as a director is sure to excite fans of the web series.
Lost In Labyrinth
In the trailer for Backrooms, Chiwetel Ejiofor, known for playing Baron Mondo in the Doctor Strange movies, stars as Clark, an employee in a furniture showroom who one night finds a strange opening in the store’s basement. He passes through the opening and finds the very same dimension that is Parsons’s trademark, yellow walls and all. As he wanders around a little, strange events happen.
This makes him determined to study this strange alternate universe. He recruits some friends and gathers some camera gear, and the group begins its exploration. However, there is a young lady he speaks to that seems to be either a friend or a therapist, and when she stumbles upon the rooms without Clark’s knowledge, she may never come back.
At least, this is what I have gathered from watching the trailer. The script, written by Parsons and Will Soodik, has been kept under wraps since the movie was first announced. It appears to take place in the past (prior rumors said the 1990s), and IMDb doesn’t have a lot of information beyond the name of Ejiofor’s character and some production credits.
What we have been shown is exciting because it draws upon almost everything fans loved about the web series. It will feature found footage in the form of the explorations of Clark and his friends. The vast office complex that makes up the setting is adorned with surreal imagery like strangely stacked furniture and objects sunken into walls. Some of the characters show up in radiation gear. Somehow, between the yellow walls and the varying sizes of the rooms, passages, and hallways, the titular setting is both massive and claustrophobic at once, making it very unsettling.
A Deeply Unsettling Exploration
The whole movie seems to echo the trajectory of Parsons’s career so far: an eagerness to explore combined with an optimism for what Clark might find, while presenting a frightening and solitary menace for anyone who dares enter alone. Parsons began with that eagerness and is now getting to explore the world of cinema that he entered when he posted the original anthology on YouTube, with all the optimism of a kid who got his first directing contract before he even graduated high school.
If Backrooms maintains the tone set by Kane Pixels, it could draw new fans. If it manages to use the resources offered to Parsons by support from a professional studio, it could turn a teenager’s vision into the hottest new horror franchise. The trailer hints that it at least accomplishes the tone. Now to see if it can exceed expectations.
Get lost in Backrooms, in theaters on May 29, 2026.
Habs outlast Devils in shootout to earn eighth straight victory
Clayton Keller's hatty surges Mammoth past lowly Canucks
