It’s safe to say that Emmy-winning actor/director/writer Donald Glover, also know Grammy-winning artist Childish Gambino, has been the talk of the entertainment world this week. In addition to his incredibly successful (and equally controversial) new music video, his new movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, just premiered, and the finale of his highly-acclaimed second season of Atlanta ran on FX on Thursday evening.
On last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, Glover pulled double-duty as both host and musical guest. Along with various entertaining sketches, Glover used his two on-air Childish Gambino performances to debut two new songs, “Saturday” and “This Is America”—his first new songs since his acclaimed 2016 album, Awaken, My Love! Following the SNL debuts, Gambino released a visually captivating and thematically controversial new music video for “This Is America”, which strikingly juxtaposes the joyful machismo and the harrowing violence and fear that come along with being a black man in America. Watch the video below:
Childish Gambino – “This Is America” [Official Video]
[Video: Donald Glover]
Last night, Glover joined Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote Solo: A Star Wars Story, the newly premiered Han Solo origin story spinoff in which he plays the role of Lando Calrissian. In addition to speaking about the significance of landing that role (“[Lando] was my first action figure”), Glover spoke about the surreal experience of being plucked from the crowd unexpectedly to sing with Stevie Wonder onstage earlier this week (Glover’s a longtime superfan, and this was his first time seeing him play), and explained how he’s mostly been oblivious to the frenzy surrounding the “This Is America” video. As he noted:
Some friends have sent a couple [pieces], but for real, I haven’t been on the Internet since [before hosting last week’s Saturday Night Live]. … It’s bad for me – I’m really sensitive … I see one negative thing, and I track that person down. I go to their Instagram and be like, ‘You’re not so great. That baby’s not even that cute!’
You can watch clips from Donald Glover’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live below:
Donald Glover On the “This Is America” Music Video
Donald Glover on Landing the Role of Lando in Solo: A Star Wars Story
Donald Glover on Singing with Stevie Wonder
Donald Glover on The Album He Has Listened To The Most