Rapper 21Savage will return home to the U.K. this fall for his first show since becoming a permanent U.S. resident and being given the freedom to travel internationally.
The special homecoming concert will take place at London’s O2 arena on Thursday, November 30.
The rapper announced the upcoming performance with a video montage shared to Instagram that features a collection of images of his younger self, concert footage, red carpet footage, studio sessions and other clips.
His post was captioned with three pleading-face emojis.
The news follows 21’s citizenship update and his official announcement — made during Drake’s It’s All a Blur Toronto stop on October 10 — that he can now travel outside the U.S.
After being introduced by his legal name, Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, 21 joined Drake onstage in Canada for his first international show since obtaining a green card.
“Performing for the first time outside of America in his life; make some noise for the brother, 21!” Drake said to the crowd.
Presale tickets will be available on October 11, with the general sale starting October 13.
Monday, October 9, would have been the late John Lennon’s 83rd birthday, and in honor of the occasion a new deluxe and expanded version of Imagine (The Ultimate Collection) has just been released to stream and download.
The new release features the entire collection on Hi-Res Stereo and Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos, with each of the five sets of songs – Ultimate, Elements, Evolution, Raw Studio and Out-Takes – released as separate albums instead of one long playlist.
Imagine: The Ultimate Collection was originally released in October 2018. It featured four CDs and two Blu-ray discs and included previously unheard demos, rare studio outtakes and more.
And that’s not the only way Lennon was remembered on his birthday. His former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney marked the occasion on social media, sharing a photo of himself onstage, with Lennon’s image projected behind him, writing, “Celebrating the birthday of my wonderful friend and collaborator, @johnlennon.”
The late George Harrison’s estate also remembered Lennon, sharing a short video featuring pictures of both Harrison and Lennon, along with some drawings, captioning the clip, “Remembering John on his Birthday.”
And Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, marked both John and their son Sean Lennon’s birthday on social media, sharing a photo of them together with the caption, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN! i ii iii i love you.”
Lennon’s birthday is also being remembered with the new video “Dear John” from singer Sepp Osley. The track features Peter Frampton on guitar and British singer Mollie Marriott, with the video featuring cameos from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Matt Sorum, Geddy Lee, actor Martin Freeman, comedian Matt Lucas and more.
On Monday, Netflix announced that part 1 of the final season of the hit series will arrive November 16 and part 2 will be available to stream starting December 14.
A teaser for the upcoming season features a look back at the different actresses who have portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in the series: Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, as well as Imelda Staunton, who portrayed the late queen in the previous season.
“It is a duty,” Staunton says as Queen Elizabeth in the clip. “But what about the life I put aside? The woman I put aside?”
Season 6 will continue to follow the story of Britain’s royal family. The previous season chronicled the modern history of the royal family, including the divorce of the late Princess Diana,played by Elizabeth Debicki, and Prince Charles, played by Dominic West.
Both Debicki and West will return in season 6.
In April, photos from the final season of the show were released featuring Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy portraying Prince William and Kate Middleton when they met at the University of St Andrews in the early 2000s.
Last month, Netflix hinted that the upcoming season will also depict the wedding of Charles and now-Queen Camilla.
Reba McEntire serves up pretty mouth-watering salted chocolate chip shortbread cookies, just ask her beau, Rex Linn.
“I used to offer these cookies to my friends until my boyfriend Rex said, ‘Would you please quit giving those away? They’re way too good!'” the “Fancy” hitmaker tells People.
In terms of ingredients, Reba’s recipe uses salted butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, bittersweet chocolate chips and sea salt. Overall, the prep and baking time is two hours and 50 minutes.
“They’re seriously addictive, and the key is the flaky salt on top,” Reba writes in her upcoming lifestyle book, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off YourBoots.
Out October 10, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots is available for preorder now.
Gabrielle Union is opening up about becoming a mom to daughter Kaavia [Kah-Vee-Uh] at the age of 46.
The Bring It On actress, now 50, recently shared a video to Instagram in which she responded to those who ask her if it’s worth it to have kids later in life.
“There’s a lot that goes into that answer, but in a nutshell, hell yeah it’s been worth it,” she began. “It’s changed my life in so many wondrous ways that it does make me wish I had done it earlier just so I have even more time with Kaav, I have even more time as a mom.”
Union said that Kaavia, her 4-year-old daughter with Dwyane Wade, came at the right time for her.
“For me, I became a mom at the right time because I was healed and I had committed to healing eternally, so I didn’t pass all that generational trauma onto Kaav,” she continued. “I wasn’t in a place to even take care of myself [before], much less our little miracle, so for me it’s absolutely worth it.”
Union ended her video by calling Kaavia “the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The band Metal Allegiance — featuring ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist/songwriter Mark Menghi — has announced a concert celebrating their 10th anniversary.
The show will take place January 25, 2024, at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we started Metal Allegiance out on the Motörhead Motörboat Cruise,” Ellefson says. “But here we are, a couple of albums and a whole bunch of shows later, celebrating the strength and resilience of heavy metal together.”
Along with the core four Metal Allegiance members, the concert will feature guest performances by artists including Mastodon‘s Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders, Testament‘s Chuck Billy, Bad Wolves‘ Doc Coyle and Slayer‘s Gary Holt.
Tickets go on sale Friday, October 13. For more info, visit MetalAllegiance.com.
Once Upon a One More Time, the Broadway show built around the songs of Britney Spears, may have closed in September, but a new musical built around the songs of Madonna recently opened in Paris.
The New York Times reports that the two-hour show, Holidays, is performed in French and features 15 Madonna classics, from “La Isla Bonita,” “Open Your Heart” and “Express Yourself” to “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Secret” and “Like a Prayer.”
The Queen of Pop isn’t involved in the show, but its director, Nathan Guichet [gee-SHAY], says he was inspired to create it after seeing a 2012 interview in which Madonna said, “I would sanction my songs to be made into a musical, but I wouldn’t do it myself.”
The show, which is set to run through January 28, features just four performers and one set. Here’s the plot, according to the Times: Louise, an heiress who’s about to get married, invites three pals who she hasn’t seen in more than 10 years to her childhood home. In their youth, the four friends would gather every August 16 to celebrate Madonna’s birthday. Now they come together as adults in Louise’s old bedroom, which is a pink altar to Madonna. Louise’s doubts about her upcoming marriage and a secret gay romance between two of the four women help drive the plot.
In its review, The New York Times notes, “Holidays is a welcome reminder that Madonna’s catalog has rare staying power.” It concludes that until Madonna’s Celebration tour arrives in Paris in November, the show is “an entertainingly upbeat stand-in.”
Madonna kicks off the Celebration tour October 14 in London.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dropping out of the Democratic primary race against Joe Biden to launch an independent campaign for president next year, he said in a speech on Monday.
Speaking to a crowd in front of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he cast his decision to leave the party his family has symbolized for decades as in keeping with American values of individualism — and his own platform, which mixes liberal policy priorities with tougher rhetoric on immigration and controversial claims about public health.
“Something is stirring in us. It says, ‘It doesn’t have to be this way,'” Kennedy said. “People stop me everywhere, at airports and hotels and malls on the street, and they remind me that this country is ready for a history-making change. … They are ready to reclaim their freedom, their independence. And that’s why I’m here today. I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate … for president of the United States.”
“I’m coming here today to declare our independence from the journey of corruption, which robs us of affordable lives, our belief in the future and our respect for each other. But to do that, I must first declare my own independence, independence from the Democratic Party,” he said.
An attorney and activist, Kennedy is the scion of one of the country’s most famous Democratic families: His father is slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and his uncle is former President John F. Kennedy.
The younger Kennedy in April launched a long shot bid against Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination.
Since then, however, Kennedy has attracted relatively little support from Democrats in national polling, according to 538, though he has drawn millions in donations from a base of supporters.
An independent bid is a new twist in next year’s election — at a time when surveys consistently show voters have soured on a potential rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump — though it’s not yet clear if Kennedy can draw enough voters away from the two-party system.
Teasing his Philadelphia speech last week as one that would create a “sea change in American politics,” Kennedy’s announcement follows mounting speculation about his future in the party after repeatedly sparring with the Democratic National Committee over the rules governing its primary and complaints of an unfair process.
At Monday’s event, Kennedy called out some of his relatives for attending in support. Others in the family, however, have been vocally critical. Sister Kerry Kennedy released a statement on social media from her and three of their siblings calling his candidacy “perilous for our country.”
Author and speaker Marianne Williamson is now the only notable challenger to Biden in the Democratic primary, though he continues to poll far ahead of her and party officials have said they support his reelection.
Kennedy drew a sharp rebuke from Democrats over the summer after he was recorded citing a false conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was “targeted to” certain ethnicities while Chinese people and Jews of European descent were more immune. In a later appearance before a House committee, he denied that he is racist or antisemitic.
Kennedy said last month that he had not ruled out an independent run to challenge the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees in the November 2024 election, despite having repeatedly ruled out such a possibility over the summer.
“I’m a Democrat. You know, I’m a traditional Democrat, and … part of my mission here is to summon the Democratic Party back to its traditional ideals,” Kennedy told Fox News in August.
But in September, he refused to rule out the possibility of an independent run during a campaign town hall in North Charleston, South Carolina, telling a supporter he was “going to keep all my options open.”
At the time, Kennedy’s campaign manager, former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, dismissed the idea of him leaving the Democratic primary.
“Regardless of what’s been said, even by the candidate himself, we have not abandoned hope for the Democratic Party,” he told ABC News when asked about Kennedy’s apparent openness to an independent run.
Last week, the Kennedy-aligned American Values 2024 political group said that it had been polling him as an independent candidate.
“I can tell you that I think the right move is for him to run as an independent,” Tony Lyons, American Values’ co-chair, told ABC News last week.
That’s because his latest track offers a fresh interpolation on John Denver‘s 1975 hit “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
“Making this song has just been pure fun from start to finish. It was an absolute pleasure to rework such a classic song and, with the approval of John Martin Sommers, the writer of ‘Thank God I’m A Country Boy,'” says Morgan, who co-wrote the song with Jesse Frasure. John is also credited as a songwriter on Morgan’s tune.
“I’m stoked to put this one out into the world! I hope it puts a smile on your face and gets your feet moving wherever in the world you are!” he shares.
Morgan’s currently on the road on his Life Upside Down Tour. For tickets and a full list of dates, visit Morgan’s website.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, deposed just last week as House speaker, on Monday didn’t rule out returning to that position as he spoke out against the Hamas attack on Israel.
Touting his own experience as a strong supporter of Israel, McCarthy said President Joe Biden’s “first priority” should be rescuing any American hostages being held by Hamas.
At least nine Americans have been killed in Israel since Saturday’s attack, a U.S. official confirmed Monday.
“This administration must also make clear that harming any American will really result in the wrath of the United States,” McCarthy said. “We cannot repeat what happened in Afghanistan. It must be clear that we do not negotiate with terrorists and no American will be left behind.”
“Now is the time for action,” McCarthy said as he held an unusual news conference in the Capitol while much of Washington marked a federal holiday. “America needs a five-point plan to meet this moment, to help our ally Israel and to strengthen our own future.”
The other aspects of McCarthy’s plan include resupplying Israel’s munitions; confronting Iran; boosting national security; and confronting domestic antisemitism.
McCarthy also shared his message for Biden.
“And to the president, turn off the barbecue and speak to the American people,” he said — a swipe at the Bidens for holding a barbecue on Sunday for White House residence staff and their families.
President Biden on Saturday condemned the “appalling assault” on Israel and vowed his administration’s support for Israel’s security is “rock solid and unwavering.” Biden had no public events on Monday, however, prompting criticism from some Republicans.
McCarthy was ousted from speakership last week in a historic vote, with eight Republican rebels voting to remove him.
The unprecedented vote has left the House essentially paralyzed without a speaker. Two Republicans, Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, have thrown their hats into the ring for the position. House Republicans are set to hold a candidate forum Tuesday and their own conference speaker election as early as Wednesday.
McCarthy was asked on Monday if he envisioned any scenario in which he’d be a candidate, and didn’t dismiss the idea — a shift since his statement last week that he would not be running again.
“I’ll allow the conference to make whatever decision,” he replied, referring to House Republicans meeting this week to choose a new leader.
McCarthy stressed his own experience leading bipartisan delegations to Israel, and said Israel President Isaac Herzog called him “as a friend” amid last week’s speakership showdown.
ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed McCarthy about what message it sent to allies and the free world that the House of Representatives is without a new speaker amid the crisis.
“It’s wrong. It’s wrong,” McCarthy said, adding: “We are living in very dangerous times. The pettiness has got to stop.”
–ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Lauren Peller, Benjamin Siegel and Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.
