(NOTE LANGUAGE) Chrissy Teigen didn’t get a warm reception from folks online when she emerged from her self-described “cancel club” in the wake of her cyberbullying scandal.
The former model and cookbook author hit the streets of LA in a conspicuous equestrian outfit on Tuesday, and the one-time “Mayor of Twitter” wasn’t welcomed by commenters, to say the least.
Replies to a pic of her posted on the gossip site JustJared’s Instagram feed were overwhelmingly negative. “Does this lady not realize that the entire world sees how desperate she is for attention? It’s so obvious. No one in LA walks around in riding gear,” snarked one commenter, who got hundreds of likes.
“Is she still telling teen girls to kill themselves?” another wrote, referencing Teigen’s cyberbullying of Courtney Stodden when the model was 16.
“Ride out of town,” one said of her riding gear.
Meanwhile, Teigen herself spoke to TMZ videographers during that outing, vowing, “I have decided I’m not getting involved in anyone’s s*** ever again.”
She laughed when she was asked when she thinks she would be out of the “cancel club” she lamented being a member of, adding, “I don’t know, it could be forever. I have no idea. I don’t know.”
The comments come just days after Stodden herself laughed at a recent post from Teigen in which she lamented her plight. “Just be nice,” Stodden wrote in response.
(PROVINCETOWN, Mass.) — A popular Cape Cod, Massachusetts, summertime destination is reporting a new spread of COVID-19 infections following the Fourth of July.
Officials in Provincetown, Massachusetts, issued a number of renewed mitigation measures on Monday after at least 132 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the weeks after the holiday weekend.
Town Manager Alex Morse told ABC News on Monday that the “vast majority” of the COVID-19 cases associated with the town’s outbreak are among vaccinated individuals.
Eighty-nine of the reported cases are amongst Bay State residents, 39 of whom reside in Barnstable County, and the remainder of the individuals, who tested positive, reside in other states and jurisdictions, local officials said.
At the height of its tourist season in the summer months, Provincetown’s population swells from 3,000 year-round residents, to over 60,000 people, according to state data.
Morse reported most individuals are experiencing “mild symptoms.” According to medical experts, fully vaccinated individuals are far less likely to become severely ill, and hospitalized, if infected with COVID-19.
Nina Hargus, and her husband, Stan, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, were among the influx of tourists who enjoyed the busy Fourth of July weekend in Provincetown.
“It really felt like a pre-COVID Fourth of July in Provincetown,” Hargus said. “Restaurants and bars were packed. The streets were filled with pedestrians, we saw very few masks, and no social distancing.”
Last week, Johnny Chagnon, of Vermont, and several of his friends, were thrilled to return to Provincetown after a difficult year. Although Chagnon had heard about breakthrough Fourth of July infections, he had not been too concerned, he told ABC News, because he was fully vaccinated.
“I have a lot of faith in vaccines,” said Chagnon, who has also conducted COVID-19 testing throughout the pandemic for the Vermont Department of Health.
Nevertheless, preferring to be cautious, “we were avoiding indoor events, because they were very packed,” opting instead for outdoor events, but without wearing a mask, he said.
However, on Monday, right after leaving Provincetown, he began to feel sick, coming down with a fever, and experiencing shortness of breath, a sore throat and cold-like symptoms.
“Today my fever is even worse,” Chagnon said on Tuesday. Although his symptoms have been manageable, “it’s definitely not what I expected being fully vaccinated.”
In light of the outbreak, officials in Provincetown have issued a new mask advisory, in which masks are now advised indoors where social distancing cannot be achieved. All unvaccinated individuals, including children under the age of 12, are required to wear masks both outdoors in crowded areas where social distancing cannot be achieved and in public indoor spaces.
Local officials are also now “strongly advising” venues with high density, where social distancing is not achievable, to enforce vaccine verification prior to admittance.
The Boston Public Health Commission also announced that it too would issue guidance for recent Provincetown visitors, after officials identified at least 35 positive COVID-19 cases tied to the Cape cluster among Boston residents.
The city’s residents, who have traveled to Provincetown since the first of the month, are now being urged to get tested, regardless of vaccination status or symptoms, self-isolate, and avoid groups or gatherings for at least five days and until residents have received a negative COVID-19 test. All residents are now being asked to take additional precautions to help identify COVID-19 infections, and to prevent additional spread.
Seemingly against all odds — with COVID-19 cases spiking in Europe thanks to the so-called Delta variant — the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with apparently no major outbreaks.
Variety is reporting that the organizers of the festival spent as much as a million dollars on COVID tests alone for its attendees coming from beyond Europe’s shores — European attendees could show their vaccine passport instead of undergoing testing and quarantine.
Celebrities like jury president Spike Lee, Matt Damon, and Bill Murray didn’t shy away from the festivities — which had the good fortune of wrapping up before stricter rules began clamping down again in France.
The festival’s artistic director Thierry Frémaux told Variety, “We managed to pull it through at the right time and in conditions that were almost normal thanks to a protocol that was intelligent and responsible.”
Frémaux said of the festival, which saw the controversial drama Titane being crowned with Cannes coveted Palm D’Or, “We had not imagined that the reunion would be so sumptuous.”
(TOKYO) — At the first modern Olympic Games, held in 1896 in Athens, there wasn’t a single female competitor. When the 2020 Games kick off in Tokyo this month, nearly half of the athletes competing will be women.
Tokyo marks a “turning point” for the elite international sporting competition as the most gender-equal Olympics in the games’ history, organizers said, with women accounting for nearly 49% of the 11,090 athletes. That’s up from 45% at the last games in 2016 in Rio, 23% at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, 13.2% at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, and 2.2% at the 1900 Games in Paris — the first to have female athletes.
When the games return to Paris in 2024, there is anticipated to be full gender parity, with the same number of female athletes as male athletes.
The milestone comes as the 2020 Games have sparked a conversation around the needs of mothers in particular, regarding accommodations around pregnancy, breastfeeding and child care and as scandals involving the abuse and harassment of female athletes continue to plague sports globally.
In the years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics — which, after being delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, run Friday through Aug. 8 — the International Olympic Committee has been working toward achieving more gender equity in terms of athlete quotas and event programming.
International Olympic Committe
Women’s Participation in Summer Olympics
Deliberate action
The IOC was “very deliberate” about working with international sports federations, which are in charge of their discipline’s qualifying procedures, to increase the number of female athletes in 2020, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell told ABC News.
“We got the overall number of athletes down from Rio to Tokyo, but even in getting the overall number down, we increased the number of women’s athletes,” he said.
For the first time, each team participating will have at least one female and one male athlete, and the 2020 Games will feature new events for women and more mixed-gender teams in an attempt at greater gender equity within sports.
Some events have been dropped for men and added for women in boxing, canoe slalom and rowing, and two more women’s teams will compete in water polo in Tokyo than in Rio, for 10 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams total. In swimming, the 1,500-meter freestyle — an event only men previously competed in at the Olympics — has also been added for women.
The five sports debuting at Tokyo — karate, skateboarding, speed climbing, surfing and three-on-three basketball – will all have women’s events. Both baseball and softball also return to the Olympics after a 13-year hiatus.
The Tokyo Games will have double the number of mixed-gender events than in 2016, for 18 total, including in archery, shooting, judo, table tennis, track and field, triathlon, swimming and surfing.
“We don’t think there’s anything more equal than to have men and women competing in the same team, on truly equal footing,” McConnell said.
The International Judo Federation had pushed to add a mixed-team event, with three men and three women on each team, to the Olympics “for years,” the organization’s spokesman, Nicolas Messner, told ABC News.
“Judo is an individual sport that you have to practice as a group,” he said. “You cannot train alone in judo.”
Having a mixed team was “natural,” he said. And while there won’t be any spectators at the 2020 Games, the event has had an “amazing” atmosphere in other competitions. “The noise level in the venue is way higher during the team event than during the individual competition,” he said.
Additionally, for the opening ceremony, all Olympic teams are encouraged to have one male and one female athlete carry their country’s flag.
Increased visibility for women’s sports
When the games are broadcast, women’s events will also have more visibility in the 2020 Games, with a more balanced schedule on the weekends — including more women’s team gold medal events (17) than men’s (13) on the last weekend — according to McConnell.
“It’s not just about having the athletes on the field of play, it’s also finding the best positions in the schedule to promote those events as well,” he said.
The Olympics are a time when women’s sports often receive their greatest visibility.
“Generally speaking, the coverage of women’s sports is very low, and I think the Olympics is often the exception to that,” Sarah Axelson, vice president of advocacy for the Women’s Sports Foundation, told ABC News.
A 2017 report by the Women’s Sports Foundation found that media coverage of men’s and women’s athletes in the 2016 Olympics was “relatively equitable.”
Having more women in the Olympics has a “ripple effect,” with more investment and equality in other competitions, McConnell said. The Olympics can also create a pathway for professional athletes. In boxing, women first competed in the Olympics at the 2012 Games in London. At Rio in 2016, there were 36 female boxers and three weight categories; that will be up to 100 boxers and five weight categories for Tokyo.
“Where it is now versus where it was 10 years ago … it’s just a night and day change,” McConnell said. “And that’s because now there are medal opportunities, there are qualification opportunities, there are pathways for the athletes.”
Patrick Smith/Getty Images, FILE
Allyson Felix celebrates with her daughter Camryn after finishing second in the women’s 400-meter final at the 2020 U.S. Olympic track and field trials on June 20, 2021 in Eugene, Ore.
Basketball, soccer and softball are other sports that have benefited from an Olympic profile, according to Cheryl Cooky, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University, an editor of Sociology of Sport Journal and the co-author of “No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport, and the Unevenness of Social Change.”
“I think the Olympics have really, historically for women athletes, served an important role with respect to opportunities,” Cooky said. “There was a time 20, 30 years ago where there really weren’t strong, viable professional leagues for women. You competed in college and then once you graduated, your career opportunities were essentially over for the most part.”
“In some ways, the Olympics are really serving an important function to provide another venue for women to be able to participate,” she said.
More room for improvement
Even as the Olympics are set to have full gender parity by 2024, other areas within the Olympics movement are working toward greater gender equality.
For Tokyo, the Paralympic Games will have at least 40.5% female athletes, up from 38.6% at Rio in 2016.
Over the past decade, only 10% of accredited coaches at the Olympic Summer and Winter Games were women, according to the IOC. The organization has committed to working with international sports federations and national Olympic committees to have more female coaches.
“That’s an area that for the time being is a little bit harder for us to directly control,” McConnell said, noting that the IOC can set athlete quotas, but the athletes ultimately choose their coaches. “But what we can do is put in place programs with the national Olympic committees, with the international federations, and create the opportunities from the bottom up to … develop women’s coaches.”
The IOC has also been working to improve the representation of women within the organization itself, where women currently make up 33.3% of the IOC executive board and 37.5% of IOC members.
Leading up to the games, organizers for the Tokyo Olympics have also faced criticism over comments and policies impacting women.
In February, Yoshiro Mori, then-president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, resigned following backlash over sexist comments he made suggesting women talk too much in meetings. He was replaced by a woman, Seiko Hashimoto, who is a decorated Olympian.
After several breastfeeding athletes spoke out against a pandemic-based policy that banned athletes’ family members from traveling to Tokyo, the organizing committee adjusted its policy to allow nursing mothers to bring their children “after careful consideration of the unique situation” those athletes faced, it said in a statement.
“If we want to support female athletes, part of being a female athlete is also having a family and if you want to support me as a complete athlete, you should be able to make room for my family,” U.S. Olympic marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk, who gave birth to a daughter in January and fought to bring her still-nursing child to Tokyo, told “Good Morning America” last week. “You can’t just talk about supporting women and then not actually support them.”
The case of Canadian boxer Mandy Bujold also highlighted the unique circumstances facing female athletes with families. Bujold’s Olympic qualifying tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, and she was either pregnant or on maternity leave for the tournaments that ended up deciding the Olympic rankings. The IOC denied her request to have her pre-pregnancy ranking recognized, though Bujold won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will be competing in Tokyo. The IOC had said in a statement that as a result, it may have to “make decisions that would prove detrimental to other athletes,” though accepted her entry “as a matter of exception.”
These situations, though spawned by unprecedented circumstances, only further highlight the challenges parenting athletes face, Axelson said.
“The circumstances for this year certainly add an extra layer of scrutiny and complexity to it, but it’s a challenge that athletes who are parents, or breastfeeding moms, they will face every year regardless of whether or not we are enduring a global pandemic,” she said. “They’re still a parent, they still have to figure out how to train and compete with a child.”
Earlier this month, the Women’s Sports Foundation and Athleta announced a program that commits $200,000 to help fund child care costs for professional mom-athletes who are traveling to competitions. The first recipients of the Power of She Fund, who will each get $10,000, include six athletes headed to the Tokyo Olympics.
“Parenthood should not be the barrier to athletic participation or athletic success,” Axelson said.
For Cooky, it’s challenging to talk about progress in gender equality when women are sometimes subjected to “problematic dynamics as a part of their participation,” such as abuse.
Between the Rio and Tokyo Olympics came allegations of sexual abuse against former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar from dozens of girls and women. Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 in a case that made international headlines as prominent gymnasts, like gold medalist Aly Raisman, read emotional statements during sentencing. Basketball’s world governing body, FIBA, is currently investigating allegations of systemic sexual abuse of female players in Mali, as first reported by The New York Times.
“Women’s sports have made some important strides over the last 40, 50 years, but at the same time, there’s a lot of challenges and discrimination and inequality and abuse,” she said. “We have to take those into account as well, because otherwise we’re not telling the complete story.”
On Tuesday, the 38-year-old pop star, who’s fighting to end her 13 year conservatorship, gave fans an update on how she’s feeling.
Alongside a photo of alphabet dice that spelled out the message “one day at a time,” Britney wrote, “So I said ‘life goes on’ in one of my recent posts but it’s always easier said than done !!!!!”
She continued, “In that moment that’s what felt was the easiest to say but I think we all know that I will never be able to let go and fully move on until I’ve said all I needed to say … and I’m not even close !!!!”
“I was told to stay quiet about things for so long and I finally feel like I’m just getting here,” Britney concluded, adding three white dove emojis.
Britney may feel she has more to say, but what she has already said seems to have inspired lawmakers. A bill, known as the Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation Act, or the FREE Act, has been proposed in the U.S. House. If passed, it would create a process for individuals to ask a judge to replace their guardian or conservator.
The current process of replacing a guardian or conservator typically requires that individuals prove in court that abuse or fraud has occurred.
(WASHINGTON) — As the Senate barrels toward a key test vote Wednesday on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, some Senate Republicans involved in trying to nail down the deal are pleading with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to delay the vote until next week.
Key Republican negotiators in the bipartisan group of senators who have been trying to work out the deal say they believe they can firm up their proposal by Monday. The group huddled over Mexican food and wine behind closed doors for over two hours late Tuesday night, but left without squaring all of their differences on how to pay for the $1.2 trillion package.
Without a firmed-up agreement, Republican negotiators left the Capitol Tuesday saying they do not believe a single Republican will vote “yes” to start debate on any measure Wednesday.
Republican negotiators advocated that Schumer delay the vote until Monday to buy more time for the bipartisan group to finish its work. Schumer, the Republicans say, is well-aware of their position that waiting until next week to hold a vote would heighten the chances of success.
Schumer had set the high-stakes vote to try to force progress on a top priority for President Joe Biden, but he needs the Republicans to get past the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.
“I don’t think any Republican votes yes tomorrow. I don’t think we should, because we’re not ready,” the senior lawmaker said looking ahead to Wednesday’s vote.
Instead, the GOP negotiators debated sending a letter to Schumer saying that Republicans, who have been warning they won’t vote on advancing a bill that’s not yet written, are prepared to support starting debate on Monday, the senior lawmaker said.
The group, which has been working around the clock, along with White House officials, is “close” to a deal on how to pay for roads, bridges and other “traditional infrastructure,” according to numerous members involved. They were meeting again Tuesday afternoon — joined by senior Biden aides – to try to finalize a bill.
The White House said it continued to support Schumer’s tactics.
But the bipartisan group of lawmakers won’t get a final agreement by Wednesday, according to multiple negotiators. Negotiators said Tuesday that there are about six remaining issues with the bipartisan bill, the thorniest of which is how to structure spending on public transit systems.
At the same time, the senior lawmaker expects the legislation to be finalized by Monday, and that includes the nonpartisan analyses by various agencies breaking down all of the financing options, how much revenue would be produced, and a final price tag.
Republicans, in particular, will be looking to show that the $579 billion in new spending is fully paid for.
As of Tuesday afternoon, it didn’t appear as if Schumer would delay the vote, but he could minimize the impact, should it be headed for failure.
If it is, Schumer could switch his vote to the losing side at the last minute, enabling him as majority leader, under Senate rules, to call up the vote again for reconsideration.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday pointed to Schumer’s option to bring up the bill again in a few days, after the bipartisan group has had time to complete its work.
“No time is lost by adhering to a very simple principle, we are not going to the bill until we know what the bill is.
He could do so on Monday, when GOP members of the negotiating group say they’ll be ready to go.
Might a failed vote Wednesday poison the well for GOP negotiators?
No, said the senior lawmaker close to the talks, and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a member of the negotiating group.
The Wednesday vote is to start debate on a shell bill because there is no final bill from the negotiators. It would serve as a placeholder should negotiators strike a final deal.
The measure is separate from a much larger bill Biden and Democrats are pushing that would spend $3.5 trillion on so-called “human infrastructure” such as child care.
Democrats plan to push that through the Senate with no Republican votes, using a budget tool called “reconciliation.”
(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) — A federal courthouse in central Arkansas on Wednesday will be the site of a consequential moment for the LGBTQ+ community in the state — and for health care precedent across the country — as a federal judge is slated to hear a constitutional challenge to a first-of-its-kind ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
U.S. District Judge James Moody is scheduled to consider an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to block a new Arkansas law that effectively bans gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, prohibits doctors from even providing referrals, and allows private insurers to refuse coverage of gender-affirming care to transgender persons at any age.
The law, which plaintiffs like Amanda Dennis argue will have a devastating impact beyond Arkansas, is set to go into effect next week on July 28 — unless the judge issues an injunction.
“We’re doing everything that we can to stop this dangerous legislation, not just for our daughter, but on behalf of transgender kids all over the United States,” Dennis told ABC News in an interview ahead of the hearing. “Because we know, right now, all eyes are on Arkansas.”
Here’s what you need to know: When did HB1570 pass?
In April, the GOP-led Arkansas state legislature passed HB1570, the first bill in the country that would effectively ban transgender youth from gender-affirming care — despite a surprise veto by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
While Hutchinson supported two earlier anti-transgender bills in the state legislative session this spring, he called the third bill a “government overreach” and refused to sign it.
He warned lawmakers they’d set a bad precedent by getting overly involved in decisions between physicians, patients and their families — but since the Arkansas legislature requires only a simple majority to overrule a veto, the law moved on.
Republican sponsors say the bill is meant to protect minors, who, they say, are too young to make decisions on transition-related medical care.
However, health care experts say gender-affirming care, or treatment that affirms a person’s gender identity, is life-saving. For minors, any surgery is far more often the exception, but therapy and reversible treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone replacements can be prescribed to combat the distress of gender dysphoria, or the incongruence between one’s assigned sex at birth and gender identity.
Activists argue that if the Arkansas law is allowed to go into effect, it will have detrimental effects on the mental, emotional and physical health of transgender people — beyond state borders.
What’s at stake?
The ACLU filed its challenge to HB1570 on behalf of four transgender youths, as well as their families, and two medical doctors back in May, arguing that the law is both unconstitutional and cruel.
One of the plaintiffs, Brooke Dennis, is nine-years-old, entering the fourth grade and hopes to pursue rhythmic gymnastics when she grows up. She was assigned male at birth, but her mother, Amanda, says Brooke has known she was a girl since she was two.
“[After accepting Brooke’s new pronouns,] it was as if a cloud lifted and Brooke’s smile came back. We had a happy, bright-eyed child again, and we were relieved to see our child flourishing once more,” said parents Amanda and Shayne Dennis in a brief submitted to the court.
But under the new law, Brooke won’t be able to get puberty-blocking hormones. Her mother told ABC News, that without access to the therapy Brooke will soon need, her daughter’s mental, emotional and physical health are at stake — and that’s not something she’s willing to risk as a parent.
“We would have to move,” Dennis said. “It would mean new jobs, a new home, all of the stress of picking up your entire life and starting over somewhere else. That’s a really, really frightening thing to even have to consider after all that Brooke and our family have been through.”
Dr. Kate Stewart, a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, told ABC News that health professionals in the state have already had experience with minors they say have become suicidal because of the law.
“We’ve seen how treatment can be life or death,” Stewart said, speaking in her personal capacity. “Anecdotally, I’m already hearing increased reports of emergency rooms seeing kids that are in crisis, just being so concerned about this law passing. It’s nothing short of devastating.”
Stewart also raised concerns that since the law limits one’s scope of practice, it will also discourage medical professionals from working in Arkansas.
What’s next?
The judge is expected to issue a decision before next Wednesday, July 28, when the law is set to take effect.
Until then, all of the plaintiffs must weigh how they’ll respond if the law does pass.
Total singer Pamela Longreunited with former group member KimaRaynor Dyson last week on BET Presents The Encore. Before dismantling in the late 90s, Long, Dyson, and Keisha Epps were known for hits like “Can’t You See,” “Kissing You,” and their gold-certified single, “Trippin.”
Long admits she left the R&B trio after releasing two albums to embrace her true self, as well as her newfound relationship with God.
“It’s just who I am. You just gotta be who you are,” Long tells ABC Audio. “Regardless of anything, whoever you are. Just be that because it’s going to shine the most. So with that being said, you just gotta stay tuned. To see what’s coming next. I can definitely say it’s not playing a role. I just want to be who I’m supposed to be. That’s it.”
Pamela Long is one of nine artists on the reality series BET Presents The Encore, which follows R&B singers from the 90s and 2000s who record an album as the ultimate supergroup. The cast also includes Nivea, Shamari DeVoe from Blaque, Aubrey O’Day from Danity Kane, Irish, LeMisha Grinstead from 702, Kiely Williams of3LW, The Cheetah Girls, and Felisha and Fallon King from Cherish.
Find out what happens on the next episode of BET Presents The Encoretonight at 10 p.m. ET on BET.
Michael B. Jordan knows he cannot say much about the upcoming Black Panther sequel, Black Panther:Wakanda Forever, but that’s not stopping fans from asking if they’ll see him in the movie.
The 34-year-old actor appeared on the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast and chatted about the possibility of his character, supervillain Erik Killmonger, appearing in the sequel.
While Killmonger was fatally wounded in the first film, fans have been speculating that the crafty character managed to survive.
While Jordan was unable to provide a concrete answer if his character would appear in future films, he did remark, “If there’s anyone that’s going to figure it out, [Director Ryan Coogler] is going to figure it out.”
The Just Mercy star also revealed how Chadwick Boseman‘s death impacted the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor, who played T’Challa aka Black Panther, died at age 43 last year after a silent years-long battle with colon cancer.
“Having a tragedy we are all dealing with, like losing Chadwick, I think Marvel, [Kevin] Fiege, Ryan and everybody over there had to figure out what was next,” said Jordan. “I haven’t gotten the information, one way or another so I’m not sure. But, whatever it is, they’re the right people to figure it out.”
On the subject of grief, Jordan also opened up about his new Amazon movie Without Remorse, where he plays an elite Navy SEAL seeking to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife.
The actor says his co-star Lauren London was mourning rapper Nipsey Hussle, her boyfriend and father of their four-year-old child, when filming started.
Jordan applauded London for channelling her grief into a standout performance.
“It was very emotional,” he said. “She was really transparent… She’s very talented and has so much to give.”
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
The 16-track collection, which can be pre-ordered now, is a mostly orchestral suite of songs that Kaye composed as a requiem for the many people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the album’s release coincides with the 20th anniversary of the horrific event.
Kaye had temporarily retired from music at the time of the 9/11 attacks, which he watched unfold on TV.
“The next day I unpacked my keyboards for the first time in a long time,” the 76-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer remembers. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. It was one of those things that happened, inspiration on a musical level.”
The songs on End of Innocence thematically cover the events leading up to the tragedy, aspects of the attacks themselves and the aftermath of 9/11.
Kaye’s wife, Dani Torchia, sings on a number of the album’s tunes, while current Yes touring drummer Jay Schellen, who played with Tony in the group Circa, also lent his talents to the record.
“I wanted it, musically, to be about that day,” Kaye says of the project, “but I felt compelled to extend it to deal with the repercussions of what happened. Musically, it was quite challenging to do the battle scene and then the [song] ‘Hope and Triumph,’ a patriotic anthem and the consequences of war.”
The album ends with a tune titled “Ground Zero,” which Kaye says is about “the hope for the future, the rebuilding.”
A portion of the profits from End of Innocence will benefit the Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity that supports veterans, military members and first responders experiencing hardships.
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/Twilight Time”
“911 Overture”
“NYC Blues”
“Battle Cry”
“285 Fulton Street”
“Let’s Roll”
“Tug of War”
“Flight 11”
“Towers Fall”
“Sweetest Dreams”
“Aftermath”
“Heroes”
“The Battle”
“Hope and Triumph”
“Homecoming”
“Ground Zero”
