Music

Meghan Trainor opened up about the trauma she experienced after giving birth to her first child, Riley, in February 2021.

Speaking with People, the hitmaker said her son spent hardly any time awake after he was born via C-section.  When she and husband Daryl Sabara sought answers, Meghan says the medical staff made her feel that she was to blame for it.

“They were like, ‘Sometimes it happens,’ and then some nurses were like, ‘Well, it’s because you’re on antidepressants.’… “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been told by others that it’s not that,'” she reflected.

Meghan found it “really frustrating” that she didn’t know “why my kid didn’t wake up for a week.”

Although everything worked out in the end, Meghan admitted she was traumatized by the ordeal and sought the help of a therapist to process what happened. “I was having PTSD at nighttime when I would try to go to sleep… I would be back in the C-section, on the table,” she confessed.

That experience is also weighing on her now that she and Sabara are trying to expand their family. “It’s scary going into another pregnancy being like, ‘Well, I hope that doesn’t happen again,'” she offered, adding, “Do I have to change up my whole life? I don’t know… So it’s infuriating.”

Meghan said Riley’s happy and healthy — but admitted she’s a little jealous her toddler is only saying “Dada.” 

“I’m like, ‘Does he even know I exist?” she questioned. She then revealed her son has shown her in other ways that he “knows who I am, and he loves me.”

“He gives me those running hugs. It’s like my little koala. He just squeezes me so tight,” Meghan said. “I finally feel like he loves me, and it’s the greatest feeling ever.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dua Lipa met Queen Consort Camilla on Monday for the prestigious Booker Prize ceremony.  

Daily Mail reports the pair met during the ceremony. Dua was announced as this year’s keynote speaker, while Camila was charged with presenting the Booker Prize for Fiction. 

She handed the award to Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka for his novel The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida. 

Dua opened up about her love of reading during her keynote address, where she explained how books opened the doors for her to pursue a career in music. 

“Reading is a passion that has taken many forms for me. Like countless other London school children, my early obsessions included Roald Dahl and Malorie Blackman, both of whom gave me little pearls of wisdom that still guide me today,” she said. 

She then saluted past Booker Prize recipient Ismail Kadare for writing books that challenged her to master her language skills, saying they helped her “connect with my family’s heritage and identity as Kosovan Albanians.”

She continued, “I learned about the Albanian spirit of resistance, that same stubborn determination that keeps Kosovans fighting for international recognition for our independence today.”

She also said reading keeps her grounded. “Today, touring commitments take me all over the globe and life is often hectic. Sometimes just to survive, I need to adopt a tough exterior,” Dua said. “And at these times, it is books that soften me.”

She thanked authors for helping readers “find our place in the word,” noting, “Good writing has the power to make people feel seen and has to tell stories that the world has ignored.”

Dua and Camilla later shared an “animated” conversation, but it is unknown what exactly they discussed.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry enter a dream land in the video for “Where We Started.” 

The superstars take to a big empty room adorned with sheets and dark lighting as they sing of a couple remembering the good memories made at the start of their relationship.

“Those days when you’re brokenhearted/And you’re getting knocked down and you’re saying/Don’t know how far we’re gonna go just/Look at that road and think about where we started,” they sing in the chorus. 

“Where We Started” is the title track of Thomas’ album, released back in April. He and Katy premiered the duet in May with a live performance on ABC’s American Idol. 

“Working with Katy has been a really collaborative process. From tracking the song in the studio, to performing on it American Idol, to this video, her input has made this whole experience really special for me,” Thomas says in a statement. 

“I loved being able to create a dreamy world for ‘Where We Started,’ going back to the Nashville singer-songwriter roots of where I started,” Katy says, describing it on Instagram as “a little dream of a music video.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It’s Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed vs. Jonathan Majors as Damian in the Creed III trailer released Tuesday.

The adrenaline-pumping visual sees Adonis defending and carrying on the legacy of his former trainer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and father Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) when Damian, a friend-turned-foe, threatens to take Creed’s top spot in the ring.

The film follows Adonis, who’s established a thriving career and family life, when boxing prodigy Damian resurfaces after a long prison sentence, eager to prove his status as “the best.” Adonis is forced to put his future on the line to battle Damian — a fighter with nothing to lose.

With a story written in part by Black Panther‘s Ryan Coogler, Creed III marks Jordan’s directorial debut and his third acting gig as part of the Rocky x Creed franchise. Majors, one of the few main characters new to the film, plays alongside returning cast members Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad and Wood Harris.

Prior to the trailer’s release, Jordan shared first-look poster images of the film, one of which features himself in the ring with the phrase “You Can’t Run…” etched in the corner. The other, which shows a ready-to-battle Majors, reads, “…From Your Past.” 

The highly anticipated film was originally scheduled for release this November but will now hit theaters March 3, 2023. 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lewis Capaldi’s fans are rejoicing because the Scottish singer has confirmed his brand new album, Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent. That’s not all: he also unveiled his next tour.

On the music front, this upcoming work marks Lewis’ sophomore album, and it’s set to hit stores on May 19, 2023. “I don’t want to create a new sound for myself, or reinvent myself,” he said in a statement regarding his forthcoming effort. He added, “The songs I want to write are emotional songs, about love or loss.”

Lewis already released the emotional ballad “Forget Me,” which is rooted in a personal experience he had. “It’s about a breakup I went through where after a year, the only real contact I had with my ex was seeing her ‘post-me’ life play out on her Instagram,” Lewis explained. “I was at a point where I was feeling pretty miserable and she seemed like she was moving on and having the best time, thriving, and I hated it.”

He continued, “It seemed unfair to me that she appeared happy while I was hurting, and I was fearful she might have forgotten about me completely, so I wrote a song about it.” He just released an acoustic version of the heartbreak hit.

Fans can start pre ordering Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent on the official website. The album will also come in vinyl and CD format.

Additionally, Lewis unveiled his new headlining North American tour that kicks off March 30 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. The 22-stop tour covers major cities such as Toronto, Boston, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix and more before wrapping on May 11, 2023.

Ticket sales for the general public start Friday at 12 p.m. local time.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Arctic Monkeys have premiered a new song called “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am,” a track off their upcoming album, The Car.

The tune is available now via digital outlets and is accompanied by a video filmed during AM’s recent one-off concert at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. You can watch that streaming now on YouTube.

“I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” is the third cut to be released off The Car following “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” and “Body Paint.” The album will arrive in full this Friday, October 21.

Arctic Monkeys will launch a full U.S. tour in support of The Car in August 2023.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rising R&B star Coco Jones has new music on the way, and it’s expected to drop very soon. 

The singer-songwriter recently teased the new track and release date for “ICU” on Instagram, followed by a post with the song’s actual drop date: October 21. 

While she’s most known for her role as Hilary Banks on the hit Peacock series Bel-Air, Jones’ roots are in music. With the help of her mother, a singer, and football-player father, she began recording at the young age of 9.

“My dad got to wake up and live his dream his whole life,” she says in a bio on her official website. “That was kind of the upbringing that our parents wanted us to have: ‘Whatever you’re passionate about, as long as you work for it, we’ll support you. We’ll help cultivate that.'”

But for Jones, it was her acting that catapulted her rise to stardom. Throughout the first and only season of Bel-Air, the 24-year-old entertainer gained praise for her modernized, realist take on the role of Hilary. 

“In this world of social media where everything’s pretend…she’s trying to convince people that what she brings to the table is enough,” she said in an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show. “And that’s like, the common Black girl struggle.”

“ICU” succeeds Jones’ recent singles “Love is War” and “Caliber; Teyana Taylor directed the music video for the latter.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Elton John is currently embarking on his final tour, titled Farewell Yellow Brick Road, which is now the third highest-grossing tour in history.  

But, since the tour is far from over, Sir Elton may move up even higher on the list.

Billboard reports the three-year trek, which spans 257 stops, has sold 4.5 million tickets so far. That amounts to $661.3 million in revenue.

This is only the third tour in history to surpass the $600 million dollar mark. U2’s 360 Tour, which ran from 2009 to 2011, is the second-highest grossing tour of all time with a record $736.4 million. As for who the reigning champ is, that’s Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour, which amassed $776.4 million between 2017 and 2019.

It is unknown at this time if or when Sir Elton will eclipse either act and take over the top spot.

As for this current tour, Sir Elton has been adding new stops after emerging from the pandemic-related delay on the entire touring industry. He played 29 dates in North America this spring, then flew across the pond to perform 19 stops in Europe and is now back in North America for another run that covers 30 shows.

On this current leg, Sir Elton has played roughly 20 of these stops, which has added $133.4 million more to his coffers following the sale of 830,000 tickets. Attendance for his shows is also up by a whopping 192 percent, averaging about 41,513 attendees per stop. The tour is set to conclude next summer.

Across his entire career, Sir Elton’s tours have amassed $1.7 billion and sold 19.1 million tickets. With that, he is the highest-grossing solo act of all time in the Billboard Boxscore’s eyes.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The worlds of country and rock collided when Axl Rose made a surprise appearance during Carrie Underwood‘s set at the Stagecoach Festival earlier this year for a performance of the Guns N’ Roses classics “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” Speaking with Rolling Stone, Underwood shares that the live collaboration was “years in the making.”

“I’ve been covering Guns N’ Roses my whole life, pretty much, and definitely onstage for the past 15 years at least,” Underwood says. “I had asked before if he would ever come sing, or if I could come to him somewhere. We had a couple almost maybes, where it almost maybe would have happened but for various reasons it wasn’t the right time.”

Leading up to her Stagecoach set, though, Underwood decided to send Rose an email explaining “the why and what he meant to me.”

“The way I learned how to sing was I would pick really hard vocalists to try to emulate, and [Rose’s] voice always mesmerized me,” Underwood says. “I was like, ‘How is he doing the things that he’s doing?’ So I told him all that…and he came!”

“We had rehearsals and everything went very smoothly,” she adds. “It was easy for all of us to be around each other. Hopefully, he had a good time.”

We’d guess that Rose, indeed, had a good time since Underwood later joined GN’R to perform “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City” during the band’s shows in London over the summer.

Underwood, meanwhile, continues to show GN’R love on her current tour, during which she’s covering “Welcome to the Jungle.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.