Music

Maren Morris is set to take her new album, Humble Quest, on a headlining tour. 

The superstar will hit the road for roughly five months, beginning in June. Along the way, she’ll make stops at Red Rocks Amphitheater, the Greek Theatre, and the famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The 41-date tour wraps on December 2 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. 

Maren is bringing a crew of Americana artists with her as opening acts including Ruston Kelly, The Highwomen costar Natalie Hemby, Brittney Spencer, Joy Oladokun, Brent Cobb and Lone Bellow. 

“Oh, how I’ve missed you. I can’t wait to see you out under the stars,” Maren shares.

This serves as her first tour since GIRL: The World Tour in 2019. She was supposed to headline RSVP: The Tour in 2021, but it was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Maren’s third studio album, Humble Quest, will be released on March 25. Its lead single, “Circles Around This Town,” is climbing the top 30 on country radio.

Tickets go on sale to the public on March 11 at 10 a.m. local time. Visit Maren’s website for a full list of dates. 

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These days, Jason Aldean is celebrating the release of Macon, Georgia, a double album and the 10th full-length project of his career.

The star is one of country music’s veterans, with a total of 14 ACM trophies — including three Entertainer of the Year wins — under his belt. But he still remembers how he first got to know the awards show as a fan, when he was a little kid.

“I remember when this show would come on at my house as a kid,” Jason tells ABC Audio. “It was a big deal. Big night. We didn’t have YouTube and all these things to go and watch our artists whenever we wanted to. That was a chance for us to see them on live TV, that one time of year.”

Seeing artists like George Strait and Garth Brooks on the big stage also spurred on a then-young Jason hoping to pursue country music. Now, Jason’s paying it forward, returning to the stage as one of the genre’s biggest stars himself.

“[To] get to come back and be part of that legacy, to me, is just so cool,” he continues.

“Sometimes I don’t even know how I got here,” Jason reflects. “But I’m just thankful to get a chance to be here and be around as long as I have been.”

Jason is a three-time nominee at tonight’s show, and he’s also performing. The 2022 ACMs air tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton is co-hosting the show with Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen.

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Foo Fighters have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand for later this year.

The outing kicks off November 30 in Perth, and will wrap up mid-December. For the full list of dates and ticket info, visit FrontierTouring.com.

The news comes after Dave Grohl and company headlined Australia’s GMHBA Stadium last Friday, which marked the country’s first full-capacity stadium concert headlined by an international act since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

Foo Fighters are scheduled to launch a U.S. headlining tour in May. In addition to catching them on the road, you can see the Foos on the silver screen in their new movie Studio 666, in theaters now.

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Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney have ascended to #1 on the country charts with “Half of My Hometown,” and it’s got Kelsea all in her feels. 

The personal song chronicles Kelsea’s upbringing in Knoxville, TN and marks her seventh #1 hit on country radio, and Kenny’s 35th. 

To celebrate its success, Kelsea posted a sincere reflection on Instagram about why “Hometown” is her “favorite” among her hits. “Sometimes leaving is the only way you understand the importance of where you’re from. If you want to know more about yourself, go back and find it. Wherever you put your roots down, honor them. Water them. It doesn’t have to look like your neighbors,” she shares in a series of bullet points. 

“My years in Knoxville shaped my creativity, my drive, and my sense of self. I wouldn’t be doing this had I grown up anywhere else,” she continues. “Leaving at 15 to go chase this dream down was the hardest and best decision I’ve ever made.” 

Kelsea goes on to praise her duet partner and fellow Knoxville native, recalling how she used to listen to Kenny’s 1996 cover of “Back Where I Come From” in her parents’ Jeep growing up. “@kennychesney you showed up in every way for this song and have become such a friend and brother through it,” Kelsea praised, also thanking country radio, her team and co-writers Shane McAnally, Nicolle Galyon, Ross Copperman and Jimmy Robbins. 

“Half of My Hometown” is nominated for Music Event of the Year at the ACM Awards, airing Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

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If you’ve ever wondered whether Taylor Swift is a Marvel or a DC kinda gal, it appears we have our answer.

Taylor took to her Instagram Stories over the weekend to praise the new film The Batman, and, in particular, Zoë Kravitz‘s portrayal of the iconic character, Catwoman.  Taylor posted a photo of Kravitz onscreen in the film, which appears to have been taken in a theater or screening room.

“@zoeisabellakravitz IS THE CATWOMAN OF DREAMS,” Taylor captioned the post. “The Batman was PHENOMENAL!!”

Taylor and Zoë have apparently been friends for quite a while: There are photos of them out together in New York City in 2016.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, opened with $128.5 million at the box office this weekend, the second-best opening of the pandemic era. Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home was first.

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Machine Gun Kelly is bringing Bring Me the Horizon to a new song.

The “Bloody Valentine” rocker and Horizon frontman Oli Sykes made a surprise appearance at Los Angeles’ Emo Night event last Friday night, where they premiered a never-before-heard collaborative track. Fan-shot footage of the performance is streaming now on YouTube.

Kelly later tweeted that the official recording of the song would be released “soon.”

We’d guess that the track will appear on MGK’s upcoming album Mainstream Sellout, which arrives March 25. The follow-up to 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall features the WILLOW and Lil Wayne collaborations “Emo Girl” and “Ay!”, respectively.

A track with Kelly would follow a string of recent collabs for Sykes and Horizon, including “Let’s Get the Party Started” with Tom Morello and a joint rendition of Ed Sheeran‘s “Bad Habits.”

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Dua Lipa seems to be amused by the Saturday Night Live skit about her that aired over the weekend

In the skit, guest host Oscar Isaac played a janitor named Mike who stumbles into a writing group being held after hours in the high school where he works. When they invite him to read something he’s written, he starts reading a story called “The Apogee of Midnight,” which turns out to be fan fiction about Dua.

In Mike’s story, Dua shows up late at night in the high school and says, “My name is Dua Lipa. I’m a big pop star, and I’m looking for a janitor here named Mike.” 

He continues reading the story: “The janitor paused. That was his name. Dua Lipa sighed. ‘You haven’t heard of me, have you?’ ‘Sorry, ma’am. More of a classic rock guy, myself — but sure, maybe I’ve seen a bikini pic or two.’”

In Mike’s story, Dua then asks him to teach her how to make out, saying, “I’ve never done it before.”

The leader of the writing group tries to stop Mike, and the women in the group say the story’s “creepy.”  But the men in the group are on the edge of their seats, dying to know what’s going to happen. 

Dua posted the entire sketch on her Instagram and captioned it, “*adds to list of things I never thought would happen in my life,*” along with a bunch of laughing emojis.

In other Dua news, days after being hit with a copyright lawsuit over her song “Levitating,” Billboard reports that two more songwriters have filed a lawsuit against her over the same song.  The songwriters, L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, claim “Levitating” copies parts of their 1979 song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and their 1980 song, “Don Diablo.”

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While many have criticized Kanye West‘s new video for “Eazy“, in which he apparently murders an animated analogue for Pete Davidson, the SNL star himself is laughing it off.

A source tells Entertainment Tonight that Davidson, who is dating West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, “finds the fact that Kanye included a cartoon version of him in his music video hysterical.”

“He is almost flattered by it all because it is so ridiculous to him,” the source adds.

And fans of the evidently irresistible comedian and The Suicide Squad actor needn’t worry about him, the source continues, commenting Pete “is not threatened by Kanye in any way, shape or form.” Instead, Ye’s reaction is helping Davidson “to grow in more ways than one, including for himself and his relationship with Kim. He is turning all of the negativity into a positive thing.”

Sunday night, Kanye himself addressed the controversy on Instagram, noting that, like the disclaimer that appears in end credits in a movie, any similarities between the video’s characters and real people is purely coincidental. 

“Art is therapy just like this view,” Kanye began. “art is protected as freedom of speech/art inspires and simplifies the world/Art is not a proxy for any ill or harm.”

He added, “Any suggestion otherwise about my art is false and mal intended [sic].”

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Halsey is mourning the loss of their dog, Jagger. 

Over the weekend, the “Without Me” singer took to social media to share a slideshow of photos of their furry friend, along with a heartbreaking tribute. 

“This has been the worst week of my life,” Halsey began. “Before I had a dog of my own, I would hear people mourn their pets and think ‘it’s just a dog…’ well I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Halsey, who got Jagger “when he was just a few weeks old,” went on to share that they thought about what it would be like when this day came, but didn’t expect it to come so soon. 

“Jagger was 5 years old and yesterday we lost him to a progressive condition called Myelomalacia. It is sudden and uncommon and unfair with a catastrophic prognosis,” they explained.

“Within 3 days my beautiful baby boy went from chasing imaginary birds around the yard and laying in my lap turning his ears up at the sounds of Sesame Street, to having paralysis spread through his body by the hour,” they continued. “It was sudden and shocking and I still haven’t even really processed it.”

The pop star, who welcomed their son Ender with Alev Aydin last summer, added, “My very first love, who taught me how to be a mommy. My sweet, sarcastic, so very human boy. Every single person who had the privilege of meeting jagger will never forget him. He was that special.”

Halsey concluded, “If you’re reading this and you don’t have a pet, you might be thinking ‘it’s just a dog.’ Like I maybe used to. But I can tell you you’re wrong… If you loved Jagger along with me, thank you for giving him the best life the bestest boy could have ever had.”

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