Music

It’s time to go back to the 1980s with Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

The HBO series stars John C. Reilly as Dr. Jerry Buss, the real estate mogul who bought the flailing NBA team and made them the brand they are today. Reilly tells ABC Audio he was “honored” to play Buss, whom he calls “an incredible American story of success.”

Adds Reilly, “It’s impressive enough to buy a team [and] in the first year you buy them, win the championship. But if you know all the behind the scenes, everything he was going through, it makes it all the more impressive.”

The early 80s may not seem so long ago to some, but Reilly says the series shows that culturally it was a completely different era.

“You gotta love the swagger that those guys had, to have a cocktail bar in the conference room, in the middle of a meeting,” he notes. “It just seems like, man, they got away with a lot of fun stuff.”

The HBO series also stars newcomer Quincy Isaiah as a young Earvin “Magic” Johnson, just before he enters the NBA.  Isaiah says it was a lot of fun to play Magic at that point in his career.

“He’s…trying to, you know, just figure out who he is and grow up and become an adult and see how he fits in this new world that he’s been thrust into,” Isaiah explains, “And we get to see him and meet him as he grows into the icon that we know, that’s Magic Johnson today.”

Winning Time debuts Sunday on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

(Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Is Britney Spears about to share some happy news? 

In two separate posts on Instagram, the singer refers to her longtime love Sam Asghari as her “husband,” leading many to speculate that the two might already be hitched.

Britney posted a black-and-white photo of Sam Friday in honor of his 28th birthday, captioning it, “Such an amazing pic of my husband @samasghari !!!! He’s such a hard worker and he amazes me each day with his passion for life !!!! I’m so lucky to be able to share my life with him …. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.”

In a previous post from hours earlier, she shared a video of baby turtles and wrote that her “husband” Sam had sent it to her.

On Thursday, Britney was still referring to Sam as her fiancé in another happy birthday post, where she gushed, “Happy Birthday to my Fiancé … I love you so much. I want a family with you. I want it all with you!”

The two announced their engagement in September of last year.

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Wallows has premiered a new song called “At the End of the Day,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Tell Me That It’s Over.

“‘At the End of the Day’ is about being very invested in a relationship with someone and fearing it may ultimately be doomed but you just want that person to be happy no matter what,” says frontman Dylan Minnette.

You can listen to “At the End of the Day” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which chronicles a Las Vegas road trip, is streaming now on YouTube.

Tell Me That It’s Over, which also features the previously released songs “Especially You” and “I Don’t Want to Talk,” will be released March 25. It follows Wallows’ 2019 debut, Nothing Happens, which spawned the hit Clairo collaboration “Are You Bored Yet?”

Wallows will launch a U.S. headlining tour in support of Tell Me That It’s Over in April.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Hollywood Undead has premiered the video for “Chaos,” the band’s latest single.

The clip finds the rap-rock outfit surrounded by an army of masked dancers, reflecting the energy of the song.

“For the ‘Chaos’ video, we considered a more streamlined visual that represents the chaos that exists all around us,” says vocalist Johnny 3 Tears. “Both in the present and our subconscious.”

You can watch the “Chaos” video streaming now on YouTube.

“Chaos” is the first single off the next Hollywood Undead album. The currently untitled effort will be the follow-up to 2020’s two-part New Empire.

Hollywood Undead is currently on tour with Papa Roach and Bad Wolves.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

This week’s New Music Friday includes a Justin Bieber collaboration, yet another version of Charlie Puth‘s current hit, and a track from this week’s Saturday Night Live musical guest.

Last year, Justin Bieber jumped on a remix of the Afrobeats song “Essence” by Wizkid featuring Tems, and ended up scoring a bit hit.  Now he’s joined Nigerian Afrobeats singer Omah Lay for a new track, “Attention.”  Omah was also featured on the “Masterkraft Remix” of Justin’s smash hit, “Peaches.”

After releasing an acoustic version of his hit “Light Switch,” Charlie Puth has now dropped an EDM version of the song by DJ/producer Tiësto. “Light Switch” is from his forthcoming album, CHARLIE.

Thursday was the five-year anniversary of Khalid‘s debut album, American Teen, and he marked the occasion by dropping a new track and video called “Last Call.”  “It’s important to me to commemorate this day and look back at everything that has happened,” he says. “I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. I hope you guys enjoy it and celebrate with me and all we’ve done together.”

Singer, songwriter and producer Poo Bear, who’s brought you hits like, “10,000 Hours,” “Caught Up” and “What Do U Mean?”, has dropped a new single called “Favorite Human.”  He says the song is “really about those special people in your life, in my case I was thinking about my wife and my family while creating this, but I think it’s something very special that anyone would be able to relate to.”

Charli XCX will be this weekend’s Saturday Night Live musical guest, after her slot was canceled last year due to the Omicron surge.  She’s got a new song and video called “Baby,” from her forthcoming album, CRASH.  She told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, “It’s about sex and sexuality and having good sex and just feeling yourself essentially.“

Lastly, Ashe is out with a new song and video called “Another Man’s Jeans,” about which she says, “It’s sexy! And loud! And fun!”

(Charlie XCX video contains profanity.)

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

As the 2022 ACM Awards quickly near, country stars are doing everything they can to look and feel their best for the big night — and for many of country’s hottest names, that makes booking a workout with trainer Erin Oprea.

Known as country music’s own personal fitness guru, Erin has played a pivotal role in the health and well journeys of A-Listers like Carrie Underwood, helping Carrie safely keep her fitness levels up even as she recovered from a November 2017 fall that left her with a broken wrist and 40-50 stitches in her face.

Erin was also there for Maren Morris every step of the way through her pregnancy with her son, Hayes, keeping her feeling her best with pregnancy-safe workouts.

Oprea’s known for dreaming up creative workouts, both for her celebrity clients and the fans watching from home. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eric kept things lighthearted by creating a leg day workout set to her client Kelsea Ballerini’s “Hole in the Bottle.”

Want to train like your favorite country stars? You can download Erin’s app, called Pretty Muscles.

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Wage War has joined Slipknot‘s Knotfest Roadshow tour in place of Jinjer, who dropped off the lineup due to Russia’s invasion of their home country of Ukraine.

The “Circle the Drain” outfit will join In This Moment to open the first leg of the tour, running from March 16 to April 17. The second leg, which stretches from May 18 to June 18, features support from Cypress Hill and Ho99o9.

Jinjer announced Friday that they were canceling all their North American tour dates, which included the Knotfest Roadshow dates as well as headlining shows. They’re currently selling two new t-shirts to raise funds for their fellow Ukrainians in need of medicine, food and water amid the invasion.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Alice Merton has announced her sophomore album.

The record is called S.I.D.E.S., and will arrive June 17. It features the previously released songs “Vertigo,” “Island” and “Hero.” A fourth cut, titled “Same Team,” is out today via digital outlets.

“The last two years have been challenging for everyone in some way or another,” Merton says. “Friends and family were lost, restrictions were enforced for the first time since I’ve been alive, and mental strength had been tested to its limit.”

She continues, “S.I.D.E.S. tells my story of how I experienced these past years. It’s a summary of the ups and many downs, the psychological challenges I faced, and somehow realizing that there will always be another side to the story — the question is just how and when do you get there.”

S.I.D.E.S. follows Merton’s 2019 debut album Mint, which includes her breakout single, “No Roots.”

Here’s the S.I.D.E.S. track list:

“Loveback”
“Island”
“Future”
“Same Team”
“Blurry”
“Everything”
“Blindside”
“Shiny Things”
“100 Stories”
“Hero”
“Mania”
“Vertigo”
“Breathe in, Breathe Out”
“Letting You Know”
“The Other Side”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Remember when everybody lost their minds over those orchestral versions of pop songs in season one of the Netflix hit Bridgerton?  Well, get ready for more in season two.

In season one, fans were delighted to hear classically-inspired arrangements of songs like Taylor Swift‘s “Wildest Dreams” and Ariana Grande‘s “thank u, next.”  This season, “artists themselves were actually reaching out to us, wanting covers of their songs to be played on the show,” series creator Chris Van Dusen tells People.

This season, according to People, you’ll be hearing orchestral versions of everything from Rihanna‘s “Diamonds” and Miley Cyrus‘ “Wrecking Ball” to Madonna‘s “Material Girl” and Harry Styles‘ “Sign of the Times.”

Other songs to listen for include Nirvana‘s “Stay Away,” Robyn‘s “Dancing on My Own,” Alanis Morissette‘s “You Oughta Know” and Pink‘s “What About Us.”

“There are fun Easter eggs for fans to learn and find within the song selection this season,” says Van Dusen, noting that in several cases, the original song’s lyrics sum up what’s happening in the scene, but you won’t hear them, of course. 

Bridgerton returns to Netflix on March 25.  As Lady Whistledown would say, it’s the social event of the season.

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