Music

Jason and Brittany Aldean are proud parents to two adorable toddlers, four-year-old Memphis and three-year-old Navy. But although Navy’s the baby of the family, she’s technically older than her big brother, Brittany explains.

That’s because both kids were conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), as the couple struggled with infertility as a result of Brittany’s endometriosis.

The first of two rounds of IVF yielded five embryos, one male and four female. “I was set on having a boy first, so we transferred the one boy we had and he didn’t implant,” Brittany shares.

So they went for round two of IVF, producing two male embryos. The first once again did not implant, but the third and final male embryo resulted in Brittany’s pregnancy with Memphis.

For their second child, the couple implanted one of the embryos from the first round of IVF, “and were immediately pregnant with Navy,” Brittany continues.

“Sooooo…in a sense, she’s older, right?” the singer’s wife sums up, along with a mind-blown emoji.

No matter who’s technically older, one thing’s for sure: Both the Aldean tots are adorable. The two kids frequently appear in the pictures Brittany posts to social media, and Memphis even occasionally makes an appearance onstage at his famous dad’s concerts.

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Green Day has canceled the band’s upcoming concert in Moscow due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium,” the punk trio writes in an Instagram Story.

“We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it’s much bigger than that,” the statement continues. “But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future.”

The Moscow concert was scheduled to take place in May, ahead of the European leg of Green Day’s Hella Mega tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, launching in June.

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At the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, Selena Gomez did what we’re sure many a female star has wanted to do over the years: walked up to the podium barefoot.

On the red carpet, Selena wore black heels, but then tripped and fell to her knees, in full view of the press. She then took off both shoes and walked off the carpet barefoot. Later, when she came on stage to present the award by Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, she was still barefoot.

Of course, the Only Murders in the Building star still looked fabulous, wearing a black Oscar de la Renta gown and a Bulgari diamond necklace worth $1 million.

The SAG Awards also saw Lady Gaga and her A Star Is Born co-star/director Bradley Cooper reuniting: They hugged each other when they saw each other at the event, where both were nominees. Unfortunately, both went home empty-handed.

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Last week, Journey kicked off their Freedom Tour 2022 with opening act Toto, marking the first time the two bands have hit the road together.

Toto frontman Joseph Williams tells ABC Audio that he’s “insanely excited” to be touring with Journey, noting that not only is he a “huge fan” of that band, but that the trek also is giving his own group the opportunity to play larger venues than they usually do in the U.S.

The 41-date U.S. leg of the 2022 Freedom Tour is scheduled through a May 11 concert in Hartford, Connecticut. Toto initially planned to launch its own headlining trek dubbed The Dogz of Oz Tour in late February, and then were supposed to have joined Journey’s outing in April, but things changed when Billy Idol was forced to drop off the February-to-April opening slot with Journey because of a sinus ailment.

Williams says the set Toto is playing as opening act on the Journey tour obviously is shorter than the one they showcase as a headliner, but notes, “[I]t’s still a great show. And it’s…mostly just sort of hit, hit, hit that way.”

Meanwhile, Toto announced last year that founding keyboardist/singer David Paich — who had retired from full-time touring in 2020 because of health reasons — “could pop in any time for a show as a special surprise” during the band’s 2022 trek.

Regarding how often Paich might perform with Toto this year, Williams says, “The frequency of his appearances…we still don’t know. What I can tell you is that he’s looking great, sounding great.”

Joseph adds, “We will invite him and try and coax him to…all of the concerts, as many as he wants to go to.”

Check out Toto’s full schedule at TotoOfficial.com.

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It’s been a bit since we’ve heard new music from Highly Suspect, but that’s set to change in the coming months.

In an Instagram post, the “Lydia” rockers tease that they plan to put out fresh material in time for their recently announced three-show run with Papa Roach, set to kick off May 22 in Springfield, Missouri.

“These shows will be dope,” the post reads. “We’ll have new music out by then too.”

Highly Suspect hasn’t released any new tunes since their most recent album, MCID, dropped in 2019. That record spawned the singles “16” and “These Days.”

Ahead of the Papa Roach shows, Highly Suspect will be playing Tampa, Florida’s Innings Festival in March, and Atlanta’s Shaky Knees in April.

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American Idol is back!

That’s right — the show dedicated to finding the next singing superstar returned Sunday night with judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie along with host Ryan Seacrest.

This isn’t just your average season of American Idol though, it’s the 20th season, and, as part of the milestone year, they’ve introduced the coveted Platinum ticket.

“We all know the Golden Ticket gets you to Hollywood Week but this year, this is historic, for the first time, we have the Platinum Ticket,” Seacrest said in a short video. “There are only three of these for the entire season, and if the judges vote unanimously for you to get this as a contestant, then you bypass the first round of Hollywood Week. I mean, it is, it’s a game-changer.”

With a ticket to Hollywood on the line, there was some serious talent that came across the judges’ paths. Here are some of the night’s highlights.

Kentucky’s Noah Thompson was one of those gifted people and thanks to his friend, who signed him up for the show, the 19-year-old was able to show off his skills and earn a ticket to Hollywood after singing Kameron Marlowe‘s “Giving You Up.”

Tyler Allen, 24, from Alabama, brought Katy to tears after sharing the tragedy he and his family experienced when his sister and barely one-year-old nephew were killed after being struck by an 18 wheeler. He sang Whitney Houston‘s “I Believe In You And Me,” the song he used to sing to his nephew, and made his way through to the next round.

Normandy, 29, from Maryland took the judges by surprise when her cartoonishly high-pitched talking voice turned into a deep singing voice. After having a go at Tina Turner‘s “Proud Mary” and Adele‘s “Rolling In The Deep” she earned herself a ticket to Hollywood.

Unfortunately, not everyone shown on Sunday night’s episode scored a trip to Hollywood. Grace, a 15-year-old from Michigan, who also happens to be the granddaughter of the late, great Aretha Franklin, didn’t make it to the next round of competition, but Lionel urged her to “put in the work” and come back.

Last up, was 23-year-old Huntergirl, real name Hunter Wolkonowski, from Tennessee, who earned a standing ovation from the judges and even had Luke ranking her in the Top 10 and calling her the “new-age” Miranda Lambert. Later in the episode, after performing at Luke’s Nashville bar, the judges bestowed the first Platinum ticket of the season to her.

Who else will score a Platinum ticket? Find out when the American Idol auditions continue Monday, March 6 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Nick Lachey is looking forward to celebrating 98 Degrees‘ 25th anniversary this summer but, ahead of the milestone celebration, he entertained the possibility of doing a “massive” tour with the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.

BSB first floated the idea in July, which Brian Littrell dubbed “the boys of summer” tour.  Does Nick see that happening?

“If we’re able to ever come together, I think it would be a massive, massive, massive success,” Nick told ABC Audio. “I think people would love to see that line up, and I think it would be certainly a once in a lifetime tour.”

While “The Hardest Thing” singer said his band mates would be “thrilled and honored to be part of that,” he cryptically added “there’s always a chance” of that mega-tour happening.  As for when that’ll be, Nick mused, “We’ll see… One of these days.”

What is certain is a massive celebration ahead to mark 98 Degrees’ eponymous debut studio album, which was released on July 29, 1997.  “This is our 25th anniversary year,” Nick proclaimed, adding, “We’re going to celebrate that anniversary with new projects.”

He confirms a new EP is on the way and said, “We’re actually working in the studio on that right now.”  Nick expects the EP to drop “by early summer.  That’s the goal.”

Nick also took a moment to reflect on his storied career, saying he is “blessed to still have amazing fans” because they’re the reason “we still get to do this.”  98 Degrees surprised fans last summer by releasing the single, “Where Do You Wanna Go.“.

The Grammy-nominated artist says, “It is truly shocking to us and amazing to us” they are still performing 25 years later, and vowed, “We’ll keep doing it as long as people are there to listen.” 

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Dierks Bentley’s latest single, “Beers on Me,” gets an assist from two of country music’s brightest up-and-comers, Hardy and Breland, each of whom had a hand in writing the song.

While Hardy lent his pen to “Beers on Me” in the kind of writing session that’s pretty standard for Dierks and his collaborators, Breland’s contribution came about in a way that’s a little more unorthodox.

It all started when Dierks played him the song — which, at the time, he thought was finished — and asked if Breland would like to sing a verse. Breland jumped at the opportunity, but asked if he could put his songwriter’s stamp on “Beers on Me,” too.

“We play the track over and over again, and he just started pulling things out of the air,” Dierks remembers. “Laughing to himself, messing with his hair…[I’m] like, ‘What is he doing?!’ And writing stuff on his phone. It was just like watching a mad scientist.”

The result? Lyrics so colorful and clever that Dierks had to think about them for a minute before he understood them. “You know, ‘I like my drinks like my roof — on the house.’ Like, ‘What does that mean? Oh my gosh, he likes free drinks!’” the star offers as an example.

“What he wrote was so well-written,” Dierks continues. “I feel like the rest of us had been painting with, like, six colors and he was using a paint set that had, like, 120 different colors to draw from.”

“Beers on Me” is currently inside the top 10 at country radio.

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As many artists release ultra expensive NFTs, Cordae is making sure his NFTS are affordable for his fans.

Last week, the “Gifted” rapper debuted his first NFT collection titled “IDENTITY,” a collaboration with designer Shaylin Wallace, which sold out in less than a minute.

“In general, I like to think into the future,” Cordae tells Hypebeast. “Learning and doing research, NFTs were definitely something that caught my interest.”

The two-time Grammy nominee wanted to keep the price reasonable. Each of the 5,555 IDENTITY NFTs is priced at $55.

“I’m not one of these people that’s trying to just come in and, you know, bleed out the community,” Cordae said. “The NFT space has its own ecosystem, its own community. To be a part of that is something that’s huge for me. To just enter into space with open arms.”

With Wallace, he created a series of graphic pop-art images inspired by his fashion style, with each NFT featuring a faceless rendering of Cordae in a different outfit.

“A lot of these NFTs are based upon my earlier style, around The Lost Boy era,” Cordae explained, referencing his 2019 debut album. “Like the OG hair colors and the things I used to wear, like vests all of the time.”

Cordae is considering releasing new music as NFTs.

“There are so many different aspects and possibilities in NFT space that are really exciting,” he says.

Cordae is continuing his concert tour promoting his new album, From a Bird’s Eye View. He will perform Monday in Chicago, Tuesday in Minneapolis, and the tour continues through March 19 in Sacramento, CA.

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