Kelly Clarkson has released her new EP, Kellyoke, which rounds up studio versions of some of the cover songs she’s performed in the “Kellyoke” segments of her talk show. One song on the EP is one she’s never performed on the show, but she says she put it on there for a good reason.
The song in question is Whitney Houston‘s 1993 single “Queen of the Night,” from the soundtrack of The Bodyguard. In a statement, Kelly says, “I may not have performed Whitney’s ‘Queen Of The Night’ on my show yet, but little known fact is I covered that song on my very first demo tape … you could say it’s the Kellyoke that started it all!”
The rest of the EP finds Kelly covering Linda Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou,” SHAED‘s “Trampoline,” The Weeknd‘s “Call Out My Name,” “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead and Billie Eilish‘s “Happier Than Ever.”
“Over 500 songs later, and we’re still not running out of amazing artists to pay tribute to,” Kelly says.
Breland’s one of country music’s hottest rising acts today, but the pandemic nearly conspired to keep his career from taking off.
“I first visited Nashville to work on the ‘My Truck’ remix with Sam Hunt, back, like, a few weeks before the pandemic hit,” he reveals during a new interview on Trailblazers Radio With Fancy Hagood.
“My Truck” — and the version featuring Sam — was Breland’s breakout hit and launched a career that quickly grew to include duets with Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, and his chart-topping “Beers on Me” collaboration with Dierks Bentley and Hardy. But back then, Breland says, he felt like he was on the cusp of big developments in his career.
“It felt like a lot of things were about to happen in a good way and then a lot of things globally happened that were quite the opposite. I don’t blame Nashville for that. It was just an unfortunate timing,” Breland says.
But on the flip side of things, the timing couldn’t have been better: If Breland had visited Music City just a few weeks later, he never would have gotten to meet some of the people who inspired him to return to Nashville and keep working on music.
“I got a really good vibe when I was here, spent a few days, met a bunch of people, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ The way that people write out here was really fascinating to me,” Breland says.
In fact, he got such a good vibe from the city that he moved to Nashville full time just a few months later.
Christina Aguilera, who is headlining LA Pride this Saturday, regularly uses her platform to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. According to Ricky Martin, artists from that community appreciate what the “Beautiful” singer has done for them.
“Christina is a force! Her voice has become synonymous with greatness and the most commendable thing is that [after] becoming one of the most successful female artists of all time, she uses her voice as a constant ally to the LGBTQ+ community,” he told People.
He continued to gush, “She is an amazing mother, a businesswoman and a proud Latina.”
The two collaborated on the track “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely” in 2001, a time when Ricky was fending off rumors about his sexuality. The “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer publicly came out as gay in 2010. In 2017 he married husband Jwan Yosef.
Christina previously told the outlet of her advocacy, “Being an LGBTQ+ ally is not something that’s short-lived. It’s in my DNA.” She added of her connection with the community, “We’ve all come from struggle; We’ve all had to fight to be heard.”
She takes the L.A. State Historic Park stage on June 11.
When Jimmie Allen takes the CMA Close Up Stage Thursday, he won’t be alone: a group of music students from Nashville’s Mountain View Elementary will perform alongside him.
According to a news story from ABC affiliate WKRN News 2, the children have been practicing for weeks ahead of taking the big stage. They can be seen in a clip practicing “Best Shot,” Jimmie’s hit song from 2018.
Jimmie’s commitment to furthering music education is longstanding. Back in 2020, he was an artist ambassador for the CMA Foundation’s Unified Voices for Music Education, an initiative that deputized a cast of country stars — also including Lindsay Ell andAshley McBryde — to get involved with music education programs.
Jimmie, who’s a father of three, also recently released his first children’s book, My Voice is a Trumpet, which celebrates diversity and the importance of everyone using their voice.
The singer is also booked to perform on the Chevy Riverfront Stage during this year’s CMA Fest. His next album, Tulip Drive, arrives later this month.
Ozzy Osbourne is set to undergo a “very major operation” on Monday, June 13.
The Black Sabbath frontman’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, shared the news this week during an episode of her U.K. talk show The Talk.
“It’s really gonna determine the rest of his life,” Sharon said of the procedure.
Sharon did not speak on the nature of the operation, but Ozzy, 73, told Classic Rockmagazine in an interview published in May that he was “waiting on some more surgery” on his neck. Ozzy suffered a fall in 2019, which aggravated injuries he sustained in a 2003 ATV accident.
Beyond that, Ozzy has been battling a number of health issues over the past few years. Prior to the 2019 fall, he’d been hospitalized with a bad case of pneumonia, and in early 2020, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
In April of this year, Ozzy tested positive for COVID-19.
Once again, Porno for Pyros is subbing in for Jane’s Addiction at a festival.
The Pyros have joined the bill for Lollapalooza 2022, while Jane’s is no longer listed on the lineup.
Both the Pyros and Jane’s are, of course, fronted by Perry Farrell, who also founded Lollapalooza. Farrell confirmed the news by retweeting a PfP post reading, “The news is true. See you soon @lollapalooza.”
The Pyros previously reunited last month to play their first show in 26 years at the Welcome to Rockville festival in place of Jane’s, who dropped out due to guitarist Dave Navarro contending with a “long bout” of COVID-19. As for why Jane’s isn’t playing Lolla, no reason was announced.
Lollapalooza 2022 takes place July 28-31 in Chicago. The bill also includes Green Day, Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly and Måneskin.
Porno for Pyros will also be playing a Lollapalooza aftershow, as well as a headlining date in Los Angeles.
In advance of the record, Paich has released one of the tracks, the soaring, enigmatic “Spirit of the Moonrise,” as a digital single. He’s also debuted a lyric video for the song at Toto’s YouTube channel.
Forgotten Toys, which can be preordered now, features seven tracks co-produced by Paich and Toto frontman Joseph Williams. It features contributions from various well-known artists, including Williams, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, ex-Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Brian Eno, Elton John guitarist Davey Johnstone, Ray Parker Jr. and Rolling Stones touring drummer Steve Jordan.
Paich co-wrote “Spirit of the Moonrise” with Williams, who also contributes backing vocals to the track, along with McDonald. The song also features lead guitar from Lukather.
“This is a recurring dream about a distraught girl, riding neath the moonlight,” Paich says about the tune. “It has perplexed me over many a night.”
Forgotten Toys came together when Paich — who has written or co-written many of Toto’s biggest hits — decided to flesh out various songs ideas he’d held onto for many years.
“It seemed like it was time to put something together,” Paich says. “Some of these really are forgotten toys. It had been a while since I’ve been in my studio and I found myself listening to these little pieces continuously. I kept rediscovering them, hoping to fit the tracks together like a musical puzzle.”
Paich, who recently retired from full-time touring, still joins Toto at select shows. He tells ABC Audio that he’ll play at least one concert with the group during its upcoming European summer trek, which kicks off July 11 in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Here’s the full track list of Forgotten Toys:
“Forward”
“willibelongtoyou”
“Spirit of the Moonrise”
“First Time”
“Queen Charade”
“All the Tears That Shine”
“Lucy”
Dustin Lynch has seen some pretty wild fan hijinks on the road, but the most unforgettable encounter he ever had was with a woman at his show who found a creative use for her prosthetic limb.
“This young lady took her prosthetic off, and poured her beer in it, and chugged out of her prosthetic,” the singer recounts to CMT, as part of a compilation of country stars sharing their craziest fan stories.
But Dustin was as impressed as he was surprised by the sight, he says.
“That’s just a flex,” he says. “If you can do that at a party, I don’t know how you can be topped. That beats the hell out of a funnel, so hats off to you, girl in Georgia.”
Check out the full video — which also features Carly Pearce and Thomas Rhett sharing their craziest fan experiences — on Twitter.
Rod Stewart was one of the performers at the Platinum Party at the Palace, the star-studded concert celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee over the weekend. Rod was criticized for his performance of the Neil Diamond hit “Sweet Caroline” at the event, with some saying he sounded off-key. Now his wife, Penny Lancaster, is defending him, saying the rock legend was just recovering from COVID.
Appearing on the British TV show Loose Women Thursday, Penny explained that the BBC insisted that Rod sing “Sweet Caroline” — a British soccer anthem — by telling him it was the queen’s favorite. “So he didn’t have much of a choice there,” Penny noted.
Rod said as much during the show, literally telling the crowd, “The BBC made me sing it, join in and make it comfortable for me.”
But in addition to Rod singing a song he wasn’t comfortable with, Penny said there were other extenuating circumstances.
“It was very, very touch and go and he was so nervous leading up to it,” she said. “He [had performed for] three weeks in Vegas and caught COVID just after the last show. He came home and was past the 10-day period of being contagious but he lost his voice. So the sound check on the Wednesday — he went along and wore a mask but had no voice.”
She added, “So he went for another rehearsal on the Friday … he wasn’t quite on, but he didn’t want to disappoint anybody. It wasn’t the Rod Stewart show; it was for the nation and for everybody to come together for the queen and he wanted to please the people, so that was the song.”
On Rod’s Instagram, he only posted the other song he performed: his hit “Baby Jane.”
Miranda Lambert made a trip to New York City this week to perform at the 2022 Time100 Gala, which took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Not only is she a performer this year, but she’s also one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2022” and the only country star to make that list. On the red carpet ahead of the show, Miranda reflected on her role repping country music at the gala and shared her gratitude for her musical community.
“That’s what country music is, is three chords and the truth, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” the singer says. “And I’m one of the lucky ones that’s gotten to do that for almost two decades now in country music. So I’m just gonna continue to share my message and hope that it helps others.”
A mainstay and traditionalist within the genre, Miranda’s also been at the forefront of pushing country music forward, especially in terms of pushing for inclusivity of the LGBTQ+ community, with songs like “Y’all Means All” and using her platform to support fellow female artists.
“I definitely feel like the tide’s turning and I’m so thankful that I was part of that. And I hope I continue to be,” Miranda notes. “All of us girls stick together, and I think it’s really important. So if I can be holding up the arms of my sisters, I’m so happy to do that.”
The Time100 Gala will air this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
