Music

The nine-year-old boy who had been hospitalized on life support since being trampled at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival has died, his family confirmed to ABC Houston affiliate KTRK on Sunday.

Ezra Blount suffered severe injuries when he was trampled in a crowd surge at the November 5 concert at Houston’s NRG Park. He was at the concert with his father, Treston Blount, and was on his father’s shoulders when the surge began.

Treston told KTRK that he lost consciousness in the crush of the crowd and Ezra fell to the ground. When Treston regained consciousness, he could not find his son, and was eventually alerted by police that his son was in the hospital. Ezra’s major organs had been damaged, his brain was swollen, and he was on life support.

“The Blount family is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,” the family’s attorney Ben Crump said in a statement obtained by KTRK. “This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration. Ezra’s death is absolutely heartbreaking. We are committed to seeking answers and justice for the Blount family. But we stand in solidarity with the family, in grief, and in prayer.”

The death toll from the concert is now 10. Eight of those victims were pronounced dead the night of the concert and the ninth victim, Bharti Shahani, died on Wednesday of last week.

Blount’s family is one of the many who have since filed lawsuits against Travis Scott and other festival organizers.

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Adele‘s CBS special One Night Only, which aired on Sunday, featured the Grammy-winning artist performing some of her big hits, as well as tunes from her new album 30, and a wide-ranging interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Part of the conversation focused on Adele’s nine-year-old son Angelo — who she shares with her ex-husband Simon Konecki. Adele admitted that she’d “never been so nervous” because the one-night-only concert marked the first time that Angelo had seen her perform live.

When asked if he knows who his mother is, Adele told Oprah that following the countdown to the release of her “Easy on Me” video, Angelo was amazed to see that “there was like a hundred-thousand people waiting [and] you had all these likes, and then he was like, ‘People really like you.'”

Adds the 33-year-old songstress, “he’s starting [to get it]…but not really.”

Adele also told Oprah that the new album was dedicated to Angelo, explaining that the songs reflected the conversation she’d like to have with her son, but can’t quite bring herself to just yet.

“I’m still not over it, of me choosing to dismantle my child’s life for my own. It makes me very uncomfortable,” she said.

Still, Adele believes the split was crucial to showing Angelo “a happy version of herself.”

The performance — which included celebrity guests Lizzo, Selena Gomez, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Ellen DeGeneres and Leonardo DiCaprio — was taped at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles shortly after the release of her first new single in six years, “Easy on Me.”

Adele’s new album album, 30, will be released on November 19.

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Judah & the Lion has premiered a new single called “Find Another Reason Why.”

“As we start this new chapter as a band, we hope this song will set the tone for what’s to come,” the “Take It All Back” outfit says.

“It’s a song about changing as a person,” the band explains. “It is extremely hard to let go of the old self, and press on to something new. But that surrender comes with a lot of growth and freedom.”

“Find Another Reason Why” is available now for digital download. An alternate version of the song is also featured on the soundtrack for the Netflix film The Starling.

Judah & the Lion’s most recent album is 2019’s Pep Talks. The band is currently in the studio working on a follow-up, which is set to arrive in 2022.

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Chris Daughtry postponed his scheduled concerts this weekend due the death of his daughter Hannah, which now is reportedly being investigated as a homicide.

Hannah, 25, was found dead inside her Tennessee home on Friday, People reported. Chris’ wife Deanna, Hannah’s mother, wrote on Instagram, “We are awaiting the autopsy results to determine how Hannah sustained the injuries that caused her death. Our hearts are broken.“

TMZ has now subsequently reported that the death was a homicide and is being investigated as such. It was also reported that Hannah’s boyfriend has been arrested, but it’s not clear what he was arrested for.

Hannah and her brother Griffin, 23, are Deanna’s children from a previous relationship. Together, Chris and Deanna — who married in 2000 — have 10-year-old twins Adalynn and Noah. According to USA Today, Chris later adopted Hannah and Griffin.

“I am still processing the last 24 hours. I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken,” Chris wrote on Instagram. “I just recently lost my mother to cancer but I was blessed with the chance to say goodbye and I was processing it privately.  We never got to say goodbye to our precious Hannah and it’s another huge hit to our family.” 

“Thank you all for your kind words and condolences,” he added. “They are truly felt and appreciated. I am now taking time be present with my family as we attempt to heal from this devastating loss. Hannah, I love you. I miss you. I wish I could hold you. This hurts so deep.“

The New York Post reports that Hannah’s life has been filled with tragedy in the last few years.  Her and Griffin’s father, Randall Scott Price, died by suicide in 2018.  Eight months later, Hannah had a run-in with gang members and was shot in the face; leaving her with a prosthetic eye.  This past April, she and a man were arrested in a hit-and-run incident in Tennessee.

 

 

 

 

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Instead of performing two songs like most musical guests do, Taylor Swift took the SNL stage this weekend to perform just one: the 10-minute version of “All Too Well.”

She sang the extended track from Red (Taylor’s Version) as the song’s accompanying short film played on a screen behind her. The film, which debuted on Friday night, was written and directed by Taylor and stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien as they play out the events of the song.

Taylor also appeared in a sketch called “Three Sad Virgins.” She and Pete Davidson starred in a music video roasting three SNL writers: Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy.

It was Taylor’s fifth time on SNL and some of her famous friends came out to support her, including Selena Gomez — who filmed a TikTok with Taylor backstage — and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who were spotted with Taylor at the SNL after-party.

Speaking of Blake Lively, on Sunday Taylor announced the Gossip Girl actress has directed the new music video for her song “I Bet You Think About Me,” which is dropping on Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

“I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny @blakelively on her directorial debut,” Taylor wrote, adding, “Join us as we raise a toast, and a little hell.”

Meanwhile, according to Variety, Taylor broke two Spotify records on Friday with the release of Red (Taylor’s Version): most-streamed album in a day by a female and the most-streamed female in a single day.

 

 

 

 

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After nearly 14 years, it took less than 40 minutes in court for an L.A. County Judge to free Britney Spears today.

Judge Brenda Penny said “a conservatorship of the person and the estate of Britney Jean Spears is no longer required.” 

She acknowledged there’s no reason to believe Britney lacks the capacity to make her own decisions, and pointed out all parties involved agree with termination. Each party was eventually called upon by the judge to verbally affirm that they supported termination, including Britney’s parents.

And the judge agreed to the two caveats to the termination that Britney’s attorney Mathew Rosengart outlined “in Britney Spears’ best interest”: something of a “safety net” as he referred to it, to ensure Britney has the support she needs, financially and personally, to succeed.

Prior to the hearing, a termination plan and a care plan were submitted to the court under seal; details were not discussed in the courtroom.

The temporary Conservator of the Estate, John Zabel, who was appointed six weeks ago when Britney’s father Jamie was suspended, will continue to work on Britney’s behalf in an administrative capacity.  Rosengart described Zabel as becoming “a concierge service for her financial safety and well-being.”

The Conservator of Person, Jodi Montgomery, according to her attorney, will stay in Britney’s life to help her transition. Montgomery’s attorney said her client believes Britney can live a “safe, happy and fulfilling life.”

Rosengart told ABC News as he left the courtroom “I tried to keep it simple.” And he did. He repeated Britney’s own pleas to the court earlier this year, quoting her as saying, for example, “I just want my life back.”

Future court hearings were scheduled for December 8 and January 19 to tie up additional loose ends.

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If you’re still not over the 10-minute-long version of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” off her newly released Red (Taylor’s Version), the singer has just released a short film to accompany the track.

As previously reported, the film was written and directed by Taylor.  It stars Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink and former Teen Wolf star Dylan O’Brien; Taylor plays an older version of Sadie’s character.

The video begins with a quote from poet Pablo Neruda: “Love is so short; forgetting is so long.” It then follows Dylan and Sadie’s unnamed characters from the dizzying heights of their new romance, through the strains on their relationship, to their devastating breakup and, finally, her acceptance.

Each scene is set off by titles like “The First Crack in the Glass,” “The Breaking Point,” “The Reeling,” and “The Remembering.” Much of the specific imagery in Taylor’s song appears in the video, from the now-infamous scarf to scenes of “dancing ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light.”

There’s an interlude where the music stops and Dylan and Sadie’s characters argue, hurling f-bombs at each other, as she accuses him of acting like a different person around his friends, who are all “much older” than she is, while he accuses her of imagining it.

The end of the video is introduced by the title “13 Years Gone,” and we see that Sadie’s character, now older and wiser, has become an author and written a book called All Too Well.  As she does a reading at a book store, a man is seeing looking at her through the window…wearing the infamous scarf.

“All Too Well,” a fan-favorite deep cut, has long been rumored to be about Taylor’s short-lived romance with actor Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010, when she was 20 and he was 29. In previously-unheard lyrics of the 10-minute version, we get a sense of what might have caused their breakup.

“You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine/And that made me want to die,” Taylor sings on the track.  Another lyric goes, “And I was never good at telling jokes but the punch line goes/I’ll get older but your lovers stay my age.”

Taylor hinted that the video was full of Easter eggs, so Swifties…have at it.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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