Music

Adele is saying “Hello” to the power of makeup.

The singer joins YouTuber NikkieTutorials for the latest installment of the Dutch beauty guru’s “Power of Makeup” series, where Adele gets glam on one side of her face and leaves the other side makeup free.

As she gets her makeup done — complete with that famous winged liner — Adele answers a series of questions from Nikkie. Among other things, we learn she’s not a fan of The Real Housewives franchise, the one celeb she’s dying to meet is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the decade in history she’d love to go back to is the ‘60s, so she can see The Beatles live.

Adele also teased the upcoming music video for “I Drink Wine,” saying, “The music video was shot a while ago but it’s just f****** hilarious. It’s the campiest thing you’ll ever see and I feel like everyone might be dressed up [for] Halloween [as] it next year.”

Nikkie has previously featured Kim Kardashian and Drew Barrymore in the “Power of Makeup” series, but has long said Adele was her dream collaborator.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman celebrated 15 years of marriage earlier this year, and even after so much time together, Nicole says that her country superstar husband is still her best friend.

“I mean, he’s my favorite person,” the actor says during a recent appearance on ABC’s Live with Kelly and Ryan. “And [we] just love hanging out.”

For the cross-continental couple, “hanging out” often entails lengthy international flights. But that’s okay by Keith and Nicole: On multiple occasions, he’s taken a break from work in LA or Nashville to hop on a flight to Australia, just to have dinner or spend a few hours with his wife.

Nicole goes on to recount a time during her pregnancy with their oldest daughter, the now-13-year-old Sunday Rose.

“When I was pregnant with Sunday, he got on a plane to fly to Australia to see the first ultrasound, and was there for six hours. Saw the heartbeat, and then had to fly back to do a show,” she remembers.

Next year, Keith and Nicole will put their expert-level skills at making time for each other to good use. The country superstar’s booked for a lengthy world tour in support of his latest album, The Speed of Now Part 1.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Demi Lovato has entered a new chapter in their sobriety journey.  On Thursday, the “Confident” singer revealed they have cut alcohol and marijuana completely out of their life and said “it’s the only way to be.”

Demi shared to their Instagram story, “I no longer support my ‘California sober’ ways.  Sober sober is the only way to be.”  Their definition of California sober was cutting everything out except marijuana and alcohol, which they would consume in moderation.

Demi detailed why they initially chose to go California sober in their YouTube docu-series Dancing with the Devil.  Following the singer’s near-fatal overdose in 2018, Demi felt quitting everything cold turkey was not the best solution and worked with a recovery manager to determine the best plan for them. 

The Grammy nominee stressed at the time that recovery isn’t a “one-size-fits-all solution” and also going “California sober” isn’t for everyone.  But, of Thursday, it appears that no longer is for Demi, either.

Demi’s decision to go completely sober comes shortly after the singer honored their late friend, Thomas Trussell III, on his birthday.  Thomas died of drug overdose in 2019.  Demi showed off their tattoo of the letter T and wrote, “Happy bday @sirtruss. You’re unforgettable.  We miss and love you.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Old Dominion hit a high note as a group with the release of their 2021 album, Time, Tequila & Therapy. But before they made that project, they went through a difficult period, the band mates admit in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

Part of their challenges came from the COVID-19 pandemic: They weren’t together as much, and it became more difficult to have conversations face to face. “It took away the communication style that we’re used to. You can’t sit and have coffee and say, ‘What do you think?’” explains the band’s Geoff Sprung.

“There were two-day-long text threads. It was like, ‘Is this fun anymore?’ And it wasn’t,” Matthew Ramsey admits.

Adds Trevor Rosen, “It was all the work of being in a band without any of the joy of being in a band.”

Fortunately, with the help of a little Time, Tequila & Therapy — literally — they started to get their groove back. Things improved when the band mates convened in Asheville, North Carolina last September to write and record their new album.

The “Therapy” part of that title is especially important, as several of the band mates are in regular therapy. For Matthew, the experience has helped him communicate effectively with the other guys of Old Dominion.

“This is not a normal life, and the things that come with it are sometimes difficult to wrap your head around,” reflects Geoff. “A lot of it is, ‘How do I adjust? How do you make the transition from being out here where it’s kind of one life and then you go home to another life?’”

Today, the band mates say they’re closer than ever. The lead single of Time, Tequila & Therapy — “I Was on a Boat That Day” — represents the band’s more carefree side.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

R. Kelly is facing even more legal problems.

After the Chicago singer was convicted on nine criminal counts by a federal jury in New York City in September, he and his manager now are being sued for allegedly threatening his accusers.

Lizette Martinez, Lisa Van Allen and Faith Rogers, who claim they were sexually abused by the 54-year-old convict, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court this week, alleging that “Kelly and his inner circle…began an orchestrated effort to silence, harass, bribe and intimidate those brave young women and their friends and family,” as reported by Page Six.

They claim that Kelly’s manager, Donnell Russell, tried to prevent the 2018 premiere of the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly at a New York City theater by anonymously calling in a shooting threat at the venue.

Russell was arrested last year for allegedly making the anonymous threat to the Neuehouse theater on December 4, 2018, which caused an evacuation. The case is pending trial.

Russell and two other men, Richard Arline and Michael Williams, were also accused of trying to intimidate and bribe Kelly’s victims. Both Arline and Williams pleaded guilty in the case.

“This lawsuit in no way connects Mr. Kelly to the alleged intentional acts of Donnell Russell,” Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, told Page Six.

As previously reported, R. Kelly is set to go in trial again on August 1, 2022, this time in his native Chicago, in a federal case that includes charges of child pornography, obstruction of justice and sexual abuse.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December just started, but Billboard has already crunched the numbers and released its 2021 year-end charts, based on airplay, sales and streaming data and other metrics.  The big winners overall? Dua Lipa, The Weeknd and Olivia Rodrigo.

Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” was the year’s number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by two songs by The Weeknd: “Save Your Tears” and “Blinding Lights.”

Regarding “Levitating’s” success, Dua tells Billboard,”‘Levitating’ doing its thing on the Billboard chart is absolutely surreal. That song has been my baby for so long, and to have it out in the world, and for people’s response to be the way that it is, it’s just absolutely mind-blowing to me. I’m really, really, really grateful for it all.”

To give you an idea of how successful the song has been, “Levitating” has appeared in the Hot 100’s top 40 every week of the past chart year, and for 41 of those weeks, it was in the top 10. While it never reached number one, it did peak at number two.

Olivia, meanwhile, is Billboard‘s Top New Artist of 2021 — beating out The Kid LAROI — as well as its Top Streaming Songs Artist of 2021.  She’s also the overall Top Female Artist of 2021, beating out her idol, Taylor Swift, who’s number two.  Her debut album, SOUR, is the number-two album of the year, behind country star Morgan Wallen‘s Dangerous: The Double Album.

The Top Artist of 2021 is Drake, followed by Olivia, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Ariana Grande, Doja Cat and Justin Bieber.

The Top Duo/Group of 2021 is, of course, BTS, followed by Glass Animals and Dan + Shay.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Marilyn Manson has lost one of his two Grammy nominations.

As reported by The New York Times, and confirmed on the official Grammy update page, the embattled shock-rocker, born Brian Warner, was removed as a songwriter on the Kanye West track “Jail,” which is up for Best Rap Song.

Warner still appears to be a nominee as a contributor to West’s album Donda, which is up for Album of the Year. He’s credited a co-writer of another Donda song, “Jail pt 2.”

That Warner has been nominated at all has been controversial, since multiple women, including ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood, actor Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, and Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, have this year accused the musician of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

In a statement to The Wrap about Warner’s nomination, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, “We won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration.”

“We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record,” Mason elaborated. “We won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria. If it is, they can submit for consideration.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Like Celine Dion before her, Katy Perry was attracted to the idea of a Las Vegas residency because it allows her to perform for fans while still spending time with her child, daughter Daisy Dove.

“I really wanted to be able to strike more of a balance — to have a child and take her to preschool — but also be artistic and play with that energy,” she explains in an interview in Modern Luxury magazine.

“I’m not saying that my tours are done, but a residency is actually the perfect thing for me right now,” the singer notes. “I could not have done this in my 20s, and I am not sure that I would want to do it as I go out to pasture. But I definitely want to do this when I am vital and excited [about] creating and offering what I think is my best show ever.”

Describing her show, PLAY, which opens at Resorts World Las Vegas on December 29, Katy says it’s “hit-dominated, which is what the fans want.”

“I like to bring a visual feast, and this is a set-in-the-’60s, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movie on mushrooms,” she adds.

To set PLAY apart from the many other residencies flooding Sin City, Katy is also incorporating NFTs into her show — a way to own piece of unique digital content, such as songs, images or videos.

“The first thing we’re going to be auctioning off with the NFT is the craziest thing I’ve ever done. We’ll be creating something unique in the NFT space every single night,” Katy explains. “Imagine if I put my finger up during the song ‘Firework’ and you wanted to own that moment — now you could.”

For more on that, visit THETADrop.com.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Britney Spears and fiancé Sam Asghari shared photos of them boarding a private plane on Wednesday, but they didn’t tell fans where they were going.  The only clue came from Britney, who said in an Instagram post that they’ll be “out of the country.”

According to People, the lovebirds jetted off to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  A source told the outlet, “Britney was very excited. She loves beach vacations and hasn’t been to Mexico in many years.”

Now that the “Toxic” singer is no longer confined by her 13-year conservatorship, she is free to go wherever she pleases whenever she wants.

So, how is she dealing with this newfound freedom?

“She is doing well. She is taking care of herself both physically and mentally,” the insider claims. “She feels very lucky to be spending her 40th birthday with [her fiancé.] Such perfect timing to be out of the conservatorship. She feels beyond blessed in so many ways.”

The Grammy winner recently spoke about how she’s been processing her new life, and wrote on Instagram, “I know I’m lucky to be present and exist today !!!! I fought for that an extremely long time. I’m grateful for that but also I still need lots of healing !!!! Not therapy … but the kind of healing that comes from within !!!!”

Also, Sam shared a peek at Britney’s luxurious birthday cake to his Instagram Stories on Thursday.  It’s a multi-layer cake in the shape of the letter “B” and it’s covered in gold-dusted red and pink roses, as well as some macaroons. Yum!

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Britney Spears (@britneyspears)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.