Music

Asante Blackk says fans “will not be disappointed” when his hit NBC series This Is Us officially comes to an end after next season. Ahead of tonight’s season five finale, Black, who plays Deja’s charismatic boyfriend Malik Hodges, promises that the conclusion of This Is Us will be “perfect.”

“It’s the perfect ending,” Blackk tells ABC Audio. “And I hope that… when we actually do get there, that people will feel the same.”

“All good things must come to an end at some point,” the actor continues. “As much as you don’t want to see your favorite shows end, [the ending] will leave a lot for people to really grasp onto.”

While Blackk isn’t offering many details about tonight’s finale — which is likely to leave viewers with plenty of unanswered questions — the When They See Us star does tease that next season will offer “the perfect sense of closure.” 

“Yeah, it is sad, because, we had these amazing characters for six seasons and you fall in love with them and all of these different things,” Blackk shares. “But, I just can’t wait for people to see how we wrap this up, because it’s definitely going to be a good one.”

The season five finale of This Is Us, also starring Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz and Justin Hartley, airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

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Slipknot is bringing Knotfest back to South American in 2022.

Knotfest Chile will take place December 11 in Santiago, while Knotfest Brazil will be held December 18 in São Paulo. The Knot themselves will headline both lineups, which will also include Bring Me the Horizon, Mr. Bungle and Trivium, among others.

For more info, visit Knotfest.com.

Slipknot is also headlining two U.S. editions of Knotfest this fall, taking place September 25 in the band’s home state of Iowa, and November 5 in Los Angeles. Additionally, you can catch the masked metallers on their Knotfest Roadshow U.S. tour, kicking off in September.

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After first collaborating on the smash hit “Smooth” in 1999, Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas have released their new song together, “Move.”

The pop/Latin rock fusion track, out today, is the first single off Santana’s new album, Blessings and Miracles, which comes out October 15. The song also features American Authors.

Santana revealed new details about his album Wednesday. The album’s second single, a track called “She’s Fire,” was written by Diane Warren and features rapper G-Eazy. Blessings and Miracles also features collaborations with country star Chris Stapleton, pop star Ally Brooke and more.

“The title of this album comes from my belief that we’re born with heavenly powers that allows us to create blessings and miracles,” Santana says in a statement. “The world programs you to be unworthy of those gifts, but we have to utilize light, spirit and soul — they’re indestructible and immutable. Those are the three main elements on this album.”

On August 21, Rob and Santana will perform at We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert in Central Park. Santana resumes his Las Vegas residency on August 25 and on September 11, he’ll kick off his Blessings and Miracles tour at the Borgata Spa & Resort in Atlantic City, NJ.

You can pre-order Blessings and Miracles now. Here is the track list:

“Ghost of Future Pull”/”New Light”
“Santana Celebration”
“Rumbalero” (featuring Salvador Santana & Asdru Sierra)
“Joy” (Carlos Santana & Chris Stapleton)
“Move” (Carlos Santana, Rob Thomas, Zac Barnett & American Authors)
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” (featuring Steve Winwood)
“Break” (featuring Ally Brooke)
“She’s Fire” (Diane Warren, G-Eazy & Carlos Santana)
“Peace Power” (featuring Corey Glover)
“America for Sale” (featuring Kirk Hammett & Marc Osegueda)
“Breathing Underwater” (featuring Stella Santana, Avi Snow, MVCA)
“Mother Yes”
“Song for Cindy”
“Angel Choir” (featuring Gayle Moran Corea)/ “All Together” (featuring Chick Corea)
“Ghost of Future Pull II”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lizzo is stressing the message of her new song, “Rumors,” telling her fans and haters alike to pay attention to what’s going on in the world.

“Rumors,” also featuring Cardi B, is a song that tells haters to be more concerned about what’s happening in the world and not obsess over what women choose to do with their bodies and free time.

In a video posted Tuesday to Instagram, Lizzo featured various catastrophes happening around the globe as she plays the song’s chorus, “Spending all your time/ Tryna break a woman down/ Realer s*** is going on/ Baby, take a look around.”

Among the disasters featured in the brief clip are the skyrocketing cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the earthquake that devastated Haiti, the wildfires in Turkey and Greece, and the troubling new reports concerning climate change.

“The internet has brought the world together, for better and for worse. Right now there are people in peril,” Lizzo expresses in the caption. “If I can help bring awareness to these issues it’s the least I can do.”

She also linked to several organizations that her followers can donate to and support.

Lizzo later took to Instagram live to call out the backlash she’s received for “Rumors,” telling fans. “We really need to check ourselves for how we treat people… I want this to be a conversation on how we treat people.  A conversation on how so much toxicity is rooted in our culture and in the way that we speak to each other and how we can progress and grow from that.”

She added that she will continue to be “transparent” about how she feels if “it is necessary to start a conversation for some progress.” 

 

 

 

 

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There was a time, if you can believe it, when Camila Cabello “never had any friends,” she tells Bustle. But now she has plenty, and she says she was taught the importance of friendship by none other than Taylor Swift.

Camila tells Bustle that when her music career began, she and her mom did everything together “to the extreme. Because I never had any friends.”  She explains, “I’ve been [working] since I was 15. I’ve been traveling so much, and it’s been really hard for me to water the soil for friendships.”

But when Camila was chosen to open for Taylor Swift on her 2018 Reputation tour, she says, she finally learned how important it was to cultivate non-romantic relationships.

“Taylor has always been so kind and supportive and also goes out of her way to give you artist advice,” Camila tells Bustle. “[She’s] really about making friendships and relationships the most important thing. She is so brave at watering those seeds of friendships and relationships.”

Camila adds, “She always answers my texts and she’s so busy. I don’t even answer texts because I’m just worse at it. It takes intention to be like, ‘Let me write all my friends back.’”

Luckily, Camila isn’t lacking in the romantic relationship department either, as her romance with Shawn Mendes proves.  “There’s a lot of sweetness and tenderness [between us],” she tells Bustle. “I think we’re both sensitive. I’m really lucky to be able to surround myself with tenderness; it’s really important to me.

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Since becoming a mom, Meghan Trainor has pivoted from music to TV, because it allows her to spend more time with her son Riley — and the Grammy winner says she knows how lucky she is to be able to have that option.

Along with Adam Lambert and others, Meghan will be a judge on the upcoming reality competition show on E! called Clash of the Cover Bands.  She’ll also be the host of a new Top Chef spinoff called Top Chef Family Style, which will stream on Peacock.  In both cases, she gets to work a normal day and return home in the evening, with the added bonus of Riley being able to join her on set.  It’s quite a change from her previous life as a globe-traveling pop star.

“Yeah, it’s my dream and I still get to, like, come home and be working on music whenever I can,” Meghan tells ABC Audio. “And I just love that I don’t have to travel, honestly!”  She laughs, “Like, I don’t even know…I couldn’t even picture me dragging him on a plane right now.  It seems like a lot of work!

“I’m just so happy that we can drive 10 minutes to work and do our work and he gets to come with me,” she notes. “So many moms out there can’t bring their child to work every day. And I get to do that. So I’m super-lucky and I know how blessed I am. So it’s been awesome!”

So far, neither show has a premiere date set.  Meghan’s most recent album was A Very Trainor Christmas, which came out in October of 2020.

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For the last seven years, Imagine Dragons‘ hit “Radioactive” has held the record for the most weeks spent on the Billboard Hot 100. While that record has now been broken by The Weeknd‘s “Blinding Lights,” it’d be hard to call “Radioactive” anything but a rousing success, especially given where it started.

As frontman Dan Reynolds tells Billboard, “Radioactive” wasn’t on anybody’s radar when ID was first getting started.

“Once we signed [to Interscope], it wasn’t like everybody at the label was like, ‘This is the song,'” Reynolds recalls. “In fact, it was the opposite. ‘It’s Time’ was the first single, and we [already] had ‘Radioactive’ at that point.”

“Nobody thought that that song would play on radio,” he continues. “In fact, I remember our radio department specifically being like, ‘This song won’t play on radio.’ But the song just started to go on its own, and then it just went to radio because it kind of had a life of its own, and it kinda dictated its own way.”

Surely that conversation will be a pivotal scene if anyone decides to make an Imagine Dragons biopic.

As for “Radioactive’s” now-beaten record, Reynolds feels good that it fell to The Weekend, whom he calls a “legend” and an “icon.”

“I think his music is the type of music that’s going to live on for a long time, and do good things,” Reynolds says. “So if there was ever someone to take the record, I think it’s good company.”

Meanwhile, Imagine Dragons is gearing up to release a new album called Mercury — Act 1 on September 3. It features the singles “Follow You,” “Cutthroat” and “Wrecked.”

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