Music

In addition to inspiring countless metal musicians the world over, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi has now inspired the name of a newly discovered fossil.

The fossil, uncovered by a team of scientists in Russia, is named Drepanoistodus iommii. It’s part of the conodont species, an “extinct clade of marine vertebrates” from the Middle Ordovician geological period.

In the etymology section of the research paper, which was published via the European Journal of Taxonomy, the scientists write, “Named in honor of legendary guitarist Tony Iommi, founding member of heavy metal band Black Sabbath.”

Last month, another team of scientists announced that they’d named three newly discovered fossils after the band Gojira. Meanwhile, Metallica previously inspired the name of a deep-sea crustacean, and a venomous snake species was named after frontman James Hetfield.

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Mamma mia, Måneskin has a new song.

The latest offering from the buzzy Italian rockers is called “MAMMAMIA” — all one word, as opposed to the ABBA classic. While ABBA was singing about a devastating break-up in their song, Måneskin’s “MAMMAMIA” has a very different vibe, thanks to lyrics like “Spit your love on me” and “They ask me why I’m so hot/’cause I’m italiano.”

You can listen to “MAMMAMIA” now via digital outlets.

“MAMMAMIA” follows Måneskin’s breakout singles “Beggin'” and “I Wanna Be Your Slave.” “Beggin’,” a cover of a Four Seasons song, hit number one on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart this week.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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CMT has announced its full lineup of performers for the upcoming CMT Artists of the Year special, which will honor the accomplishments of some of the genre’s most prominent artists.

Luke Combs, Gabby Barrett and Kane Brown — all honorees in this year’s show — will take the stage during the event. But that’s not all: Two more honorees will feature in exciting cross-genre collaborations.

Kelsea Ballerini will deliver a remote performance with pop superstar group The Jonas Brothers, who are her current tour mates. Also on deck is a world-premiere duet between R&B group Boyz II Men and Pentatonix’s Kevin Olusola, who are performing in tribute to Chris Stapleton.

In addition to the five 2021 CMT Artists of the Year honorees, the show will celebrate Randy Travis as this year’s Artist of a Lifetime, and Mickey Guyton as the Breakout Artist of the Year. Mickey will perform during the show, along with singer-songwriter Yola.

Plus, the show will spotlight one of this year’s breakout viral hits, as Walker Hayes gives the awards show world premiere of his smash hit, “Fancy Like.”

The 2021 CMT Artists of the Year ceremony will air live on CMT from Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center. The event takes place next Wednesday, October 13 at 9 p.m. ET.

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Ed Sheeran is known for having a way with words when it comes to expressing romance. However, when he got on one knee to ask Cherry Seaborn to marry him, he almost didn’t know what to say because of her hilarious reaction.

Speaking to the Swedish talk show Skavlan on Friday, the “Perfect” singer revealed what actually happened when he popped the big question.  “I remember getting down on one knee and her just being [gasps as he makes a wide eyed, panicked stare] and I was like, ‘Will you… marry me?’ And she was like, ‘Are you f****** JOKING?!'” Ed recalled.

He then added with a laugh, while mimicking the terrified expression he had at the time, “I just remember there was a long silence and I just went, ‘Please?'”

The “Shape of You” singer revealed that his wife’s reaction may have been due, in part, to her parents being unmarried because they didn’t think marriage was anything important, which meant Ed walked into the proposal “not knowing if she was going to say ‘Yes.'”

“That is the most human I have ever felt. The most. Because in my career, sometimes… I’ll be like, ‘Can I do this?’  And people will be just like, ‘Yep!’  You kinda get to a certain point where it becomes normal,” explained Sheeran, 30. “Then you are in a situation where you are literally on your knees being like, [‘Will you marry me?’]. And it’s such a huge life decision someone has to make in the blink of an eye.”

“Thankfully, she did say yes,” Ed grinned, before revealing, “This is the first time I’ve ever told this story!”

The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Lyra Antarctica, last summer.

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The Weeknd has an important new job.

The chart-topping star has been named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme, which provides food assistance to over 100 million people in more than 80 countries annually.  In his new role, the singer, born Abel Tesfaye, will use his platform to advocate for ending global hunger.

“The U.N. World Food Programme is doing urgent and important work to change and save lives on a daily basis and I feel passionately about addressing world hunger and helping people in need,” said the Canadian artist in a statement. “Our partnership is an authentic extension of all our efforts and intentions to help those in need and bring an end to so much suffering.”

The Weeknd has already been a huge supporter of the WFP.  Not long ago, he donated $1 million to the organization’s relief efforts in Ethiopia, his parents’ home country.

The WFP’s executive director said in a statement that the Weeknd’s “compassion and commitment to helping the world’s hungriest people is truly inspirational.”

Maybe this is why The Weeknd’s been spotted with Angelina Jolie lately.  The actress is a former U.N. goodwill ambassador and current U.N. special envoy.

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On the newest episode of their Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, Gloria and Emilio Estefan shared their heartbreaking stories about fleeing Cuba as young children when Fidel Castro‘s coup threatened their lives.

“I left Cuba when I was literally two and a half years old. In May of 1960 I was brought to the U.S. because my father was a police officer for the Cuban government,” Gloria explained. “The night of the coup… My father came home and he told my mother, ‘We’re in trouble.'”

The singer said her father and grandfather, the latter an army commander, were arrested for their ties to the previous government.  Both were jailed, but after they were released a few months after, they arranged to flee the country.

“They knew who Fidel Castro was, what was coming,” Estefan recalled.

Gloria said she still has the round-trip Pan American air ticket she was given to fly from Cuba to the U.S.

Emilio then opened up about his memories of leaving the only country he’s ever known, saying, “I was 11 years old when they came to my house looking for dollars because Castro decided to change the money.”

Emilio said he cried himself to sleep that night because of the terrifying search, even though Castro’s forces found nothing. His family was able to escape four years later, when he was “almost military age.”

“My mom’s family was from Spain,” he explained. “One of the hardest things for me is when my grandfather and uncles gave me a photograph and said, ‘You better remember me because you will never see me again.’… I never saw them again.”

The couple also shed light on Cuba’s humanitarian crisis, where they said protests over shortages of food and medicine are being met with military force.

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Kanye West is heading back to school.

Billboard reports the “Hurricane” rapper is expanding his empire to include a new private school in California called the Donda Academy, named after his late mother, Dr. Donda West, a former professor and English department chair at Chicago State University.

The K-12 school will focus on “equipping students with an education that will last in the ever-changing world” while seeking to find the “intersection between faith and the innovation of the future,” according the academy’s official website, donda.world.

Basketball also seems to be a focus of Donda Academy, which has reportedly recruited four elite basketball prospects — Zion Cruz, Jahki Howard, Robert Dillingham, and Jalen Hooks — among those committed to attending the academy.

“It’s just one of those things you can’t pass up,” Hooks told the Indianapolis Star during a recent interview. “It was more of a family decision, too. All of us just felt like it was a chance to reach my full potential and grow and get ready for the college level.”

Howard also shared the news on Instagram, writing, “I will be moving to California and I will be transferring to Donda academy, I want to THANK YOU NORCROSS and the whole BLUE DEVIL FAMILY STILL WILL BE MY FAMILY. #donda.”

West has previously dabbled in opening educational institutions. Last year, he posted footage from his Yeezy Christian Academy to his Twitter account, which featured its attendees sharing inspirational messages in a video titled, “Dear Future, I Still Believe in You.”

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With previous records titled Meat and Candy and Happy Endings, the stakes were high for Old Dominion to settle on an appropriate moniker for their follow-up to their 2019 self-titled album, as lead singer Matthew Ramsey explains.

“You know, when it comes to a decision like that, first of all, it can be daunting to name an album after we’ve sort of set a tone of album titles as we have,” he says.

It seems originally, the group of hit songwriters was headed in the direction of more clever wordplay.

“[There was] lots of debate that wasn’t real debate,” Matthew explains, “because our problem in this band is we are really good at making jokes that make ourselves laugh that no one else thinks is funny.”

“But we pushed it to the last minute,” he admits, “[with] the label knocking on the door, saying, ‘Hey, we gotta have a title for this,’ and us going, ‘Yeah, what about this joke and that joke?'”

Ultimately, the answer was hidden in one of the album’s tracks.

“Finally, we all sort of arrived at the title at the same time,” Matthew reveals. “We pulled that lyric out of ‘No Hard Feelings,’ and [from] different parts of the bus… we all came together and we were like, ‘What about Time, Tequila & Therapy?’ And we were all like, ‘That’s what I was thinking.'”

“So this band is tight!” Matthew adds, as the band laughs.

Old Dominion’s fourth album, Time, Tequila & Therapy, featuring their top-ten hit “I Was on a Boat That Day,” is out now.

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