Music

Taylor Swift thanked the fans — and her medical team — Tuesday night while accepting a Gracie Award, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.

Taylor received the Gracies’ Grand Award for her Disney+ documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which came out last November and featured Taylor performing every song on her folklore album with collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles presented Taylor with the award virtually. In her acceptance speech, Taylor responded by saying, “I wanted to say, first of all, thank you Simone Biles for presenting this award to me. I absolutely adore you and that just really made my heart skip a beat.”

“Making this film really was a new experience for me in so many ways — it was in the middle of the pandemic when this was really the first time that most of the people who worked on it had left our houses,” Taylor continued. “So I want to, first of all, say thank you so much to our medical team, our COVID team, who tested everyone and made sure that we knew that we were in a safe space to create music again.”

Of course, Taylor then thanked her loyal fans for “caring about all of this.”

“Thank you for being the reason why we why we could come together in this way,” she added. “You made this album into what it is and you continue to just blow me away all the time.”

Folklore, released in July 2020, went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.  Less than a month after the long pond studio sessions aired last year, Taylor surprised-released folklore‘s sister album, evermore.

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Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner has shared more about the scary health issue that necessitated emergency heart surgery late last month.

In a statement posted to the band’s website, Faulkner explains that he felt something was off during Priest’s performance of “Painkiller” during their set at September’s Louder than Life festival.

“As I watch footage from the Louder than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing ‘Painkiller’ as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity,” Faulkner writes. “I was having what my doctor called an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection.”

Indeed, if you look at fan-shot footage of the performance, it does appear that Faulkner grabs his chest towards the end of the song.

Faulkner was immediately rushed to the local Rudd Heart & Lung Center — which, luckily, was only four miles away — where he underwent over 10 hours of open heart surgery.

“It could have all ended so differently,” Faulkner muses. “We only had an hours set that night due to Metallica‘s performance after us — and it does cross my mind if it was a full set, would I have played until total collapse…? If it hadn’t happened in such a high adrenaline situation would my body have been able to keep going long enough to reach the hospital…?”

“We can always drive ourselves crazy with these things but I’m still alive thankfully,” he adds.

Faulkner is now on the road to recovery, and notes that several parts of his chest were “replaced with mechanical components.”

“I’m literally made of metal now,” he says.

Due to Faulkner’s surgery, Judas Priest postponed the remainder of their 2021 U.S. tour.

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Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power film is coming to HBO Max.

The film, a companion piece to the singer’s latest album of the same name, recently had a sold-out limited theatrical run in IMAX theaters. It features the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-produced album as its soundtrack and follows the story of the young and pregnant Queen Lila, played by Halsey.

Directed by Colin Tilley and written and produced by Halsey, the film is described as an “evocative, horror-tinged fairytale” that “explores the labyrinth of sexuality and birth.”

If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power hits HBO Max on October 7.

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Shakira says she has no regrets about performing at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show with Jennifer Lopez, which was mired in controversy after several high-profile acts declined the opportunity to perform.

Rihanna, Cardi B and others refused to perform at the Super Bowl, saying they stood in solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who claims the NFL blacklisted him because he knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.

But Shakira told Cosmopolitan that she and her halftime show partner saw the opportunity in performing on one of the nation’s biggest stages.

“J.Lo, as a Latina born in the U.S., and me, as a Latin American woman in the U.S., had a huge responsibility and opportunity to represent all different minorities through our performance,” she said. “In my case, I also wanted to pay homage to my Middle Eastern culture. I feel that we did it.”

The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer continued, “I really thought it was a great opportunity to make a strong statement about what an important part of the American fabric the Latino community is.”

“There was a lot of work behind it, a lot of stress,” Shakira admitted, adding, “But it was one of the highlights of my career.”

Lopez previously defended her decision to perform at the Super Bowl when speaking to Variety.

“I think it’s important in this day and age for two Latin women to be standing on that stage — when Latinos are being treated a certain way in this country, or looked at a certain way — to show that we have a really specific and beautiful culture and worth and value, and we bring something to this country that’s necessary,” Lopez said, noting that their performance was “a celebration.”

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We are officially one step closer to hearing The Weeknd‘s new album. The “Blinding Lights” singer confirmed that he’s finished recording his fifth studio album, which might be called The Dawn Is Coming.

Speaking on his Apple Music 1 show Memento Mori, the singer teased, “I hope you had a great summer. Some exciting features coming out in the fall — before the album drops.”

In the one-and-a-half-minute clip, the Canadian star explained, “A lot has been going down, a lot of moving pieces.”

Some of those “moving pieces” include “shooting videos” and “working on pre-productions,” among other things — like moving into a new house and “taking time to myself so I don’t completely lose my mind.”

However, the biggest reveal came at the end of his update, with the singer confirming, “Some Dawn updates — album is complete. Only thing that’s missing is a couple of characters who are key to the narrative.”

Those characters include “some people that are near and dear to me, some people who inspired my life as a child, and some who inspire me now.”

While not much else was said about the forthcoming album — like a release date — the singer promised that fans won’t be waiting in the dark for too long because he has “more to come in the following months.”

The Weeknd most recent album, After Hours, came out in March 2020, and spun off the smash hits “Save Your Tears,” “Heartless,” “In Your Eyes,” and “Blinding Lights.”

In support of his new album, The Weeknd released the promotional track “Take My Breath” on August 6.

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Britney Spears is letting fans know exactly how she feels about her family amid her contentious battle to end her 13-year conservatorship.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the singer seems to level even more accusations against her family, citing the conditions under which she was allegedly forced to live.

Britney wrote, “I suggest if you have a friend that’s been in a house that feels really small for four months … no car … no phone … no door for privacy and they have to work around 10 hours a day 7 days a week and give tons of blood weekly with never a day off … I strongly suggest you go pick up your friend and get them the hell outta there !!!!!”

Spears hinted that she may have asked her family members to help her escape those conditions, but they allegedly told her, “Sorry, you’re in a conservatorship.”

In a June court hearing, Britney made several damning claims about the conservatorship and her father, Jamie Spears. Last week, Judge Brenda Penny suspended Britney’s father from her conservatorship, citing a “toxic environment.”

The singer closed out her eye-opening Instagram post by declaring, “Thankfully I found an amazing attorney Mathew Rosengart who has helped change my life!”

As previously reported, Rosengart said the ruling to remove Jamie Spears from the conservatorship was “a great day for justice.” The next hearing, set for November 12, will focus on terminating the conservatorship itself.

 

 

 

 

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John Legend is continuing his fight to uplift those in need with a program to assist communities disproportionately impacted by institutionalized racism called HumanLevel. This new initiative will work with government officials and community members in various cities to create projects that address immediate needs.

“Local governments have invited us to work on specific projects to make their communities stronger and more equitable,” says the EGOT winner in a statement

The Voice coach will place executive fellows in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Durham, North Carolina; Houston; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Oakland, California; Pittsburgh; and Washington, D.C. — cities and counties that collectively represent over 20 million people. These fellows will work with local communities to improve employment, housing, education, health, and the criminal justice system.

“Many of the problems our country faces today are difficult to address at the federal level,” Legend notes. “Many issues are really at the doorstep of your mayor, your county council, and your community leaders coming together to answer questions about how we can support each other, keep each other safe, and rebuild our country in a way that truly includes everyone.”

HumanLevel follows Legend’s FreeAmerica organization, which aims to end mass incarceration.

“Our goal with this partnership is to take a deeper look at the issues from a human level, with a focus on actions city leaders can take to tackle systemic racism,” the “All of Me” singer adds. “No single solution will fix the racial and ethnic disparities we see across issues — from housing to education to the workforce — but we must approach this work with a sense of collaboration and urge

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If Michael Ray‘s latest hit takes you back to an earlier era in country music, well, the Florida native’s just fine with that.

“‘Whiskey and Rain‘ has that Gary Allan feel I grew up on,” Michael explains. “It has that, you know, Ronnie Milsap feel of the ’80s. It has that Bakersfield sound that I grew up on, loving it, with a ‘today’ spin on it.”

“So we knew right away that it was a lead-off single,” he continues, “and I think a lot of people relate to it because it has that nostalgic feel to it.”

Michael adds, “I think it does feel like that back-in-the-day, ’90s, 2000 songs, but ‘today.’ And I think people are listening to a lot of that, ’cause it puts you in a great headspace, ’cause who doesn’t want to go back to ’95, you know, ’96, ’97, early 2000s?”

Even more than that, Michael loves that audiences instantly react to the first release from his Higher Education EP when he starts playing it in concert.

“I love the fact that now we’re able to play it, and it’s kind of like that A chord for ‘Friends in Low Places,’ you know?” he notes. “Now we just hit that guitar riff and people are knowing what it is, so it’s cool.”

This weekend, Michael’s Just the Way I Am tour serves up some “Whiskey and Rain” to fans in Indianapolis on Saturday.

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