Mayme Johnson has stepped into a new era in season 4 of Godfather of Harlem, the historical drama about crime boss Bumpy Johnson in the 1960s, as she focuses on getting onto the New York Fine Arts board.
Ilfenesh Hadera, who portrays the character, tells ABC Audio Mayme’s goal to help Black artists get the recognition they deserve is part of an organic evolution that is “wonderful to see.”
“Season 1 and season 2, for me, were about survival, surviving. Season 3 was more about, OK, we’ve established ourselves. We’re back as a family unit. Now we can think about thriving,” she says.
With “the health, stability and security of her family” under control in the show’s fourth season, Mayme now has her sights set on helping people in the culture, a quality Ilfenesh says her character, based on the real Mayme Johnson, always had.
“[Mayme] worked with Adam Clayton Powell and the Voting Rights Act and other such political movements, civil rights movements,” Ilfenesh says. “But this becomes really specific [in] season 4, it becomes about legacy and creating a space for not just her family and her community at large, but for specific individuals that she sees as too bright and talented to keep from the rest of the world.”
“It’s why she does try to ingratiate herself with the swans who say really kind of cringe-worthy, offensive things,” Ilfenesh notes, referencing the women on the New York Fine Arts board. (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)
She adds it was fun to play a Black woman in the 1960s who bit her tongue and took hits for the greater good.
A new episode of Godfather of Harlem premieres Sunday on MGM+.
Barry Manilow is currently on a tour which sees him doing what he says will be his last-ever shows in various cities. However, the 81-year-old legend says he has no intention of retiring from live performance, and will keep doing his ongoing residency in Las Vegas, until one very specific thing happens.
“I’m still healthy. I’m strong and I’ve still got my voice and my energy. The night I can’t hit the F natural on ‘Even Now,’ that’s the night I throw in the towel,” he tells Billboard. “But I can still do it.”
Barry says he feels badly for his colleagues who’ve been dealing with serious medical issues, such as, most recently, Billy Joel, who has a brain disorder, but also Elton John, whose eyesight has been severely affected by an infection, and Neil Diamond, who has Parkinson’s.
“It’s like, ‘What? Am I the only one left?” he tells Billboard. “Diana Ross is still in great shape I think. There must be only a handful of people in my world that are still there.”
As for Billy, whose Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus diagnosis means he’s currently unable to perform, Barry says, “It just broke my heart when I heard about Billy Joel. I’m such a fan of his work. I really hope he’s able to get back to it.”
But while he won’t stop performing, Barry says he will stop recording. He plans to release an album this summer, which he says will “probably be my last.”
“It’s a Barry pop album,” he says. “I think people who like what I do will like this album; I don’t know about everybody else who likes today’s music, but it’s a solid album.”
Although herapped “No More Teardrops” on his 2020 song, the reality of being a modern-day musician caused Vic Mensa to break down on Instagram Tuesday. He opened up mental health and music streaming in an Instagram video, admitting there was “immense fear” in sharing it with world.
“I just broke down … thinking about the weight of being an artist in a time when work is so devalued,” began a tearful Vic, who talked about how the streaming era has decreased music’s value. He specifically mentioned a comment he read where someone suggested paying $10 for access to a streaming service made more sense than paying the same amount to one star.
“At the time, I was like, you know, that’s so fried of a mentality, but like today, it kind of hit me like how [it] impacts the mental health of artists [when] people feel like that s*** not worth $10,” Vic said. “It’s heartbreaking, but it’s hilarious at the same time, like, not worth 10 bucks.”
Though he notes he’s been fortunate to have a good life, Vic shared the message knowing there are bigger and smaller artists dealing with the same issue.
“i know so many of you make music, & all of us love music. are we caring for the people that create it?” Vic asked in the post’s caption. “art is the soul of humanity. as not only a creator of it, but first and foremost a lover of it, a fan, i look forward to us as a collective community finding new ways for this thang to exist.”
Dave Matthews has announced the 2026 edition of his Riviera Maya destination festival with frequent collaborator Tim Reynolds.
The event will take place Jan. 21-24 at Mexico’s Moon Palace Cancún resort. The opening night will feature a headlining performance by Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, followed by three nights of headlining sets by Matthews and Reynolds.
Members of the Dave Matthews Band Warehouse fan club will have access to a presale beginning June 10 at noon ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public on June 11 at 1 p.m. ET.
Killswitch Engage has released a new song called “Blood Upon the Ashes.”
The track was initially recorded for the new KsE album, This Consequence, but didn’t end up making the record. It’s now set to be included on the upcoming charity compilation The Dogs of Hope, which benefits the Randolph County Animal Shelter in Alabama.
“‘Blood Upon The Ashes’ is a song about struggle, sacrifice, and redemption,” says frontman Jesse Leach. “The lyrics read a bit like a story that’s inspired by what we go through in the human experience.”
“I was picturing a war-torn city and people coming together to rebuild it—while the ‘blood’ signifies the sacrifice people make for each other in times of need,” Leach continues. “As much as it’s based on humanity and everything people are going through in a world riddled with war, it’s also a post apocalyptic story.”
The Dogs of Hope is due out Aug. 8.
Killswitch dropped This Consequence in February. They’ll return to the road in support of the record June 21 on the Summer of Loud tour alongside Beartooth, I Prevail and Parkway Drive.
Teddy Swims likes to post videos of people sharing covers of his hit “Lose Control,” but those people usually aren’t award-winning music superstars. Luke Combs recorded a video of himself singing “Lose Control” acoustically, which Teddy shared on Instagram. He captioned it “BRO” with the happy tears emoji.
This time it wasn’t Katy Perry who was doing the roaring. Aftera 14-hour flight to Sydney, Australia, for her June 4 concert, she posted video of herself visiting the Sydney Zoo in the middle of the night and feeding steak to a tiger, which licked her hand. “This is what I did to beat jet lag last night nbd,” she wrote.
You can now hear a snippet of Mariah Carey‘s new song, “Type: Dangerous,” on her Instagram. The mid-tempo R&B track, which might be from a new album, is out on Friday.
Ellie Goulding will perform an intimate acoustic set June 6 at the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Concert in Oxford, England. The concert is designed to call attention to the climate crisis and its affect on humanity. It’s a cause that’s close to Ellie’s heart, as she’s been an ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund and a Global Environmental Ambassador for the UN.
This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
Bryana Bongolan took the witness stand at Sean Combs‘ trial Wednesday and testified pursuant to a subpoena and an immunity deal with federal prosecutors. She promptly told the jury that Combs allegedly held her over a 17th-floor balcony nine years ago.
Bongolan testified she was sleeping on the couch with her ex-girlfriend in Cassie Ventura’s 17th-floor apartment in September 2016 when she awoke to the sound of Combs banging loudly on the door.
She testified that she immediately hid her ex-girlfriend in a bathroom, shut the door and ran onto the balcony to “act casual,” explaining, “I didn’t want to expose her to the things that I’d seen.”
On the balcony, “I either lit a blunt or was about to light it” when Combs came up behind her, Bongolan testified. “He lifted me and then had me on top of the rail.”
“For a split second I was thinking I was going to fall but for the most part he was yelling at me, so I was trying to answer him,” Bongolan testified, referring to Combs. “He kept repeating, ‘You know what the f*** you did.’”
She testified that she still has no idea what Combs was talking about.
Bongolan told the court that Combs then threw her onto balcony furniture.
Combs has denied that the incident occurred.
Later, Bongolan testified, she noticed a large purple bruise on her leg with a small puncture wound in the middle of it. The jury was shown a photo of the injury, as well as other photos of Bongolan’s back, which was covered with large bandages. She’s also wearing a neck brace in the photo.
Bongolan testified that when a chiropractor asked, “Who did this to you?” she did not answer. She also told the court that she never reported anything about the incident to police because she was “too scared” of Combs.
“Did you ever talk to Mr. Combs about this incident?” prosecutor Madison Smyser asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan testified. “Him or someone on his team FaceTimed me a day or two later.” She told the jury that the person allegedly said during the call “I don’t want any problems from you.”
Elsewhere in the testimony, Bongolan, who also is known as Bana, told the court that she met Ventura while they worked together at a streetwear company and they would often get high together, using “a lot of marijuana, cocaine, ketamine, stuff like that.”
Bongolan was reluctant to meet Combs, she told the court: “I just wasn’t ultimately fond of what I was seeing.”
Asked to elaborate, Bongolan testified that Ventura would seem upset during phone calls or appear with a black eye. She told the court about one time before the premiere of the film The Perfect Match, in which Ventura starred, when she said Ventura called her on FaceTime and showed her the black eye.
Bonglan further testified about another time was asleep in Ventura’s apartment and was awakened “by the banging,” adding “Puff was banging at the door.”
Bongolan told the court that she didn’t recall what Combs said but she did recall his tone of voice.
“Upset,” Bongolan testified. “I just remember seeing a knife get thrown in her direction,” referring to Ventura.
She testified Ventura threw it back in response, but it did not hit Combs.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland attempted to point out possible inconsistencies in Bongolan’s testimony.
Bongolan will be back for more cross-examination Thursday when court convenes at 11 a.m. ET.
If you are affected by abuse and needing support, or know someone who is, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). You can also chat online at thehotline.org or online.rainn.org, respectively.
The surviving members of The Zombies are set to come together for a special screening of their documentary, Hung Up on a Dream.
Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Chris White and Hugh Grundy, along with the film’s director, Robert Schwartzman, will be on hand for a June 24 screening and Q&A at Finsbury Park Picturehouse in London.
There will also be in-person screenings with Q&As on June 26 in London’s Hackney Picturehouse and on July 5 at The Odyssey Cinemas in St. Albans, England, which is where The Zombies got their start.
In a video posted to Instagram, Argent shared his excitement at the success the film has had in America and praised the film’s director.
“I have to say, Robert Schwartzman has done the most wonderful job on it,” he says of the film. “I think he’s made a great film with what I thought was unpromising material because, first of all, I didn’t think there was very much material still in existence. But he proved me wrong.”
Information about where Hung Up on a Dream is playing can be found at hungup.official.film.
McCartney & Streisand in 2014; Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Barbra Streisand has shared some behind-the-scenes footage of the recording of “My Valentine,” her duet with Paul McCartney, which appears on her upcoming album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two.
In the clip, Babs recalls that she and The Beatles started out at the same time, with both of their debut albums coming out in 1963.
“When I first heard Barbra, we just thought, ‘What a great singer,'” McCartney says in a voice-over. “She really had a beautiful voice. We were very impressed.”
Streisand calls McCartney the “perfect partner” for the song, sharing that being in the studio with him was “a delight,” while McCartney calls the experience “great fun.”
“Paul had written it as a solo song, but with a few slight adjustments his lyrics perfectly lent themselves to be sung as a duet,” Streisand adds. She notes how impressed she was with McCartney in the studio.
“The things he does with his voice, he’s such an incredibly gifted songwriter,” she shares. “It was a very memorable session and it turns out you actually can get by with a little help from your friends, especially if one of them happens to be Sir Paul.”
The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two is due out June 27. In addition to McCartney, it has Babs duetting with artists like Bob Dylan, Sting and James Taylor, as well as Seal and Sam Smith. It also features a collaboration between Babs, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande.
The 16th Darius and Friends benefit on Monday at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium raised more than $815,000, bringing the total amount Darius Rucker has given to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis to more than $5.1 million.
Seventeen-year Opry member Carrie Underwood unveiled a special “rhinestone milestone” mic stand Tuesday during her fan club party and two sold-out shows at the Grand Ole Opry House. It follows the recently revealed Dolly Parton mic that also marks the Opry’s 100th birthday.
You can check out Luke Combs covering Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Control” on the country hitmaker’s socials.
