For Christmas King Michael Bublé to claim that he’s just recorded “the greatest Christmas song ever,” it’s got to be pretty good, right?
That’s the claim that Michael makes in an Instagram video that shows him and country star Carly Pearce doing the viral #suspectchallenge: You pretend you’re running from the police while someone else roasts you in an attempt to describe you.
“Suspect won’t wear headphones in the studio because he doesn’t wanna mess up his hair,” Carly says of Michael. “Suspect won’t stop chewing gum, even in a really sad music video,” Michael says of Carly.
The video ends with both of them running and saying, “Suspects just recorded the greatest Christmas song ever.”
Michael, who’s currently serving as a coach on The Voice, wrote in the comments, “Just wait amigos. I don’t think I’ve written something this meaningful since we wrote ‘Home.’ Only broke down 23 times while writing it.”
No word yet on the title of the song, the release date or whether or not it’s part of a larger holiday project.
Ahead of the release of the box set focused on Queen‘s 1973 debut album, the band issued a 7-inch vinyl single of “The Night Comes Down.” The latest episode of the band’s Queen: The Greatest video series now focuses on the creation of that song.
According to a press release, the song, written by guitarist Brian May, is “perhaps the most enigmatic song in Queen’s five-decade catalogue” due to its “otherworldly instrumental,” “soul-baring lyric” and the fact that the band never performed it live.
May says in the video, “The song, actually, was about those moments when you’re not jolly. When you feel like you’ve lost it. When I look back at it, I was very young to be writing that stuff, but I did get depressed in those days.”
He adds, “It was always about relationships. And I had moments when I thought, ‘I’m in a great place, I can make music. I’m with great friends … everything’s great.’ And then, somehow, everything would fall apart, and then it’s like the night came down in my head. So that’s what it’s about. It’s not a jolly song.”
May then taught the song to singer Freddie Mercury, who he says “as always would make it his own and take it to the next level.”
May also digs up the original guitar he used to record the tune, a “very cheap” one he’d restrung with wire strings. That created a unique buzzy sound that he compares to “a sitar but warmer.” May says he used the guitar “all over” the first Queen album.
The Queen I box set, out now, comprises 63 tracks with 43 brand-new mixes, as well as alternative takes, demos and rare live tracks.
Cold Case Files: The Grim Sleeper is coming to A&E Friday at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, centering on serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr., who preyed on, raped, strangled and shot many woman in South Central LA for over 20 years. It’s a story Regina Hall was unaware of until she considered narrating the two-part doc.
“It definitely did draw me in. As a woman, a black woman watching those families who lost loved ones,” she tells TV Insider. The doc details how he was finally caught, tried, convicted and sentenced on first-degree murder and attempted murder charges. It also puts a spotlight on the victims.
“To see the victims humanized beyond just being addicts or prostitutes … I loved what A&E did because it gave a great picture of these victims as human beings, as mothers, daughters, and sisters. Seeing the pain those loved ones were left with,” Regina says.
She notes “it was powerful” to narrate the doc “because the story has an insane amount of gravity” and says she “wanted to do it justice because of the people involved.”
With her own production company and a deal with MGM Alternative, Regina says she’s looking to explore and produce more true crime stories “because it is a space that I’ve been interested in and watched.”
With another Scary Movie just announced, Regina, who appeared in the films as Brenda Cooks, says she’s excited to see the Wayans at the helm again.
“We’ll see if Brenda is in this new world,” she adds. “I’m thrilled at the possibility that the band could get back together again. That would be fun.”
Thomas Rhett is celebrating the 34th birthday of his wife, Lauren Akins.
The “Beautiful as You” singer jumped on Instagram Friday morning to dedicate a birthday carousel to Lauren, complete with two couple shots and a photo of Lauren standing on a swing while a giraffe licks her hand.
“Y’all already know how much I’m in love with this amazing human, so I’ll save the sappy stuff for her birthday card,” Thomas captioned his post. “Help me wish @laur_akins a happy birthday! Love you babe!”
Thomas and Lauren got married in October 2012 and have four daughters together.
“Beautiful as You” is the lead single from Thomas’ About A Woman and is currently approaching the top five of the country charts.
Thomas is set to perform on the 2024 CMA Awards with pop singer Teddy Swims, where they’ll collab on their songs “Somethin’ Bout a Woman” and “Lose Girl.”
The 2024 CMAs, hosted by Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson, will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
(SANTA FE, NM) — A major storm system is bringing a historic early season snowstorm to New Mexico and Colorado.
Some areas could see up to 3 to 4 feet of snow, as the storm system moves out of the Southwest and into the western Plains.
A blizzard warning has been issued for parts of northern New Mexico, where a combination of strong winds and snow could reduce visibility to near zero.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued two statewide emergency declarations this week in response to the storm.
“This declaration gives the state more resources to continue supporting local responders as this major snowstorm persists,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement on Thursday. “I thank every single responder who has been out in the cold since Wednesday clearing roads, escorting people to safety, and doing what needs to be done to support New Mexicans challenged by this storm.”
Since Wednesday, New Mexico State Police officers have responded to “multiple calls” to assist stranded motorists, the governor’s office said.
The state’s Department of Transportation and New Mexico National Guard have been working to clear roads.
In Colorado, several locations, from Pueblo to Colorado Springs, have already gotten 12 to 18 inches of snow as of the late morning Friday, as snow continues to fall.
A winter storm warning is in effect Friday for Denver, which could see 8 to 16 inches of snow.
Schools were canceled Friday in Denver due to the storm.
“Major” weather impacts are expected in eastern Colorado starting Friday, the Colorado Department of Transportation said.
“Conditions will worsen through the day and evening as heavy snow spreads northwest across the area,” the National Weather Service in Boulder said on social media. “Impossible travel east and southeast of Denver!”
The same storm system is also expected to bring heavy rain to parts of Texas and Oklahoma, where there is a flash flood threat Friday. Locally, at least 5 inches of rain is possible.
As the storm system moves north and east on Saturday, the heavy rain threat will move into the Mississippi River Valley, from Tennessee to Louisiana.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A text messaging service said Friday that it discovered “one or more” of its users allegedly sent out racist text messages to phone numbers across the country and that the service quickly shut down the accounts.
A representative from TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, told ABC News that the company was cooperating with law enforcement and condemned the vile messages that were sent to users this week.
The texts, which tell the user they’re going to be taken to a plantation to “pick cotton,” have been reported in at least 14 states and primarily appeared to target Black users from teenagers to adults, according to investigators in several states.
The messages address the recipients by name.
The TextNow representative said once the accounts that were allegedly behind the texts were reported, their teams disabled the accounts in less than an hour.
“As part of our investigation into these messages, we learned they have been sent through multiple carriers across the US and we are working with partners and law enforcement cooperatively to investigate this attack,” the representative said in a statement.
“We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send messages that are intended to harass or spam others and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future,” the representative added.
One text message reviewed by ABC News read, “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12 pm sharp with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you in a brown van. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation. You are in plantation group W.”
As of Friday, the texts were reported by authorities in California, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and New York.
Local and federal investigators, including the FBI, said they were looking into the messages and urged anyone who received them to contact the authorities. The probes are ongoing.
A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that it has not been determined if the source of the racist texts is domestic or foreign, but efforts are underway to determine the origins of the sources.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a video statement posted on X Friday that “some” of the racist text messages “can be traced back to a VPN in Poland.”
“At this time, they have found no original source – meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world. We will continue to investigate,” Murrill said.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson condemned the texts and said that many in the Black community are already on edge because of what he sad was a rise in racist rhetoric during the election season.
“These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results,” Johnson said.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Abby Cruz, Luke Barr, Pierre Thomas and Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report.
Tyler, The Creator is thankful for the reception of Chromakopia, his latest #1 album on the Billboard 200.
“Thank you to everyone who has listened, skimmed through, put it on repeat, turned off, loved it, hated, grew on, grown off, related to, was foreign to, anything,” Tyler wrote in an Instagram Story Thursday. “I really appreciate any ears.”
“I’m at a different point in my life than I was when most of you met me so to share these thoughts or feelings that I may/may not have lightly touched on before felt like such a release, and to see so many of you resonate with it is such a great feeling I’ve never experienced,” he continued. “Thank you.”
Chromakopia is now Tyler’s best week ever in terms of units, his biggest streaming week for an album, his largest sales week ever and his seventh top-10 album on the chart. Keep in mind, he dropped the album on a Monday and had a shorter tracking week than albums that released on Friday.
Tyler shared some of his favorite moments about each track from Chromakopia in a tweet posted earlier in the week.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer Kenney Jones, known for his work with The Small Faces, Faces and The Who, has revealed that his son Jesse has passed away.
On his official Facebook page, Jones, 76, wrote, “It is with a broken heart that I share the devastating news that my son Jesse has passed. I don’t have the words right now to fully express how I am feeling. But I want to thank you all for your kind wishes at this indescribably painful time and ask for continued love, respect and privacy as we try to navigate this profound loss as a family.“
Jones didn’t share the cause of his son’s death. Jesse was one of his six children from two marriages.
Jones is the only surviving member of The Small Faces, which morphed into Faces after their lead singer, Steve Marriott, left to form Humble Pie, and Rod Stewart and Ron Wood joined. The two bands were jointly inducted into the Rock Hall in 2012. In 1978, Jones replaced the late Keith Moon in The Who and played on their albums Face Dances and It’s Hard.
In the early ’90s, after his stint in The Who, Jones formed The Law with Bad Company‘s Paul Rodgers; in 2001, he formed The Jones Gang. He’s also played with The Rolling Stones, Wings, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the individual members of The Who.
James Van Der Beek is opening up about his cancer diagnosis, days after revealing he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer.
The Dawson’s Creek star sat down for a new interview with People and discussed the journey he and his family have been on in the last year.
“What do you do when you’re staring down a Stage 3 diagnosis? This has been a crash course in [the] mastery of mind, body [and] spirit,” he said.
The 47-year-old recalled going in for a colonoscopy in August 2023 after experiencing some symptoms.
“The gastroenterologist said, in his most pleasant bedside manner, ‘It is cancer.’ And I think I went into shock,” Van Der Beek said.
Van Der Beek said he went in for additional scans, which confirmed he had Stage 3 cancer but also offered a bit of a silver lining.
“Found out it was still localized. It had not spread, but it was Stage 3, which is not what you want to hear,” he said.
Van Der Beek said his cancer diagnosis ushered in a new and unfamiliar chapter.
“And thus began, the full-time job of having cancer, signing up for all the various medical portals and getting on the phone with insurance and creating appointments … I was not prepared for just how much of a full-time job that it really is,” he continued.
Although the cancer news came as a shock, Van Der Beek said it was also a catalyst and motivating in a sense.
“I really didn’t feel like this was going to end me. I really felt like this is going to be the biggest life redirect,” he said. “I’m going to make changes that I never would have made otherwise, that I’m going to look back on in a year, five years, 30 years from now and say, ‘Thank God that happened.'”
Colorectal cancer begins in the colon or rectum, often referred to as colon or rectal cancer based on its location, according to the American Cancer Society, which added that most cases start as polyps — growths on the inner lining of these organs — that become more common with age. For that reason, regular screenings with colonoscopies can not only help detect colorectal cancer, but can help prevent it, too, since a polyp can take as many as 10 to 15 years to develop into cancer.
Gabby Barrett‘s debut holiday record, Carols and Candlelight, has arrived.
It features 11 songs, including two duets: the previously released “Go Tell It on the Mountain” with Christian duo for KING & COUNTRY, and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” with Gabby’s husband and fellow American Idol season 16 finalist, Cade Foehner.
“Ahhhhhhh I’m so excited that my first Christmas album is out NOW!” Gabby shares on Instagram.
“Go grab your Christmas decorations and tree & listen to Carols and Candlelight with your loved ones,” she says. “I hope you love it!!!”
You can check out Carols and Candlelight wherever you listen to music.
Here’s the Carols and Candlelight track list: “Mary, Did You Know?” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” “Christmas to Remember” “The First Noel” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” (feat. Cade Foehner) “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (feat. The Piano Guys) “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (for KING & COUNTRY feat. Gabby Barrett) “O Holy Night” “Last Christmas” “Grown-Up Christmas List” “Silent Night”
