Alex Warren is announcing something Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET. It’s evidently so important that he’s holding special gatherings in London and LA to deliver the news. Fans speculate it might be a new song, a new album or even that he’s involved in Toy Story 5. That’s because he teased the announcement with a video that shows him being hoisted up by strings against a blue cloud background. Stay tuned.
Sara Bareilles will release her first new music that isn’t tied to a film or theater project in nearly seven years on Wednesday. “Home” arrives at 11 a.m. ET. She writes, “I’m so happy to finally share new music,” and then joked, “this new work is deeply personal… unlike all my other stuff.” Thursday will see the premiere of Sara’s new documentary, Good Grief, at New York’s Tribeca Festival.
Olivia Rodrigo’s new song “the cure” has debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s her eighth top-10 and her second from her upcoming album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. The first one, “drop dead,” debuted at #1 in May. In addition, “the cure” has debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. It’s her third #1 on that chart, after “brutal” and “bad idea right?”
Barry Manilow, ‘What A Time.’ (STILETTO Entertainment)
In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Chris Connelly, Barry Manilow has opened up about how being diagnosed with lung cancer and undergoing a left lung lobectomy havs altered his voice.
“My voice — I don’t know whether it’s coming back,” Manilow said in an interview that aired Monday on Good Morning America. “I did my first sound check about a month ago and I didn’t sound like me at all. I just couldn’t believe that it’s over.”
He added, “That is really upsetting. Because I don’t want it to stop.”
The singer, who’s known for his hits like “Copacabana,” “Mandy” and more throughout a career that has spanned more than 50 years, said he feels like he’s “taken my voice for granted.”
“I don’t take it seriously,” he said. “Now I do, because it doesn’t seem to be there the way it always was.”
Manilow’s cancer diagnosis was announced on Dec. 22, 2025, on his official website. The singer, who said he previously experienced six weeks of bronchitis, had just completed a Las Vegas residency and a five-night series of charity Christmas concerts in Palm Desert, California. He said his doctors ordered an MRI following his illness with bronchitis.
“They checked my lungs, and they found the dot, the spot, that thing that you don’t want to, you don’t want to ever have,” Manilow said. “They said I had lung cancer and we have to get it out.”
“It was just too heavy for me,” he added.
Manilow said the “spot” was diagnosed as Stage 1 cancerous tumor in his left lung, which he underwent successful surgery to remove. His doctors said he didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation, according to Manilow, but he contracted pneumonia, which landed him in the ICU.
Manilow said the experience was “terrifying.”
“There was a couple of moments there that I thought this may be goodbye,” he said. “But these people at this hospital, they were just angels, saints. I could cry so hard every time I think about these nurses and doctors.”
Today, ahead of his 83rd birthday on June 17, Manilow said he’s “doing good,” but that “it took longer than I thought it was going to take to get past this lung cancer.”
Earlier this year, Manilow’s song “Once Before I Go,” which he released in September 2025, reached the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song will appear on his new album, What a Time, which will be released Friday.
“I can’t wait to get back,” he continued. “I’m in great shape, I’m ready to go. I just hope my voice is there. If I sound good, that would be just great!”
“I really don’t want to cry onstage, but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to hold that back this time,” he added.
Paul McCartney’s ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ (MPL/Capitol Records)
Looks like Paul McCartney may have another hit on his hands in the U.K.
The Beatles legend’s latest solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is on track to top the U.K. Official Albums chart this week.
If it does hit #1, it will be McCartney’s eighth solo #1 in the U.K., although the chart includes albums released with Wings among his other solo hits. McCartney’s first non-Beatles #1 came in 1971 with Ram, although technically the album is credited to both Paul and his wife Linda McCartney. His last solo #1 was 2020’s McCartney III.
A new #1 would also move McCartney to #14 on the list of artists with the most #1 albums.
McCartney’s The Boys of Dungeon Lane, produced by Andrew Watt, features songs about McCartney’s childhood in Liverpool, early adventures with future Beatles bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon, and more.
Host Queen Latifah speaks onstage during the 52nd American Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Fresh off her hosting gig at the American Music Awards, Queen Latifah is set to perform at the Tony Awards.
She will take part in a special performance celebrating Chicago‘s 30-year run on Broadway. The musical originally opened on Broadway in 1975 before returning in 1996, where it continues to run today. According to a press release, it is now the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.
Queen Latifah will be joined by Tony Awards host P!nk, as well as Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adrienne Warren, Alex Newell, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt, Dylan Mulvaney and more.
The Tony Awards will take place Sunday at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Queen is also set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November.
Midland’s ‘Stages’ Party (Courtesy Blue Highway Records)
Fans in Nashville for CMA Fest can get a preview of Midland’s new album during a special show on Friday.
Mark Wystrach, Cameron Duddy and Jess Carson will take over the Friends in Low Places Rooftop from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CT for the live debut of songs from their upcoming album, Stages.
The show is free and open to the public, and there’s even a meet-and-greet afterward. You just need to be 21 or over to get in.
Stages arrives June 12 and features the previously released “Marlboro Man,” “Shooting Memories with Tequila,” “Glass Half Empty,” “I Wish You Would” and “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey” with Mackenzie Carpenter.
M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold performs on Mundo Stage as part of the Rock In Rio Festival at Cidade do Rock on September 16, 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Wagner Meier/Getty Images)
Avenged Sevenfold is featured on a new song from the Russian activist and punk rock collective Pussy Riot.
The track, “Candy Dopamine,” is from Pussy Riot’s debut album, CYKA, which will be released June 12.
“This song is kind of a love & hate song to prescription and designer drug culture,” Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova says. “It started with my dependence on anti depressants, but it’s also looking at everyone now mentalhealthmaxxing and looksmaxxing via pills and injections.”
She adds, “It’s not a judgement, it’s just an observation and my personal experience with these things is that I have to be in a long term relationship with them for my PTSD and depression.”
This isn’t the first time Avenged Sevenfold and Pussy Riot have collaborated on a song. In 2023 they teamed up for a new version of Avenged Sevenfold’s “We Love You,” from their album Life Is but a Dream… The new version was renamed “We Love You Moar.”
Violent Femmes will celebrate their 45th anniversary with four special shows in LA this summer.
The “Blister in the Sun” band will perform at LA’s The Bellweather on July 28, 29, 30 and 31. Tickets are on sale at TheBellweatherLA.com.
On July 28 and 29, the band will play both their 1983 self-titled debut album — featuring “Blister in the Sun,” “Add It Up,” “Gone Daddy Gone” and “Kiss Off” — and their 1984 sophomore album, Hallowed Ground, in full.
On July 30 and 31, the band will play selections from 1986’s The Blind Leading the Naked with special guest Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, who produced that record. Greatest hits and fan favorites will be performed on all four nights.
Violent Femmes formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1981. Their debut was RIAA-certified Gold and then Platinum. It finally made the Billboard 200 chart in 1991, peaking at 171.
Vivian Campbell, Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Phil Collen attend Def Leppard Honored With Star On Hollywood Walk Of Fame on October 09, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Def Leppard has extended their 2026 world tour.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have announced an Oct. 15 show in Hollywood, Florida. That will be followed by a tour of Mexico and South America, featuring special guests Extreme.
The Mexico dates kick off Oct. 17 in Querétaro, followed by stops in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The band then heads to San Salvador, El Salvador, on Oct. 24, followed by shows in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina. The tour wraps Nov. 8 in Santiago, Chile.
A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at DefLeppard.com.
Next up, Def Leppard will launch a European and U.K. tour starting June 13 in Rättvik, Sweden, and wrapping July 8 in Paris. They’re also booked to play Wacken Open Air 2026 in Wacken, Germany, which runs from July 29-Aug. 1
Backrooms, the psychological horror film from 20-year-old director Kane Parsons, has marked a new bright spot for the horror genre.
The film, which stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass, debuted May 29. It brought in more than $81 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, off a $10 million budget, according to The Numbers, a film industry data site that tracks box office revenue.
Backrooms not only routed at the box office but made history in the process, with Parsons becoming the youngest director to helm a #1 box office film globally, A24 confirmed to ABC News this week.
The film is also the largest original horror debut in history, according to the studio.
Additionally, Obsession, a horror film starring Inde Navarrette that debuted in May, has brought in more than $104 million in the weeks since its May 15 theatrical premiere, according to The Numbers.
According to a brief synopsis from A24, Backrooms centers around a “strange doorway” that “appears in the basement of a furniture showroom” one day.
A trailer for the film shows Ejiofor’s character, Clark, the furniture store owner, discovering the doorway before ending up in a large, dimly lit room with nothing but furniture piled up at the center and various voices speaking foreign languages over a fuzzy loudspeaker.
He later explains his confusion to his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline, played by Reinsve, before the trailer returns to the mysterious space, with Clark now exploring with some company. The trailer concludes with Reinsve entering the space as well.
Backrooms was written by Will Soodik, and was produced by horror filmmakers James Wan and Osgood Perkins, Arrival producer Shawn Levy and more. Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell also star in the film.
Backrooms is the debut film from director Parsons, who came to prominence via a series of wildly popular YouTube videos exploring a similar premise, most of the videos garnering millions of views apiece.
His most popular video, simply titled The Backrooms (Found Footage), has accumulated more than 81 million views since it was shared on Jan. 7, 2022.
The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House, home of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court on Monday concluded that the Trump administration’s transgender military ban is likely unconstitutional and “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group.”
In a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision blocking the Department of Defense from removing current servicemembers because of their gender dysphoria.
“At this preliminary stage, I conclude that the Hegseth Policy is both arbitrary and based upon animus, and for those reasons the Policy violates Plaintiff-Appellees’ constitutional right to equal protection of the law,” wrote Judge Robert Wilkins, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The decision only applies to the service members who sued the administration and does not bar the Pentagon from blocking transgender people from joining the military.
According to the court, prospective military members can seek relief after the case has completely moved through the courts, while active service members face a more serious hardship by being expelled from the military.
“For those servicemembers facing expulsion, it is not clear how easily they can be reinstated and made whole. But even if they can be reinstated after being separated, it appears to us to be a much greater hardship to end a military career than to delay the start of one,” Judge Wilkins wrote.
Judge Justin Walker — the sole judge on the panel appointed to the bench by a Republican president — dissented and said members of the military could be deprived of certain rights guaranteed to the civilians.
“Like today’s majority, I cherish those rights, and so I understand the impulse behind the majority’s unprecedented intervention into military affairs. But because the plaintiffs are service members not civilians, and because we are judges not generals, I respectfully dissent,” he wrote.
“We have neither the expertise nor the authority to decide whether the military can exclude the plaintiffs from its ranks. The Constitution assigns that authority to Congress and the Commander in Chief,” he added.
