Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees (Courtesy Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2026 inductees will be announced during the April 13 episode of American Idol, and fans will no doubt want to see if the nominees they supported in the online fan vote have managed to get in.
After more than 9 million votes were cast, the act that ended up on top of the leaderboard is R&B group New Edition, who scored just over 1 million of those votes. In 2023, New Edition inducted The Spinners into the Hall and performed in their honor.
Coming in at #2 is Phil Collins, who is already in the Hall as a member of Genesis. The drummer, singer, songwriter, producer and actor, who has sold over 100 million records as a solo artist, received close to 901,000 votes.
Pink came in at #3 with over 850,000 votes, while Shakira was #4 with 738,000 votes. The late Luther Vandross was just behind Shakira at #5, with just under 733,000 votes.
Australian rockers INXS were #6, followed by British group Sade at #7. The top seven vote-getters were highlighted on the leaderboard because all actual voting members were each allowed to vote for seven acts.
However, it’s worth noting that the act that comes in at #1 on the fan vote isn’t guaranteed induction. That’s because all the fan votes together are tallied as one single ballot, joining the 1,200 ballots submitted by the actual voting members of the Hall of Fame.
As for the rest of this year’s nominees, here’s how they stacked up: 8. Wu-Tang Clan 9. Billy Idol 10. Mariah Carey 11. Lauryn Hill 12. Iron Maiden 13. Melissa Etheridge 14. The Black Crowes 15. Oasis 16. Joy Division + New Order 17. Jeff Buckley
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Ron Johnson broke with President Donald Trump on his threats to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, saying in a podcast, “I hope and pray” he is “using this as bluster.”
“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure … We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them,” Johnson, a Trump ally who rarely breaks with the president, said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast out on Monday.
Johnson’s comments came after Trump has threatened to bomb bridges and power plants, which would be devastating for Iranian civilians. Some experts have warned that such actions could violate international law; many Democrats are saying it amounts to war crimes.
Trump has said that he will target those bridges and power plants in Iran if they don’t open up the critical Strait of Hormuz — giving Iran a deadline of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday to act.
Other lawmakers reacted to Trump’s social media post on Tuesday, hours ahead of his self-imposed deadline, in which he threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” although he said “I don’t want that to happen.”
This comes on the heels of an Easter Sunday social media post where Trump threatened “Hell” if the Strait of Hormuz weren’t opened up.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called President Trump an “extremely sick person” for threatening that a “whole civilization will die tonight.”
“Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is,” Schumer said in a post on X.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also called on Republicans to act.
“Congress must immediately end this reckless war of choice in Iran before Donald Trump plunges us into World War III. It’s time for every single Republican to put patriotic duty over party and stop the madness. Enough,” Jeffries said in a statement posted on X.
ABC News has reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson for comment.
Several House Democrats are calling on Congress to act as the war — now in its sixth week — continues.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, of Washington, called Trump’s threat “outrageous, dangerous, and unhinged.”
“Trump’s illegal war in Iran has already led to enormous death and destruction, including a school bombing that killed over 100 children. Congress must immediately act to rein him in before more people die,” Jayapal wrote in a post on X.
Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, of Illinois, said in a statement on X that Trump’s threat amounts to “mass murder” and that he is “urging every Cabinet Member and Republican leadership to call the President IMMEDIATELY.”
“The Iranian people do not deserve this,” Quigley wrote.
Democratic Rep. Mike Levin, of California, slammed Trump’s rhetoric, saying, “Threatening the annihilation of an entire civilization is dangerous beyond words, and hearing it from the person commanding our military should alarm every American.”
“This language is completely unacceptable from any president, let alone one who started this war without authorization from Congress and has no plan for what comes next,” Levin wrote.
Other conservative voices are breaking with Trump over his Iran threats.
Conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson offered scathing criticism of the president, blasting his recent threats toward Iran and specifically Trump’s profanity-laden threat to Iran on Easter Sunday.
“It is really the most real thing this president has ever done, and also the most revealing on every level. It is vile on every level,” Carlson said of Trump’s Sunday post during “The Tucker Carlson Show” on Monday.
Carlson scolded the president directly, saying, “how dare you speak that way,” adding that Trump’s post was a “mockery of Christianity.”
Trump fired back at Carlson in a social media post on Tuesday morning, calling him a “low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin, Lauren Peller, Nicholas Kerr and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
Bonnie Raitt landed her first-ever #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart with her 10th studio album, Nick of Time.
The album’s success was aided by a popular video for the track “Thing Called Love,” a cover of a John Hiatt tune. The video featured actor Dennis Quaid as a bar patron who flirts with the bar’s singer, played by Raitt.
The album was Raitt’s first release after getting sober and enduring years of professional struggles, including getting dropped from her label, Warner Bros. Records.
The record, her first with new label Capitol Records, turned out to be a breakthrough for the artist. Not only did it sell five million copies, but it earned Raitt three Grammys including album of the year.
In 2022, Nick of Time was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Julian Casablancas of The Strokes performs in concert during the 2025 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on October 04, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Gary Miller/Getty Images)
The Strokes followed up their new album announcement Monday with the live debut of a new song.
Julian Casablancas and company performed the track, apparently called “Going Shopping,” for the first time during their show Monday night in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, a Strokes fan on Reddit says they received a cassette tape featuring “Going Shopping” in a package after signing up for the band’s mailing list.
As previously reported, The Strokes’ next album is called Reality Awaits and is due out in the summer, exact date TBA. It will mark the first Strokes record in six years, following 2020’s The New Abnormal.
The Strokes will perform at Coachella on Saturday. Their upcoming live schedule also includes sets at Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Just Live Heaven and Shaky Knees.
Bilmuri has premiered a new song called “WHERE TO FIND ME,” a track off his upcoming album, KINDA HARD.
“WHERE TO FIND ME” features a guitar solo from Florestan Durand of the band Novelists, who submitted the part after Bilmuri put out an open call to play on the song.
“I could not come up with a sick a** riff, and so I just threw it up into the universe, and the guitar community came through f****** huge and sent about a million solos to me,” Bilmuri says in an Instagram video. “I loved so many of them.”
KINDA HARD is due out Friday. It also includes the single “MORE THAN HATE” and the A Day to Remember collaboration “ALWAYS LET YOU DOWN.”
Bilmuri will launch a U.S. tour April 17 in Denver.
Billy Idol It’s A Nice Day To …Tour Again! admat (Courtesy of Live Nation)
Billy Idol is hitting the road again this summer.
The “Rebel Yell” rocker has announced dates for a new leg of the It’s A Nice Day To … Tour Again! tour, kicking off Aug. 7 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The trek will hit cities in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and more, before wrapping Sept. 27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A Citi presale for tickets begins Wednesday at 12 p.m. local time, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 12 p.m. local time.
Idol launched the It’s A Nice Day To … Tour Again! tour in April 2025. In addition to the newly announced shows, he will headline the weeklong Hot in the City Las Vegas residency at the Fontainebleau from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5.
A complete list of dates can be found at BillyIdol.net.
Idol is currently nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Inductees will be announced April 13 on American Idol. In addition, his new documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, is currently streaming on Hulu.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on April 7, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance is in Hungary on Tuesday, meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of President Donald Trump, ahead of the country’s April 12 election which could threaten Orbán’s long hold on power.
Although Vance has downplayed the idea that he traveled to Hungary to shore up support for Orbán, the upcoming election in the country was the centerpiece of Vance’s remarks during his joint press conference in Budapest on Tuesday, where he praised the authoritarian leader.
“And of course, I want to help as much as I possibly can, the prime minister as he faces this election season, which I believe is happening in just about a week, the election to elect the next Prime Minister of Hungary,” Vance said.
Orbán, who is seeking his fifth term, faces criticism over the decline of democracy in the country as he and his allies have destroyed checks and balances and taken control of the country’s media.
He faces a strong challenge from opposition leader Peter Magyar, who was once part of the prime minister’s party, but launched his own in 2024 and began attacking Orbán’s Fidesz party over alleged corruption.
The authoritarian leader has long been a close ally of Trump and was among the first European leaders to endorse him in the 2016 presidential election. Orbán’s nationalist party has become a model for MAGA populists, particularly for its aggressive stance on immigration.
Orban met with Trump three times in 2024, one of those visits coming after Trump won the 2024 election. Orbán has spoken several times at the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC.
Most recently, Orbán, also an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, visited Trump at the White House in November, where he received a special exemption from sanctions imposed on Russian oil because of its invasion of Ukraine. Hungary is a major importer of Russian energy and the sanctions would have impacted the country’s already weakening economy.
Vance on Tuesday said that Orbán, along with Trump, has done the most to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
”The war would have never started … if President Trump had been president four years ago, but now that it has started, probably the two leaders who have done the most to actually end that destructive conflict have been Donald J. Trump and Viktor Orban in Hungary,” Vance said.
While Hungary is a member of the European Union, Orbán has repeatedly attacked it and clashed with his European counterparts on several issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, using his veto power to try to block the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine.
Trump has already endorsed Orbán in his reelection bid and has praised him, calling him “strong and powerful.”
During his remarks, Orbán thanked Trump and Vance for standing by Hungary over the past few years.
”We owe gratitude to President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing by Hungary during the past years, the United States of America is the strongest country in the world, and I am happy to say that they are our allies today, the peace and the security of Hungary, therefore, is guaranteed,” Orbán said.
Vance’s trip to Hungary follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit in February, during which he reinforced the Trump administration’s support of the embattled Orbán.
In early 2025, Vance delivered blistering remarks at the Munich Security Conference, where he made the argument to European lawmakers to pay attention to the interests of conservative voters, take stronger actions on immigration and that Europe was moving towards censorship and away from Democracy.
Vance’s remarks were not well received by many European allies, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying at the time that it appeared that Vance was comparing parts of Europe to “authoritarian regimes,” calling it “unacceptable.”
(L-R) Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar attend the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on November 05, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are set to appear on this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-themed episode of American Idol, airing April 13 live on ABC.
The pair, who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, will perform on the show and serve as mentors to Idol’s top 11 finalists, who will perform songs from previous Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
The episode will also feature the live announcement of the 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class.
This year’s Rock Hall nominees include Phil Collins, Billy Idol, The Black Crowes, Oasis, Wu-Tang Clan, New Edition, INXS, Iron Maiden, Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, Pink, Shakira, Luther Vandross, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, Joy Division/New Order and Sade.
Because you loved her, Céline Dion’s upcoming Paris residency just got bigger.
Due to “unprecedented demand,” she’s added six dates to her upcoming comeback in the City of Lights this fall: Sept. 18 and 25, and Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 17. The artist presale, open to preregistered fans, runs from Tuesday through Thursday at 5:59 a.m. ET. If you aren’t selected for that, you’ll be added to the waiting list. Alternately, you can try the Visa presale that starts April 8 at 4 a.m. ET.
CELINE DION PARIS 2026 will feature the Canadian icon performing over five weeks at Paris La Défense Arena starting Sept. 12. It’s being designed by Willo Perron, who’s done everything from Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour.
Céline last performed a full concert on March 8, 2020; she was forced to cancel her Courage World Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A planned 2021 residency in Las Vegas never materialized due to her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis, a rare condition that causes debilitating muscle spasms.
Céline choosing Paris as the city for her engagement is fitting: Her first public performance after revealing her diagnosis took place at the Eiffel Tower during the 2024 Olympics.
A view of the Wisconsin State Capitol at sunset on February 3, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Joe Timmerman/Catchlight/Wisconsin Watch via Getty Images)
(MADISON, Wis) — Wisconsinites will vote for a new state Supreme Court justice on Tuesday in a race that could maintain or widen the court’s liberal majority for years.
In a state home to some of the country’s tightest races, Democrats have won four of the last five Supreme Court elections by large margins. President Donald Trump carried Wisconsin by less than a percentage point in 2024.
Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judges Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar are competing for an open seat to replace retiring conservative-aligned Justice Rebecca Bradley. Unlike last year’s race, the ideological balance of the court is not in play. Yet the seven-member body has resolved disputes between the GOP-controlled state legislature and the Democratic governor.
In 2020, the court narrowly rejected a Trump lawsuit that would have tossed out more than 220,000 absentee ballots. And with the governor’s seat and control of the statehouse up for grabs, this year could prove no different. Justices are elected to 10-year terms and could potentially hear election or redistricting-related litigation in the future.
Taylor is a former Dane County Circuit Court judge and former Democratic lawmaker representing deep-blue Madison in the state assembly. Lazar is a former Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and assistant attorney general during former Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s tenure.
Though the race is nominally nonpartisan, the candidates have received endorsements from political figures. Former President Barack Obama endorsed Taylor, while Republican congressmen, including GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany, endorsed Lazar.
In 2023, liberals flipped the majority to 4-3 for the first time in 15 years. In 2025, another liberal victory preserved their control of the court until at least 2028.
Lazar is a self-described constitutional conservative who has focused her messaging on restoring impartiality to the court. She called Taylor “a radical, extreme legislator” while her opponent labeled Lazar as an extremist with a “right-wing political agenda” in a debate aired Thursday by ABC affiliate WISN.
The shadow of Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban, struck down by the court in 2025, also loomed large this year.
Asked how she would have ruled on that case, Lazar declined to answer. But she reiterated that she will honor the ruling, which reinstated what she called the “20-week compromise” in place before the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Though this race is attracting less national attention than in years prior, Taylor campaigned on similar issues that have worked in Democrats’ favor. A former policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, her messaging has focused on protecting abortion and democracy.
She also hasn’t shied away from addressing bread-and-butter issues. In one ad, she warned of rising costs and “extremists” stripping Wisconsinites of food assistance.
Taylor entered the race in May 2025. She significantly outraised and outspent Lazar, who launched her campaign five months later. Taylor raised nearly $2.1 million between Feb. 3 and March 23, while Lazar raised about $474,000 in the same period.
Compared to the record-setting levels of spending in the 2025 race, it’s a drop in the bucket. That race saw total spending surpass $100 million, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk barnstormed Wisconsin that year, handing out controversial million-dollar checks and warning “Western civilization” was at stake.
There are roughly 3.6 million active registered voters in the state as of this month, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The latest tally shows that 324,396 people voted early.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central time. The new term will take effect on Aug. 1.
