Morgan Wallen‘s latest album, One Thing at a Time, has topped the Billboard 200 albums chart for 11 weeks in a row.
According to Billboard, Morgan’s One Thing at a Time is the first album to claim the number one spot for its first 11 weeks since Whitney Houston‘s Whitney dominated during its initial 11 weeks in 1987.
Additionally, One Thing at a Time has now spent the most consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart since the Titanic soundtrack ruled at number one for a straight 16 weeks from January to May 1998.
Morgan’s expansive 36-song record includes “You Proof,” “Thought You Should Know,” “Last Night” and its title track, which serves as Morgan’s latest single.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Paul Simon just released a critically acclaimed new album, Seven Psalms, but he says even if he really wanted to tour to promote it, he can’t — because he’s lost most of the hearing in his left year.
Speaking to the U.K.’s Sunday Times, Simon, 81, says the loss was “quite sudden,” adding, “Nobody has an explanation for it. So everything became more difficult. My reaction to that was frustration and annoyance; not quite anger yet, because I thought it would pass, it would repair itself.”
That doesn’t seem to be happening, which means that Simon can’t perform live, but he says he isn’t particularly eager to return to the stage.
“The songs of mine that I don’t want to sing live, I don’t sing them,” he says. “Sometimes there are songs that I like and then at a certain point in a tour, I’ll say, ‘What the f*** are you doing, Paul?’ Quite often that would come during ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ I’d think, ‘What are you doing? You’re like a Paul Simon cover band. You should get off the road, go home.’”
Simon, who now lives on a ranch in Texas with his wife, Edie Brickell, wrote Seven Psalms after he had a dream on January 19, 2019 — the anniversary of his father’s death.
“The dream was specific,” he says. “‘You are writing, or are meant to write, a piece called Seven Psalms.’ It was a very insistent statement, so much so that I wrote it down.”
The paper he wrote it down on is now framed in his studio, as is a copy of his and Art Garfunkel‘s first single, “Hey Schoolgirl,” which they recorded in 1957 under the name Tom & Jerry.
Ray Stevenson, the Ireland-born English character actor who has been seen in movies like Punisher: Warzone and the Indian smash RRR, and who will be seen in the forthcoming Disney+ show Ahsoka, has died, ABC Audio has confirmed.
A rep for the actor said he died on Sunday, May 21, four days before his 59th birthday. No other details were being made available at this time, the rep added.
According to La Repubblica, however, the actor, who also played the burly Volstagg in the Thor films, was on the Italian island of Ischia shooting a film called Cassino on Ischia when he was hospitalized. The Italian-language newspaper says his condition took a turn for the worse while in the hospital, where he passed away.
(WASHINGTON) — More than $100 million will go to airports across the country to reduce potential runway incursions, the Federal Aviation Administration told ABC News exclusively.
The funding, announced Monday, will be allocated to 12 airports in the wake of a series of close calls involving passenger planes earlier this year.
Runway incursions occur when an aircraft, vehicle or person is incorrectly on the protected areas at an airport designated for takeoff.
This round of grant money from the agency — as part of its annual distributions — will fund projects that will reconfigure taxiways that cause confusion, install better airfield lighting and construct new taxiways to provide more flexibility on the airfield, the FAA said.
“It’s a matter of perspective for pilots most of the time because when you land at a large or small airport, while you can make out the runways and taxiways pretty easily looking at a paper diagram, when you’re down on the surface it becomes a lot more difficult, especially at night or especially at night in rain,” ABC News contributor and former commercial pilot John Nance said.
Grant recipients include Miami International Airport (MIA), which will receive $6 million to shift one taxiway and fix an intersection between two other taxiways, the FAA said.
Jose Ramos, the division director for planning, land use and grants at MIA, called the area a “hot spot” that can be confusing for pilots. The new funding will “enhance the safety in the area of a very complex part of the airport,” he said.
“What this project is going to do is basically reconfigure the area, provide clear delineation of the taxi lanes where the aircraft transit through,” Ramos told ABC News. “It’s going to better identify the approach areas to the runway, so generally it’s a safety improvement to that area.”
Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport will also receive $13.4 million to reconfigure four taxiways, shift two runways and install runway status lights that alert pilots and others if it’s safe to enter the runway.
Tucson International Airport in Arizona will get $33.1 million — the largest FAA grant — to construct a new taxiway and shift and rebuild a runway to be further away from a parallel runway.
Following a slew of runway incursions at airports this year, the FAA’s acting administrator, Billy Nolen, launched a safety review team to examine the national aerospace system’s structure, culture, systems and integration of safety efforts.
“We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we cannot take this for granted,” Nolen said at the time. “Recent events remind us that we must not become complacent. Now is the time to stare into the data and ask hard questions.”
Nolen also faced scrutiny from lawmakers during testimony on Capitol Hill in February.
Data from the FAA shows the number of the most serious close calls at U.S. airports has actually been decreasing even as overall incidents have risen.
Last year, there were at least 1,633 runway incursions at U.S. airports, according to the data — up from the 1,397 incursions reported a decade prior, in 2012, and the 987 reported in 2002.
But the most serious incursions in which a collision was “narrowly avoided” or in which “there is significant potential for a collision” have decreased over the past 20 years, according to the FAA.
In 2022, there were 18 serious runway incursions in the U.S., agency data shows. That number is up from a low of five reported in 2010 but down from a high of 32 reported in 2007.
The 10th film in the Fast and Furious saga is currently revving up moviegoers, particularly overseas, but for star and producer Vin Diesel and his co-stars, the movie has something box office tickets can’t buy.
As reported, Meadow Walker, the daughter of the late Fast franchise star Paul Walker, makes a cameo in the movie, and Diesel tells People that meant the world to him. “It did something to my soul, to see her want to honor her father and to contribute in her own way to his life’s work,” the actor explains, adding, “It meant everything.”
Vin and Walker’s co-star Michelle Rodriguez added, “It’s everything to us because [Paul’s] memory is never going to die within the franchise, so as long as we’re doing it, we have to maintain that, [keeping his] energy alive.”
Jordana Brewster, another original F&F vet, said the 24-year-old model and actress is “woven into the fabric forever,” adding, “To have her be on set and work her butt off was really, really inspiring.”
Paul Walker died at 40 as a passenger in a fiery high-speed car accident along with his friend, the vehicle’s driver, Roger Rodas, on November 30, 2013.
Fast X is now the number one movie in America, meaning Diesel now has the #1 and #2 movies in theaters, thanks to his role as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Incidentally, his Guardians co-star Chris Pratt pulled off the same feat in the previous weeks, when Guardians topped the charts ahead of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, for which he voiced the titular plumber.
If Cher appears to be an ageless queen, well, you’re not the only one who thinks so. Over the weekend, the legendary diva turned 77 and took to Twitter to ask, “Ok, Will Someone PLEASE Tell me…..When Will I Feel OLD?”
“This is ridiculous,” she continued. “I keep hearing these numbers, but I Honestly can’t understand them. WHATS THE DEAL WITH #’s? I’m dyslexic & #’s Are hard 4 me.”
She then addressed her fans, noting that she hasn’t tweeted since March. “Thank u for staying, I know it’s been hard,” she wrote.
Last year, Cher told Allure that she doesn’t feel as though she’s old enough to be labeled an icon.
“In my mind, an icon has always got to be old to be iconic. I can’t think [I’m] old yet,” she said. “It’s fun but I don’t take it seriously because … does it mean you’ve just lasted longer than everybody else?”
As for who she thinks is an icon, Cher mentioned her friend Tina Turner, who was 82 at the time, and her late mother, who died in December of last year at the age of 96.
“My mom gets up and she puts her lipstick on and does her hair … my mom is beautiful and even now, [she’s got] this amazing skin,” Cher said of her mom, Georgia Holt. “She’s a pain in the a** — and the hair, you cannot believe her hair. So my mom’s an icon to me, and nobody else knows it, but I know it.”
DaniLeigh‘s love and talent for dancing earned her the opportunity to choreograph part of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. The singer had been mum about the special moment but decided to reveal the news Saturday via a post on Instagram.
“Kept this on the DL last year but I’m so grateful to have been apart of some of the choreography for the Queen Beyoncé Renaissance Tour,” wrote Dani, who directed the music video for late mentor Prince‘s song “Breakfast Can Wait” when she was just 18. “It was an honor and such a blessing. a dream come true!!! thank you to @beyonce and team, The show looks amazing!!!”
Bey’s tour kicked off earlier this month in Stockholm, Sweden, and is currently making its way across Europe. Also involved in the process of putting the show together is the eldest daughter of the late Kobe Bryant, Natalia Bryant, who participated in an internship through Bey’s Parkwood Entertainment company.
Dua Lipa’s song for the Barbie movie is coming this week.
The singer, who also appears in the upcoming Greta Gerwig flick, will be releasing “Dance the Night” on Friday, May 26.
Dua teased the disco-tinged pop track on social media. In the clip, we see her stepping out of a high heel shoe with a perfectly pointed Barbie-like foot. Dua then turns to the camera and blows a kiss as we hear her sing, “Just come along for the ride.”
Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, hits theaters July 21.
Old Dominion surprised Kenny Chesney onstage during his show in Evansville, Indiana, on Saturday, May 20.
The five-men group appeared during the opening of Kenny’s “Save It For A Rainy Day,” with lead singer Matthew Ramsey ditching his walking cane for the first time since a recent ATV accident.
“Nobody pulls one over on me,” says Kenny, who didn’t expect to see Old Dominion in Evansville. “My band and my crew can’t keep secrets, but they kept this one! And it was so good seeing those guys, having Matt and Brad (Tursi) who wrote ‘Save It’ up there with us. It shows what road family means, doesn’t it? They took a night off to prank us!”
Old Dominion and Kenny then joined on a spirited cover of The Eagles‘ “Take It Easy.”
Check out photos of the surprise on Kenny’s Instagram.
The I Go Back 2023 Tour continues this week, with the concluding show happening on May 27 in Orange Beach, Alabama. For more information, visit Kenny’s website.
The singer has announced The Show Live on Tour 2024. The global trek will kick off on February 21 in Belfast, Ireland, and will launch its North American leg on May 29 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida.
During the North American run, Niall will play Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, New York City’s Madison Square Garden and The Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. The tour wraps July 31 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Niall will perform songs off all three of his solo albums, including The Show, which comes out June 9.
“There’s nothing better than watching the crowd sing back to you with all that emotion on their faces and knowing that they’re attaching the song to something meaningful in their own lives,” Niall says in a statement. “To me, that’s always the greatest thing that can ever come from songwriting.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public on June 2 at 10 a.m. local time at NiallHoran.com.
