Kerry Washington is learning to focus more on embracing who she is. In her cover story for Marie Claire’sThe Identity Issue, she spoke of the revelation she experienced as she moved into the fourth decade of her life.
“There’s something about getting into my 40s where I am starting to see you only get this one life,” she says. “To spend this one life wanting to be anybody other than me, and not be where I am, doesn’t benefit me. To focus on what’s over there means I’m ignoring my gifts, and this garden of my life doesn’t get to flourish. What’s mine is mine, and it’s beautiful.”
To combat any negative self-talk along the way, Kerry turns to “prayer, meditation, therapy, journaling, or spending time with other people,” adding she’s also “doing the work.”
“As an executive, entrepreneur, parent, wife, for me to show up in those places requires that I’m willing to constantly be doing self-inventory and face my stuff. If I’m in a place of faith, self-love and radical acceptance, sh** doesn’t bother me,” she says. “I can take a risk, and whether it goes well or doesn’t, I’m good. It’s about the journey, letting go of the result, and trusting your lane is yours. But if I’m not doing the work to be in a faithful place, then it’s much harder.”
Kerry’s taken on many roles, including Olivia Pope on Scandal. While she recognizes her role was “part of something transformative and culturally significant,” she says she’s always been dedicated to choosing culture-shifting projects.
“Even in the beginning of my career, I would say I’d rather work another shift at the restaurant than do a movie that is going to be bad for women or Black people,” Kerry says.
Over the past nine years, Billy Joel has performed in stadiums and other venues around the world, but each month — barring illness or a global pandemic — he comes back to New York to do a concert at Madison Square Garden as part of his ongoing residency. Billboard reports those shows alone have just crossed the $200 million mark in total earnings.
Through Billy’s Valentine’s Day show — the 87th of the residency, which kicked off in 2014 — Billboard reports that his total grosses are $201.5 million and he’s sold 1.6 million tickets. Of course, he’s also raking in the bucks from his other, non-Garden concerts.
Billy has said that he’ll continue his residency as long as there’s interest, and according to Billboard, there certainly is: The shows continue to sell out nine years on. What’s more, Billy’s earning more per show: Back in 2014, he was taking in nearly $2 million per show, but now he makes more than $3 million, mostly due to the increased ticket prices that come with dynamic pricing.
According to Billboard, since 1986, which is the first year that data is available, Billy has earned over $1 billion on the road and sold more than 14 million tickets.
The Piano Man will be adding to his huge take starting next week when his co-headlining tour with Stevie Nicks kicks off in LA’s SoiFi Stadium.
After a week of teasing, Nicki Minaj dropped her new single “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” at midnight Friday.
The track is the rapper’s first release of the year and samples Lumidee‘s catchy 2003 hit “Never Leave You (Uh Oh).” On the single, she references her street-fighter alter ego Chun-Li, which is also featured in the promotional photos where Nicki appears with her hair in red and pink chopstick buns.
“Only on them C’s if it’s breeze (Uh-oh, uh-oh) / Red Ruby Da Sleeze, Chinese on my sleeve / These wannabe Chun-Li’s, anyway, [Nǐ Hǎo, uh-oh],” Nicki raps in the opening verse.
“Red Ruby Da Sleeze” is just the latest single that Nicki has released in the last year. In 2022, she dropped hits like “Super Freaky Girl,” in addition to collaborations with Lil Baby and Coi Leray on “Do We Have A Problem?” and “Blick Blick,” respectively. It’s been five years, though, since her last album, Queen, was released.
Prior to releasing “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” Nicki shared a snippet of the track and issued a message to ghostwriters.
“Ghost writers all around the world are scrambling…Just watch,” she captioned an Instagram post. “Nicki still on hiatus. This b!@ch right here tho? She outside.”
Just in time for Women’s History Month, Jax is back with another empowering single. This time she’s taken inspiration from fairytale characters and Disney princesses.
In the song, “Cinderella Snapped,” Jax sings about how Cinderella discovers the Prince is cheating on her and tells him off, which inspires all the other women in the kingdom to take a stand for independence.
The chorus goes, “I don’t need no prince to save me/ I’m a god**** CEO/ Don’t call me baby/ Equal pay me/ Snow White said you tried to kiss her/ So I’ll just buy a new glass slipper/ and burn your castle down/ and kids, that’s how/ Cinderella snapped.”
After that, Jax details the changes that swept the kingdom: Rapunzel shaved her dead, Mulan and Jasmine made out with each other, Sleeping Beauty “sued the dude who kissed her while she was asleep,” Ariel was “confident without any feet” and Beauty “realized that she was the Beast.”
“I wanted to write a song from Cinderella’s perspective, if she and all the princesses rewrote their stories and burned the fairytale system down,” Jax says in a statement.
“My intention was to throw a little dose of equality into the stories I grew up with. I always wondered how it would have shaped who I was if all the princesses I looked up to had more purpose than being saved by a prince.”
“Cinderella Snapped” follows Jax’s equally empowering megahit “Victoria’s Secret.” In May, she’ll play the BottleRock festival in Napa, California. This summer she’ll be on the road with Big Time Rush and MAX, starting June 22 in Fort Worth, Texas. For full details, visit jaxwritessongs.com.
Evanescence‘s debut album, Fallen, turns 20 Saturday.
Released on March 4, 2003, Fallen made stars out of Amy Lee and company thanks to the lead single “Bring Me to Life,” which was memorably featured in the film Daredevil. The success of Fallen and “Bring Me to Life” propelled Evanescence to win Best New Artist at the 2004 Grammys.
Though “Bring Me to Life” became Evanescence’s signature song, it arose complicated feelings within the band. Its rapping backup vocals, performed by Paul McCoy, were imposed on the song by Evanescence’s record label, purportedly to make it fit into the male-dominated, nu metal playlists of rock radio at the time.
“God bless the rap, it’s part of what got us on the radio I guess,” Lee told News.com.au in 2017. “At least according to all the rules of radio that I don’t agree with or understand. The rap wasn’t part of our original idea or sound, it was a compromise in many ways.”
Lee added that including the rap was a “big issue” for her at the time, though she no longer feels that way.
“If we only had the one hit, if no one ever heard from us again then nobody would understand who we were,” she said. “We’ve made it past that point so the rap doesn’t make me angry anymore.”
Along with “Bring Me to Life,” Fallen spawned the singles “Going Under,” “My Immortal” and “Everybody’s Fool.”
Leading up to the Fallen anniversary, Evanescence hit two major milestones in 2022: the “Bring Me to Life” video reached 1 billion views on YouTube, while Fallen was certified Diamond by the RIAA.
In an interview with Rock Sound last November, Lee teased that she had an “idea” to mark Fallen‘s 20th anniversary, adding, “It probably won’t be what everybody expects.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd can thank American Idol for their latest chart resurgence. The band’s classic track “Simple Man” has returned to the Billboardcharts following Idol contestant Colin Stough‘s performance of it on the season premiere of the ABC talent competition.
“Simple Man” is currently at 23 on the Hot Rock Alternative Songs chart, thanks to 3.6 million new U.S. streams and 1,000 new downloads. The tune is also up to 11 on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
Stough earned a golden ticket with his performance, which has since been viewed over 1 million times on YouTube.
One of Lynyrd Skynrd’s most popular tunes, “Simple Man” appeared on the band’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd). It has spent over 100 weeks on Billboard’s Rock Streaming Songs chart and another 25 on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) — An appellate court in Riverside, California, overturned the murder conviction of a man who was sentenced to 129 years to life in prison, ruling in part that the use of a rap video as evidence in this case violates the state’s new “Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act” – a landmark law, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 31, 2022.
Travon Rashan Venable, Sr., was convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder in connection to a 2014 drive-by shooting. He pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, prosecutors alleged that Venable and a fellow gang member were involved in a drive-by shooting. Venable was accused of driving the car while his co-defendant fired shots.
The appellate court judge ruled in a Feb. 17 opinion obtained by ABC News that the “admission of the rap video without the new safeguards was prejudicial to Venable” and the prosecution’s emphasis on the rap video during the trial “likely had an effect on the outcome.”
The court ruled that although the law wasn’t in effect during Venable’s trial, it applies retroactively to cases that are not final and under appeal.
The court reversed the conviction and remanded Venable’s case for a new trial.
The ruling came after the California Supreme Court transferred the case back to the appellate court to reconsider the case in light of the new law.
Jacquelyn Rodriguez, the public affairs officer for the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office, which prosecuted this case, told ABC News on Wednesday that Venable’s case is “the first case in the state that has been reversed due to the new law.”
“Right now we’re in a waiting phase to see if the appellate court will give jurisdiction back to us,” she added.
The video
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, prosecutors introduced a YouTube video found by police where Venable and other members of the California Gardens gang are seen “flashing gang signs” and displaying “guns, drugs, and money.”
Prosecutors alleged that a rap in the video, “Got word from a bird[] that they did that [racial slur] dead wrong/Slid up Medical and left that [racial slur] head gone,” was boasting about the drive-by shooting, but according to court documents, Venable didn’t say anything in the video.
“Nothing in the song indicates the rapper or others in the video had personal knowledge or involvement in the shooting, only that they had heard about it,” the court’s opinion said.
In the ruling the court pointed to testimony from a gang expert who testified that the gang as a whole took credit for the shooting.
“There is substantial doubt whether the trial judge would have admitted the video evidence under the new standard, and it’s clear the prosecution used that evidence to tie Venable to the specific crime. The remaining evidence of Venable’s involvement was not strong,” the court wrote in the opinion, pointing to testimony from Venable’s aunt who provided him with an alibi and testimony from “a police informant who gave a series of conflicting accounts of the incident and had testified Venable was being framed.”
Venable’s attorney Jim Gass, who objected to the inclusion of the rap video as evidence, told ABC News in a statement on Wednesday “this is the type of case that created the need for the new evidence code regarding rap lyrics.”
“The conviction was overturned because the appellate court could see that there was very little evidence against Venable other than the video,” he added.
The new law
The California law, which was dubbed the “rap lyrics bill,” became the state’s Evidence Code section 352.2 and seeks to ensure that “creative expression will not be used to introduce stereotypes or activate bias against the defendant, nor as character or propensity evidence,” according to the text of the law.
In reversing and remanding Venable’s conviction, the court wrote, “It’s uncontested the trial judge did not consider those additional factors before admitting a rap video in Venable’s trial and that the trial, as a result, didn’t comply with the new requirements for admission.”
Rap lyrics have been used by prosecutors in the U.S. for decades as evidence in criminal cases, helping put rappers behind bars. But it wasn’t until lyrics were used in the May 2022 indictment of Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug on gang-related charges that the controversial practice sparked a movement in the music industry to “Protect Black Art,” and fueled a wave of support for legislation seeking to limit the practice.
The California bill is the first legislation that explicitly sets guidelines for the the use of rap lyrics in court to be signed into law in the U.S.
Similar bills that seek to set guidelines that could limit the use of rap lyrics in court have been introduced in states like Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Missouri, and a federal bill, known as the “Rap Act,” was introduced in Congress last year.
Some outline more restrictive guidelines than others, but the bills essentially limit the use of rap lyrics in court by requiring a judge to consider whether there’s a factual link between the lyrics and the alleged crime and whether introducing the song or video could inject racial bias into the case.
Rodriguez said that if Venable’s case comes back to the Superior Court, the DA’s office “would review it,” and consider the new law.
(NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.) — The famed Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) touts itself as “the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world,” but its attendance list this year — and the presidential hopefuls staying away — reflects instead a broader reckoning over the Republican Party’s future.
The gathering, a longtime window into the grassroots of the GOP, in recent years has morphed into a prominent stage for allies of former President Donald Trump and is anticipated to heavily promote his platform this week, including offering him a prime time speaking slot Saturday.
Yet, as other current and potential 2024 presidential candidates flock to Maryland’s National Harbor to address activists at the conference, which began Wednesday, over a half-dozen prospective contenders are instead choosing to keep their distance.
Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, all of whom are either running or have said they are mulling a 2024 bid, are slated to speak at CPAC. Current lawmakers on the schedule include firebrand Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Former lawmakers include some of those outside the U.S., like former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican Arizona gubernatorial nominee and election conspiracy theorist, is also slated to speak.
But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who are seen as possible 2024 hopefuls, are among those staying away — with some opting instead to attend a donor retreat hosted by the anti-tax Club for Growth.
“Ten years ago, [CPAC] was an opportunity to test your messages to conservative leaders and influencers all over the country and to have a big audience get to know you from the podium. And I don’t think that’s where it is today,” said one aide to a possible 2024 candidate. “Last time I was there, it almost felt more like a college crowd than it did a serious thinker crowd.”
CPACs of yesteryear featured notable moments, including Ronald Reagan’s “city upon a hill” speech, and strategists who spoke with ABC News, who asked not to be quoted by name, reminisced about past conferences they said offered a more representative cross-section of Republican voters.
Defenders of the conference counter that CPAC still offers a marketplace of ideas.
“Traditionally you’ve always had your libertarian conservatives, your free market, laissez fair-type of conservatives, you had your hawks and foreign affair guys, you’d have your Rand Paul-libertarian types. Now you have your MAGA types, and then you have your ultra MAGA types. I think CPAC is a classic example of growing pains,” said former Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis, who first attended CPAC in 1978 and has been to almost every conference since.
But given that, the benefits of attending, even for those eyeing a presidential campaign and activist support, could be diminished, the strategists said.
“Now it’s kind of turned into a one-trick pony,” said a source familiar with Pence’s thinking. “It’s not like where it was 20 years ago, where it was conservatives from all over the country who were influencers from all the different states.”
When reached by ABC News to explain DeSantis’ absence from CPAC, an aide said he was instead attending GOP dinners elsewhere.
The person declined to comment further when asked why the Florida governor chose to attend those events, including the Club for Growth retreat, over CPAC.
Candidates who travel to CPAC also have to contend with the prospect of being tied to an event helmed by Matt Schlapp, the conference’s chairman, who is currently mired in controversy.
A former staffer to Herschel Walker’s 2022 Senate bid has alleged that Schlapp “groped” and “fondled” his crotch while he was driving Schlapp back from a bar in Atlanta, according to a report from The Daily Beast. The staffer also filed a lawsuit against Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes, seeking $9.4 million for sexual battery and defamation, according to a report.
A statement from Schlapp’s attorney at the time said the complaint is “false” and the “Schlapps and their legal team are assessing counter lawsuit options.”
The source familiar with Pence’s thinking told ABC News for this story that the decision to not attend was made before the allegations about Schlapp emerged, but Anuzis, the longtime CPAC attendee, said the scandal could be a factor in deciding whether to appear.
“There’ll be some people who I think are taken aback by that and will want to be cautious about participating in one way or the other, and that’s just the way politics works,” he said. “He’s a potential liability at this stage of the game and so it’s safer for some folks who are really worried about that to stay away.”
GOP strategist Doug Heye put it this way: “The most valuable asset any candidate or potential candidate has is their time. And so they’re making very real decisions, whether it’s on this or certainly moving forward on other things, on where they’re spending their time.”
“Obviously, the Club [for Growth, holding its own event] has become a bigger and bigger funder on the Republican side, and if you’re running for president or if you’re running for Senate, that’s an important audience for you to address,” Heye said.
CPAC organizers, meanwhile, brushed off any perceived snubs.
“It’s a missed opportunity for any potential Presidential Candidate to not address the thousands of grassroots activists at CPAC this year. Luckily, CPAC attendees will get to hear from every announced Presidential candidate and over 100 premiere speakers, including over 30 elected officials,” CPAC spokesperson Megan Powers Small told ABC News on Saturday.
And for its part, Trump’s campaign is seizing on the way the former president has shaped CPAC, casting it as a sign of his continued hold on the GOP as he ramps up his third presidential campaign.
“CPAC is the embodiment of the conservative movement as well as the Republican Party. … The conference has always represented the ‘springboard’ for the presidential primary season, and President Trump’s outsized influence at this year’s conference combined with recent polling success shows just how dominant his candidacy is as we approach 2024,” said Trump senior adviser Jason Miller.
Yet should would-be candidates continue to avoid CPAC, operatives said that could change the media perception of the event which could result in fewer headlines.
“One of the things that we’re going to have to see after the fact is, how much coverage does all of this get?” Heye said. “If you’re not getting that, it makes it easier to potentially turn down.”
“It has certainly morphed into more of an event that is just giving rally speeches to a crowd, and that had proven to be popular. But at a certain point, there are diminishing returns,” he added. “There are obviously greater concerns about how effective of a tool this has been and whether or not it’s a political version of the Star Trek convention.”
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Mahani Teave was 19-years-old when she left her home on Easter Island to pursue a career as a pianist. Now, she’s returned home, bringing instruments with her to spread music across the island and help preserve its culture.
Teave said she was 9-years-old when the island got its first piano.
“It was very exciting when the first piano came. I heard that this teacher was coming to this island and she was bringing her piano,” Teave told “Good Morning America,” adding that she immediately went to search for the teacher. “The next thing I know is I’m playing her piano.”
Teave said she was able to leave the island to further her craft, with the intention of launching her career on a global stage, but something kept calling her home.
“The thing is that there was always this sort of umbilical cord connecting to the island and always pulling somehow, like missing the island so much,” said Teave.
In 2016, Teave opened a sustainable music school called Earthship, created with 2,500 tires, 60,000 cans and bottles, solar panels, tanks to collect rainwater and a garden to provide food.
“We wanted to somehow face the different difficulties that we have on the island. One is the amount of garbage that is being generated here,” said Teave. “So our idea was to be an inspiration to others and somehow propose solutions.”
Today, more than 100 people on the island are able to learn about both music from around the world and the traditional music of the Rapa Nui people. Teave said music has helped people on the island connect more deeply with their heritage.
“The children, when they learn to speak, it’s connected with the intuition,” she said. “That’s the way you preserve the culture. The people who live here can also somehow understand that they are also guardians of this place.”
“I hope they become fulfilled human beings, have empathy to others, care for the environment, to believe also that they can make this world a better place,” Teave added.
Teave — who will begin touring North America in the fall and will release her picture book, “The Girl Who Heard the Music,” in April — likens her mission to an orchestra, aimed at creating harmony around the world.
“If you see an orchestra, it’s the most incredible thing because you have all kinds of people respecting each other, listening to each other, paying attention to the smallest detail,” she said. “And I think that’s how society should work, in harmony somehow.”
(NEW YORK) — Gabby Petito’s family revealed more details in the police encounter over a domestic violence incident, two weeks before he strangled her to death.
Laundrie “seemed like a mental and emotional bully” to a Utah police officer who responded to a domestic call on Aug. 12, 2021, according to an amended lawsuit filed Wednesday night by Petito’s parents.
Moab Officer Eric Pratt responded to a call from a witness who reported seeing Laundrie hitting Petito.
The officers separated the couple for the night but, according to the lawsuit, treated Laundrie like the victim instead of the aggressor.
“Officer Pratt has also admitted, ‘I thought he was an emotional threat to her. I thought he was a mental threat to her.’ Similarly, he says he concluded during the traffic stop that Brian ‘seemed like a mental and emotional bully,'” the amended complaint said.
“Officer Pratt has also colorfully admitted, ‘I know these kind of guys. Brian didn’t get away with anything for being cute. Brian showed more red flags than a Chinese communist rally.'”
Laundrie wasn’t charged and he and Petito kept traveling west on a road trip where police say she was killed.
The family’s amended lawsuit accused Pratt and other officers of failing to properly investigate the incident that preceded Petito’s death and said “Gabby’s murder might have been prevented if the officers had acted properly.”
Between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30, Petito went missing in Wyoming and Laundrie returned to his family’s Florida home on Sept. 1. Petito’s family would report her disappearance on Sept. 11.
Two days after police named Laundrie as a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, he went missing on Sept 17.
Petito’s body was found on Sept. 19, and an autopsy revealed she died by strangulation.
Police found the Laundrie’s remains inside Carlton Reserve in Florida on Oct. 20 and determined he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The FBI revealed that Laundrie admitted to killing his fiancé.
Petito’s parents filed a lawsuit against Laundrie’s family and a lawsuit against the Moab police department in connection with their daughter’s death.
Attorneys for Christopher and Roberta Laundrie denied the allegations and unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the lawsuit. A jury trial in the case is scheduled to begin in August.
The city of Moab didn’t immediately have a comment about the amended lawsuit.
In November, after the suit was initially filed, the city released a statement saying it was going to defend itself in court and contended “Moab City Police Department officers are not responsible for Gabrielle Petito’s eventual murder.”
The department released a report in January 2022 following an investigation into the officers’ encounter with the couple that found that police made “several unintentional mistakes” responding to the incident, including not issuing a domestic violence citation to Petito after she claimed she hit her boyfriend first, and not taking a statement from a 911 caller who had reported seeing a man slapping a girl.”
In November, Petito’s parents were awarded $3 million in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Laundrie’s estate.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
