In Flames has premiered a new song called “The Great Deceiver.”
The track is the second offering from the Swedish metallers of 2022 following the June premiere of the single “State of Slow Decay.”
“‘The Great Deceiver’ was born out of frustration — basically a reaction to false flags,” In Flames shares. “But since then, it has grown to represent several meanings.”
“There’s a line that says ‘Bend the truth to fit your opinion,’ and we feel that speaks a lot to the narrative happening online, between people, and nations, etc., today,” the band continues. “We are more apart now than ever before yet it’s easier to communicate than in any other time in history.”
You can listen to “The Great Deceiver” now via digital outlets.
In Flames most recent album is 2019’s I, the Mask.
Next month, they will launch a U.S. tour. The outing begins September 6 in Boston.
Andy Grammer, who is out with a new song called “Saved My Life,” recently learned he’s the reason one of his fans is still alive.
Andy shared the sentimental story on his Instagram, which he opened with, “Just ran into a fan after a show and we cried together.”
“She told me a few years ago she had tried to take her own life and played a song of mine over and over to get through the night,” he explained.
The “Keep Your Head Up” singer continued, “It just reminded me how connected we are. I didn’t know her when I wrote that song, I was just trying to pick myself up and stay positive. I was dealing with my own s*** and trying to make something beautiful out of it.”
“We sometimes buy into the illusion that we are alone but we are all SO CONNECTED on the deepest levels,” Andy expressed. “When you fight to stay positive, when you look for the good in s***ty situations, when you show up authentically as yourself it has reverberations beyond what you could even imagine.”
The Dancing with the Stars alum closed out the sentimental post with a reminder, which is: “We are all one, a human family.”
Many of Andy’s famous friends supported his inspiring message, including This Is Us‘ Chrissy Metz, DWTS dance pro Sharna Burgess & and Pentatonix‘s Matt Sallee.
Andy is currently on tour with Fitz and the Tantrums as part of their The Wrong Party Tour, which runs through August 27 with a final stop planned in Los Angeles. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit either artist’s officialwebsite.
Billy Joel will headline the first day of the two-day ATLive festival, which will take place November 11-12 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Joining the Piano Man on the November 11 bill will be Lionel Richie and Sheryl Crow. Day two of the festival will be a country-themed show headlined by Chris Stapleton,featuring Miranda Lambert, Dwight Yoakam and Katie Pruitt.
Tickets for the third annual ATLive event go on sale Friday, August 12, at 10 a.m. ET at Ticketmaster.com, while presale tickets will be available starting this Wednesday, August 3, at 10 a.m. ET.
Joel currently has six other U.S. concerts lined up this year — August 11 in Pittsburgh; September 23 in Houston; and August 24, September 9, October 9 and November 23 at Madison Square Garden as part of his ongoing monthly residency at the famed New York City venue.
According to ABC-TV affiliate WBRZ, the rapper was arrested in Louisiana Sunday and held on several charges, including false imprisonment and first-degree rape.
This is the third time Mystikal – birth name Michael Tyler – has been accused of sex crimes. In 2004, he was charged with sexually assaulting his hairstylist. He spent six years in prison and was registered as a sex offender following his release. Then, in 2017, he was arrested again in connection with an alleged sexual assault at a Shreveport casino. Those charges were eventually dropped.
Mystikal, 52, now faces charges of first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic abuse battery, false imprisonment and simple criminal damage to property. Police say he’s being held without bond.
The country hitmaker joins Billy Joel as a headlining act at the two-day festival that brings together country and rock n’ roll greats at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Chris will headline the show on November 12 with a lineup that also features Miranda Lambert, Dwight Yoakam and Katie Pruitt. American Idol judge Lionel Richie and Sheryl Crow will perform with Billy on November 11.
Tickets for the third annual event go on sale August 12 at 10 a.m. ET.
Luke Combs, George Strait, Eric Church and Blake Shelton are among the country superstars who have performed at ATLive in previous years.
In other Chris-related news, he and his wife, Morgane,are currently accepting donations through their Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund to support those affected by the devastating flooding in Chris’ home state of Kentucky.
John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Ariana Grande won’t be sliding into the recording studio anytime soon and that’s because she’s having too much fun working on her makeup brand, R.E.M. Beauty.
The singer had previously shared a makeup tutorial about the new concealer she released last week, which comes in 60 inclusive shades, but one TikTok critic was not loving this new offering.
“Pls remember you’re a singer,” the user commented, reflecting previous admissions from fans who are upset the Grammy winner hasn’t been focusing on her music career.
Instead of letting her fanbase do the talking for her, Ariana personally defended her decision to step away from the microphone. “I have actually never felt more at home in my voice or like more of a singer,” she replied and added a few bubble emojis as well as a smiley face.
Still, that isn’t stopping some fans from begging her to release new music. Most, if not all, of those comments asking about a new album have been met with angry supporters demanding they respect Ariana’s choices.
“it hasn’t even been a full 2 years since she dropped her last album. i promise y’all can wait. like relisten to her whole discography or [something],” one supporter chastised.
Ariana last released Positions, her sixth studio album, in October 2020.
The “pov” singer has made it clear she is taking a hiatus from her music to focus on other projects. In addition to getting her R.E.M. Beauty line off the ground, she is also getting ready to star as Glinda the Good Witch in the movie adaptation of the Wicked musical.
Bruce Springsteen paid a visit to the Asbury Park, New Jersey club The Wonder Bar on Sunday to help the historic venue celebrate the 20th anniversary of its renovation and reopening.
NJ Advance Media reports that The Boss showed up at the club several hours before a concert by original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez and his current group The Wonderful Winos.
A video posted on Wonder Bar manager Debbie DeLisa‘s socialmedia sites shows Springsteen, with his arm around her, sending out a special message in honor of the milestone.
“It is the 20th anniversary of The Wonder Bar,” Bruce declares in the clip. “I just want to congratulate the Wonder Bar on being an Asbury Park institution and bringing so much love and character to our town.”
Springsteen then embraces DeLisa, who thanks Bruce “for everything that you do.”
Stan Goldstein, who gives Springsteen-related tours of the Jersey Shore, told NJ Advance Media that he spotted Springsteen hanging out at The Wonder Bar for a while on Sunday with late E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemons‘ son Jarod and also taking a stroll on the Asbury Park boardwalk.
“He hasn’t been around Asbury Park, it’s the first I’ve known of it happening in a few years,” Goldstein said. “It’s a big deal, that he’s hanging out in Asbury Park enjoying himself on a Sunday in the summer.”
Bruce has been known to occasionally give surprise performances at The Wonder Bar, the most recent being a July 2015 appearance at a show by his friends Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, during which he played for nearly two hours.
(NEW YORK) — New Zealand has fully reopened its borders for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, making it the final Western country to do so.
The reopening, which went into effect at midnight local time Sunday, means tourists from all over the world and international students will be allowed to enter the country. Cruise ships and foreign yachts will also be able to dock at ports.
Most visitors are still required to provide proof of vaccination before being allowed to enter the country but there are no quarantine requirements.
People traveling by air are also required to complete two rapid negative tests before arriving and people traveling by sea must test upon disembarking.
Those not required to show proof of vaccination include New Zealand citizens and permanent residents; Australian citizens living in New Zealand; children aged 16 and under; refugees; people arriving from Antarctica; citizens of Afghanistan being evacuated; and those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
During a speech at the China Business Summit in Auckland Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the reopening an “enormous moment,” saying it had been “a staged and cautious process.”
“We, alongside the rest of the world, continue to manage a very live global pandemic, while keeping our people safe,” Ardern said. “But keeping people safe extends to incomes and wellbeing too.”
She continued, “And as a value-added exporting country which depends on consumers around the world choosing our products to ensure our economic security, our key message is that we are open for business.”
New Zealand first announced plans to reopen in February, nearly two years after the borders closed in March 2020.
Fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and other eligible travelers from Australia were allowed to enter at the end of February and fully vaccinated New Zealanders from the rest of the world in March.
Since then, restrictions have continued to ease up to the border fully reopening.
Officials celebrated the reopening, including Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and Immigration Minister Michael Wood.
“Prior to the pandemic, the international education sector was worth several billion dollars to our country and education providers,” Wood said in a statement. “While we’ve continued to support the sector with border exceptions through the pandemic, the full resumption of visa processing is great news for our universities, polytechnics and wānanga, and schools, English language schools, and private training establishments.”
Nash said the return of cruise ships, in particular, will help boost the economy because the industry brought in more than $500 million per year pre-pandemic.
“Today’s change in border settings marks the final milestone for our reconnecting strategy,” Nash said in a statement. “This is great news to the tourism industry and economy as we approach spring and summer with people from the Northern hemisphere booking their winter holidays. We’ve heard optimistic messages from tourism operators who are ready to welcome back international visitors from all over the world.”
Beyoncé will remove a lyric from one of her songs on Renaissance after it was criticized for being “ableist.”
In the song “Heated,” the lyrics contain a word considered derogatory in the disability community. A rep for the singer confirms to People that the word will be changed.
“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” the rep’s statement says.
The decision to change the lyric comes after Lizzo similarly came under fire for using the same word in her song “GRRRLS.” She released a new version of the song with a lyric change.
Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s Renaissance is already breaking records. Spotify announced that on Friday, the album became the platform’s most-streamed album in a single day by a female artist in 2022 so far.
Paramore will be in the business of Bloc Party for their next album.
During the latest episode of her Everything Is Emo BBC Sounds program, frontwoman Hayley Williams shared how the “Helicopter” outfit is influencing Paramore’s much-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s After Laughter.
“We started working on writing new material…over the last year-and-half,” Williams said. “Bloc Party, from day one, was the number-one reference.”
“There was such an urgency to [Bloc Party’s] sound that was different from the fast punk or the pop-punk or the loud wall-of-sound emo bands that were happening in the early 2000s,” she continued. “They had their own thing and it was so unique and so dynamic, and it really stuck with us.”
In addition to working on new music, Paramore will hit the road for their first tour in four years in October. The outing includes headlining shows and festival sets at Austin City Limits and When We Were Young.
Bloc Party, meanwhile, just released a new album called Alpha Games in April.
