Jimmie Allen has long expressed an interest in pursuing acting and now he’s officially making moves in that direction. The singer will co-star in upcoming musical film Be Alright, opposite actor Hayley Orrantia.
Jimmie and Hayley play the lead characters in the musical, which is set in 1960s New York City. According to Variety, production on the film will begin this month at the Warner Bros. lot.
In addition to his acting role, Jimmie has had a hand in several different aspects of the movie, which shares a title with one of the songs on his newly released Tulip Drive album. He also developed the original story line, and will produce and co-direct Be Alright alongside Chris Beyrooty.
The country singer is no stranger to working behind the scenes on a set: Last year, he served as the executive music producer for Netflix series Titletown High.
(NEW YORK) — Since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, several states have enacted strict abortion bans.
At least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and an additional four states have bans that have been blocked in court and are undergoing legal challenges.
Despite an ABC News/Washington Post poll finding 79% of Americans support making abortion legal in exceptions of rape, only four states with active bans allow for such exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focusing on sexual and reproductive health.
Proponents of anti-abortion bills have argued that a fetus should not be “punished” because of the crime and be allowed a chance to be born, but they are trying to help women find some recourse after suffering through a horrific act.
But abortion rights advocates and experts told ABC News it’s more complicated than that. They say that while such exceptions do help prevent a pregnant person from living through the trauma of giving birth to their rapist’s baby, they say the exceptions may work in theory but not in reality.
They explained some of the language in these laws make it unclear how a provider is supposed to validate a patient’s accusation of rape, or the providers may be scared to act due to fear they will be prosecuted if they act outside the law.
Additionally, they say women may be too scared to come forward when they’ve been raped, or if they do and are required to report the assault to the police, may experience additional trauma by having to relive the crime.
“It’s not whether there’s simply a law that happens to be on the books,” Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, whose expertise includes health law and reproductive rights, told ABC News. “It’s whether the law is more real than illusory. For so many of the exceptions that are being drafted now, what you have is not entirely meaningless but so difficult to navigate that they essentially become kind of a fool’s gold.”
She added, “One can have rights on paper, but they become very useless and lack meaning until they’re placed in practice.”
Of the states with abortion exceptions for rape, three — Georgia, Idaho and Mississippi — require a police report to be filed before requesting an abortion.
Oklahoma also has an abortion ban, HB 4327, signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in May with exceptions for rape that requires a police report as well. However, the state has passed multiple contradictory abortion bills in the past year including one a month earlier that Stitt signed, which does not have exemptions for rape or incest.
State Rep. Jim Olsen said the exceptions for rape were added because the bill allowed anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion to be sued for up to $10,000 in damages but lawmakers didn’t want the rapist to be allowed to sue.
However, he believes that generally abortion bans should not include exceptions for rape.
“It is not the baby’s fault the circumstances of their conception, if it was something as horrible as that,” he told ABC News. “The baby has the same right to life that you and I have. And again, it’s not the baby’s fault the circumstances of their conception.”
Olsen continued, “Now, rape is a horrible, horrible, horrible crime and somebody needs to be punished for that. But it shouldn’t be the baby. It should be the rapist who gets punished for it.”
Most sexual assaults are not reported
However, most rapes are not reported to the police. In fact, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, two out of every three sexual assaults go unreported.
Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, said there are several reasons why someone might not report their rape – especially if they’re pregnant – including fear of retribution from the rapist [or the person who raped them], fear people won’t believe them or fear of ostracization from their community.
“When you combine the need to report in order to access an abortion, you’re really putting a barrier in place for someone to get the abortion that they need,” she told ABC News.
Goodwin said having to report the assault can be like a second trauma for a victim of rape.
“There is tremendous trauma that can result from being pregnant when one does not wish to be that is only magnified after one has been raped, becomes pregnant, and due to that rape, and then has to go through the interrogation,” she said. “Because, when a person, when a woman, when a child files a report about being raped, it’s not as if someone presents them with a comfortable environment. Instead, questions are asked, and those questions without the proper training and sensitivity can be quite harsh.”
Experts say abortion providers may be unsure how to proceed in exceptions for rape. Although the laws require a police report to be filed, it’s unclear if anything specific needs to be in the report or if the victim needs to take any other steps.
“It’s not entirely clear what all is required or if providers will be able to meet the letter of the law in providing an abortion under the rape exception,” Nash said. “There’s this concern that if a provider tries to meet the requirements of the exception that, in some way, they will fall short and then the state will prosecute them in some way.”
She said these exceptions could potentially dissuade providers from performing abortions under the rape exception for fear of potential prosecution or lead to clinics moving their services across state lines where abortion access is freer.
For example, even though North Dakota’s abortion ban, which includes an exception for rape, is currently blocked in court, the state’s sole abortion clinic — the Red River Women’s Clinic located in Fargo — said it will be providing abortions in Minnesota.
“Abortion is still legal in North Dakota, for now,” the clinic wrote on its website. “However, Red River Women’s Clinic has made the commitment to continue to provide abortion care to our region, so we have moved our services across the river to Moorhead, MN.”
In another example of the inevitable, unceasing passage of time, Shazam is officially 20 years old.
The music-identifying platform first launched in 2002 as a U.K. text message service, which allowed users to text a certain number while holding up their phone to a song playing nearby. It’s since become an ubiquitous app that’ll instantly tell you the name of the song you’re hearing, which, according to a Shazam press release, has been done over 70 billion times.
In celebration of its milestone anniversary, Shazam has put together a number of stats, including the most Shazamed song of all time. That would be Tones and I‘s “Dance Monkey,” which has been Shazamed over 41 million times.
Drake is the most Shazamed artist overall, having been Shazamed over 350 million times.
Meanwhile, Gnarls Barkley‘s hit “Crazy” holds the record for most Shazams by text, while the Gotye and Kimbra sensation “Somebody That I Used to Know” was the first song to reach 10 million Shazams.
As for the first song to ever be Shazamed, that was “Jeepster” by T. Rex, which happened using the pre-launch public beta version.
(NAPA VALLEY, CA) — Famed California restaurant Goose & Gander has apologized to South African musician Jonathan Kenneth Butler after an incident over the weekend in which a manager followed the singer-songwriter to his car to inquire about a tip.
Butler accepted the apology, according to the restaurant, citing wisdom from the late anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela in his conversation with the owner.
Butler was in Napa Valley on Sunday to perform two shows at the Charles Krug Winery’s Blue Note jazz club. The singer-songwriter ate at Goose & Gander that same day and said that after the meal he was followed to his car by a manager who pressed him to see if Butler had “taken care” of the wait staff who served him.
In a nearly five minute video posted to TikTok and Instagram, Butler discussed the incident and why he believed he was racially profiled.
“I’m deeply offended. This stuff has to stop. We should all be treated with decency and humanity,” he said alongside the post in the caption.
Butler stated in the video that he had paid the bill and had tipped his server “very well.”
“[The manager] showed so much lack of respect for me and all of us who ate at the restaurant,” he added. “I don’t think he’ll do that to a white person, but he did it to me.”
Goose & Gander published an initial apology on Monday, stating that the incident “should never have happened” and that the manager in question had been placed on leave.
In a follow-up on Wednesday, the restaurant again apologized to Butler in a joint Instagram post with the musician, adding that the two parties had since spoken about the incident.
“Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Butler and [Goose & Gander owner Andy] Florsheim had a heartfelt, 30-minute discussion about the situation and a path forward,” a statement on the restaurant’s official Instagram page read. “Mr. Butler accepted Goose & Gander’s apology.”
“We agree that the incident never should have happened and that an important opportunity exists for the restaurant to learn and improve,” it continued. “Mr. Butler believes in reconciliation and not confrontation and cited Nelson Mandela, ‘Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.'”
“Mr. Butler will be back in the Napa Valley before the end of the year, we look forward to continuing our productive discussion in person,” the statement concluded.
According to the restaurant, the manager involved in Sunday’s incident, as well as the rest of Goose & Gander’s staff, will be working with “outside advisors with expertise in workplace sensitivity training” to prevent similar incidents in the future.
It’s hard to believe there was a time when we couldn’t just pull out our phones and use them to find out what song was playing. All that changed 20 years ago, when Shazam launched. Since then, it’s helped users identify some 70 billion songs. To mark that moment, Shazam has released a list of its big milestones.
The most Shazamed artist of all time is Drake, who’s had his songs Shazamed 350 million times. His most-Shazamed song is “One Dance.” The most Shazamed song of all time is “Dance Monkey,” by Tones and I, which has been Shazamed over 41 million times.
Here are some other notable firsts and milestones:
It’s hard to believe there was a time when we couldn’t just pull out our phones and use them to find out what song was playing. All that changed 20 years ago when Shazam launched. Since then, it’s helped users identify some 70 billion songs. To mark that moment, Shazam has released a list of its big milestones.
The most Shazamed artist of all time is Drake, who’s had his songs Shazamed 350 million times. His most Shazamed song is “One Dance.” The most Shazamed song of all time is “Dance Monkey,” by Tones and I, which has been Shazamed over 41 million times.
Here are some other notable firsts and milestones:
First Shazamed song: “Jeepster” by T. Rex (April 19, 2002, using the pre-launch public beta version)
First track to reach 1 million Shazams: “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha (February 2010)
First track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye feat. Kimbra (December 2012)
First track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz (October 2015)
First artist to hit 1 million Shazams: Lil Wayne (February 2009)
First artist to hit 10 million Shazams: Lil Wayne (June 2011)
First artist to hit 100 million Shazams: David Guetta (May 2015)
Fastest track to reach 1 million Shazams: “Butter” by BTS (nine days)
Fastest track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran (87 days)
Fastest track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I (219 days)
The most Shazamed songs by genre:
Top Hip-Hop/Rap: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
Top Dance: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz
Top R&B/Soul: “All of Me” by John Legend
Top Latin: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William
Top Pop: “Let Her Go” by Passenger
Top Alternative: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
Top Singer/Songwriter: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier
The most-Shazamed songs by genre:
Top Hip-Hop/Rap: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
Top Dance: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz
Top R&B/Soul: “All of Me” by John Legend
Top Latin: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William
Top Pop: “Let Her Go” by Passenger
Top Alternative: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
Top Singer/Songwriter: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier
Joe Strummer in 1999; Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
This Sunday, August 21, would’ve been the 70th birthday of the late Joe Strummer, frontman of the hugely influential British punk band The Clash.
Strummer, who was born John Mellor, joined the group that became The Clash in 1976 after playing in a pub rock band The 101’ers.
Known for his gruff vocals and intense performance style, Strummer co-wrote nearly all The Clash’s original songs, usually with the group’s lead guitarist and second singer Mick Jones. The band was initially best known for their fast, hard-charging songs that featured left-leaning political and social themes, although the group also embraced reggae.
The Clash later experimented with hip hop, funk, and other musical genres.
The band enjoyed immediate commercial success in the U.K., but it wasn’t until their third album, the 1979 double-LP London Calling, that the group began garnering major attention in the U.S.
The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard 200 and featured the memorable title track, as well as the Jones-sung “Train in Vain,” which reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Clash’s fifth album, 1982’s Combat Rock, was their commercial high point, peaking at #7 on the Billboard 200 and featuring the #8 Hot 100 hit “Rock the Casbah.”
After The Clash broke up in 1986, Strummer released various of solo projects. He also contributed songs to a number of movie soundtracks, and composed the score to the 1987 film Walker. Joe also acted in several films, including 1989’s Mystery Train.
Strummer’s recorded his last few albums with The Mescaleros, a group that combined various musical influences.
Strummer died in December 2002 of a heart attack cause by an undiagnosed heart defect. He was 50.
Joe was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with The Clash in 2003.
Mark Hoppus is returning to performing live following his battle with cancer.
The Blink-182 bassist/vocalist joined the up-and-coming rock outfit Beauty School Dropout for a performance of their song “Almost Famous.” Hoppus also guests on the studio version of the track, which is out now.
You can watch footage of the onstage collaboration posted to BSD’s Instagram Story.
Hoppus shared that he’d been diagnosed with cancer in June 2021. After a few months of chemotherapy treatment, he was declared “cancer free” in September 2021.
Hoppus technically played his first post-cancer performance during his Blink bandmate Travis Barker‘s Halloween streaming concert last October. However, the Beauty School Dropout show marked his first live and in-person performance since his diagnosis.
Beauty School Dropout, by the way, is signed to Hoppus’ new Verswire project, a “venture capital music startup” that also features Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz as strategic adviser. In addition to collaborating with them on “Almost Famous,” Hoppus also appears in the video for the BSD song “Assassin,” as does Wentz.
Drake‘s music is in high demand, as he’s been named the most-searched artist on Shazam. According to Variety, songs from the rapper’s discography have been Shazamed over 350 million times, with his most popular track being 2016’s “One Dance.” The single hit 17 million Shazams.
Drake’s feat was mentioned as Shazam released a list of its most searched artists and songs to celebrate its 20th birthday. The platform — which identifies songs based on a short sample played through a device’s microphone — also highlighted other notable artists and tracks that made Shazam history in the last two decades.
“Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton, for example, is the most searched song in the hip-hop/rap category. The top R&B/Soul song is “All of Me” by John Legend.
Lil Wayne and Eminem have also cemented their names in Shazam history. The former was the first artist to hit both 1 million and 10 million Shazams, while Em’s “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” was the first song to reach 1,000 Shazams.
Panic! at the Disco‘s new album, Viva Las Vengeance, has arrived, and Brendon Urie is celebrating with a new video for the track “Sad Clown.”
The clip stars Urie as a character named The Duke, who finds himself in an 18th century-styled dance party. It also features the return of the character Maggie, played by Leah Adler, who previously showed up in the videos for the Viva Las Vengeance cuts “Middle of a Breakup” and “Don’t Let The Light Go Out.”
You can watch the “Sad Clown” video streaming now on YouTube.
Panic! will launch a U.S. tour in support of Viva Las Vengeance September 8 in Austin, Texas. You can also catch Urie and company perform on the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, airing next Sunday, August 28.
Madonna released Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, a massive compilation of all 50 of her #1 hits on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart, today. But the Queen of Pop says she finds today’s dance hits “confusing.”
In the new issue of Paper magazine, Madonna is asked to compare today’s dance music to her pioneering work in the genre in the ’80s. “I think what’s changed the most is just the songs. Songs have changed. The concept of songwriting,” she replies.
“I’m just, ‘Give me a song. I need a beginning, a middle and an end.’ You know what I mean? I get confused by people’s music,” she adds. “And also, there are just too many artists on songs. I feel chaotic when I listen to them.”
Madonna also points out that with her songs — from “Like a Virgin” and “Material Girl” to “Express Yourself” and “Papa Don’t Preach” — she was “very much invested in empowering women too and that was a very big part of the storytelling.”
“While women were making great dance records, I feel like in the early days, while the songs and melodies are really strong and the singers are really good, they weren’t really invested in making women think, ‘Wow, I don’t have to live in a man’s world … I can have my own voice and my own vision,'” she continues. “So that was an important element.”
And while Madonna admits she hates “repeating herself,” she tells Paper she wouldn’t mind reteaming with Nile Rodgers, who produced her breakthrough album, Like a Virgin.
“It would be fun,” she says. “I would love to work with Nile again.” She adds she’d like for them to team up to create “a pop hit with a twist … a new sound.”
