It seems like just yesterday that country fans from across the world were filing into Nashville for CMA Fest — one of the biggest music events of the year — but it’s already been a month and a half since the festival wrapped.
Fortunately, in the coming weeks, you can revisit all the CMA Fest fun with an ABC special hosted for the first time by Dierks Bentley and Elle King.
“I think Elle brings so much to the table,” says Dierks of his co-host and “Worth a Shot” duet partner. “Onstage she’s just a riot and also super talented — a great combination of talent with comedic humor. A lot of spontaneous moments between the two of us and just a lot of laughs.”
“I am co-hosting this whole she-bang,” Elle adds. “Not only do I get to do it with my buddy Dierks, I also get to see all these incredible performances and be a part of a big party!”
The “CMA Fest” ABC special will revisit some of the most unforgettable performances from the festival. Filmed at Nissan Stadium, the show will provide a front-row seat to mainstage performances from Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett and a slew of other stars.
The special airs on August 3 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. It’ll be available to watch the next day on Hulu.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ashanti joined Good Morning America Wednesday to chat about her re-recorded, self-titled debut album and when fans can finally expect it.
The “Princess of R&B” is re-doing the hit collection — which was released 20 years ago — to have full control over her work and to own the masters to the songs. She told Robin Roberts the award-winning collection will be out “before the end of this year.”
“There’s so much going on. So I’m in the studio and I’m re-recording as an NFT, so I’m very excited about that,” she said before reiterating, “It will definitely be out later this year.”
During her appearance on the morning show Ashanti, 41, performed her brand-new song “Falling for You” and was joined by special guest Ja Rule for a medley of popular hits “Rock Wit U,” “Happy” and “Mesmerize.”
The superstar singer says her relationship with labelmate Rule is still “so organic” after many years of working together.
“It’s amazing for us to still be touring and doing our records and just getting so much love from the people, it’s an amazing feeling,” she said. “We have such a mutual respect for one another and it’s always been like that from day one.”
Ashanti’s new book, My Name is a Story, went number one on Amazon Wednesday, the same day as her mother’s birthday. She says she wrote the children’s story to encourage young kids “to be empowered to celebrate having a unique name.”
Ashanti said she’d remind her younger self “to always be encouraged, to dream big, to think outside of the box, never get discouraged, follow your dreams, always, always, always.”
Doja Cat is hemorrhaging followers after publicly calling out Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp on a TikTok live.
The social media shake-up came after the “Say So” singer said that she was “disappointed” the 17-year-old actor shared their private messages about her crush on Joseph Quinn, who played rocker Eddie Munson on the show.
“When you’re that young, you make mistakes,” she had said, according to a fan-recorded video. While she did give Noah the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t being malicious, Doja also said him posting “a private conversation between me and him” was “socially unaware and whack.”
“That’s like borderline snake s***. That’s like… weasel s***,” she continued. “I made an assumption that he was gonna be chill about it and he went and shared information that I didn’t feel comfortable with him sharing.”
Since she made those statements, over 240,000 people have unfollowed the Grammy winner, NME reports. Based on analytic data, Doja went from 24.34 million followers to 24.14 million followers in a week.
As for Noah, his follower count has increased — with his numbers jumping from 24.25 million to 25.17 million followers in that same span of time.
Neither of the two has spoken out about the incident. Noah has since deleted the video in question that sparked the whole debacle.
Artists including Mötley Crüe, Five Finger Death Punch and Papa Roach are featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming thriller film The Retaliators.
The closing track on the compilation is a Crüe song called “The Retaliators Theme (21 Bullets),” which features Ice Nine Kills, Asking Alexandria and From Ashes to New. The tune appears to be the first new material from the “Dr. Feelgood” rockers following the four tracks they recorded for 2019’s The Dirt soundtrack, which included the Machine Gun Kelly collaboration “The Dirt (Est. 1981).”
FFDP and Papa Roach’s contributions to the soundtrack are the previously released songs “Darkness Settles In” and “The Ending,” respectively. The track list also includes The Hu, Nothing More, Bad Wolves, Classless Act and Eva Under Fire among many others.
The Retaliators — which is being produced by Better Noise Films, an offshoot of the Better Noise Music record label — premieres in theaters September 14, and the soundtrack will be released September 16. Its cast includes Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee and Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix as well as members of Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, Evan Under Fire and Bad Wolves.
You can watch a new trailer for The Retaliators now on YouTube.
Here’s the soundtrack’s track list:
Papa Roach — “The Ending”
The HU — “This Is Mongol”
Eva Under Fire — “Blow” feat. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills
From Ashes to New — “Scars That I’m Hiding” feat. Anders Fridén of In Flames
Asking Alexandria — “Faded Out” feat. Within Temptation
Tommy Lee — “Tops” feat. Push Push
Classless Act — “Classless Act” feat. Vince Neil of Motley Crue
Five Finger Death Punch — “Darkness Settles In”
Nothing More — “Tired of Winning”
Crossbone Skully — “Evil World Machine”
The HU – Wolf Totem” feat. Jacoby Shaddix
Bad Wolves — “If Tomorrow Never Comes” feat. Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills
Cory Marks — “Burn It Up”
Hyro the Hero — “Who’s That Playing on the Radio?” feat. Mick Mars and Danny Worsnop
Cory Marks — “Blame It on the Double” feat. Tyler Connolly and Jason Hook
All Good Things — “For the Glory” feat. Hollywood Undead
From Ashes to New — “Barely Breathing”
Mötley Crüe — “The Retaliators Theme (21 Bullets)” feat. Ice Nine Kills, Asking Alexandria and From Ashes to New
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Gavin Newsom has never been afraid to throw an elbow.
During the surge of the delta variant, California’s Democratic governor sat on the glossy sound stage of The Late Late Show with James Corden, surrounded by Christmas lights, and slammed Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over what Newsom called his lax coronavirus policies.
“California’s example versus Florida? It’s not even close in terms out of the outcome if you care about life, and you care about the economy,” Newsom told Corden, adding later that “clearly” DeSantis is running for president to scoop up the Trump-aligned Republican vote, pointing to DeSantis’ policies as a “litmus test” to win attention from conservative-aligned news networks.
His criticism of DeSantis is one of many made over the course of the pandemic, but Newsom’s recent $105,000 advertising buy that ran in Florida, certainly an unusual move for a politician who is running a reelection campaign of his own, has spun the question of presidential aspirations toward Newsom.
During an interview with ABC News’ Zohreen Shah prior to the ad placement, Newsom, 54, insisted he had no White House ambitions, although several California-based political advisers told ABC News that claim doesn’t totally hold water, and the ad campaign was a fool-proof way to elevate his profile and test public appetite as Biden’s stock with Democrats continues to dive.
Picking a fight across state lines is “very vintage” Newsom, consistent with his appetite to be a part of the national conversation in elevating California above other states, said Jessica Levinson, a California-based legal expert and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
“He’s always talking about California as a nation-state. And I think he fancies himself the executive of a nation-state in some ways. And he really wants to put a stake in the ground and say California is different and better and therefore, I am different and better,” said Levinson.
His vision of his state as a shining “city on a hill” is clear from his Florida ad, in which he urges residents of the Sunshine State to “join the fight” against Republican leaders or “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” a clear knock at DeSantis’ “free state of Florida” mantra.
Levinson said Newsom has a penchant for wanting to be a beat ahead, almost defiant, of national Democrats on key issues, as when he began issuing same-sex marriage licenses as mayor of San Fransisco in 2004 to the chagrin of conservatives, and testing the waters with a high-profile attack on DeSantis is part of that calculus.
“And if that means my political career ends, so be it,” Newsom said nearly a decade ago.
But that defiance propelled him to the governor’s mansion, and now, possibly, if the tide shifts in his direction, toward the White House.
The idea that Newsom wouldn’t run for president is “total bull—,” said Levinson, who explained that he likely sees himself as the kind of lawmaker who could “fill a leadership vacuum” if given the opportunity.
And members of Newsom’s party may be looking for candidates to fill that vacuum as well. New polling from The New York Times/Siena College shows that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic party want a new nominee at the top of the ticket. Even more bleak for the White House, 94% of Democrats under 30 said they’d prefer a fresh face.
Dan Schnur, a veteran strategist in California who worked on Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid and former Gov. Pete Wilson’s team, told ABC News that Newsom’s toe-dip into the national news-cycle is great political posturing, given the uncertainty of the Democratic leadership.
“Whether Newsom runs in two years, or in 2028, he’s now a part of that conversation. If Biden, 79, decides not to run again, Newsom is ready to pounce. And if Biden does run for reelection, Newsom certainly can lay the groundwork for four years after that,” Schnur said.
Biden has made it clear he intends to run for reelection with Vice President Kamala Harris by his side, but slipping approval numbers and concerns over age and health are determinate factors that, coupled from pressure from within his own party, could force him to reconsider.
Some of that pressure has come from Newsom himself. A day after Politico reported the contents of a leaked Supreme Court draft that would overturn Roe, Newsom slammed Democrats for not taking decisive action to codify access to abortion with a biting exclamation: “Where the hell is my party? Where’s the Democratic Party?”
“Why aren’t we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?,” Newsom questioned. “Why aren’t we calling this out? “This is a concerted, coordinated effort and yes, they’re winning. They are, they have been … We need to stand up, where is the counter offensive?”
And casting himself as a hero is what Newsom does best, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Where Newsom thrives is when he’s able to be in contrast to a Republican that he can lead a progressive coalition against,” said Stutzman. “He’s going to go after the guy he perceives as the Republican frontrunner.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jarvis Claiborne and his wife Renada were pre-approved for a mortgage in February, they were excited to start shopping for their first home in Houston, Texas. But that excitement quickly turned to shock and frustration as they realized they couldn’t compete with all-cash offers that were often tens of thousands of dollars above a home’s listing price.
“We really just weren’t willing to pay the prices that people were asking and that people were paying,” Jarvis Claiborne told ABC News. “Most of the houses, we didn’t even have a chance to bid on. As soon as they were coming on the market, they would just get snatched up.”
Jarvis Claiborne, who works in the oil and gas industry and Renada, a private investigator, decided to walk away from their home search in June, as mortgage rates climbed above 6%.
After two years of housing-hunting and getting outbid, often by all-cash offers, Tinesha Feiton, a single mom from Brooklyn, New York, is in contract to buy a three bedroom home in West Orange, New Jersey.
“It feels a little surreal,” Feiton told ABC News about finally having a seller accept her offer. An information technology consultant, Feiton is paying $46,000 above the asking price of $479,000.
“I still feel kind of worried because I’m just thinking to myself, well, is the house going to appraise for that value. You know, I don’t want my first home to actually be a lemon,” she said.
Feiton said it was important that she be settled in a home in time for her 5-year-old son Mason to start kindergarten in his new school this fall.
Record home prices and higher mortgage rates made May the most expensive month to buy a home since 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Housing-Affordability Index. The index incorporates median existing-home prices, median family incomes and average mortgage rates. The median price of a home in the U.S. reached a record $407,600 in May, according to the NAR, as mortgage rates more than doubled since January to the highest level in 13 years.
That pushed the typical monthly mortgage payment to $1,842 in May, up from $1,297 in January, according to the NAR, assuming a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 20% down payment. Despite the rising cost to finance a home, there are fresh signs that the housing market is slowly becoming more buyer-friendly.
Sales of previously owned homes fell in May for the fourth straight month as more buyers give up, pressuring sellers to cut asking prices. More than one in five homeowners dropped their asking price in May, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin, and for the first time in three years, Realtor.com said the number of homes for sale is on the rise, up 21% in June compared to a year ago.
The real estate firm’s Chief Economist, Danielle Hale, told ABC News there are two reasons for the rise in inventory.
“One, we’ve got more homeowners deciding that now is the time to sell their home, and the other reason is that buyers are getting a little bit choosier as the cost of housing goes up,” she said.
According to Redfin, bidding wars are slowing down and searches for “homes for sale” on Google are down nearly 14% from a year ago.
“A couple of months ago, it wasn’t unusual for a home to get 10 to 20 offers,” said Sarah Drennan, executive vice president at Terrie O’Connor Realtors in Northern New Jersey. “Now, they’re still getting a number of offers, but it’s less than 10.”
Mortgage applications sank 16% in June and are now less than half what they were a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Drennan said a growing number of sellers now recognize new limits to their pricing power, as the days of sellers asking — and getting — their “make me move price” begin to fade.
“We’re not seeing a price reduction, we’re seeing just a deceleration of price increases,” said Drennan. “So prices are still increasing, just not at double digit rates like we were seeing just a few months ago.”
While home prices are still trending higher nationally, Realtor.com found that prices have begun falling in many smaller Rust Belt cities. In Toledo, Ohio, home prices plunged 18.7% in May. They sank 15.4% in Detroit and fell 13.4% in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Demand for second-homes is also showing signs of softening. Patty Magie has been selling homes in Pennsylvania’s lake region of the Pocono Mountains for 30 years. She told ABC News she never saw demand for housing like she did at the height of the pandemic.
“People were buying site unseen, waiving appraisals and home inspections,” she said.
Eager for more space to work and school remotely, Magie remembers giving buyers home tours via FaceTime as they chased a small number of available homes. That scenario is changing.
“The current inventory has doubled from what it was in March and April; however, it is still about a third of what it was three to four months ago. There have been more price reductions and fewer bidding wars,” she added.
Potential buyers who have given up their search in favor of renting aren’t finding much, if any, relief. In fact, in some markets, rental prices are outstripping the monthly cost of financing a home, according to Miller Samuel, Inc. The real estate appraiser reported the average rental price in Manhattan cracked a record $4,000 per month in June.
“It’s expensive and getting more expensive in the city,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, Inc., told ABC News. “It’s interesting because office towers are two-thirds empty in the city, but yet you’re still seeing record leasing activity for the residential rental market.”
Still, experts say for some buyers, timing the housing market for that “perfect price” could backfire.
“If you have more flexibility in your timeline, you may be able to wait it out and negotiate with sellers,” said Hale, “but keep in mind that mortgage rates are also still climbing so you may end up with a higher mortgage rate if it takes you longer to find a home.”
(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan bar agreed Wednesday to pay $500,000 to current and former employees who said managers called them “cows,” remarked on their underwear and used racial slurs to refer to colleagues of certain origin, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office.
The bar, Sweet and Vicious in the Nolita neighborhood, maintained what the attorney general’s office called “a hostile and discriminatory workplace” that subjected employees to sex discrimination, sexual and gender-based harassment and race and national origin discrimination.
The bar’s owner, Hakan Karamahmutoglu, was accused of making inappropriate comments regarding employees’ race, sexuality, bodies and appearances. Employees suffered unwelcomed sexual advances from managers and customers, according to the attorney general’s office.
“This settlement is a reminder that no matter the perpetrator, we will not tolerate sexual harassment, discrimination, or wage theft of any form in the workplace,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “For far too long, workers in the hospitality industry have been forced to weather a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and discrimination that has gone unreported.”
The agreement is the culmination of a 16-month investigation into allegations against Karamahmutoglu and Sweet and Vicious. Documents, records and interviews with current and former employees revealed a pervasive culture of discrimination and repeated pattern of harassment, the attorney general’s office said.
According to investigators, Karamahmutoglu routinely insulted female employees, calling them “b——” and “cows” and scrutinized their appearance, commenting on their bodies and clothing. Multiple female employees were sexually harassed by male managers who made unwanted sexual advances, including an instance of an employee announcing the color of a female bartender’s underwear and saying he wanted to engage her in a sexual manner as well as a manager repeatedly finding opportunities to rub himself up against a female employee.
Several female bartenders said they experienced frequent harassment by violent customers who would threaten to stab, rape and beat them.
“I wish I could say this was the first time I was harassed by my employer in the service industry, or even the first time I’ve received a settlement for nonpayment of wages. This case is emblematic of intersecting national problems: the subjugation of workers, and sexual harassment of women in the workplace,” said Veronica Leventhal, a former Sweet and Vicious employee. “Sweet and Vicious is not an anomaly — it is a prime example of how men with unchecked power take advantage of their employees.”
Karamahmutoglu allegedly called Black employees “gangsters” and referred to a Puerto Rican manager as a “terrorist” and “Puerto Rican trash.” The owner and managers also frequently used anti-gay slurs.
In addition to paying $500,000 to the workers, the agreement requires the revision of anti-discrimination and harassment training materials and the display and distribution of notices regarding anti-discrimination and harassment rights and responsibilities. Sweet and Vicious will also be subject to periodic monitoring and oversight, including the submission of reports to the attorney general’s office to certify compliance.
“The time that I spent working at Sweet and Vicious has reinforced traumas that I will undoubtedly spend years trying to overcome in therapy. It was, without a doubt, the most abusive company that I have ever had the misfortune of working for,” said a former Sweet and Vicious employee identified only as former employee No. 2. “The racial, sexual and gendered humiliation and degradation that myself and my coworkers silently endured is more than anyone should ever have to experience while trying to earn a livable wage.”
Move aside, Tony Stark: a different “Iron Man” is coming to San Diego Comic-Con.
Ozzy Osbourne will be making his debut at the famed pop culture convention on July 22. The metal legend and comic book artist and writer Todd McFarlane will reveal artwork for a new comic book included in certain special editions of Ozzy’s upcoming new album, Patient Number 9. Ozzy and McFarlane will also be signing autographs.
McFarlane previously directed the video for the Patient Number 9 title track, which premiered in June. The Spawn creator also designed a variant album cover for Patient Number 9 alongside fellow artist Jason Shawn Alexander.
Patient Number 9, the 13th solo Ozzy album and the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man, will be released September 9.
(PRETORIA, South Africa) — Three people have been arrested in connection with the mysterious deaths of 21 teenagers at a popular nightclub in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.
According to a statement from the South African Police Service, the 52-year-old owner of the Enyobeni Tavern as well as two employees, aged 33 and 34, were taken into custody over the weekend and on Tuesday afternoon by a team of detectives investigating the incident in Scenery Park, a suburb on the edge of the coastal city of East London in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. The names of the suspects were not released.
Police said the arrests were made after the Eastern Cape Liquor Board opened a criminal case against the Enyobeni Tavern for allegedly selling alcohol to minors. Investigators subsequently issued fines of 2,000 South African rand (about $118) to the two employees and served a summons to the owner for his immediate arrest and appearance in a court of law, according to police.
The owner is scheduled to appear in East London Magistrate Court on Aug. 19. Each of the employees were given an option to pay the fine; but should they fail to do so, they will be required to appear in the same court on the same day, police said.
What caused the deaths of the 21 teens — 12 girls and nine boys — remains unknown. They were found at the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park in the predawn hours of June 26. Seventeen of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while four others died when they were hospitalized or being transported to hospitals, according to police.
Police said the victims ranged in age from 13 to 17 — all under South Africa’s legal drinking age of 18.
The local government, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, held a mass funeral for the victims in East London last week. Thousands of people attended the symbolic service, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who gave the eulogy for the young victims. The bodies were buried in private ceremonies at various cemeteries.
Toxicology reports were still pending as of Wednesday. A stampede has been ruled out because the bodies did not show any serious injuries, according to police.
Police have declined to comment on possible causes of deaths or the circumstances surrounding the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.
“Just as we said in the beginning, investigation is a process and needs to be treated with extreme care and wisdom so that we can achieve the desired outcomes which all of us will be proud of,” the South African Police Service’s commissioner for Eastern Cape province, Lt. Gen. Nomthetheleli Mene, said in a statement Wednesday. “This is the beginning of the great work we are doing behind the scene.”
The Daily Dispatch, a South African newspaper published in East London, reported that the teens were attending a party at the Enyobeni Tavern to celebrate the end of June school exams. Their bodies were reportedly found strewn across tables, chairs and the dance floor with no visible signs of injuries.
A 22-year-old Scenery Park resident, Sibongile Mtsewu, told ABC News that he was at the Enyobeni Tavern when the deadly incident unfolded. He said he was ordering drinks at the crowded club when suddenly the doors were closed and some type of chemical agent, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was released into the air.
“There was no way out,” Mtsewu told ABC News in a telephone interview earlier this month. “There was no chance to breathe.”
Pink teased she had something up her sleeve when she sang what fans believed were lyrics to a new song on Monday. They were right.
The Grammy winner announced a forthcoming track that she said was born out of frustration. “Woke up. Got heated. Wrote song,” she tweeted while sharing some lyrics scribbled down in black ink on a white napkin. She added the track is “Coming soon.”
Sharing a close-up of her written work, the lyrics read, “I think it might rain today/ Ash on the ground/ Took all the heat we could take/ And then burned it down.” Another picture shows the song’s title written on the other side of the napkin, with the hastily-written words digging into and tearing into the delicate fabric.
Earlier this week, Pink teased her new track in a black-and-white video that showed her singing another handful of lyrics. “You can call me irrelevant, insignificant/ You can try to make me small,” she sang while pinching her thumb and index together.
The “Just Like Fire” singer has been tangling with online haters after publicly telling abortion rights opponents to never listen to her music again. The fiery statement was made shortly after the Supreme Court ruled last month to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion.
Since then, Pink has dealt with her fair share of angry individuals telling her to stay out of politics and claiming it’s her job to just sing and entertain. After being told to basically “shut up and sing” for weeks, she went and did just that.
No release date for “Irrelevant” has been given at this time.
