The wins keep coming for BTS:their dedicated radio station broke major records on Apple Music.
The music service announced their weekly limited series “broke the record for biggest show of the year with their debut episode of #BTSRadio on Apple Music 1.”
The three-part BTS Radio: Past & Present airs one episode per week to help hype fans’ expectations for the band’s forthcoming album, Proof, which drops June 10. Apple Music subscribers can download each episode, which features the septet speaking about their rise to stardom and hopes for the future.
BTS will also share some untold stories, in addition to revealing the life lessons that made them who they are today. Of course, the limited series will also treat listeners to some yet-to-be released songs off the new album.
The first episode, titled “Beginnings,” is streaming now on Apple Music. In that episode, the BTS members discussed the spiritual connections they had with certain songs.
Vance Joy has shared a new song called “Every Side of You,” a track off his upcoming album, In Our Own Sweet Time.
“Every Side of You” is the fourth cut to be released off In Our Own Sweet Time, following “Missing Piece,” “Don’t Fade” and “Clarity.” The whole album is set to drop next Friday, June 10.
You can listen to “Every Side of You” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video is streaming now on YouTube.
Vance is celebrating his album’s impending arrival with a run of North American shows over the next week, taking place June 2 in Nashville, June 4 in New York City and June 9 in Toronto. The Toronto performance will stream live online via Vance’s YouTube channel.
For fans who might’ve missed out on Lil Durk‘s 7220 tour in April and May this year, have no worries because the “Ahh Ha” rapper is “running it back,” he says.
On Wednesday, the Chicago native announced a second leg of his concert series, The 7220 Deluxe Tour, set to kick off in Oklahoma City on Sept. 17. The 15-city tour will run through the middle of October, making stops in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Nashville and more, before its final show in Seattle on Oct 17.
The announcement comes just a few weeks after Durk hinted at, then dropped, a deluxe version of his seventh studio album 7220, 7220 (Reloaded). Early Wednesday morning the rapper teased new music in an Instagram video he said would soon be deleted.
To purchase tickets and for the full list of tour stops, visit Livenation.com.
Parker McCollum’s got nothing but good things to say about Eric Church.
The rising country star was the opening act for Eric’s American Family Field show in Milwaukee over Memorial Day weekend, on a bill that also included Brothers Osborne. After the show, Parker felt so moved by how the headliner treated him that he jumped on social media to tip his hat to Eric’s tour-boss style.
“His entire crew treated us like we were headlining,” Parker gushed on Instagram, posting some snapshots of the show. “Unbelievably polite and accommodating the entire day. Even Eric himself took the time to say hello and make sure we were taken care of.”
While it might seem like a small kindness, that means everything to an opening act, he said. “They chose to make us feel like it was our show too…in a Major League Baseball stadium. Class act top to bottom. What a day!” Parker added.
As a tour boss, The Chief is setting the bar high for Thomas Rhett: Parker’s joining TR’s Bring the Bar to You Tour this summer.
With Journey set to release its latest studio album, Freedom, in a little over a month, the band has debuted an official music video for one of the tracks, “You Got the Best of Me,” a melodic rock tune that was made available as an advance single in April.
The clip, which you can watch now on Journey’s YouTube channel, features color and black-and-white performance footage of the band’s current touring lineup — founding guitarist Neal Schon, longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain, lead singer Arnel Pineda, keyboardist/backing vocalist Jason Derlatka, drummer/singer Deen Castronovo and bassist Todd Jensen.
“You Got the Best of Me” showcases Schon’s fluid guitar riffs and Pineda’s soaring vocals.
As previously reported, Freedom will be released on July 8 and can be preordered now.
Two other advance tracks have also been released from Freedom, “The Way We Used to Be” and “Let It Rain,” which debuted in June 2021 and last month, respectively.
Shortly after Freedom arrives, Journey will play a series of four special symphonic concerts in Las Vegas — on July 15, 16, 22 and 23. The band has several other concerts lined up around the U.S. this summer. Visit JourneyMusic.com to check out their full schedule.
Ahead of his hosting duties for this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, LeVar Burton opened up about losing the bid to become the host of Jeopardy!.
In an interview with Newsy, the Reading Rainbow alum says he was “not just disappointed but wrecked” by not getting the hosting job.
“Experiencing a very public defeat, humiliation, if you will, was sobering,” he said. “I didn’t expect that I would not be their choice for host.”
Burton says he believes he was the best person for the job and claims the search for an Alex Trebek replacement was “fixed.”
“The truth is it was my favorite game show. It really was. I mean, I watched that show since I was in the third grade and Art Fleming was the host. And I honestly thought that I was well suited for it. As it turns out, it really wasn’t a competition, after all, the fix was in.”
On what the 65-year-old actor and host learned from the “humiliating” moment: “It reinforced my belief that everything happens for a reason, even if you cannot discern the reason in the moment. In the fullness of time, everything will be revealed.” He added, “I’m a firm believer in betting on myself, and I would encourage anyone and everyone out there to to believe.”
Regarding his upcoming hosting duties at the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, airing live on ION and Bounce at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 2, Burton said, “I’m definitely one to go where I’m wanted and loathe to go where I’m not invited.”
Post Malone cannot wait to become a father and said it’s something he’s always wanted to be.
Speaking to Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the “Circles” rapper opened up about expecting his first child with his girlfriend, whom he has kept out of the public eye.
“I’m pumped beyond belief,” he said of entering fatherhood and joked, “I’m going to be a hot dad.”
Post, whose birth name is Austin Post, revealed he has wanted to become a dad since he was a kid. “I was like 4 or 5, and I had this little baby I would carry around everywhere. It was a baby doll,” he said. “I thought that was the coolest thing. I would take him around everywhere. And I don’t know how long that lasted. But my mom still has it.”
Post is getting ready for the Friday release of his new album, Twelve Carat Toothache, and spoke about the new pressures artists face to promote their music. The nine-time Grammy nominee admitted singers are urged to go viral on TikTok to hype up a song, essentially backing up Halsey‘s claim that their label held up the release of their song “So Good” until they could manufacture a viral moment.
Although he said TikTok is “great” for “discovering talented people,” it’s drastically changed how albums are released.
Post explained, “It’s just so hard for me to make something natural.” The “Sunflower” singer said he’s also not embracing social media as much for mental health reasons.
“I just think it’s my personal opinion and the changes that I’ve made, mentally, to distance myself from that,” he said of his relationship with social media. “That’s really impacted my life in a positive way.”
“Social media is something that I’m not super comfortable with,” he confessed.
Queen Elizabeth II greets Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster in 2016; JEFF SPICER/AFP via Getty Images
Sir Rod Stewart is a big fan of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, so it’s no surprise that he’s going to be part of the all-star lineup performing in her honor Sunday in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee, which marks her 70th year on the throne.
Rod has posted behind-the-scenes footage of his rehearsals for the big moment on his Instagram Story: They’re literally sound checking in front of the gates of Buckingham Palace. There’s also video of Rod, looking dapper in a plaid jacket and a black face mask, watching his backup dancers rehearse their moves.
Finally, a 360-degree video of him at sound check is captioned, “3 days to go!”
Back in February, at the official start of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee year, Rod paid tribute to the queen in an Instagram post, writing, “She’s been a wonderful example of how to conduct yourself with integrity and grace for 70 years now (just like me!) and we should all look forward to acknowledging her magnificent service.”
As previously reported, Rod will part of thePlatinum Party at the Palace, a massive concert set for June 4 in front of the palace. The lineup also includes Sir Elton John, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Alicia Keys and Queen + Adam Lambert, plus Lin Manuel-Miranda, Andrea Bocelli and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Måneskin left us “Beggin” when they covered The Four Seasons‘ 1967 hit, and the Italian rockers say they will continue to make song covers because they are “one of the coolest things you can do.”
The singers spoke to NME about their musical choices and referenced covering Britney Spears‘ “Womanizer,” The Killers‘ “Mr. Brightside” and Franz Ferdinand‘s “Take Me Out” when performing live in concert. The latter song has amassed over a billion streams on Spotify since being released last year.
Frontman Damiano David said his band will “always do covers,” because, “It’s one of the coolest things you can do.”
David continued, “When you write a song and then publish it, it’s not yours anymore. You’ve gifted it to everyone.” He also shared how Måneskin feels when other people sing their music.
“When people cover us I’m super proud, because they’ve been so starstruck by this song that they want to make their own version,” he raved. “You can see the same thing born again with hundreds of different shapes.”
He also had a message to those urging them to maintain their rock roots and honor the acts that came before them. “It’s so stupid and pointless to expect a band of 20-year-olds to replicate what was happening in the ’70s and ’80s,” David admonished. “We’re just trying to do something new that makes us feel satisfied and happy.”
(NEW YORK) — When an 18-year-old shooter arrived last week at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas — where he ultimately killed 21 people, including 19 children and two teachers — he carried 1,657 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
The large number of rounds should not come as a surprise, experts told ABC News. The tragedy drew renewed scrutiny to a collection of state and national laws that regulate ammunition less tightly than firearms, despite the vital role played by ammunition in mass shootings, experts said.
A shooter at a Las Vegas music festival, in 2017, who killed 59, had at least 1,600 rounds. A shooter at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012, who killed 27, had more than 1,700 rounds of ammunition at his home. And a shooter at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, also in 2012, who killed 12, had bought more than 6,000 rounds, officials said.
Current regulations often allow for the purchase of massive amounts of ammunition and high-capacity magazines without a background check or even a face-to-face interaction, experts added.
While gun control proponents say ammunition deserves stronger restrictions that would limit the frequency and severity of mass shootings, gun rights advocates argue that ammunition restrictions violate Second Amendment protections and unnecessarily duplicate the regulations in place for guns, experts said.
“There are fewer restrictions on ammunition sales than there are on firearm sales both at the federal level and in the vast majority of states,” Jacob Charles, executive director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University School of Law, told ABC News.
“Someone intent on a mass casualty event is going to have enough ammunition to be able to keep shooting until they’re stopped,” he said.
Federal law prohibits the sale of ammunition in a narrow set of circumstances, experts said.
People cannot purchase or possess ammunition if they’ve been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor domestic violence, committed to a mental institution, or if they belong to a handful of other categories deemed at-risk, experts said.
Also, under federal law individuals must be at least 18 to buy rifle or shotgun ammunition, and at least 21 to buy ammunition for any other guns. On top of that, in 1986, the U.S. enacted a law that bans armor-piercing bullets, which became notorious for the threat they posed to police officers.
Absent from national regulations are measures that require background checks for the buyers of ammunition or licenses for the sellers, which undermines enforcement of the few federal laws that are on the books, Tom Donohue, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in gun legislation, told ABC News.
“Any restrictions on ammunition at the federal level are virtually feckless because you don’t have to go through a background check to purchase ammunition,” he said.
Federal law also lacks a measure that addresses high-capacity magazines, which enable shooters to fire a large number of bullets without stopping to reload. Such a law did exist once at the national level: The assault rifle ban enacted by Congress in 1994, which lapsed 10 years later, included a ban on high-capacity magazines.
A study published in 2019 by three researchers, including David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, examined mass shootings over a nearly three-decade period and found that attacks involving high-capacity magazines had a 62% higher average death rate than those without them. The study also showed that high-fatality mass shootings occurred more than twice as often in states without bans on high-capacity magazines than in states with them.
In all, nine states have enacted bans on high-capacity magazines, including predominantly Democrat-controlled states like New York and Connecticut, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The landscape of high-capacity magazine bans reflects a general trend of state-level measures that strengthen ammunition laws in a small group of mostly blue states, while the remainder of states go no further than federal law, Charles said.
For instance, New York and California have instituted mandatory background checks for ammunition purchases at the time a sale takes place, Charles added.
Gun rights advocates staunchly oppose ammunition regulation, experts said. Gun proponents argue that there’s no need for additional regulation of ammunition once an individual has been deemed fit to own a gun.
“In theory, if I have given you a license and found you to be a law-abiding citizen, there’s no reason for me to care what kind of gun you buy or how much ammunition you buy or what else you do, as long as it’s legal,” Alexandra Filindra, a political science professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago who studies gun laws, told ABC News.
Similarly, gun rights advocates have argued that regulation of ammunition infringes on their Second Amendment protections in the same manner that gun regulations do, since ammunition is a necessary part for operating a gun, Filindra said.
“The theory goes that essentially you are implicitly regulating gun ownership by taking away people’s ammo,” she said.
A network of gun rights groups, most notably the National Rifle Association, has fought ammunition regulation by framing it as an attack on gun ownership, the experts said.
“The same group standing in the way of gun safety reform is standing in the way of ammunition reform,” said Ari Freilich, the state policy director at Giffords Law Center.
Some ammunition-related bills have been introduced in Congress. The Age 21 Act, put forward by Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would raise the minimum age for buying assault rifles and high-capacity magazines from 18 to 21. Meanwhile, a bill in the House would require a license for all ammunition sellers and mandate that all ammunition sales take place in person.
Experts said that meaningful reform of ammunition laws is unlikely in the short term, but some said that incidents like the mass shooting in Uvalde make action more likely in the long term.
“A lot of people have woken up to how senselessly, dangerously reckless our lack of protections currently are,” Freilich said.
