Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is among the musicians who will perform during the opening ceremony for the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games sporting event, which will run from July 28 to August 8 in Iommi’s hometown of Birmingham, U.K.
The Commonwealth Games is an international multiple-sport competition held every four years that features athletes from countries that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Opening Ceremony will take place July 28 at Alexander Stadium. According to a press release, Iommi will perform with acclaimed sax player Soweto Kinch during a “dream sequence” segment called “Hear My Voice,” which is based on the title track of the 2020 movie Trial of the Chicago Seven. The performance will also feature Birmingham-born R&B vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi.
“It’s true, that I will be performing at the opening of the Commonwealth Games,” Iommi tweeted. “I’m very honoured to have been asked to do it and I’m really looking forward to the day! It’s such a great boost for Birmingham to have the games held here.”
The opening ceremony will also feature a variety of other noteworthy local musicians, including headliners Duran Duran, who will perform during the finale. The band, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November, will play four classic songs from their back catalog with accompaniment from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
For more information about this year’s Commonwealth Games, visit Birmingham2022.com.
Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys will team up with country duo LoCash for a special performance August 2 on ABC’s Good Morning America.
During their stop on the show, the acts will deliver the national television premiere of “Beach Boys,” LoCash’s new song, which pays tribute to the legendary California pop-rock group and features guest vocals by Love and Johnston. After performing the new single, Love, Johnston and LoCash will deliver a rendition of The Beach Boys’ 1988 classic “Kokomo.”
The Beach Boys have picked up some serious country cred since LoCash’s new single came out; last month, they joined the duo to make their Grand Ole Opry debut. While they were backstage, LoCash surprised Mike and Bruce with two pairs of snakeskin boots, officially welcoming them to the country music family.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a few executive actions to address climate change, with a focus on helping Americans facing extreme heat — but the steps fall short of the more sweeping measures climate activists are calling for.
While Biden didn’t declare a climate national emergency on Wednesday, as many activists and Democratic lawmakers encouraged him to do, he strongly suggested he would do so soon.
“Now let me be clear, climate change is an emergency and in the coming weeks, I’m going to use the power I have as president to turn these words into formal, official government actions through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders and regulatory power that the president possess,” he said. “When it comes to fighting climate change I will not take no for an answer.”
For now,, the directives largely appear to provide more funding to or otherwise strengthen existing programs.
According to the White House, the president’s latest set of executive actions focus on “protecting communities facing extreme heat with additional FY22 funding for FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and additional guidance to support the Department of Health and Human Services Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).” The BRIC program offers funding to communities for hazard mitigation, while the LIHEAP provides low-income Americans with assistance in covering their energy costs.
Biden also announced additional actions to boost the domestic offshore wind industry.
Biden made the announcements while visiting a now-defunct coal-fired power plant, called Brayton Point, in Somerset, Massachusetts. The site is expected to be turned into a manufacturing plant that will produce transmission cables for Massachusetts’ offshore wind industry, according to the White House.
“I come here today with a message,” Biden said. “As president I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger, and that’s what climate change is about.”
Biden continued, “It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger. The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake.”
A White House official told reporters that Wednesday’s actions are a “continuation of the decisive steps on climate that the president has taken since day one.”
The Biden administration’s efforts to continue to pivot the U.S. power sector toward zero-emission energy options, such as off-shore wind, move the country in the right direction but don’t address the larger problem of cutting and reducing current energy-based emissions from the existing fossil fuel industry. Without continuing to cut and reduce current emissions from a range of polluting areas, it will take much more than empowering renewable energy and improving building efficiency to reach Biden’s climate goals.
Wednesday’s announcements come as people across the United States — and around the world — grapple with sweltering temperatures this week. A scorching airmass remains over the majority of the continental U.S. on Wednesday, with a heat dome sitting over the Southwest and Great Plains and triple-digit temperatures stretching throughout the Midwest and up and down the East Coast.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo and Tracy Wholf contributed to this report.
H.E.R. will become a Disney princess when she stars in the ABC animated and live-action special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.
The five-time Grammy and Oscar winner will portray Belle in the two-hour program, which will air Thursday, December 15, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and on Disney+ the next day.
“I can’t believe I get to be a part of the Beautyand the Beast legacy. The world will see a Black and Filipino Belle!” H.E.R. said in a statement. “I have always wanted to be a Disney princess, and I get to work with two wonderful directors Hamish Hamilton and my favorite, Jon M. Chu. It is very surreal and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
“With her obvious extraordinary talent and stage presence, H.E.R. is the perfect embodiment of our Belle and we are thrilled for audiences to see her in this celebration of creativity,” Chu added. “We were both influenced as storytellers by the original animated movie, so it’s very exciting to collaborate together to honor the artistry of that timeless classic while also inspiring a whole new generation of creators.”
The 25-year-old singer/actress will also star in a new adaptation of The Color Purple with Taraji P. Henson, Ciara, Fantasia and Halle Bailey next year.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of when Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, while the theme song “Beauty and the Beast” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1992.
Country trio Chapel Hart had a major moment on Tuesday night’s episode of NBC’s America’s Got Talent when they knocked the judges’ socks off with a performance of their original song, “You Can Have Him Jolene.”
Of course, that song is a nod to Dolly Parton’s early 1970s hit “Jolene,” which has gone on to become one of the country legend’s signature songs.
After the trio wowed the audience with their updated take on the famous story line — earning a standing ovation and a unanimous Golden Buzzer from all four AGT judges — Dolly got wind of the buzz-generating performance and shared her approval on social media.
“What a fun new take on my song!” Dolly wrote, also sharing a video clip and adding that the performance was especially significant because her husband, Carl — who inspired the original — is celebrating a birthday today.
“Carl’s birthday is today so I think I’ll hang on to him, and I’m not notifying Jolene that today is his birthday,” Dolly joked.
Hailing from Mississippi, Chapel Hart is made up of sisters Danica and Devynn Hart and their cousin Trea Swindle. Since 2019, they have independently released two albums.
Duran Duranwill headline the opening ceremony for the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games sporting event, which will run from July 28 to August 8 in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, U.K.
The Commonwealth Games is an international multiple-sport competition held every four years featuring athletes from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Duran Duran will perform during the finale of the ceremony, which will take place July 28 at Alexander Stadium. The band, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November, will play four classic songs from their back catalog with accompaniment from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
“The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is a momentous event for the great city of Birmingham,” frontman Simon Le Bon says. “And we in Duran Duran are honoured to be a part of it in our home town.”
Adds drummer Roger Taylor, “We are so proud to be returning to our home town to close the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. It is a true honour to be part of a global event that will bring sportspeople of all cultural backgrounds around the world together as one. Another milestone in a most incredible year for us.”
The opening ceremony will also feature a variety of other noteworthy local musicians, including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who will perform with sax player Soweto Kinch and R&B vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi.
For more information about this year’s Commonwealth Games, visit Birmingham2022.com.
In a new interview with People, Witney Carson explains she hid having skin cancer surgery so she wouldn’t miss her first season on Dancing with the Stars.
Carson was 19 when she was diagnosed with melanoma, a genetic form of skin cancer she blames on the use of tanning beds when she was younger.
The potentially deadly diagnosis came at the worst possible time. “I finally got this call that was going to just skyrocket my career,” says the now-28-year-old dancer of the DWTS opportunity.
Witney recalls, “…of course, being myself, I’m like ‘It’s fine. I can still go on the show. I think I was embarrassed only in the fact that I was an athlete, and I was supposed to be encompassing everything healthy and fit…and so it was embarrassing for me to be like, ‘Yes…I was literally sick.'”
She added, “The producers didn’t know. My partner didn’t know. I wanted people to think I was perfectly healthy.”
Before reporting to rehearsals with partner Cody Simpson, Witney underwent surgical procedures to fight the cancer.
“They took an inch diameter around the mole on my foot as well as all of my lymph nodes in my left hip,” she recalled. “It was just spreading so quickly…and there was lots of healing time. I think I took six weeks and then I went straight to Dancing with the Stars...”
Witney took to rehearsals without her doctor’s clearance and split her stitches open while dancing. “I looked down and my white tennis shoe is just covered in blood, just covered in blood,” she remembers.
Carson is now the healthy mom of one-year-old Leo, who she wants to give a sibling — sometime after hoofing it the upcoming season of DWTS.
(PHILADELPHIA) — The legal team representing the family of two young Black girls who were seemingly waved off by a Sesame Place character is calling for the costumed performer to be fired.
“We want a genuine and authentic apology,” attorney B’Ivory LaMarr said in a press conference Wednesday. “The second thing that we’re requesting is for the immediate termination of that performer. The third thing that we’re going to request is — we’re going to demand that they take care of any type of health care or mental care expenses that these children have realized.”
In a video posted on Twitter, two young Black girls at Sesame Place Philadelphia waved excitedly and held out their arms as a performer dressed in a Rosita costume approached.
Rosita high-fives parkgoers as she walks down the line, before appearing to shake her head at and wave off the two girls as she walks away from them.
“#BabyPaige & her cute lil friends went to @SesamePlace this weekend to celebrate Paige’s 4th birthday & this is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” the tweet, posted by the apparent aunt of the girl celebrating her birthday, read.
Outrage ensued online, as more footage of similar incidents with park characters and Black children were posted online in response to the viral video. Calls to boycott Sesame Place are growing on social media.
“While we hate to speculate and consider ‘race’ as the motivating factor, which would explain the performer’s actions, such actions both before and after the young girls reached out only leads us to one conclusion,” said LaMarr, who is representing the family, in a statement to ABC News.
He continued, “Although Sesame Place purports to stand for inclusivity and equality, this was not demonstrated this past Saturday. We are currently investigating this incident and will exercise every legal remedy possible to further protect this family.”
In the park’s initial statement, the performer portraying Rosita is said to have intended the “no” hand gesture in response to requests to hold children for a photo and did not intentionally ignore the girls.
The park said it has apologized to the family directly and has invited them for a meet-and-greet with the characters. It has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment on the family’s employee termination demands.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that runs Sesame Street, said it will “conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage families and guests” at Sesame Place after a video of a potential racial bias incident went viral online.
“As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families,” the organization said in a statement.
In an interview with ABC News, the mother of the birthday girl Jodi Brown said she’s happy the video went viral.
“These are innocent children. And the job of the character is to bring joy to the kids,” she said. “I also think that a lot of parents, as you can see in the other videos that are now released, have went through a similar thing and just didn’t speak up about it right away. So now they have the courage to say ‘hey, this also happened to my child.'”
Sesame Place Philadelphia released a second statement on the incident, saying, “We know that it’s not OK. We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right.”
The park said it will conduct training for employees to deliver an “inclusive, equitable and entertaining” experience for parkgoers.
Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of Sesame Workshop.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
Charles Dickens‘ holiday classic is coming to Netflix in a computer-animated movie called Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, and some big names are bringing it to life.
Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman will be voicing this version of the Ghost of Christmas Past in the feature, ABC Audio has confirmed, with Beauty and the Beast‘s Luke Evans voicing Scrooge, himself.
Jessie Buckley, who starred with Colman in the award-winning The Lost Daughter, also lends her voice to the project.
Other stars set to feature in the film are Tony winner Jonathan Pryce, taking on the voice of Scrooge’s former partner Jacob Marley and Hawkeye‘s Fra Fee as Harry Huffam. Trevor Dion Nicholas, who originated the role of Genie in Disney’s Aladdin: The Musical will voice Present, and Stardust‘s Johnny Flynn will lend his pipes to Bob Cratchit.
Directed by Lost in Oz‘ Stephen Donnelly, Scrooge will feature “reimagined” songs from the late Oscar nominee and Grammy winner Leslie Bricusse, a veteran of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Home Alone and Superman.
In a statement, Donnelly said, “It’s been a fascinating challenge to adapt such a beloved and often-told story and I think this version will give those who know A Christmas Carol all the things they expect but not as they’ve experienced them before.”
He says the movie’s a faithful take on Dickens but adds, “There are more than enough psychedelic, time-travelling and musical surprises to keep those familiar with the story on the edge of their seats…”
Britney Spears often uses her social media to pay tribute to famous women who’ve inspired her in some way. The most recent target of her affection is … Michelle Pfeiffer.
Britney posted a clip of Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle in the 1992 movie Batman Returns, opposite Michael Keaton as Batman. In the scene, she transforms into Catwoman by sewing a skintight black vinyl outfit for herself, donning it and then purring to the cats outside her window, “I don’t know about you, Miss Kitty, but I feel soooo much yummier!”
“I feel like she’s the most charming … sexy … and alluring woman … this scene is probably the hottest scene I’ve ever seen in my life !!!” Britney writes of Catwoman, adding, “Of course, @michellepfeifferofficial whom I’ve never met is the character. she is sick in this movie in the most conventional way possible !!!…she gives hell a whole new meaning … I respect that.”
After declaring that, despite numerous remakes, she doesn’t think “anyone can come even close” to Pfeiffer’s performance, Britney writes, “I know she has no idea who I am, but I just want to let her know a silly girl from the South has always thought she was a freaking God and I have so much respect for her it’s kind of insane !!!”
Britney concludes, “Thank you for doing your craft in such a beautiful way…one and only Pfeiffer!!!”
Fans flooded the comments section, telling Britney that of course everyone on the planet knows who she is; one even tagged Pfeiffer and asked, “Do you know who Britney Spears is?” Pfeiffer has yet to respond.
