The inaugural Carly’s Closet event hosted during CMA Fest last week raised more than $10,000 for Music Health Alliance. The event saw the ACM Award winner donating outfits worn at various awards shows and public events for fans to purchase, with all of the proceeds going toward Music Health Alliance’s mission to connect members of the music industry with access to health care.
The hit singer took to Instagram to share her gratitude to fans for showing up and making the Nashville event a success, posting photos that show her posing with a black-and-white polka dot shirt and a floral dress in front of a clothing rack as a bunch of smiling fans gather around her.
“I am overjoyed by your generosity. I loved meeting you and looking in your shopping bags to see what you purchased. I am thrilled that so many of my clothes have a new home…and that we are helping the people who make the music in the process,” she said in the caption, while also hinting, “Shall we do it again next year?!”
The Kentuckian continues on the road this summer as part of Kenny Chesney‘s Here and Now Tour.
Foals‘ new album Life Is Yours drops this Friday, but if you need something to tide you over until then, the band has released one more song off the record.
The latest track is called “Crest of the Wave” and is available now via digital outlets.
As frontman Yannis Philippakis explains, the origins of “Crest of the Wave” date back all the way to 2011.
“It was one of those songs which had always been at the back of our minds, like there was some unfinished business there,” Philippakis shares. “As we were playing around with it with some of the themes on this record, we cracked it open and really reveled in adding lots of layers to it in the studio. I was looking at the power of the lyrics to transport myself and the listener somewhere else.”
“Crest of the Wave” follows the previously released Life Is Yours songs “Wake Me Up,” “2am,” “2001” and “Looking High.”
Just this week, Foals announced a U.S. headlining tour in support of Life Is Yours, set to kick off in October. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
The nine-track collection, a follow-up to 2018’s Walk Between Worlds, can be pre-orderednow. It will be available on CD, as a deluxe CD book package, on cassette, via digital formats and as a vinyl LP pressed on either 180-gram black vinyl or limited-edition silver vinyl. The deluxe CD and digital versions will include two extra tracks.
The band, which continues to be led by founding singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill, has released the song “Vision Thing” as an advance digital single, while a visualizer video for the track has premiered on Simple Minds’ official YouTube channel.
The tune, which was co-written by Kerr and Burchill, pays tribute to Jim’s “best pal,” his father, who died in 2019.
Most of the songs on Direction of the Heart were written and demoed on the Italian island of Sicily, where Kerr and Burchill both reside. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic at Hamburg, Germany’s Chameleon Studios and features guest contributions from Sparks frontman Russell Mael and Scottish singer/songwriter Gary Clark, who used to play with current Simple Minds bassist Ged Grimes in the pop-rock group Danny Wilson.
Kerr says of the new album, “How to make a feel-good ‘Electro-rock’ record, during the very worst of times? Direction of the Heart is the result of that challenge. Who would have thought we’d have so much fun creating it?”
Simple Minds recently launched a European summer tour that’s plotted out through an August 13 concert in Edinburgh, U.K.
Here’s Direction of the Heart‘s full track list:
“Vision Thing”
“First You Jump”
“Human Traffic”
“Who Killed Truth?”
“Solstice Kiss”
“Act of Lone”
“Natural”
“Planet Zero”
“The Walls Came Down”
“Direction of the Heart (Taormina 2022)”*
“Wondertimes”*
* = available on digital and deluxe CD versions only.
Chris Young recently celebrated his 37th birthday, and it has a special connection to one of his many #1 hits.
On June 12, the country singer turned 37 and honored the occasion by posting a photo of himself holding a pair of balloons of the numbers “3” and “7” in addition to thanking those in his inner circle that reached out with their messages of support.
Additionally, the hitmaker also noted that it took 37 weeks for his first #1 single, “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” to reach the summit in 2009.
“Shoutout to all the friends/fam/etc that have reached out with Happy Birthday messages! My first number one single went number one in 37 weeks so this is a special one,” he writes alongside the cheerful photo, adding, #cheers #birthday #famousfriends.
Chris has another hit on his hands as his current single, “At the End of a Bar” featuring Mitchell Tenpenny, is in the top 15 at country radio.
The week-long Anti Social Camp, which aims to boost New York City’s music scene, is going on right now, and several big names are helping this year’s effort.
Billboardreports GAYLE teamed with the Anti Social Producers Club and about 150 other artists, writers and producers to create 100 new songs in the span of three days.
Aside from GAYLE, Rob Thomas, Walk The Moon, JP Saxe and many others will either attend in-person or virtual songwriting boot camps and other events that are dedicated to “putting the NYC music scene back on the map.”
In addition to music writing, the camp will feature a gala, a live concert, a panel dedicated to women in music, industry showcases, recording sessions, presentations and more. All the events are free to attend and open to musicians.
A master itinerary of the week’s events has been made public, which you can check out now on Google Docs.
The long-running syndicated program The Wendy Williams Show is coming to an end Friday, notes Variety, which also explains the show’s titular host won’t be there to mark the occasion.
There will, however, be “a video tribute to the iconic host,” a rep for the program tells the trade.
Health issues have kept Williams out of her throne-like hosting chair for the entirety of this season, with a rotating slate of guest hosts, including Fat Joe and Sherri Shepherd, taking up the slack.
Shepherd, who will be in the chair for the show’s final installment, is getting her own eponymous chat show in the fall, replacing The Wendy Williams Show‘s current time slot.
As reported, Williams has been locked in a battle with Wells Fargo after they reportedly denied her access to her bank account in February, claiming she needs supervision.
Last month, Williams appeared in a rambling Instagram Live interview with Fat Joe, during which she insisted she was “absolutely” ready to return to her program.
Fat Joe equated the situation to that of Britney Spears, whose past conservatorship previously denied her access to her assets. “Why did you just get up and leave?” Joe asked Williams about her show.
“Because somebody stopped giving me my money,” she said.
“…I need my money. I’ll talk about it when I get my show back. I have people that will get it done. I don’t feel like I will go away. I will get bigger and bigger and bigger, and bigger, and I’ll talk about it…”
(PHILADELPHIA) — In an effort to curb shootings and make going to and from school less dangerous for students, Philadelphia officials announced they will spend $1.8 million on installing security cameras near city high schools and middle schools in high crime neighborhoods.
Standing outside the John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia, where a 17-year-old student was fatally shot in January after leaving campus, Mayor Jim Kenney and other city leaders said at a news conference Monday they hope the cameras will make criminals think twice about committing shootings around a school.
“We need to create a culture of if you’re going do something, somebody might be watching you,” city councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez said.
Cameras that can be remotely monitored will be placed along routes students frequently take to and from Bartram and 18 other schools, officials said.
Craig Johnson, the deputy chief of school safety for the School District of Philadelphia, said the schools were chosen for the program based on information regarding shootings around those campuses. The cameras will be linked to the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, where Philadelphia police monitor crime from real-time feeds.
“We hate to think that we have to have this environment where we have to have this coverage, but it’s a simple reality that people in the neighborhoods in the city of Philadelphia, they want us to do something,” Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke said at the press conference.
The move comes as shootings and murders in the City of Brotherly Love have climbed to record levels. Last year, Philadelphia set an all-time annual homicide record with 562 killings. As of Monday, the city has recorded 227 homicides this year, 18 fewer than this time in 2021, according to police department crime statistics.
More than 800 non-fatal shootings have occurred in the city this year as of Sunday, according to gun violence crisis data tracked by the city’s Office of the Controller. At least 95 young people 18 or younger have been shot in the city this year, according to the data.
Johnson said the need for the new security cameras is being prompted by the shootings of teenagers, many near their schools.
On May 17, a 16-year-old boy was shot seven times while sitting outside KIPP Philadelphia Charter School in the city’s Parkside neighborhood. Just seven days later, three students, ages 15 to 17, were shot and wounded after leaving the Simon Gratz High School Mastery Charter in the city’s Tioga-Nicetown section.
In April, a 15-year-old boy was shot to death about a block from Tanner Duckrey School in North Central Philadelphia when a gunman fired at least 20 shots.
“Youth being shot or being murdered almost on a daily basis doesn’t even garner that much attention,” Johnson said. “It’s almost like it’s expected or normalized and that’s a really sad place to be.”
The announcement of the program comes less than a month after a teenager armed with an AR-15 rifle allegedly killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Clarke said he hopes the new cameras will also “create an environment where people feel a little more safe.”
“We need every child to be safe as they go to school, and come home later in the day,” Clarke said. “These cameras are a good start, and they’ll lend eyes to law enforcement officials working very hard to keep our kids safe from harm.”
(NEW YORK) — A third of the U.S. population will experience heat advisories on Tuesday and Wednesday as a week of record-breaking temperatures continues, according to the National Weather Service.
A “heat dome” is expected to bring triple-digit temperatures to portions of the Midwest, adding to the early onset temperatures already baking the Southwest.
From California to Virginia, approximately 100 million Americans are under heat advisories, heat warnings or heat watches.
St. Louis reported a record-high temperature of 100 degrees on Monday, and the heat index in parts of the Midwest neared 115 degrees.
From Raleigh, North Carolina, to Chicago, actual temperatures are expected to reach near 100 degrees on Tuesday.
As extreme heat has persisted in the Southwest and Midwest, the heat is moving East, with Detroit predicted to reach 97 degrees on Wednesday.
Wildfires are continuing in the Southwest amid the heat, igniting due to gusty winds and very dry conditions.
There are red flag warnings across Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma for increased fire danger.
A new heat wave is poised to hit the Southwest on Wednesday, with temperatures again surpassing 110 degrees from Southern California to Arizona.
Gusty winds are expected to continue, prolonging wildfire risks in the Southwest.
More than 27 major cities tied or broke day-of heat records on Saturday, with California’s Death Valley being the hottest place in America at 123 degrees.
Palm Springs, California, and Phoenix followed, tying at 114 degrees, marking the hottest day for Phoenix in a century.
Las Vegas reported temperatures of 109 degrees on Saturday for the first time since 1956.
Extreme heat causes more deaths in American than any other weather-related disaster, with the Environmental Protection Agency estimating that more than 1,300 deaths per year in the U.S. are due to extreme heat.
Warning signs of a heat episode include nausea, excessive sweating and rapid pulse.
Those who are at the greatest risk for a heat-related incident include young children, older adults, pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals.
If possible, the NWS encourages residents to take cool showers or baths, find pools to escape the heat, avoid physical activity during the daytime and high-heat hours and find a safe place with air conditioning.
Jay-Z had a little fun teasing Blue Ivy on their father-daughter outing to the NBA Finals game Monday night, where the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics 104-94.
There were plenty of famous faces among the crowd. When the rap mogul appeared on camera, he wrapped his arms around Blue and pulled her into the picture as the announcer declared, “Back with us in the Bay at Chase Center tonight, 24-time Grammy award winner, the one and only Jay-Z!”
The 10-year-old played it cool and pretended to be unfazed by her father’s affection. Meanwhile, Hova continued to smile to himself. The entire exchange was shared on the NBA’s Instagram page.
Another video shows the “Run This Town” rapper wrapping an arm around Blue as they meet up with E-40 on the court. The NBA also snapped a photo of the two enjoying their father-daughter date.
Fans are marveling over how much Blue has grown, noting she’s looking more and more like her mom, Beyoncé.
The power couple welcomed Blue in January 2012. Bey and Jay also share twins, Rumi and Sir, who are now five years old.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 14, 1:20 pm
Russian, Belarusian tennis players can compete at US Open under neutral flag
Russian and Belarusian tennis players, who are banned from Wimbledon, will be allowed to compete in this year’s U.S. Open, but only under a neutral flag, the U.S. Tennis Association said.
The USTA said it “previously condemned, and continues to condemn, the unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine by Russia.”
Russian player Daniil Medvedev, the current No. 1 player in the world, won last year’s U.S. Open.
Jun 14, 6:37 am
Ukraine pleads for heavy weapons ahead of NATO meeting
The only way to end the war in Ukraine, either on the battlefield or behind the negotiation table, is a parity of weapons, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said on Monday.
“Being straightforward — to end the war we need heavy weapons parity,” Podoliak said on Twitter.
According to the presidential adviser, Ukraine’s military wish list includes 1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles and 1,000 drones.
“Negotiations are possible from a strong position, which requires parity of weapons,” Podoliak said. “There is simply no other way.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Podoliak’s plea for weapons on Monday in a tweet that recounted Ukraine’s recent military triumphs achieved with limited resources.
“Ukraine has proven it can punch well above its weight and win important battles against all odds,” Kuleba said, pointing at victories in the battles of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv. “Imagine what Ukraine can do with sufficient tools,” the Foreign Minister added. Kuleba urged Ukraine’s partners “to set a clear goal of Ukrainian victory and speed up deliveries of heavy weapons.”
Podoliak said a meeting of NATO defense ministers will be held in Brussels on June 15.
“We are waiting for a decision” on the weapons, Podoliak said.
The group, known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, will convene a meeting for the third time in a bid “to ensure that we’re providing Ukraine what Ukraine needs right now,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at a press briefing in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.
Austin, who will be in attendance in Brussels, said that Ukraine needs support “in order to defend against Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked assault.” The secretary of Defense noted that looking ahead, Ukraine will require help “to build and sustain robust defenses so that it will be able to defend itself in the coming months and years.”
In his Monday evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to tell people in the occupied territories “that the Ukrainian army will definitely come.”
“Tell them about Ukraine. Tell them the truth. Say that there will be liberation,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials played down threats of possible food shortages in the country due to the ongoing conflict. While Ukraine lost 25% of its sown area as a result of Russia’ full-scale invasion, the country’s food security was “in no way” threatened, Taras Vysotsky, the first deputy minister of Agrarian Policy, said at a press briefing for Ukrainian media on Monday.
“Despite the loss of 25% of sown areas, the structure of crops this year as a whole is more than sufficient to ensure consumption, which in turn also decreased due to mass displacement and external migration,” Vysotsky said.
The deputy minister added that Ukraine has “already imported about 70% of essential fertilizers, 60% of plant protection products and about a third of the required amount of fuel” before the war erupted in late February. According to Vysotsky, current sowing volumes are enough to ensure domestic consumption and even exports.
Jun 13, 9:26 am
Bodies of tortured men exhumed in Bucha
Another mass grave has been dug up in Bucha, uncovering the bodies of seven men who authorities believe were tortured and killed during the bloody occupation of the city in March.
Police told ABC News their hands were tied with ropes behind their backs and they were shot in the knees and head.
“They were killed in a cruel way,” police spokesperson Iryna Pryanyshnykova said. “These were civilian victims. The people here were killed by Russian soldiers and later they were just put into a grave to try to hide this war crime.”
It’s not clear why the men were killed, Pryanyshnykova said.
She said experts will analyze DNA to identify the victims.
-ABC News’ Britt Clennett
Jun 13, 6:24 am
Zelenskyy: Ukraine fighting for ‘every meter’ of Severodonetsk
Russian forces have pushed the Armed Forces of Ukraine out of the center of Severodonetsk, Ukrainian officials said.
“They are pressing in Severodonetsk, where very fierce fighting is going on — literally for every meter,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Sunday evening.
Russian forces now control about 70% of the city, as intense shelling makes mass evacuation and the transportation of goods impossible, Sergiy Haidai, another Ukrainian official, said.
Around 500 people, including 40 children, are sheltering in the city’s Azot chemical plant, Haidai said.
While the Ukrainians try to organize their evacuation, authorities of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic have given an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in the city.
“They have two options: either follow the example of their colleagues and give up, or die. They have no other option,” said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People’s Militia Department of the DPR.
-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd and Tanya Stukalova
Jun 12, 5:33 pm
Zelenskyy sends virtual message to Sean Penn’s CORE benefit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the annual Hollywood fundraiser for actor Sean Penn’s nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) Saturday night with a powerful video message urging people to continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“All of you have heard about the horrors that Ukraine is going through. Tens of thousands of explosions and shots, hundreds of thousands wounded and killed, millions who have lost their homes,” Zelenskyy said in his virtual speech. “All of this is not a logline for a horror film. All of this is our reality.”
Zelenskyy’s video message included footage showing missiles striking homes and apartment complexes in Ukraine, civilians dead in the streets of Ukrainian cities and children playing in parks amid the backdrop of bombed buildings.
Among those attending the CORE fundraiser, held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angles, were Penn and CORE co-founder Ann Lee, former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, singer John Legend, and actors Patrick Stewart and Sharon Stone.
The group said the event raised more than $2.5 million for CORE’s disaster relief and preparedness work, including its urgent humanitarian response in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted that Penn traveled to Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion and witnessed the atrocities firsthand. He thanked Penn and his group for the continued support for Ukraine.
“We have been resisting it for 107 days in a row,” Zelenskyy said of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. “We can stop it together. Support Ukraine, because Ukraine is fighting for the whole world, for democracy, for freedom, for life.”
Jun 12, 4:17 pm
Russia’s firepower superiority 10 times that of Ukraine’s in Luhansk: Military chief
Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny said Sunday that he told his American counterpart, Gen. Mark Milley, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Russian firepower superiority in the Luhansk region is far greater than that of Ukrainian forces.
Zaluzhny said that during a briefing he told Milley that Russian forces are concentrating their efforts in the north of the Luhansk region, where they are using artillery “en masse” and their firepower superiority is 10 times that of Ukraine’s.
“Despite everything, we keep holding our positions,” Zaluzhny said.
Zaluzhny also said Russia has deployed up to seven battalion tactical groups in Severdonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region. He said Russian shelling of residential areas in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has resumed.
Russian forces destroyed a second bridge leading into Severodonetsk and are now targeting a third bridge in an effort to completely cut off the city, Luhansk region Gov. Sergiy Haidai said Sunday. Ukraine’s army still controls around one third of the city, he said.
Haidai said that Ukrainian forces are still holding onto the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where around 500 civilians are taking shelter.
If Severodonetsk falls, Lysychansk will be the only city in the Luhansk region that remains under Ukraine’s control.
Zaluzhny said that as of Sunday, the front line of the war stretched 1,522 miles and that active combat was taking place on at least 686 miles of the front line.
Zaluzhny said that during his briefing with Milley, he reiterated Ukraine’s urgent request for more 155 mm caliber artillery systems.
Jun 12, 12:48 pm
Russian cruise missile attack confirmed in western Ukraine
Russia claims a cruise missile strike destroyed a large warehouse in western Ukraine storing weapons supplied to the Ukrainians by the United States and European allies.
While police in the Ternopil region of Ukraine, where at least one cruise missile hit, told ABC News that no weapons were destroyed, the region’s governor said part of a military facility was damaged.
Ternopil’s governor Volodymyr Trush posted a video showing widespread damage from what he said were four Russian missiles launched Saturday from the Black Sea. Trush said 22 people were wounded, including a 12-year-old child, in the missile strikes.
In addition to the military facility, Trush said four five-story residential apartment buildings were damaged. One of the missiles hit a gas pipeline, he said.
Russia’s defense ministry said Kalibr high presicion sea-based, long-range missiles struck near Chortkiv in the Ternopil province and destroyed a large warehouse full of anti-tank missile systems, portable anti-aircraft missile systems and artillery shells supplied by the United States and European countries.
