While Doja Cat sprinted from the bathroom Sunday night to accept the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance Grammy Award for “Kiss Me More,” SZA, who’s featured on the groovy track, limped her way to the stage on crutches.
The 32-year-old singer told reporters after the ceremony that she “fell out of bed” as it was time to leave for the show, but it wasn’t confirmed until a visit to the doctors on Monday that she did, in fact, break her ankle.
SZA shared a video on Instagram showing her lower leg being wrapped in elastic bandages, saying, “LMAO welp it’s confirmed broken …I thought it was just sprained 😭 I was NOT missing that carpet.”
The “Good Days” singer arrived to the Grammy ceremony in a wheelchair that, at some point during the festivities, was pushed around by Lil Nas X. “i am now sza’s personal care taker,” the former Grammy winner joked on Twitter.
Lady Gaga even jumped in to assist a frail SZA, by holding up the bottom end of her Jean Paul Gaultier dress, so SZA could more easily walk up the stage steps.
Despite the fall, SZA posed on the carpet without crutches and sported high heels to the show so, fans weren’t sure if the singer was faking the injury. Turns out, she wasn’t, and she actually chipped the corner of her ankle bone.
“…that’s the way it goes,” SZA said in her post-Grammys interview. “Like everything awesome in my life has always come with something like very random but it just adds to the energy and I’m just grateful.”
Kelsea Ballerini is getting ready to release a new single, “Heart First,” and she promises that it’s a “bop.”
Kelsea shared that she finished writing her upcoming album while on vacation, and when asked by actress Laverne Cox on E! Newsif we can expect “vacation vibes” from the new music, the singer hinted that the single will be a deviation from her most recent hit, “Half of My Hometown.”
“I just had a song go #1 at country radio and it was very songwriter, about my hometown, ballad,” Kelsea says in reference to her duet with Kenny Chesney. “This one is the other side. It’s like a bop, breezy, windows down, go for a drive, get right.”
“Heart First,” which the Knoxville, TN native co-wrote with Little Big Town‘s Karen Fairchild, will be released on Thursday.
(WASHINGTON) — For the first time since leaving office, former President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Tuesday to join his former vice president in promoting the Affordable Health Care Act he signed into law 12 years ago.
Obama joined President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to deliver remarks on the Affordable Care Act, with Harris speaking first to applaud the anniversary and introduce the former president. Obama received a standing ovation and told a packed East Room, “It is good to be back at the White House.”
Before addressing the landmark legislation of his presidency, Obama cracked a few jokes, as he often did as president. First, he light-heartedly opened his remarks by jokingly thanking “Vice President Biden.”
“That was a joke. That was all set up,” Obama said to laughter, walking back to give Biden a hug.
“I confess, I heard some changes have been made by the current president since I was last here,” Obama continued. “Apparently, Secret Service agents have to wear Aviator glasses now. The Navy mess has been replaced by a Baskin-Robbins. And there’s a cat running around, which I guarantee Beau and Sunny would have been very unhappy about,” he said to laughter.
Obama then pivoted to the purpose of his visit: to celebrate 12 years of the Affordable Care Act, saying it’s “an example of why you run for office in the first place.”
“We’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power. We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here,” Obama said.
Biden is set to announce new steps his administration is taking to build on the Affordable Care Act, including a new executive order and a proposed rule from the Treasury Department to fix the ACA’s so-called “family glitch.” Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, other members of Biden’s Cabinet and some Democratic lawmakers were also in attendance.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Obama will tout the ACA, which she said they view as “a shining example of how government can work for the American people.”
“Not only did it ensure that millions of people had access to affordable health care, but it has been an opportunity to build on that and make changes and make improvements over the course of time, which of course is what they will talk about tomorrow,” Psaki said at Monday’s press briefing.
She said Obama and Biden will also have lunch at the White House Tuesday — “as they used to do on a weekly basis” — and added, “They continue to talk regularly.”
“They are real friends, not just Washington friends, and so I’m sure they will talk about events in the world as well as their families and personal lives,” Psaki said.
The visit from the popular former president comes as Biden struggles in the polls over his handling of 40-year-high inflation and soaring gas prices he’s pinned to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Psaki said it’s “exactly the right time to have the former president come here — given this is one of the proudest accomplishments that they worked on together, they shared together.”
“And it is emblematic of their shared view and belief that government can work for people and it can work for the American people. And this is an example of building on a success from more than 10 years ago and making it better over time,” she added.
Psaki also said to expect Obama to return to the White House again soon for his presidential portrait unveiling “and perhaps other engagements here in the future,” she said.
Since Biden took office, the administration helped to lower health care premiums for 9 million Americans through the American Rescue Plan, Psaki noted Monday, “the biggest expansion of affordable health care since the ACA.”
“We’ve made affordable health coverage more accessible during the pandemic through the opening of the special enrollment period, which enabled nearly 3 million Americans to have access to newly sign up for coverage under the ACA,” she said. “And President Biden has overseen the most successful open enrollment in history last year with the historic 14.5 million Americans signing up for ACA coverage and another million people signing up for the basic health care program.”
Tuesday marks Biden and Obama’s first joint appearance since attending the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks last fall in New York and their first joint event in Washington since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021.
Back in 2010, when the pair celebrated the ACA’s passage, Biden was caught on hot mic applauding Obama at the White House for what he called “a big f****** deal.”
Paraphrasing the memorable moment, a senior administration official told reporters of the change Biden is announcing Tuesday, “to borrow a phrase, this rule is a — is a big deal.”
“We think it’s the most significant administrative action to improve implementation of the ACA that we’ve taken since the law was first implemented,” the official said.
The rule would begin to take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2023, and Americans will be able to sign up to get financial assistance during the next open enrollment period.
As of last year, about 31 million Americans had health care coverage through the ACA, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
You might need to clear you schedule to listen to the new Primus song.
The track, titled “Conspiranoia,” lasts over 11-and-a-half minutes. The epic tune premiered today via Consequence, which also revealed the news of a new Primus EP called Conspiranoid, set to arrive April 22.
“With our new studio in the works and some impending touring, we decided the world needed to be subjected to some new Primus material,” frontman Les Claypool tells Consequence. “Not wanting, or even having the time for recording an entire album, the notion of a ‘single’ was tossed around.”
“I’d been itching to record an opus — basically a long, winding, bastard of a song, reminiscent of some of the compositions I cut my teeth (or ears) on, in my music-hungry adolescence,” he adds. “I said to the fellas, ‘Let’s record a 20-minute song.’ The end result was an 11-and-a-half minute, progressive hunk of sound called ‘Conspiranoia.'”
Primus’ most recent album is 2017’s The Desaturating Seven. More recently, the trio has been paying homage to Rush on the A Tribute to Kings tour, which picks up again this month starting April 15 in Oklahoma City.
You can also catch Primus play the 25th anniversary South Park concert, taking place August 10 at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Primus, of course, performs the iconic cartoon’s theme song.
The Backstreet Boys are going global with their upcoming DNA Tour. On Tuesday, the hitmakers revealed they’re not only adding new dates to the North American leg of their tour, they’re also going to Europe.
The DNA Tour kicks off in Las Vegas this upcoming weekend and, to ensure they see as many fans as possible, BSB added several major U.S. cities to their itinerary. New stops include Portland, Nashville, Austin, Cincinnati and others. In addition, the “Everybody” singers will also visit Canada with stop sin Edmonton, Alberta; Ottawa, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and more.
The DNA North American tour runs until September 14, with a final stop in Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center before the boys jet across the pond to Lisbon, Portugal to resume their trek on October 3. The tour will visit Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K.
The DNA World Tour is in support of Backstreet Boys’ 10th studio album, DNA, which dropped in 2019 and features the hit song “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Unfortunately, the boys had to pump the brakes on their tour plans because of the ongoing pandemic, but they’re now ready to hit the gas on their biggest arena tour in nearly 20 years.
Tickets for previously announced dates are on sale now. Fans hoping to catch BSB at their new North American concert stops can purchase tickets this Friday, April 8, at 10 a.m. local time on the group’s official website.
While waiting to catch the boys live in action, you can watch the first part of their new Making of the DNA Tour docuseries on YouTube.
It’s the perfect 90s and 2020’s R&B collaboration we didn’t see coming.
The “Queen of hip hop soul,” Mary J. Blige, called on Grammy-winning soul singer H.E.R. to be featured on the remix of Blige’s number-one single, “Good Morning Gorgeous.”
The two singers, who are both widely considered among the best R&B artists of their time, deliver back-and-forth style and vocals over the D’Mile-produced track.
H.E.R. is also featured as a writer and producer on the NAACP Image Award-winning song, which served as the lead single on Blige’s 14th studio album, Good Morning Gorgeous.
Blige has long been celebrated as hip hop royalty, ever since she broke out on the music scenes in the early 90s with Grammy-winning songs like “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By.”
H.E.R. is showing no signs of slowing down after recently winning a Grammy for the song “Fight for You” and performing alongside music greats Lenny Kravitz and Travis Barker.
Pearl Jam, Jack White, Kings of Leon and Greta Van Fleet are among the many artists set to play the 2022 Bourbon & Beyond festival, taking place September 15-18 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The bill, which certainly puts the beyond in Bourbon & Beyond, also includes Chris Stapleton, Alanis Morissette, The Revivalists, St. Vincent and Cold War Kids.
“Bourbon and Beyond is definitely one we are looking forward to,” says KoL’s Caleb Followill. “It has amazing food and obviously the best stuff to drink, I love both of those things. And sharing the stage over the four days with friends like Pearl Jam and Chris Stapleton makes us even more excited about it. We can’t wait!”
Tickets are on sale now. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit BourbonandBeyond.com.
The singer shared a snippet of the studio video version of “The Kind of Love We Make” on Instagram, an unreleased song he previously teased last year. The recorded version features a smooth melody accented by a twangy steel guitar as Luke sings with smoky vocals, “let the passion take us to a higher place/Making the kind of love we make.”
“Listen to what I just got…#TheKindOfLoveWeMake,” Luke teases in the caption.
Unsurprisingly, the country superstar’s fervent fan base was quick to share their responses, with one sharing, “Already obsessed with this new one,” with another echoes the sentiment, writing, “need this to drop!” “Can’t make a bad song,” praises another listener.
Luke originally shared a video of he and one of the song’s co-writers, Dustin Nunley, performing the song acoustically in October 2021. In December, the hit singer revealed that he is “putting the finishing touches” on his highly anticipated third studio album.
After teasing fans, James Gunn, the writer-director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, has released a sneak peek of the upcoming, second GOTG-themed ride bound for Disney Parks.
“Can’t wait for you to experience what we’ve been working on for YEARS,” Gunn told his followers of the roller coaster Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Appropriately, given the series’ fondness for ’70s hits, the spot is set in part to the Ohio Players‘ “Love Rollercoaster.” The snippet shows an emergency distress call from an intergalactic outpost located at the theme park. The message is intercepted in space by Rocket and Groot, who set a course to intervene.
Incidentally, fans were quick to notice the voice of Rocket’s isn’t provided by Bradley Cooper, as per usual, and although Peter Quill is in the snippet, Chris Pratt‘s face isn’t shown behind his Star-Lord helmet — and the character is snoozing in the cockpit amid the action.
The entire cast of the original film did reunite for the already-launched Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT ride at Anaheim’s Disneyland park, so it’s possible the subs are being used just for the promo spot.
In other James Gunn news, he apparently welcomed an Oscar-winning legend to his home over the weekend. “Spent 4 1/2 hours in my kitchen yesterday with Francis Ford Coppola discussing cinema,” he Instagrammed, adding his Peacemaker star fiancé Jennifer Holland and other friends were in attendance, too.
“Francis is an amazingly warm & optimistic man who just so happens to have directed some of the most wonderful films ever,” Gunn said, calling it, “An amazing day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
It only took six words for Hailey Bieber to shut down the latest round of pregnancy rumors, and she’s letting people know she is fed up with the constant speculation.
Hailey turned heads at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards when she opted to wear a flowing white Saint Laurent dress to the event. Unfortunately, some fans took that as a sign that there was a big reason why the model wasn’t styling a form-fitting dress.
Soon after, Radar Online claimed fans “are convinced” that she’s pregnant. Once Hailey caught wind of the report, she set people straight, adding the comment, “”I’m not pregnant leave me alone.”
Fans of Hailey and husband Justin Bieber began flooding the article with similar comments and demanding the outlet “respect” Hailey’s privacy.
Both Hailey and Justin has been outspoken about wanting to start a family, which has only fueled pregnancy rumors that have popped up since they tied the knot in 2018.
Interestingly enough, the Justin/Hailey speculation comes shortly after Jessie J begged fans on her Instagram story to stop asking women if they’re pregnant. The “Domino” singer said such comments aren’t just unwanted, they’re out of line.
“It’s not cool to just say or comment on anyone’s body. Unless they [or] I tell you or ask your opinion, it’s not one that’s needed or helpful,” Jesse said Friday. “Wild that some people don’t know that.”
