Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini and Bonnie Raitt are repping country music at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony. They’re all among the list of artists presenting awards at the show.
Keith is a four-time Grammy winner, most recently taking home the trophy for Best Male Country Performance for his song “‘Til Summer Comes Around” at the 53rd Grammy Awards. Meanwhile, Bonnie is a bona fide Grammy darling: She’s won 10 trophies over the years, plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.
Kelsea’s no slouch at the awards show, either. She’s been nominated twice, once for the all-genre Best New Artist category, and once for Best Country Album for her 2017 project, Unapologetically.
The three country artists join a diverse lineup of presenters that also includes Anthony Mackie, who’s co-hosting the CMT Music Awards with Kelsea next month.
Other presenters include Megan Thee Stallion, Joni Mitchell, Questlove, Lenny Kravitz, Dua Lipa, Ludacris, Billy Porter, Avril Lavigne, Jared Leto and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez.
The 2022 Grammy Awards will air this Sunday, April 3 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Jim Carrey may be stepping away from acting in the near future.
The comic and actor, who’s currently starring in the animated film Sonic the Hedgehog 2, tells Access Hollywoodthat he’s “fairly serious” about “retiring.”
“I really like my quiet life,” he expresses, focusing his time on painting and spirituality.
The legendary actor, who’s 60, says he would consider returning to the big screen if he’s presented with a script that is “going to be really important for people to see.”
“But I’m taking a break,” he affirms. “I feel like I have enough, I’ve done enough, I am enough.”
In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which comes out on April 8, Carrey is also appearing in the Bob Saget tribute special alongside Chris Rock, John Stamos and more, premiering on Netflix in June.
“Strange Game,” Mick Jagger‘s theme song to the new Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, was released today as a digital single, coinciding with the premiere of the show’s first two episodes.
The track, which features a mysterious, jazzy vibe, was co-written by Jagger and composer Daniel Pemberton, who also composed the score to the show. A lyric video for the tune, which incorporates scenes from Slow Horses, has debuted at Mick’s official YouTube channel.
“I really enjoyed creating the theme track for Slow Horses with Daniel Pemberton,” Jagger says in a statement. “I’ve read a lot of the books [author Mike Heron‘s Slough House series] and was familiar with some of the more dark and unsavoury characters and knew the direction I wanted to take it…hope you enjoy it!”
As previously reported, Slow Horses stars Gary Oldman as the head of a branch of the U.K. counter-intelligence agency MI5, who oversees a group of failed agents hoping to redeem themselves.
Jagger wrote lyrics for “Strange Game,” which include specific references to the show.
(NEW YORK) — Tribal land in Virginia will be returned to the Rappahannock Tribe during a celebration hosted by the Department of the Interior Friday.
Secretary Deb Haaland will join the Rappahannock Tribe, Chesapeake Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in honor of the tribe’s historic reacquisition of roughly 465 acres at Fones Cliffs.
The Fones Cliffs lie on the eastern side of the Rappahannock River and are located within the authorized boundary of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
“Threatened by development for decades, this ‘crown jewel’ of Virginia has immense significance, not only for the surrounding environment but for American history,” the Conservation Fund’s website states.
According to the organization, the Fones Cliffs are the site where Captain John Smith and his crew were ambushed by Rappahannock Tribe members.
Smith’s ships continued their journey unharmed, but the fund states that the Fones Cliffs are a reminder of the tribe’s dedication to preserving its land.
The land will remain publicly accessible and will be given to the Rappahannock Tribe with a permanent conservation easement that legally limits the use of the sacred land for conservation efforts.
The news comes just as the Virginia state legislature passed a bill to create the Virginia Black, Indigenous and People of Color Historic Preservation Fund.
The fund would award grant money to recognized tribes and nonprofit organizations to acquire and preserve land that is of cultural or historic significance to Black and Indigenous communities, as well as other communities of color.
The legislation is now awaiting Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature.
(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut judge has denied a motion to halt financial penalties imposed on Alex Jones. As of Friday, the conspiracy theorist and right-wing provocateur owes $25,000 for declining to sit for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims.
Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis assessed the fine, which increases exponentially each day Jones refuses to appear, and on Friday denied his motion for a stay.
Jones appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court.
“The defendant in this case is Alex Jones, and, to many, that is reason enough to uphold any fine or sanction. But the law, our law, is better than mere vendetta,” defense attorney Norm Pattis wrote in the state supreme court appeal.
Jones, founder of Infowars, claimed the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax. Families of those killed sued him for defamation and Jones failed to comply with court orders to appear at a deposition on March 23 and 24.
In Novemeber, Bellis found Jones liable for damages by default because Jones and his companies, like Infowars, showed “callous disregard” for the rules of discovery. She previously faulted the Infowars host for failing to comply with requests for documents and other procedures.
Jones’ attorneys said he can sit for a two-day deposition April 11 and 12. That would make his running fine $525,000, Pattis said.
“Jones and others are sued for comments they made denying that the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 took place. For many Connecticut residents, that is reason enough to hate Jones. One suspects Judge Bellis has succumbed to that hatred,” Pattis wrote.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Christopher Mattei argued, successfully, to keep the fines in place, saying a promise to appear April 11 is not the same as “real-life attendance” at the deposition.
“The escalating fines were imposed to compel his appearance and should not be set aside merely because Mr. Jones has yet again said he will appear,” Mattei wrote in a court filing.
Twenty children and six staff members died in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut, school at the hands of gunman Adam Lanza.
Camila Cabello drops her highly anticipated new album, Familia, next week. While the “Havana” singer has been teasing snippets of the album’s songs, she turned up the hype on Friday by dropping the album’s complete track list.
“Familia next Friday! Any guesses which will be your favorite?” she tweeted, and shared a link so fans can pre-save the project.
Camila also unveiled her album collaborators. Aside from Ed Sheeran, who joined her on the recently released “Bam Bam,” others include WILLOW, the daughter of Will Smith, as well as Latin superstars Maria Becerra and Yotuel.
Willow will join Camila on the track “Psychofreak,” which the Grammy nominee previously revealed was her favorite song on the album because it harnesses “the craziest and deepest thoughts I have when it comes to being in a relationship with someone… I bare my soul.”
Maria and Yotuel will respectively accompany Camile on the singles “Hasta Los Dientes” — which means “Armed to the Teeth” in English — and “Lola.”
In all, Familia offers 12 new songs from Camila. She’ll preview them all ahead of the album’s release, via her “immersive” TikTok concert Familia: Welcome to the Family, which takes place April 7 starting at 7 p.m. on her TikTok account.
Familia drops a few hours later, at midnight, on April 8. Camila’s already teasing that a deluxe version is also on the way, though a release date hasn’t been announced.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden touted the nation’s economic recovery on Friday while also acknowledging the financial hardships currently intensified by the war in Ukraine.
“Americans are back to work,” Biden said from the White House. “Record job creation. Record unemployment decline. Record wage gains.”
U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
“Even though we created a record number of jobs we know — I know that this job is not finished. We need to do more to get prices under control. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world,” Biden continued, noting his unprecedented order Thursday to release up to 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Biden did not take reporters’ shouted questions on inflation following his prepared remarks.
Though the March report came in slightly below economists’ expectations, the numbers for January and February were revised higher to show 95,000 more jobs added in those months.
The report also showed that notable job gains continued in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade and manufacturing.
The labor force participation rate, or the number of people in the economy looking for work, is inching almost back to where it was before the pandemic. As employees head back to the office, teleworking fell to 10% from 13% the previous month.
March marks the 11th consecutive month of job growth above 400,000. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is the strongest job growth in the U.S. since 1939.
More than 19.9 million of the 22 million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic have now been recovered, with economists expecting a full recovery by the summer.
“The March jobs report was right down the fairway – lots of jobs, lower unemployment, and higher labor force participation. The job market is rip-roaring. While not quite back to full-employment, the economy is close, and at the current pace of job growth will be there by summer,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote on Twitter. “But it is somewhat disquieting in that the job market must cool off quickly, or inflation, our number one economic problem, will soon be a much bigger one.”
The report, while strong, comes amid soaring gasoline prices and 40-year high inflation, which has cost Biden in the polls ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Seventy percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of inflation, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve just two weeks ago raised short-term interest rates for the first time since 2018 and said it will raise them six more times this year in an attempt to offset inflation.
Chris Brown told us it was “NO JOKE” that his new single, “WE (Warm Embrace),” would be dropping on April Fool’s day today, and fans are thankful the singer delivered on his promise.
On the new soulful R&B track, the Grammy winner shows off his vocals, singing a ballad of love and affection.
“THE KING OF R&B IS BACK,” said one Instagram user, who commented on Breezy’s Friday announcement. Others left comments that included “Masterpiece” and “best thing i’ve listened to in a long time.”
Some of the lyrics in the smooth track are, “And I wanted to wrap you in // My warm embrace // And make it last forever // Girl, I catch a glimpse of heaven // When you let me wrap you in (Wrap you in) // My warm embrace.”
“WE (Warm Embrace)” is the latest project from Breezy since “Iffy,” which he released earlier this year. Both of those tracks were preceded by the record-breaking 2021 hit “Go Crazy,” ft. Young Thug, which earned the title of longest-running number-one song on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Chart, according to Billboard.
Gotcha! Jimin is playing one heck of an April Fool’s prank on his fellow BTS band mates and their fans by taking over their Twitter account — literally.
Over 45 million people follow BTS on Twitter, but the account now belongs to Jimin and Jimin only. He changed the group’s icon and banner to images of him, with the former being of him as a baby — and he also changed their Twitter handle to his name, Jimin Park.
“I don’t know how to change it back to original,” he tweeted in Korean. “I don’t know anyway.”
But Jimin wasn’t done. He extended his prank to Instagram and pretended to be Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of their label, BigHit Music. Just as he did on Twitter, Jimin changed his profile image to that of Si-hyuk and updated his bio to “Father of BTS” in Korean.
As of late Friday morning, neither profile has been changed back to normal.
In conjunction with the prize, Bono received an award of $50,000 to donate to the charities of his choice, which he bestowed on the ONE and (RED) organizations he co-founded.
During his acceptance speech, Bono talked about his passion for rock music, which is all about freedom and liberation, drawing parallels to the ideals of the U.S. and to Ukraine’s current fight for freedom against its Russian invaders.
Reflecting on growing in Ireland during a time of great conflict in that country, Bono noted, “We looked to America. We saw a country with its own long-running arguments, its own injustices. We knew this promised land wasn’t always keeping to that promise. We knew America wasn’t living up to all its ideals, but the fact is America had ideals.”
He continued, “We knew that because you wrote them down, you cited them, you held yourself to account on them. They shaped the struggle for civil rights and women’s rights and gay rights. I don’t know how, but I seemed to know that America wasn’t just a country. I felt it was an idea.”
In honoring Bono with the Fulbright Prize, Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin, Fulbright Association Board Chair, said, “The purpose of the Fulbright Prize is to recognize those who promote peace through greater understanding among peoples, cultures, and nations, and there’s no doubt that Bono embodies the best of leadership in times of unrelenting global crises and challenges.”
You can watch a video of the presentation at the Fulbright Association’s YouTube channel.
