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Elton John scores top-10 album with ‘The Lockdown Sessions’; launches his own line of eyewear

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Elton John has scored his 21st top-10 album on the Billboard 200 with his latest studio effort, The Lockdown Sessions, which debuted at #10 on the chart after earning 29,000 equivalent album units during its first week out. Seventeen thousand of that sum were for album sales.

The Lockdown Sessions boasts collaborations Elton recorded virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic with a wide variety of artists. The album includes the U.K. pop-rock legend’s latest top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” a duet with British pop star Dua Lipa that mashes up four of Elton’s earlier songs. The single reached #21 on the Hot 100 last week.

The album also features collaborating with Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and many others.

Elton scored his first top-10 album back in January of 1971 with his self-titled 1970 record, which reached #4 on the tally. His most recent album to break into the top 10 was 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night, which peaked at #8.

Meanwhile, over the past few days, Elton’s social media pages have featured several iconic photos of the performer without his signature glasses. Well, now we know why: He’s launching his own line of eyewear.

A video on Elton’s Instagram announces the news, with the caption, “I’m just not myself without my glasses. Which is why I’m very excited to finally announce my eyewear collaboration with @walmart and @samsclub. Designed by me to celebrate you!”

The video shows a wide range of specs in many shapes, sizes and colors, though none as quite elaborate as some of the ones Elton wore in the ’70s. As Elton notes, the proceeds will support his Elton John AIDS Foundation.

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Darius Rucker to play theaters across the US on 2022 tour

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Darius Rucker is stepping into new territory with an upcoming theater tour.

With Darius Rucker Live, the “Beers and Sunshine” hitmaker has booked a 12-city tour that visits theaters all around the country, including New York’s Beacon Theatre, the Chicago Theatre, Palace Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, Saenger Theatre in New Orleans and more.

After decades of playing arenas as a solo act and as part of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius says these intimate theater performances have been on his bucket list.

“It’s been a dream of mine for a while to bring our show to these beautiful theaters. Some of my favorite venue memories over the years are at places like the Apollo in New York or the Royal Albert Hall in London, as it’s just a different experience when you’re that close,” he says in a statement. “I’ll just say that this tour will have a lot of firsts, even for me.”

The tour begins on February 17 at The Met in Philadelphia and wraps up on April 1 in New Orleans. Caylee Hammack joins as the opening act.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. ET. Visit Darius’ official website for the full list of tour dates.

Halloween costume mashup: Saweetie channels Halle Berry’s Catwoman; Ciara performs as Selena; and more

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Musicians and celebrities took their creativity to a whole ‘nother level with their character-inspired Halloween costumes. Here’s a mashup of some of the best dressed:

Cardi B. came to slay as Addams Family matriarch, Morticia Addams, in a perfected Morticia costume. She later switched up her attire to channel a witch and took photos with her daughter, Kulture, who also wore a similar costume. “We put a spell on you and now you’re ours,” she captioned the photo.

Megan The Stallion, meanwhile, decided to channel one of her favorite Disney villains, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. “Say what you want but a b*** be WORKIN,” she captioned her photo.

black-ish and grown-ish star Yara Shahidi decided to pay homage to late R&B singer Aaliyah with her costume. “Happy Halloweekend!” she captioned the video.

Ciara also did a tribute-inspired costume. She took on the Queen of Tejano music, Selena, in a photo shoot and video. “The Legendary Selena! I’ve been practicing learning Spanish and having the time of my life,” she wrote. “So I wanted one of my costumes to reflect the LatinX culture. This was so much fun!”

Finally, Saweetie brought out the claws for her Halloween costume. The rapper channeled Halle Berry in her 2004 film Catwoman. “Had to put on for the best Catwoman to ever do it @halleberry,” Saweetie wrote, captioning a video of herself walking on a rooftop and running into Berry herself.

The Oscar winner later reposted the fun video, adding the caption, “there’s enough room for more than one Catwoman @saweetie.”

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Everybody loves you now: Billy Joel’s debut album was released 50 years ago today

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

It’s Billy Joel‘s golden anniversary as an artist: 50 years ago, on November 1, 1971, his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, was released. Here are some things you may not know about the record that first introduced us to Billy’s talents:

–The album was named after a hamlet on the north shore of Long Island, New York, near where Billy grew up. The cover photo shows him standing on Harbor Road in Cold Spring Harbor.

—In 2011, Billy said he made Cold Spring Harbor because he wanted other artists to hear his songs and record them; he was advised the best way to do that was to make an album of them and then go on the road.

–One of the songs on the album, “Tomorrow Is Today,” was inspired by the depression Billy had gone through the year before, which culminated in him attempting suicide by drinking furniture polish, followed by a hospital stay to recover.

–Due to a technical error, the Cold Spring Harbor master tapes were transferred to vinyl at the wrong speed, making Billy sound, he said, “like a chipmunk.” It was finally remastered in 1983, but Billy still thinks he sounds like a chipmunk.

–Cold Spring Harbor flopped, but when Billy included a few of its songs on his 1981 live album Songs in the Attic, one of them, “She’s Got a Way,” became a top-40 hit — 10 years after he first recorded it.

–In 2011, when Billy’s catalog was reissued as a box set, he said of Cold Spring Harbor, “You don’t have to pay a lot of attention to this one. It’s the embryonic Billy Joel, I suppose.”

Here’s the full track list of Cold Spring Harbor:

“She’s Got a Way”
“You Can Make Me Free”
“Everybody Loves You Now”
“Why Judy Why”
“Falling of the Rain”
“Turn Around”
“You Look So Good to Me”
“Tomorrow Is Today”
“Nocturne”
“Got to Begin Again”

Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey smashes Halloween pumpkins and declares, “It’s time!”

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Halloween is officially over, and you know what that means: Mariah Carey is giving us all permission to start celebrating Christmas.

In a video posted to social media Monday, we see three pumpkins spelling out “It’s not time.” Then we see Mariah in a red sparkly dress armed with a candy cane striped baseball bat. As the clock strikes midnight on November 1 and her holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” starts to play, Mariah takes the bat and smashes the pumpkins.

“It’s time!” she says, as the video cuts to her decked out in full-on Christmas mode. We also see a flash of a present with “11/5” on it — a hint of something being released on that date, perhaps?

The clip ends with the message, “It’s time!!! To smash that pumpkin and treat it as pie…cause we still gotta get through Thanksgiving!!!”

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Watch footage from Mark Hoppus’ first post-cancer performance

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Mark Hoppus is back to rocking once more.

The Blink-182 bassist/vocalist performed during his band mate Travis Barker‘s House of Horrors Halloween streaming event last week, marking his first post-cancer set.

Hoppus, who was dressed as Batman, joined Barker for a trio of Blink songs alongside guest guitarist Kevin Gruft of Escape the Fate. You can watch captured footage from the performance streaming now on YouTube.

Hoppus revealed news of his cancer diagnosis in June. After months of chemotherapy, he announced this past September that he’s “cancer free.”

Along with Hoppus, other House of Horrors performers included Machine Gun Kelly, Avril Lavigne, jxdn, blackbear and iann dior.

Kenny Chesney adds Dan + Shay, Old Dominion & Carly Pearce to 2022 tour

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Kenny Chesney has an all-star lineup joining him on the 2022 Here and Now Tour.

The superstar has tapped three of the biggest modern acts in country music as his supporting acts: Dan + Shay, Old Dominion and Carly Pearce.

“No matter who you are — someone who’s been coming since the very beginning or is curious what the fuss is all about — I wanted to give No Shoes Nation the best lineup of music that’s gonna give them the kind of celebratory night we all deserve after waiting so long,” Kenny says.

“We’ve been going to this tour as fans for over a decade and it’s an absolute DREAM to be a part of it. look for us in the crowd every night singing every word to every song,” Dan + Shay reacted on Instagram.

“It has been a bucket list dream to one day get to tour with @kennychesney and it’s finally happening. See y’all on the road in 2022 on the #hereandnowtour!!!!!” raves Carly.

Originally supposed to take place in 2020, the Here and Now Tour, originally titled the Chillaxification Tour, has been postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kenny will make his grand return to multiple stadiums across the country next year, beginning on April 23 at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Right now, the tour is scheduled to wrap up with a two-night stand at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on August 26 and 27.

The “Knowing You” singer has added two new stops to the trek at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on April 30 and the Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio on August 18. Tickets for the Charlotte show go on sale November 12. Details for the Columbus date will be announced soon.

Taylor Swift gets squirrely, Katy Perry shoots her shot for Halloween 2021

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Many of your favorite stars went all-out for Halloween. Here’s a roundup of some of the standout costumes:

Taylor Swift dressed up in a full-body squirrel outfit, captioning her pic, “can’t talk right now, I’m doin hot squirrel s***.”

Katy Perry, who’d previously teased that her costume would be “very topical” and “very goofy,” made good on her promise. She dressed as a vaccine syringe, while her partner Orlando Bloom was dressed as Dr. Fauci. Captioning their photo on Instagram, Orlando wrote, “I vaxed a girl and I liked it.”

The Weeknd was completely unrecognizable as Marlon Brando’s character Don Corleone from The Godfather. He posted photos of the impressive transformation on social media, captioning it, “The don is coming” — a joking reference to his recent posts about how “the dawn is coming.”

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner dressed as Paolo and Isabella from The Lizzie McGuire Movie. They got the stamp of approval from Lizzie herself — Hilary Duff — who commented on their photo, “IM SCREAMING” with a bunch of crying emojis.

Maroon 5‘s Adam Levine dressed as Jason from the Friday the 13th films and posted a photo on his Instagram story of himself trick or treating with one of his daughters, who was dressed as either a leopard or a cheetah. He also posted an adorable photo of a little boy dressed as a shirtless Adam Levine: The kid wore a flesh-colored top on which someone had painstakingly drawn all of Adam’s tattoos.

Dua Lipa dressed as — we think — a sexy vampire, and posted video of herself cavorting with someone dressed in one of those full-body rubber bondage suits, like the Rubber Man from American Horror Story.

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Kal Penn reveals engagement to his partner of 11 years

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kal Penn, reveals in his new book, You Can’t Be Serious, that he has been in a relationship with his partner Josh for 11 years, and the the couple is engaged.

“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with. Whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we’re talking to friends,” the Designated Survivor actor tells People.

When it came to the book, however, Penn 44, wanted to be transparent, while also being respectful to his family.

“I’m really excited to share our relationship with readers, he notes, but Josh, my partner, my parents and my brother, four people who I’m closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don’t love attention and shy away from the limelight.”

Adds Penn, semi-jokingly, “When you’ve already told your Indian parents and the South Asian community that you intend to be an actor for a living, really any conversations that come after that are super easy.”

Kal says discovering his own sexuality “came relatively late in life compared to many other people,” explaining, “There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their s*** out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”

Penn’s book, You Can’t Be Serious, comes out on Tuesday.

Halloween costume roundup: The Weeknd as the Godfather, Lizzo as Baby Yoda and more

November 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Some of your favorite music stars went all out for Halloween this year. Here’s a roundup of some of the most memorable costumes:

Equally as unrecognizable was Lizzo, who dressed up as Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, from The Mandalorian. She delivered a surprise performance, in costume, at Spotify’s Ghost Town Halloween Party in West Hollywood on Saturday.

And Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom stepped out as a vaccine syringe and Dr. Fauci, respectively. Captioning their photo on Instagram, Orlando wrote, “I vaxed a girl and I liked it.”

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