Billie Eilish has premiered the video for a new, acoustic version of her Happier Than Ever song, “Billie Bossa Nova.”
Accompanied by her brother/collaborator FINNEAS on guitar and some appropriately nightclub-esque lighting, the unplugged rendition gives the already swanky tune an even smoother, jazzier vibe.
You can watch the acoustic “Billie Bossa Nova” performance streaming now on YouTube.
Eilish released Happier Than Ever, her sophomore effort, this past July. Just like its predecessor, 2019’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, Happier Than Ever is nominated for a slew of Grammys, including Album of the Year.
Harry Styles is bowing out of his upcoming pre-Orange Bowl concert as the country grapples with a new COVID-19 surge caused by the Omicron variant.
Capital One announced that it’s pulling the plug on its Capital One Beach Bash, which Harry was set to co-headline with Khalid in Miami, Florida on December 30.
“Due to increasing logistical and production challenges related to the pandemic and after consultation with the artists and their production teams, we have jointly made the difficult decision to cancel the Capital One Beach Bash,” organizers said in a statement on Tuesday. “While we are disappointed to not host the concert, we are excited for a great Playoff Semifinal game at the Capital One Orange Bowl.”
Tickets for the event were free but needed to be reserved in advance. Attendees were required to either be fully vaccinated or show a negative COVID-19 test taken within the past 72 hours before the start of the show.
The Broadway lights are permanently going dark for the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill, based on her landmark 1995 album of the same name.
Amid the new COVID-19 surge caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, producers confirmed the sad news on Tuesday.
“We are dismayed by what appears to be another substantial public health crisis, and – due to the detection of multiple positive Covid-19 cases within the company – need to prioritize the health and safety of the cast, crew, and entire team working on Jagged Little Pill,” the statement read. “In light of the extreme uncertainty ahead of us this winter, and forced to choose between continuing performances and protecting our company, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our doors.”
The producers assured the two-time Tony Award-winning musical will live on by other means and referenced a production that recently opened in Australia. “We also hope and intend to find a way to bring this vibrant and vitalizing musical back to the Broadway stage, once the current crisis is past, but at this time we are in the unfortunate position to determine Friday, December 17, 2021 as the final Broadway performance of Jagged Little Pill,” they added.
Jagged Little Pill is currently the only musical to permanently dim its lights on the Great White Way amid this new COVID-19 surge, but other musicals have announced temporary closures, including Hamilton, Aladdin, Hadestown and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
The Weeknd is the latest artist to join the NFT craze, and is teaming with Billboard for his new offering.
To celebrate his smash-hit “Blinding Lights” being crowned the Greatest of All Time #Hot100 song by the music trade, Billboard is offering first-of-their-kind NFTs in the form of limited edition signed trading cards. Billboard teamed with NFL quarterback Tom Brady‘s NFT venture, Autograph, which specializes in transforming a celebrity’s signatures into non-fungible tokens that are then treated like real-life trading cards, the value of which may also increase over time.
Up for grabs are seven different animated trading cards signed by The Weeknd, which feature different stills and promotional images relating to the “Blinding Lights” music video. “Blinding Lights” spent an unprecedented 90 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and was recently crowned the biggest song to ever hit the chart.
You can begin bidding on these trading cards now; the sale ends on Thursday, December 23, at 1 p.m. ET. The auction is being held on the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea.
NFTs, otherwise known as non-fungible tokens, allow buyers to exercise sole ownership over a unique piece of digital media, such as individual songs, videos and images — and now, trading cards.
The end of Britney Spears’ conservatorship may not mean that her father, Jamie Spears, will stop receiving money from her estate.
Variety reports that that Jamie, who was suspended as Britney’s conservator in September before the entire arrangement was ended in November, has asked that his daughter’s estate keep paying his legal fees. According to court documents, Variety says, he’s petitioned for the court’s “confirmation, authorization and direction” for Britney to pay the lawyers who are involved in his “ongoing fiduciary duties relating to winding up” the conservatorship.
While the conservatorship was in effect, Britney found herself in the bizarre situation of having to pay all of her father’s legal fees, and her own legal fees, which she incurred while attempting to extricate herself from the conservatorship. Variety notes that Jamie’s attorney charges $1,200 per hour.
The court documents read, “It would be contrary to public policy if Jamie’s years of dedication to protect his daughter…could subject him to personal bankruptcy and ruin defending baseless claims….no person would ever want to step into the role as conservator if a conservatee could force a conservator to personally pay substantial legal fees defending unfounded allegations.”
Britney’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, has called Jamie’s request “an abomination,” noting in a statement to Variety, “Mr. Spears reaped many millions of dollars from Britney as a conservator, while paying his lawyers millions more, all from Britney’s work and hard earned money.”
The New York Times estimates that Mr. Spears received $6 million in his role as conservator over the 13 years it was in effect.
(NEW YORK) — As Americans brace for the possibility of another difficult winter ahead in the nation’s fight against coronavirus, there is a renewed sense of urgency to get as many people inoculated and boosted as quickly as possible, given the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant — now dominant in the U.S.
An ABC News analysis of federal and state data found that since July, there has been an acceleration of the number of breakthrough coronavirus cases, thus, of individuals who test positive after being fully vaccinated.
While federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is incomplete, only accounting for a subset of states, the analysis found that between April and November, more than 16,700 vaccinated people had died — the vast majority since the start of the delta variant’s surge, earlier this summer. Similarly, nearly all — approximately 96% — of the 1.8 million breakthrough cases — have come during the same time period.
Comparatively, in those select states, at least 5.8 million unvaccinated Americans had tested positive, and just under 64,000 unvaccinated Americans had died, during the same time period.
Despite the increase in coronavirus infections among vaccinated people, experts say vaccines are holding strong in their ability to dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness.
“Just because you have a breakthrough infection doesn’t mean the vaccine does not work and isn’t giving you huge benefit,” Dr. Justin Lessler, professor of epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told ABC News.
The analysis of state data reveals that the percentages of fully vaccinated individuals testing positive, requiring hospitalization, or dying of coronavirus remain quite low when compared to the percentage of unvaccinated Americans experiencing severe illness because of the virus. Since the rollout began last winter, only a small fraction of fully vaccinated people in the United States have experienced a breakthrough infection, and an even smaller percentage have been hospitalized or died.
“I think if you look at the data, it’s clear the vaccine is working,” Lessler said.
Breakthrough infections captured by the available data have been predominantly still associated with the delta variant. However, as concerns grow over the potential impact of the omicron variant, preliminary data suggests the new variant may be more likely to cause infections among vaccinated people.
Breakthrough cases becoming more common, data shows
Many vaccines lose their power over time and are not nearly as effective even initially as the COVID-19 vaccines. The tetanus vaccine, for example, requires a booster shot every 10 years. Other vaccines, like the flu shot — which, according to the CDC, reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% among the overall population — are needed on a yearly basis.
When the COVID-19 vaccines were first launched last December, experts did not know how long their protection would last and how the evolution of the virus might impact vaccine efficacy. At the time, Pfizer and Moderna both estimated that their vaccines were more than 90% effective.
By late May, several weeks after the vaccine program became open to the general adult population in mid-April, about half of Americans had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But in the summer and fall, as the highly-transmissible delta variant became dominant, the nation began experiencing a marked increase in infections, including among vaccinated people, as the efficacy of the vaccines began to wane.
“We do have some evidence of vaccine effectiveness waning a bit,” Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, told ABC News. “Vaccinated people start to have a higher chance of being infected than they did closer to the date of their vaccine.”
However, reporting from health officials and data revealed that infections in inoculated individuals tended not to be severe, thanks to underlying protection from the vaccines against acute illness.
CDC data, sourced from more than two dozen states, shows that between April and June, a total of 77,000 breakthrough cases and 1,500 breakthrough deaths were recorded, compared to more than 1.74 million breakthrough cases and 15,000 deaths recorded between July and the first week of November. It is unclear exactly how many of these people had also been boosted.
The federal data was pulled from 27 states, which regularly link their case surveillance and immunization information.
State-level data for breakthrough COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths is not publicly available in every state. But data obtained by ABC News from 41 states — which extends to December — echoes findings from federal data that even though the acceleration trend in breakthrough infections has continued over the last two months, the percent of fully vaccinated Americans who have experienced a breakthrough case remains low.
“An important thing to think about with breakthrough infections is not simply the number of [breakthrough cases], but what percentage of people who are vaccinated are having breakthrough infections and whether that percentage is changing in a meaningful way,” Murray explained.
Like the federally compiled data, state-level data from January to December also shows that infections among vaccinated people were still relatively uncommon. Meanwhile, it remains exceedingly rare for a vaccinated person to die of COVID-19.
Data for breakthrough infections, cases, and hospitalizations varies greatly by state. Some states provide data for all three variables, while others only offer statistics for one or two variables.
Data from 36 of the states showed that approximately 1.37% of those fully vaccinated have experienced a breakthrough infection between January and December. Similarly, data from 34 of the states showed that about 0.05% of those fully vaccinated Americans have experienced a breakthrough case that required hospitalization, and data from 36 states showed only 0.01% of those fully vaccinated have died of COVID-19.
In October, unvaccinated individuals had a 5 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 14 times greater risk of dying from it, as compared to fully vaccinated individuals, according to data compiled by the CDC. Additionally, unvaccinated individuals had a 10 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 20 times greater risk of dying from it, as compared to fully vaccinated individuals with a booster.
Breakthroughs do not mean vaccines are not working, experts say
With more people getting vaccinated, and protection declining over time since the initial vaccination series, breakthrough cases are to be expected, experts concurred.
“With waning immunity, new variants and increased population mobility, it’s no surprise that we are seeing a surge in breakthrough cases. While breakthrough cases will be for the most part mild or even asymptomatic, any new case only furthers community transmission and prolongs the pandemics,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Although vaccines remain overall, “very, very effective,” and “extremely effective” against hospitalization and death, there does indeed appear to be a decline in protection against infection, over time, Lessler explained.
“Even if we’re seeing a lot of breakthrough infections, those people are going to be less likely to end up in the hospital clinic compared to somebody who is [unvaccinated],” Lessler added.
Murray and Lessler both likened the COVID-19 vaccine to a seatbelt, explaining that even if an individual were to get into a car accident, the seatbelt can often, but not always, help prevent significant injury or death.
“Breakthrough infections are not evidence that vaccines don’t work anymore than the fact that car crashes [that] are still sometimes fatal is evidence that seatbelts don’t work. We use prevention tools because they help reduce our risk of serious disease or death, not because they are guaranteed to 100% always keep us safe,” Murray said. “If we held to that latter standard, we’d never use any preventive measures because nothing is perfect, and the result would be much more death and disease and disability.”
According to data from Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health System Tracker, from June to September, the large majority of breakthrough hospitalizations affected older Americans, as well as those with comorbidities. Further, their average stay at the hospital was shorter than those who were unvaccinated.
The unknown of omicron
Over the last three weeks, concerns over omicron have rapidly traversed the globe. Data from the CDC shows that in the U.S., the presence of the omicron variant, now the dominant variant domestically, has increased by 70% over the last two weeks.
“With omicron displaying increased transmissibility, breakthrough cases will unfortunately become even more normalized,” Brownstein said.
Experts concurred that although much is still unknown about the omicron variant, it could also potentially cause more breakthroughs than past variants.
“Omicron is going to be more than a major player. It is going to be the main story,” Lessler said, adding that the U.S. may see a significant wave of infections, which could cause significant systemic challenges for hospitals.
Preliminary data suggests that omicron not only spreads at a rate two to three times faster than the delta variant, but also, may be more likely to cause infections among vaccinated people. Despite this, vaccines and additional booster shot protection still appears to dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness.
Ultimately, personal responsibility will play a major role in preventing additional spread, experts agreed.
Boosters and vaccines remain the key to slowing the spread of the infections, and ultimately to turning the pandemic around, particularly when combined with social distancing, masking and other preventative measures, according to the CDC.
“We have the right tools to limit breakthrough cases. Testing before traveling or attending a gathering can help prevent risk to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Similarly, boosters when eligible can dramatically reduce the risk of transmission,” Brownstein said.
The CDC currently recommends that everyone ages 16 and older receive a booster shot six months after their Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months after the Johnson & Johnson shot.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival awards gala, set to take place in-person at the Palm Springs Convention Center on January 6, has been canceled for the second straight year “out of an abundance of caution” over COVID-19 concerns and the Omicron variant of the virus, the Palm Springs International Film Society announced in a statement on Monday. “The Palm Springs Film Awards are one of the largest events in the film world with 2,500 guests and more than 1,000 staff in the room.” Instead, the statement continues, “The Film Awards will partner with Entertainment Tonight to celebrate this year’s honorees with details to follow…We hope to return to the Film Awards to an in-person event in 2023.” The screening portion of the Palm Springs International Film Festival will take place January 7 through January 17, 2022…
The official trailer for Euphoria‘s anxiously-awaited second season dropped on Monday, offering a peek at what’s on tap for the show’s main characters. In the aftermath of her relapse, Zendaya‘s Rue gets mixed up in a dangerous drug-dealing scheme, creating new concerns for Jules, played by Hunter Schafer. Meanwhile, Nate and Cassie — played respectively by Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney — enter into a dangerous relationship, while Alexa Demie‘s Maddy wonders how sexy she’d look pregnant and Fez — portrayed by Angus Cloud — is also troubled by Rue’s “amazing plan.” Euphoria season 2 premieres January 9 on HBO… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)
Bravo on Monday released a teaser trailer for The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s 12th season, the tone of which is perfectly set up by its soundtrack — Bananarama‘s 1983 hit, “Cruel Summer” — which plays under a montage of heated exchanges between between cast members Teresa Giudice, Margaret Josephs, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, Jennifer Aydin and Jackie Goldschneider. Traci Johnson, wife of former NFL star Tiki Barber – long-rumored to be a new Housewife, according to Entertainment Tonight — joins the group as a “friend of.” The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 12 premieres February 1, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo…(Trailer contains censored profanity.)
Yes, we’re all completely sick of Zoom calls, but maybe we wouldn’t mind them so much if we were Zooming with Elton John.
To collectively thank all the artists who participated in his super-duper collaboration album The Lockdown Sessions, Elton hosted “the ultimate Zoom call” with all of them, including Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Dua Lipa, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Charlie Puth, rappers Lil Nas X, Nicki Minaj and Young Thug, and many more.
The four-and-a-half minute call is basically a love fest where all the artists talk about how honored and happy they were to record songs with Elton for The Lockdown Sessions, while Elton raves about how much he enjoyed working with all of them. He calls his duet with Stevie Wonder “one of my favorite things ever,” and says working with Nicki was on his bucket list.
When the call finally ends, Elton’s sitting there alone in his house when none other than Ed Sheeran, wearing a Santa hat, runs into the room. “Did I miss it?” he asks.
Elton, pretending to be ticked off, says, “It’s supposed to be on Zoom, and now you’re here. Well, now you’re here — I suppose I could squeeze you in…”
Ed then snuggles up to Elton and embraces him, saying, “Merry Christmas, everyone.”
“Merry Christmas,” replies a mollified Elton.
Elton and Ed are aiming to have the U.K.’s Christmas number one with “Sausage Rolls for Everyone,” a comical reworking of their song “Merry Christmas” featuring the British duo LadBaby. The charity song raises money for British food banks.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 807,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 21, 9:29 am
Biden to announce plan to send 500 million free rapid tests to Americans
President Joe Biden will speak to the public at 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, announcing new steps to combat the pandemic.
Biden will announce a plan to distribute 500 million free at-home rapid tests to Americans beginning in January. The free at-home rapid tests will be delivered by mail to Americans who request them. Americans will have to request the tests through a website that will launch in January, a senior administration official said.
The president is also set to introduce new federal testing sites around the U.S., the first several of which will launch in New York City by Christmas.
The government will also mobilize 1,000 military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals, the senior administration official said. There are currently 175 troops spread over four states, and since August 2021, when a joint military operation across the Army, Navy and Air Force began, about 530 medical military personnel have been deployed to work alongside civilian health care providers.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett, Sarah Kolinovsky
Dec 21, 8:59 am
Massachusetts activates National Guard to help hospitals
Massachusetts will activate up to 500 National Guard members as the state faces a “critical staffing shortage,” Gov. Charlie Baker’s office said Tuesday.
Besides a staffing shortage, hospitals are also seeing an influx of patients, but many patients are from “non-COVID related reasons,” the office said.
Beginning Dec. 27, all hospitals will be directed to postpone or cancel nonessential elective procedures that are likely to result in hospital admission.
Massachusetts has also updated its mask guidance, recommending that everyone, including those vaccinated, wear a mask in indoor, public places.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 21, 8:19 am
Fauci on omicron’s ‘unprecedented’ spread
Dr, Anthony Fauci on Tuesday called omiron’s spread “unprecedented.”
“It is really extremely unusual,” he told Good Morning America. “It’s a doubling time of two to three days, closer to two days. Which means that if you start off with a few percentage of the isolates being omicron, and you do the math and double that every couple of days, it’s not surprising that just a week or two ago we had only 8% to 10%, and now we have 73% of all the isolates are omicron. That’s truly unprecedented in the rapidity with which a virus spreads.”
Fauci predicted omicron’s peak will be soon.
“It’s going to be a matter of a couple of weeks that we then start to see just as dramatic a decline,” he said. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”
“When you have something that goes up this quickly, often you see it come right back down. Because what will happen is that either almost everyone is either going to get infected, particularly the unvaccinated, or be vaccinated,” he said. “And the vaccinated people will either be — particularly the boosted people, and it’s very important to underscore right now the importance of getting boosted — that those people will either be protected from infection, or if they do get infected, they’ll have a relatively mild course of infection.”
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday recommended delaying or canceling holiday events, saying, “an event canceled is better than a life canceled.”
Fauci told GMA that family gatherings are safe if you know everyone is vaccinated.
“When you have a family setting, for example, parents, grandparents, children, who are vaccinated, you should have an enjoyable Christmas and holiday gathering, dinner, whatever in your own home,” Fauci said. “What you want to stay away from is indoor congregant sittings in which you do not know the vaccination status of the people around you. That would be quite risky.”
Dec 21, 3:05 am
Broadway’s ‘Harry Potter’ cancels Christmas week performances
The Broadway shows “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “Hadestown” canceled their Christmas week performances, citing rising breakthrough COVID-19 cases.
“We will enchant you another time and apologize for the inconvenience,” said a notice posted on the “Harry Potter” Twitter account late on Monday night.
The two shows added to a growing list of those cancelling performances amid the spread of the omicron variant. “Hamilton” and “Aladdin” both announced they’d stay dark until after Christmas.
Another Broadway musical, “Jagged Little Pill,” based on Alanis Morissette’s catalog, said on Monday it would close its doors for good.
The producers of “Pill” said in a Twitter post that the spread of the omicron variant “appears to be another substantial public health crisis.” Members of the production’s company tested positive for COVID-19, the post said.
Dec 20, 7:43 pm
Biden tests negative after close contact with positive staff member
President Joe Biden was exposed to a staff member who recently tested positive for COVID-19, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Monday evening.
Biden was near the staff member for about 30 minutes on Air Force One on Friday, during a trip to Philadelphia from South Carolina, according to Psaki.
The staff member, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, tested negative Friday morning, but tested positive Monday, according to the White House.
The president received an antigen test Sunday and a PCR test Monday, and both came back negative, Psaki said in a statement. He will receive another test Wednesday, she said.
“As CDC guidance does not require fully vaccinated people to quarantine after an exposure, the president will continue with his daily schedule,” Psaki said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Dec 20, 6:51 pm
U.S. records what’s believed to be 1st known omicron related death
Health officials in Texas announced Monday that it recorded the first death related to the omicron COVID-19 variant.
This is believed to be the first known recorded omicron death in the U.S.
Harris County Health officials would only say the victim was “a man in his 50s,” who was unvaccinated and had underlying health conditions..
Public health officials do not think omicron is more virulent than previous variants, but they do say in general vaccination and a booster shot when eligible appears to lower your risk for severe illness.
Dec 20, 6:39 pm
More military teams to be deployed to hospitals
The military announced it is sending two teams to hospitals in Wisconsin and Indiana to assist with rising COVID-19 cases.
The 20-person teams include nurses, respiratory therapists, and medical doctors from the U.S. Navy.
They will be assisting Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis starting on Christmas Day and Bellin Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin starting on New Year’s Eve, according to a U.S. Army North spokesperson.
Ten other military teams have been deployed to hospitals in five other states.
(NEW YORK) — The World Economic Forum announced Monday it has indefinitely postponed its upcoming summit in the Swiss resort town of Davos due to uncertainty caused by the omicron coronavirus variant.
The announcement makes the high-profile gathering of business leaders, politicians and more the latest event to be canceled or put on hold recently due to omicron’s spread. It also marks the second year in a row that the Davos summit was disrupted by the pandemic.
Event organizers said the annual meeting, which was scheduled to take place from Jan. 17-Jan. 21, is now planned for early summer, though specific dates were not yet released.
“Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting. Preparations have been guided by expert advice and have benefited from the close collaboration of the Swiss government at all levels,” Adrian Monck, the managing director of public engagement at the World Economic Forum, said in a statement Monday. “Despite the meeting’s stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary.”
Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, added in a statement that the postponement of the meeting “will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society.”
“Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace,” Schwab said. “We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon.”
The delay of the in-person gathering comes amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases globally, propelled by the omicron and delta variants, that has upended many business leaders’ plans for a return to normalcy in the aftermath of a coronavirus vaccine rollout.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, the recent disruptions may be causing deja vu for some and serve as a harsh reminder the global health crisis is not over. A slew of major companies have again announced new delays in return-to-office plans and the omicron variant has been linked to the cancellations of Broadway productions to sports events in recent weeks.
