WALK THE MOON will be performing during the second annual A Bowie Celebration, a virtual tribute concert honoring the late David Bowie.
The virtual concert takes place January 8, 2022, on what would’ve been Bowie’s 75th birthday. Other artists on the lineup include Def Leppard, Duran Duran‘s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Living Colour, Evan Rachel Wood, Rob Thomas and Gary Oldman.
There’s no word on yet on what WALK THE MOON will play during the stream, but given the band’s name, we’re guessing it’ll be one of Bowie’s several celestially themed songs, such as “Moonage Daydream,” “Life on Mars?” or “Space Oddity.”
A Bowie Celebration will air via the streaming platform Rolling Live Studios. For the full lineup and ticket info, visit RollingLiveStudios.com.
The first A Bowie Celebration stream premiered earlier this year, also on Bowie’s birthday. Performers included Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor, Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor, Yungblud, The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Bush‘s Gavin Rossdale, Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale, Jane’s Addiction‘s Perry Farrell, The Pretty Reckless‘ Taylor Momsen, and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
While many artists returned to the road in 2021, others decided to hold off until 2022. Now, Gametime, the app that specializes in last-minute tickets, has released its list of the most in-demand concerts for next year, and based on ticket sales, Elton John‘s rescheduled farewell tour is at #2 on the tally.
Elton was originally set to resume the Europe and U.K. legs of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour this year, but in September, he announced that he was moving those dates to 2023 because he had to have a hip operation. The next opportunity that fans will have to see Elton is January 19, 2022, when his North American tour — postponed from 2020 due to COVID-19 — begins in New Orleans.
Also on Gametime’s list are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are listed at #9 on the ranking. The veteran rockers plan to embark on a global tour starting in June, with a North American leg set to begin on July 23 in Denver. The trek will mark the group’s first full live outing since guitarist John Frusciante rejoined in late 2019.
Number one on the list is Latin superstar Bad Bunny, while other artists in the top 10 include Dead & Company collaborator John Mayer at #6. Mayer, who toured this year with Dead & Company, will launch his solo Sob Rock trek in February.
Here’s the app’s full list of the top-10 in-demand concerts for 2022:
1. Bad Bunny
2. Elton John tour
3. Billie Eilish
4. The Weeknd stadium tour
5. Justin Bieber
6. John Mayer
7. Dua Lipa
8. Tyler The Creator
9. Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. Tool
Neuroscientist and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik and all-time Jeopardy! champ-turned consulting producer Ken Jenningswill continue to host Jeopardy! through the season’s end next year.
The pair took the reins taking turns behind the podium after former host and executive producer Mike Richards left the show in August, following the exposure of controversial podcast content he’d made, and a guest host search that was later shown to have been skewed in his favor.
Jeopardy!‘s producers also announced that interim executive producer Michael Davies will stay on as well. “We’re so pleased to have such an excellent and experienced team in front of and behind the camera as we head into 2022!” the announcement states.
Ed Sheeran is a multi-Grammy winning artist who’s toured the world numerous times — but he says that all pales in comparison to being a father to his daughter, Lyra.
Speaking to the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, the “Shivers” singer said his daughter is now 15-months-old and is “walking, talking… constantly with a bit of bread in her hand.” As for what words Lyra has already mastered, Ed said she’s saying “dada and mama,” but declined to reveal which one came first.
However, he says being a father has given him a greater purpose in his life — more so than his music career. Ed says he started music as a hobby, which later became his job and he got swept up in the ebb and flow of making albums and going on tour.
Although he said he “loved” all of it, he confessed, “I just found that I didn’t really have any purpose outside of that.” The 30-year-old explained that, whenever he forced himself to step away from his job, “I wasn’t doing anything I enjoyed because I loved doing music.”
Ed says being a father “has given me purpose and something in life that’s actually more important than my job.”
Even more, the “Bad Habits” singer says it’s way harder for him to be away from his daughter than his music, elaborating that even though he won’t be able to physically hold Lyra for another “four days,” it’s been “really, really difficult.”
Ed shares Lyra with his wife, Cherry Seaborn.
Later on the show, he performed his song “Shivers” to the masked-up audience.
(HAWAII) — The Navy has shut down a second well following a water contamination that suspended operations at a facility in Hawaii.
The Hawaii Department of Health issued an an emergency order Monday to immediately halt operations at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Honolulu following reports of a water contamination.
About a week earlier, health officials and the Navy advised residents in Pearl Harbor to stop using tap water after dangerous levels of petroleum products were found in the water system at the Joint Base at Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Military housing residents reported a fuel-like odor coming from their tap water, ABC Honolulu affiliate KITV reported.
Navy officials confirmed to KITV that a second water well has been shut off amid the investigation into the contaminated water supply. Now that the Halawa and Red Hill wells have been turned off, the Navy is only pumping from the Waiawa shaft, according to the station.
Former commissioner on the Hawaii State Water Resource Management Commission Kamanamaikalani Beamer said during a virtual discussion with Hawaii’s congressional delegation Tuesday that the issue has been going on for “many years” and that during his time at the commission officials were questioning the Navy about the safety of the drinking water.
“There has never been a more serious and critical threat to the life-giving waters of Oahu than there is at this moment,” Beamer said.
The Navy is responsible for ensuring safe water for nearby residents and has been ordered by the state’s Department of Health to provide alternative drinking water to about 93,000 residents who may be affected.
The DOH also ordered the Navy to immediately install a drinking water treatment system at the Red Hill Shaft and submit a work plan to assess system integrity. Within 30 days of completing the correction action, the Navy must then defuel the underground storage tanks there.
The Navy plans to contest Gov. David Ige’s emergency order that shuttered operations at the fuel facility and is negotiating terms of a continuance with the Department of Health.
During Hawaii’s congressional delegation on Tuesday, Ige said he does not anticipate any delays to the investigative process, saying that finding the source of the contamination is of the utmost importance.
The health department will not declare whether the water is safe until no contamination has been detected over a period of time, Ige said.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
Once again,Forbeshas ranked the most powerful women in the world for the year, and as always, some luminaries from the world of entertainment have made the list.
Oprah Winfrey came in at #23 on the magazine’s Most Powerful Women list thanks to her $2 billion empire, while Reese Witherspoon made #74 — two slots above Beyonce, in fact — thanks to the Legally Blonde star’s mogul move of selling her Hello Sunshine production company for some $900 million.
Ava DuVernay also made the list. The writer, producer, and the first African American woman to be nominated in the Best Director category came it at #80.
Others from the world of entertainment on the Forbes list wield their power from behind the scenes: ViacomCBS Chairman Shari Redstone ranked #31; Dana Walden, the new chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment was #50, and Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios was #54.
Longtime David Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson is organizing a second annual star-studded virtual concert event celebrating the late rock legend on the January 8 anniversary of his birth.
The 2022 edition of the event, dubbed “Mike Garson’s A Bowie Celebration,” will take place on what would have been David’s 75th birthday, and will feature performances by Def Leppard, Duran Duran‘s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Living Colour, Rob Thomas, WALK THE MOON, and actors Gary Oldman and Evan Rachel Wood, among others.
In addition, Ricky Gervais will make a special appearance during the show, part of the proceeds from which will benefit the Save the Children charity.
Garson will lead a house band featuring musicians who toured and/or recorded with Bowie, including guitarists Earl Slick, Charlie Sexton and Gerry Leonard; drummers Alan Childs and Omar Hakim; sax players Steve Elson and Stan Harrison; and bassist Carmine Rojas.
Other guest singers will include longtime Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and Rolling Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler.
The event will be dedicated to legendary late photographer Mick Rock, and also will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Jim Henson fantasy film, Labyrinth, which starred Bowie as the Goblin King and featured five songs he wrote.
Tickets and ticket bundles for the event are available now at RollingLiveStudios.com/Bowie. Among the special extras included in some of the bundles are a Q&A with band members and an personal piano track recorded by Garson.
The presentation will begin at 9 p.m. ET on January 8 and will be available for 24 hours.
“It’s an honor to be able to continue to share David Bowie’s music with the world,” says Garson in a statement. “I’m excited for everyone to be able to experience this very special show.”
Jacqueline and Clarence Avant; Gabriel Olsen/WireImage
The family of the late Jacqueline Avant has established a fund in her name.
The Jacqueline Avant Memorial Fund will benefit one of her favorite charities, the new MLK Children’s Center in South Los Angeles. The family also announced that a special celebration of life for Avant will be held following the holiday season, according to Billboard.
The wife of legendary music executive and recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Clarence Avant, Jacqueline Alberta Avant was a former Ebony Fashion Fair model known for her philanthropy. She served as president of the Neighbors of Watts, a support group for the South Central Community Child Care Center, and as an entertainment chairman of the NOW benefit auction and NOW membership, in addition to serving on the board of directors of the International Student Center at UCLA.
As previously reported, Aariel Maynor, 29, of Los Angeles, the suspect in Avant’s fatal shooting December 1 in her Beverly Hills home, has been charged with murder and other crimes.
(LONDON, U.K.) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign over reports that members of his staff attended a Christmas party last year while the country was in lockdown.
The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that the party took place on Dec. 18, 2020, which would have been illegal under the coronavirus restrictions in place at the time. Johnson has denied the allegation.
In a video leaked to ITV News, the prime minister’s press secretary can be heard joking about a Christmas Party, four days after the party was alleged to have taken place.
In the video, the prime minister’s press secretary and other staff members can be seen holding a mock press conference, discussing how they would respond to allegations that Downing Street had held a Christmas party.
“It wasn’t a party, it was cheese and wine,” one person can be heard saying, prompting laughs across the room. The leaked video prompted fury from opposition lawmakers and residents alike.
Allegra Stratton, the staff member seen in the video, resigned from her post on Wednesday.
At a weekly scheduled parliamentary session on Wednesday, Johnson repeatedly denied that a party had taken place, but he did apologize for the leaked video, saying: “I was also furious to see that clip … I apologize unreservedly for the offense it has caused up and down the country.”
Johnson said he had ordered an internal investigation into the incident, but the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, has called for evidence to be handed over to the police, saying the prime minister had taken the British public for “fools.”
There will be many people asking the Prime Minister the same heartbreaking question as Trisha:
“Her Majesty the Queen sat alone when she marked the passing of the man she’d been married to for 73 years,” Starmer said. “Leadership, sacrifice – that’s what gives leaders the moral authority to lead. Does the prime minister think he has the moral authority to lead and to ask the British people to stick to the rules?”
Further fallout could be on the horizon, with one lawmaker asking the prime minister about another party that may have taken place on Nov. 13, which Johnson also denied. As of June 2021, a month before social distancing measures were fully relaxed in England, a total of 366 fines had been issued in England and Wales for large gatherings, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Critics of the prime minister say the video threatens to undermine public trust in the government, particularly at a time when new restrictions are set to be introduced to combat the spread of the omicron variant. One lawmaker, from Johnson’s own Conservative Party, went as far to suggest that the possible new restrictions, reported before the fiery exchange in Parliament, were a “diversionary tactic.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — House Progressives, led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, said Wednesday they will introduce a resolution later in the day seeking to strip GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of her two committee assignments in the wake of anti-Muslim remarks she made last month about Rep. Ilhan Omar.
The resolution, obtained by ABC News and first reported by The Washington Post, is co-sponsored by several House progressive members, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman.
Their goal: to force Democratic leadership’s hand in punishing Boebert for repeatedly making Islamophobic and racist comments about Omar, likening her to a suicide bomber.
“I haven’t heard anything binding from leadership, which in and of itself is an embarrassment,” Ocasio-Cortez told the news outlet The Hill on Tuesday night. “This shouldn’t take this long; this should not drag on. It’s pretty simple. It doesn’t have to be a big huge thing. It’s pretty open and closed.”
In a video posted to Twitter last month, Boebert referred to Omar as a member of the “Jihad Squad” and claimed that a Capitol Police officer thought she was a suicide bomber in an encounter in an elevator on Capitol Hill.
Boebert later apologized on Twitter “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended,” adding that she had reached out to Omar’s office to speak with her directly, but the phone call did not go well.
Omar is one of only three Muslim members in Congress. She said she has received “hundreds” of death threats often triggered by Republican attacks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Boebert’s comments about Omar are “dangerous” and “indecent” and there have been discussions among the caucus about taking decisive action against Boebert. Pelosi has said that there are “different views” among the caucus regarding the appropriate response.
Leaders had discussed a resolution that would condemn Islamophobia, but House liberals, including Omar herself, are not keen to the idea, saying a resolution doesn’t go far enough.
Democrats have also called on Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to condemn Boebert himself, but he has not done so.
“It’s the responsibility of Republicans to discipline their members,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday when asked if she supported the new resolution from progressive members.
Pressley’s resolution would boot Boebert from her two spots on the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Natural Resources. The resolution is not privileged, which means Democratic leadership does not have to put the measure on the floor for a vote.
“It is my expectation that Lauren Boebert is going to be held accountable,” House Democratic Caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Wednesday during a news conference.
“It would be a constructive thing if my friends on the other side of the aisle would handle their own business in terms of the out of control members. But we haven’t seen that level of accountability so far,” Jeffries said.
“At some point, I think the House as a whole is going to have to act,” he said, adding that “there is no hesitancy on our side” to take action against Boebert.
Late last month, the House voted to censure GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona over a video he tweeted depicting violence against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden. He was also removed from his committee assignments.
Earlier this year, House Democrats also voted to remove GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over what they said were her violent social media posts aimed at Democrats.
But there are concerns among members and staff about creating a messy precedent that would force Democrats to punish any member for making racist or false statements.
It’s unclear if Pelosi will be moved to act given the public outcry and pressure campaign from members. ABC News has reached out to her office for comment.
“For a Member of Congress to repeatedly use hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic tropes towards a Muslim colleague is dangerous. It has no place in our society and it diminishes the honor of the institution we serve in,” Pressley said in a statement.
“Without meaningful accountability for that Member’s actions, we risk normalizing this behavior and endangering the lives of our Muslim colleagues, Muslim staffers and every Muslim who calls America home. The House must unequivocally condemn this incendiary rhetoric and immediately pass this resolution. How we respond in moments like these will have lasting impacts, and history will remember us for it,” she said.
Muslim congressional staffers sent a letter this week urging Pelosi to take action against Boebert. The staffers said in a signed letter that they do not feel welcome or safe working on Capitol Hill knowing there are Islamophobic members in Congress who will go unpunished when they make harmful statements.
The letter, obtained by ABC News, was signed by the “Muslim staff of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate” who said that they decided not to include their last names to “avoid potential additional harm.”
It’s unclear how many staffers signed on to the letter.
“Witnessing unchecked harassment of one of only three Muslim Members of Congress – and the only visibly Muslim Member – we feel that our workplace is not safe nor welcome. We must now come to work every day knowing that the same Members and staff who perpetuate Islamophobic tropes and insinuate that we are terrorists, also walk by us in the halls of Congress,” the letter stated.
“Congress must categorically reject this incendiary rhetoric that endangers the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of Muslim staff across both sides of the aisle,” the staffers wrote.
