Christmas just got a little more country with the announcement of the lineup for the 2021 CMA Country Christmasspecial, which airs November 29 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Carrie Underwood, Jimmie Allen and Lady A are part of the star-filled bill for the annual holiday special filmed in Nashville.
Brett Eldredge and Pistol Annies, both of whom dropped new Christmas albums this year with Mr. Christmas and Hell of a Holiday, respectively, will also perform, along with Breland and “Things a Man Oughta Know” singer Lainey Wilson.
Newly crowned CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Carly Pearce and “I Hope” hit-maker Gabby Barrett are set to co-host for the first time, as well as perform holiday classics. A promo clip for the special shows the two singing “Sleigh Ride.”
Jimmie will unite with Louis York, as well as with the duo of Grammy-nominated songwriters Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly, who made their Grand Ole Opry debut in 2020, and The Shindellas, the trio of Kasi Jones, Stacy Johnson and Tamara Chauniece who performed with Lady A at the 2021 CMT Music Awards. Jimmie teamed up with the two acts on a reimagination of York’s “What Does Christmas Mean” last year.
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There is a reason why Harry Styles continues to make a name for himself outside the music industry. Aside from launching a successful solo career following his One Direction days, he’s also an actor, and now he’s adding “businessman” to his impressive resume.
Styles, 27, tells Dazedmagazine, “I like to challenge myself and do something different.”
He recently unveiled his new company, Pleasing, which he first conceptualized in a hotel room in Boston. Pleasing specializes in beauty products, with its first offering being nail polish.
“That was kind of the birth of what it was for,” said Styles, “It was a fun little project, but during the pandemic, and when we eventually named it Pleasing, it felt like it was so much more than nail polish.”
Styles says the goal of his products, which will come in sustainable packaging, is to help consumers “feel beautiful” and create “little moments of joy” for them.
Makeup is a departure from music, but there’s an organic reason why Styles’ career branched out from being a member of a boy band.
“Life is about learning,” he explained, saying an early fear of failure set him off on his path. He was only 16 when One Direction became a global sensation and Styles said he once dreaded being told, “We don’t like your music any more, go away.”
The Grammy winner assures he’s no longer “working from a place of fear” because he’s figured out who he is.
“I’m working from a place of wanting to work stuff out, and try different things,” Styles explained, saying that realization led him to try acting and launch Pleasing.
So, what does he find the most challenging? He admits, “Movies are definitely where I feel most out of my comfort zone.”
Vivian Zink/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas from six years ago: Michael Bublé is coming back to NBC for a new holiday special.
Michael Bublé’s Christmas in the City will air December 6 at 10 p.m. ET and will repeat on December 22 at 10 p.m. ET. The special will originate from Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, which is the same studio where Saturday Night Live happens each week. So far, no special guests have been announced for the special, which will mix comedy and music, but it’s probably likely that one or two SNL cast members will show up for the festivities.
This will be Michael’s first Christmas special since 2015’s Michael Bublé’s Christmas in Hollywood and his sixth one overall. He’s returned to TV to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his record-setting 2011 album, Christmas, so you can expect music from that project to take center stage, along with other Christmas favorites.
Summer Walker is reigning over the Billboard 200 chart as her new album, Still Over It, debuted at number one.
The 25-year-old singer’s second studio album earned 166,000 units in its first week. This marks the biggest week for an R&B album in 2021, and Still Over It is the first R&B album by a woman to top the Billboard 200 in more than five years. Solange’s A Seat at the Table ruled for one week in October 2016.
Summer’s 20-track project also set the record for the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman, with 201 million on-demand streams, surpassing Walker’s first album, Over It, which earned 155 million stream in its debut week in October 2019.
Plus, Still Over It achieved the biggest sales week for an R&B album by a woman since Beyoncé’s Lemonade earned 202,000 units in May 2016.
Still Over It features Cardi B, Pharrell Williams, SZA, Ciara, Omarion, Lil Durk and Ari Lennox, plus JT from City Girls, who teamed with Summer for the first single, “Ex for a Reason.
Marvel Studios’ Eternals is the number-one movie at the box office for the second week in a row. The cast includes Oscar winner Angelina Jolie, plus Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden and more, all playing a race of immortal heroes.
Kaz and Ryan Firpo, the two relative newcomer cousins who wrote the first draft of the script, tell ABC Audio they could have only dreamed of getting that cast when they were writing it.
“It’s always been an important part of my writing process to just picture the actor, because that just really helps me capture the voice,” Ryan Firpo says. “And sometimes, you know, it’s a real actor that you get cast and sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m picturing Gene Hackman from the French Connection,’ you know? So we have to figure out somebody who’s like that. [Because] up to this point…I can’t get the script to them.”
“The really amazing thing with Marvel is that we could have these ideas, and then they could execute them,” says Ryan.
Kaz adds, “Kumail was somebody that from the beginning we were just begging Marvel, ‘It’s nobody else, it’s got to be him.’ The matriarch, Ajak…we wrote that role for Salma. Thena is really for Angelina.”
Conversely, Patrick Burliegh, who worked on the Firpos’ screenplay with Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, knew the cast was in place when he got to work on it. He comments, “When she came on board, we had written a lot of dialog for Thena and she was like, ‘No…Thena…is a woman of few words.'”
“So we…cut most of Angelina’s dialog. But what’s amazing is that she was 100% right.”
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
U2 has announced a deluxe reissue celebrating the 30th anniversary of the band’s 1991 album, Achtung Baby.
The package will arrive on vinyl November 19, followed by a digital release December 3. The digital version boasts a total of 50 tracks, including two sets of demos and a collection of B-sides, 22 of which have never been available before digitally.
In celebration of the reissue, U2 is teaming up with artist Thierry Noir for a new art exhibition at Berlin’s Hansa Studios, where the band had started recording Achtung Baby. Noir, who was the first artist to paint on the Berlin Wall, previously contributed to the Achtung Baby artwork and pieces for the 1991 Zoo TV tour.
Released November 18, 1991, Achtung Baby marked U2’s return after they had to “go away” and “dream it all up again” following the end of the Rattle and Hum tour. In contrast to the Americana sounds of Rattle and Hum and The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby found U2 diving into more of an alternative sound, and started experimenting more with an electronic style that continued throughout their ’90s discography.
Achtung Baby is now certified eight-times Platinum by the RIAA, and spawned the singles “One,” “The Fly,” “Mysterious Ways,” “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” and “Even Better Than the Real Thing.”
Turns out ABBA‘s comeback was something fans didn’t know they needed.
The group’s new albumm Voyage –– their first in about 40 years — has debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 album chart. That’s the highest the iconic Swedish group has ever gotten on the chart, surprisingly. Prior to that, their top position was number 14, achieved by 1978’s ABBA: The Album. That album featured the hit single “Take a Chance on Me.”
Overall, Voyage is ABBA’s 14th album to chart on the Billboard 200, not counting the hit Mamma Mia! movie soundtracks featuring the group’s music. Ironically, those two soundtracks performed better on the chart that any of ABBA’s original studio album releases: The original hit number one in 2008 and the sequel was number three in 2018.
Of note: Cher‘s album of ABBA covers, Dancing Queen, hit number three in 2019.
As previously reported, Voyagetopped the charts in the U.K., where the group’s always been wildly popular, and had the biggest opening sales week since Ed Sheeran‘s Divide in 2017.
Voyage was created to promote the band’s upcoming concert experience, ABBA Voyage, which will open May 27 at a purpose-built arena in London. The show features digital avatars of the group, looking as they did around 1979, performing onstage with a live ten-piece band.
(WASHINGTON) — White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese acknowledged that “inflation is high and it’s affecting Americans in their pocketbook and their outlook,” but promised the administration is working to address the rise in costs in both the short and long term.
“That concern actually underscores why it’s so important to move forward on the Build Back Better bill that Congress is considering,” Deese said in an interview Sunday with George Stephanopoulos on This Week, making the case for President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion social spending bill still being debated in Congress.
“This bill is actually going to address the core costs that American families are facing in child care, in housing, in health care,” he added.
Pressed by @GStephanopoulos what Biden admin can do in the short term to address inflation, National Economic Council director Brian Deese says “we have to finish job on COVID.”
As inflation continues to plague the U.S., a new ABC News-Washington Post poll paints a problematic picture for the president on the economy as a whole: 70% of Americans say it is in bad shape, and more than half — 55% — disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
“Inflation is high and it’s affecting Americans in their pocketbook and their outlook,” White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese tells @GStephanopoulos, says Build Back Better bill would address “core costs” American families are facing. https://t.co/MPVhQ6Wmjrpic.twitter.com/Tq4hSGKxi7
With the holidays rapidly approaching and prices climbing by more than 6% in the last 12 months, Stephanopoulos pressed Deese on what the administration can do now to offer relief to families.
“I know you’re hoping to pass it, but even if it does pass, it’s going to take a while for the benefits to kick in. So what can Americans expect in the short term? Is inflation going to get worse before it gets better?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“We have to finish the job on COVID. We know that the more that people feel comfortable getting out into the economy, going to movies rather than buying television at home, working in the workplace, the more we can return a sense of normalcy to our economy,” Deese said, adding that the administration will also tackle the supply chain crunch felt across the globe with the bipartisan infrastructure bill Biden will sign into law Monday.
“It’s the first time that a president is actually delivering on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and while a number of those pieces will be longer term, there are things that will go into effect right away to try to get money out to help. For example, upgrade our ports, upgrade our airports, upgrade our roads,” Deese said.
“We’re going to work without delay to get that money working for the American people,” he added.
The new ABC News-Washington Post poll does also have some good news for the president on his agenda, as 63% support for the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress that Biden will sign into law Monday, and 58% support the social spending bill.
Despite the strong public support for the social policy initiative, the White House is still facing pushback from Republicans and some Democrats, who worry pumping more money into the economy could worsen the inflationary woes currently facing the country.
Deese pushed back, pointing to economic analyses that show the measures will decrease inflation, not add to it, and arguing the bill is fully paid for.
“Frankly, it’s been sometime in Washington since we’ve done something that’s fiscally responsible.”
“You say it’s fully paid for, but the Congressional Budget Office still hasn’t weighed in and certified that it actually is fully paid for,” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“We’re confident this bill, as it moves through the process, is going to be fully paid for, and not only that, it’s actually going to reduce deficits over the long term,” Deese replied.
“We’ve already seen the independent Joint Committee on Taxation, as well as the Treasury Department, look at the tax components of this bill and say, not only are they enough to offset the investments in this package, but actually over the long term, they will reduce the deficit by trillions of dollars because we’re making permanent changes to the tax code,” he said.
Asked about West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin’s suggestion that the bill should be delayed due to inflation concerns, Deese remained optimistic that there would be progress this week and said Manchin’s worries actually make the case for taking action now.
“We’re confident that this bill is going to come up in the House this week, that it will get a vote it will pass, and it will move on to the Senate,” he said. “And those concerns, which we understand and we share, those concerns actually underscore why we need to move out on this bill.”
Verzuz has a double treat for the holidays: two R&B queens, and two veteran hip hop groups.
Chaka Khan and Stephanie Mills will face off in “A Night for the Queens” on November 18 in Los Angeles. Two weeks later, the match-up will feature Bone Thugs-N-Harmony against Three 6 Mafia on December 2, also in LA.
Khan has received ten Grammy Awards, and her classics include “I’m Every Woman,” “Sweet Thing” and “I Feel for You.”
Mills began her career on Broadway at the age of 17 in the musical The Wiz. Her number-one hits include “Home,” “Something in the Way (You Make Me Feel),” and “I Feel Good All Over.”
Their Verzuz battle begins Thursday, November 18 at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony recently performed as the opening act on TLC‘s “Celebration of CrazySexyCool Tour.” Three 6 Mafia won an Academy Award in 2006 for “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp” from the film Hustle & Flow starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.
The time for the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony against Three 6 Mafia Verzuz will be announced later. Both Verzuz battles stream on Triller, Fite TV and Verzuz TV Instagram.
Verzuz diversified for its last event on November 3, featuring the teams of Lil Jon and Lil Tecca gaming against Big Boi and Big Sean. Migos also performed.
On October 17, Big Daddy Kane battled KRS-One at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event featured guest appearances by Roxanne Shanté, Masta Ace and Craig G, Das EFX, Mad Lion, Buckshot and Kool DJ Red Alert. There was also a dance battle between legendary breakers Crazy Legs and Pop Master.
