Boosie has unveiled the music video for his latest single, “Premonition.” It features clips of the Louisiana rapper smoking in a car with friends while he raps about dreams and reflects on his time in prison. The nearly three-minute video also features an image of his former crush: Rihanna.
“Feeling like I can have her, now she don’t want me,” Boosie raps as a hologram of the singer with black hair appears next to him.
Due to Rihanna’s new relationship with A$AP Rocky, Boosie recently decided to let go of his years-long crush on the singer. But that didn’t stop fans on Twitter from making jokes about Boosie’s infatuation with Rihanna.
“Boosie is out his damn mind for putting a hologram of Rihanna in his video,” tweeted one fan, while another wrote, “Lil Boosie funny af. Rihanna is with A$AP Rocky, my boy. She ain’t never leaving him. She’d be a damn fool.” One more fan said, “Boosie better get his badazz on somewhere with that damn Rihanna hologram in his video.”
“Premonition” is available on Boosie’s mixtape,GOAT Talk 3, which is out now.
Gloria Estefan sings a new song written by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the new Netflix animated film Vivo, which starts streaming on Friday. You can watch a video of the sequence where Gloria’s character performs the song, called “Inside Your Heart,” on YouTube now.
Vivo stars Miranda as the voice of Vivo, a kinkajou who entertains people on the street by playing music with his owner, Andrés. Andrés’ former musical partner, a now-famous Cuban singer named Marta Sandoval, played by Gloria, invites him to her farewell concert. However, it eventually falls to Vivo to deliver to Marta a song that Andrés wrote for her many years ago.
Miranda wrote all the songs for the film, and Gloria tells Variety it was hearing the sad romantic ballad “Inside Your Heart” that convinced her to accept a role in Vivo.
“It was a moment when I was so incredibly busy, I thought it was going to be impossible,” she says. “But he sent me the demo of him singing it, and it tore my heart apart.” She adds of Vivo, “It’s a story after my own heart because I’m Cuban American, and that story of love, loss and separation is near and dear to my heart.”
As its annual ACM Honors celebration nears, the Academy of Country Music is adding new performers to the show’s bill.
Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Jamey Johnson and Sam Williams are all among the newly-added acts. The ACM also announced on Thursday that Carly Pearce — who’s hosting the show — will perform, too. Also on the bill are acclaimed songwriters Jordan Reynolds, Nicolle Galyon and Jessie Jo Dillon and Laura Veltz.
Chris Janson was previously announced as a performer, but this week, it was revealed that he will also present this year’s ACM Industry Awards and Studio Recording Awards. Other special guest presenters are Trace Adkins and Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern.
Previously-announced performers include Lady A, RaeLynn, Lauren Alaina, Ashley McBryde and many more. While Keith is a new addition to the bill itself, the ACM did previously announce that he’s playing the annual pre-show ACM Party for a Cause, which takes place this year on August 24.
This year’s ACM Honors will take place at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on August 25. It will livestream on Circle Network’s social channels, and will also be filmed for a television special set to air on the Circle Network later this year.
The animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars spin-off Star Wars: The Bad Batch hasn’t yet finished its 16-episode freshman season, but Disney+ has signed up for a second.
The series that centers on a squad of enhanced soldiers and a young female clone on the run from the growing Empire was created by Clone Wars Emmy winner and The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni.
For the uninitiated, the Galactic Republic fielded millions of clone soldiers — hence the name the Clone Wars — to battle the various enemies of the Republic. Most are genetically identical, but Clone Force 99, the so-called Bad Batch, suffered mutations that gave them modified and enhanced abilities for impossible missions. Now, due to a series of events and betrayals, they find themselves being hunted by their former allies.
Part 1 of the two-part finale of Season 1 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch will be available to stream Friday.
The show is produced by Lucasfilm, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC Audio.
(ATHENS) — Firefighters are working to extinguish dozens of fires across Greece, where over 100 wildfires have started in the past day.
In the town of Evia, 90 miles from Athens, the Greek coast guard and private-owned boats are evacuating people from the beach where residents and tourists fled the flames. According to the Athens News Agency, 90 people have been transported to safety so far.
Greece is facing what has been described as its worst heat wave in more than three decades.
Greece’s Civil Protection Chief Nikos Hardalias said 118 wildfires broke out over the past 24 hours in the country. An EU disaster response group said firefighters and water-dropping planes were being sent to Greece, as well as Italy, Albania and North Macedonia, where fires have also broken out.
“Following the situation with great concern,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted. “European solidarity is at work to fight these terrible fires.”
More than 500 firefighters, 150 vehicles, five aircraft and nine water-dropping helicopters have been mobilized, as well as several groups of volunteers.
Thousands were evacuated in several suburbs north of Athens, including in the town of Varympompi, where several properties were burnt to the ground. Firefighters sprayed water on burned cars and metal structures to prevent another fire from starting.
“A lot of people were scared,” Alex, a volunteer firefighter, told ABC News. “We saw houses after houses burnt, there’s a lot of damage.”
The Hellenic Army is assisting with foot patrols and airborne firefighting assets.
An initial calculation by the National Observatory of Athens indicates that between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4, around 14,826 acres were burned in Greece’s wildfires. That’s more than 50% of the area burned in entire fire seasons of previous years: 25,639 acres burned during the 2020 fire season in Greece, and 23,240 acres burned in 2019.
Athens saw temperatures climb as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday and nearly 108 on Wednesday.
“It’s hell … unbelievable,” said Varympompi resident Vasilis Michelas, who lost his vintage car workshop in the fires. “Thirty-five years … it’s all gone.”
Authorities reported no serious injuries. An assessment of the damage caused so far is yet to be completed, but the national grid operator has warned that the capital’s power supply could be “endangered” after part of the transmission system shut down.
Now, the danger is that the blaze could reach archeological sites in the western Peloponnese. Greek authorities ordered evacuations in the nearby villages, according to Reuters.
Sanaa Lathan says she’s doing better mentally and physically now that she’s stopped drinking alcohol.
“I stopped drinking about three years ago,” Lathan tells People. “Alcohol was not going well with me physically. Just, it was not working anymore. It affects everything, and that’s part of the reason why I stopped, because even if you’re going out a couple of times a week and you’re drinking, it was starting to affect me throughout the week. It wouldn’t be necessarily a hangover, but it definitely dimmed my energy. I didn’t feel as good. It was affecting anxiety.”
After noting some of the affects of alcohol, Lathan admits she had to “educated” herself on why drinking wasn’t necessary to be social.
“There’s this whole belief that you can only have fun with alcohol,” she says. “I had to really reprogram that aspect, because it’s just all over in our culture. So, I haven’t missed it. My life has definitely become more of a morning life, but I can still go out and have fun.”
Now that alcohol is absent in her life, Lathan shares that she journals regularly as a form of self-care, and also incorporates meditation to help her cope with unexpected stress.
“I grew up with a mother who taught me about meditation so, I did it on and off,” she says. “The reason why I came to this practice was several years ago, I went through a lot of trauma. I had a best friend who died suddenly. She was not sick. It was completely unexpected. I didn’t process it. I was in a shock type of situation.”
“So I started [meditating],” Lathan continues. “And as soon as I started, they went away. There’s so many benefits. And so, I’m a huge believer, a huge advocate.”
Recently, Trisha Yearwood’s had reason to think back to her early days in country music: She just celebrated the 30th anniversary of her debut single, “She’s in Love with the Boy.”
Trisha tells Billboard that when that song first came out, she was surprised by its success, simply because she never expected her first single to be a chart-topping hit.
“The thought process was that normally your first song is an introduction to the artist, because it won’t get to No. 1; at least that was the thinking back then,” she reflects.
But get to number one it did. “She’s in Love With the Boy” was a hit for Trisha, the first of five chart-topping country songs she’d snag over career to date. When she saw its success, the singer says, she was “amazed, actually.”
“I was a demo singer prior to being signed to MCA and this was a dream of mine since I was five,” she continues. “The thoughts ranged from, ‘Wow, that was easy,’ to, ‘Well, if we can’t follow this up, I’ll just be the answer to a trivia question about one-hit wonders.’”
Once she got her first hit, Trisha had to confront the pressure of replicating her success. “I didn’t even know what a sophomore jinx was until I was asked about it in every interview I did,” she admits.
Fortunately, she never succumbed to the sophomore slump. After a handful of memorable top-10 hits, Trisha scored her next number one three years later, in 1994, with “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl).”
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison in 1990; Tim Roney/Getty Images
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, a rock music journalist, author and one-time romantic partner of Doors frontman Jim Morrison, died on July 23 at the age of 75.
Kennealy-Morrison’s passing was reported on the Facebook page of Lizard Queen Press, a publishing brand she founded.
“To say we are all reeling from the news is an understatement,” the message about Kennealy-Morrison reads. “We will miss our friend very very much. She was a beautiful soul, a talented writer, and a loving and wonderful friend.” No cause of death was mentioned.
According to The New York Times, Kennealy-Morrison met Jim Morrison in 1969 when she interviewed him for Jazz & Pop magazine, for which she was editor-in-chief. She and the singer soon began a romantic relationship. In 1970, Patricia, who practiced Celtic paganism, took part in a matrimonial “hand-fasting ceremony” with Morrison that involved drops of their blood.
Their relationship remained a long-distance one until Jim’s death in 1971.
In 1979, Patricia added “Morrison” to her last name, and she served as a technical adviser on the 1991 Oliver Stone-directed biopic The Doors. She was portrayed by Kathleen Quinlan in the film, in which she also had a cameo, appearing as the priestess who performed the hand-fasting ceremony.
Kennealy-Morrison later criticized the movie, according to The New York Times, feeling it didn’t feature her prominently enough and that it trivialized the ceremony. In 1992, she published a memoir titled Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison, which she said was a response to The Doors movie.
Kennealy-Morrison later wrote fantasy novels and rock-music-themed mystery books.
(ATLANTA) — The SEC has agreed to extend commissioner Greg Sankey’s contract through at least 2026, the conference announced Thursday.
Sankey has been at the helm of the SEC since 2015.
“College athletics is in the midst of a transformational period, and the SEC is fortunate to have a highly impactful leader to guide us forward at this critical time in our history,” said Jere Morehead, President of the University of Georgia and current President of the SEC, in a statement. “He has effectively introduced change and advancement for the conference while respecting the institutional traditions that make the SEC unique. His leadership and ability to foster collaboration through the COVID-19 pandemic helped establish a framework for all of college sports, and those leadership skills will be critical as we move forward with change in the years ahead.”
The extension comes just days after the conference welcomed the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma to the conference in 2025.
“I am grateful for the support of the SEC’s presidents and chancellors, and for the continuing opportunity to serve our universities while supporting the student-athletes of the Southeastern Conference,” said Sankey in a statement. “We are in the midst of a time of change for college athletics, and I look forward to working with the SEC’s campus leaders to identify a path forward that will sustain the incredible success of our Conference and provide opportunities for young people to grow academically and challenge themselves athletically.”
During the 2020-2021 academic year, nine SEC team’s won national championships. Since being named commissioner in 2015, 32 SEC teams have won national titles.
Sankey came to the SEC in 2002 as the Associate Commissioner for Governance, Enforcement, and Compliance. He was promoted to the Executive Associate Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer for the league office in 2012.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said he regrets signing an April law banning mask mandates and is seeking to reverse it as coronavirus infections soar among unvaccinated youth, making him an outlier among some Republican governors who have doubled down on their anti-masking views.
Asked by ABC’s “Good Morning America” Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Thursday what changed his thinking, Hutchinson said, “The delta variant hit us hard.”
Arkansas has seen a 517% increase in the number of virus cases among people under 18 between April and July, according to an Associated Press report.
The state, like other hotspots in the country, is experiencing a frightening surge in COVID-19 with 3,000 new cases on Wednesday and 1,232 currently hospitalized, as the delta variant spreads.
So far, 42% of the state’s eligible population ages 12 and up has received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to state data, and a majority of adults 18 and over are also unvaccinated.
“There’s been a lot of distrust and we hope to overcome that because medical sciences, vaccines work, I believe, and we need to get those out — because that’s the way out of this,” Hutchinson said.
But the Arkansas governor, who is term-limited, is an outlier among Republican governors across the country who are doubling down on their own legislation banning mask mandates as the public policy measure continues to feed debate over personal liberties.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a state which has become the epicenter of the virus, responded to President Joe Biden telling governors on Tuesday to help or “get out of the way” by making his defiance a rallying call — and a fundraising tool, sending out a letter with the subject line: “I’m Standing In Joe Biden’s Way.”
“I am standing in your way,” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday, declaring that Florida will remain a “free state” where children won’t be asked to wear masks.
DeSantis’s position is shared by Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas, who he has said Texans should have the “right to choose,” as well as Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who have all ridiculed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest masking recommendation that everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a mask in public, indoor settings.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the frontrunner to replace Hutchinson in the 2022 Arkansas governor race, has made clear she opposes all mask and vaccine mandates no matter the circumstances.
“If I am elected governor here in Arkansas we will not have mask mandates, we will not have mandates on the vaccine, we will not shut down churches and schools and other large gatherings, because we believe in personal freedom and responsibility,” she told Fox News last month.
Hutchinson, instead, after telling the public at a press conference Tuesday he wishes the mask ban wouldn’t have become law, called for a special legislative session asking lawmakers to reverse it, only so that public schools can have the flexibility to require masks for students.
It’s still not clear the GOP-led legislature in Arkansas will go along with Hutchinson’s request.
As the legislature met Wednesday, the Little Rock School District Board of Education voted to file a lawsuit against the state because of the anti-mask law. That follows another lawsuit filed Monday by parents also seeking to strike the law down, citing health concerns for their children at school.
The bill which might stave off those lawsuits, HB1003, failed to advance in public health panel Wednesday after GOP lawmakers pushed back.
But while the legislature continues to meet Thursday to work out the details, at least 730 students and staff from the Marion School District in Arkansas were under quarantine — just two weeks after classes started.
Presented with that number on “Good Morning America” and asked if he’s confident that it’s safe for kids to go back to school, Hutchinson said there would be challenges but said the state’s focus should be on vaccines over masks to prevent outbreaks.
“Our emphasis should be on the vaccines and not get sidetracked, in a minuta debate on masks, even though that is important for the 12 and under, and the flexibility we’re talking about,” he said.
ABC News’ Marlene Lenthang contributed to this report.
