Blake Shelton and his fellow The Voice coaches Ariana Grande, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson take to the wilderness in a humorous promo video for the show’s upcoming season.
Though the promo is packed with tons of star power, the main focus is on new judge Ariana.
The clip begins with Blake, Kelly and John gathered around a makeshift campfire as they enjoy the view of the night sky.
“Whoa, look at that amazing star over there!” Blake exclaims, with a guitar in hand. “You mean Alpha Centauri?” John questions. “No, I mean Ariana Grande,” Blake retorts.
Joining the crew at the camp site, Ariana honors the tradition of a new coach gracing the veteran coaches with a song, belting out a stellar rendition of Olivia Newton-John‘s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” while Blake strums his acoustic guitar, and as woodland creatures — and host Carson Daly, dressed in park ranger attire — watch in awe.
“This is going to be an amazing season,” the country star remarks, adding in a voice-over, “The stars are out. Ariana Grande joins The Voice on NBC.”
The Voice season 21 premieres on NBC on September 20.
The YSL CEO showcased his love for punk rock and hip-hop music during an intimate garden performance at The Houdini Estate in Los Angeles. The Grammy-winner opens with a track where he reflects on his parents splitting up at a young age and missing his son’s birthday while on tour.
“I’m just seeking for God’s soul ’cause I know something’s missing,” Thugger admits on “Die Slow.” He followed that with “Droppin’ Jewels,” “Hate the Game,” “Tick Tock,” and a punk-rock version of the chart-topping single, “SKI,” with drummer Travis Barker, whom he called “G.O.A.T.”
Thugger’s other guitarists and drummers wore pink sweat short sets to match the rapper’s pink-hued dreadlocks. The 13-minute performance ends with the back of Young Thug’s shirt featuring the name and release date for his first solo album in two years.
Fans on Twitter were amazed by Thugger’s NPR debut, calling it one of the best Tiny Deskperformances by far. Others gave it a ranking of 12/10.
“Never knew we needed Young Thug on rock beats until now. #NPR,” one fan tweeted, while another asked, “Did @youngthug really give us one of the best NPR Tiny Desk episodes and have fire-new songs for an album we can’t get [until] later this year? Somebody give me the number to YSL. I just want to talk.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Chris Cornell Estate
Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, Metallica‘s James Hetfield and Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash are sharing their support for Road Recovery, an organization that uses music to help teens battling addiction and other at-risk youth.
Each rocker filmed a video testimonial speaking about Road Recovery’s mission and how music can help, especially during a particularly difficult time like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I get really emotional, that’s when I write lyrics,” Hetfield says in his video. “When I get in a really happy, good mood, that’s when I start writing riffs. That’s just what I do, and you’ll find your own thing.”
Other artists offering testimonials include Peter Frampton and Bad Company‘s Paul Rodgers. You can watch all the videos now via the Road Recovery YouTube channel.
The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards and Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash are featured in a new Chuck Berry documentary special that premieres on PBS tonight at 8 p.m. ET as part of the network’s In Their Own Words series.
The show looks at the life and music of the complex and multifaceted rock ‘n’ roll pioneer through archival interviews with Berry himself, as well as new conversations with his widow, son and grandson, and his musical associates and admirers.
Besides Richards and Slash, the program features interviews with Robert Cray, Hootie & the Blowfish‘s Darius Rucker, drummer/producer Steve Jordan and filmmaker Taylor Hackford. Hackford directed Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, the 1987 documentary focusing on Berry’s star-studded 60th birthday concerts held in St. Louis in 1986, for which Richards served as musical director.
In a preview clip of the episode that’s been posted on PBS.org, Richards recalls the hard time Berry, whom he famously considers his hero, gave him while they rehearsed for the birthday shows, noting that he felt he was up to the the task.
“‘I was made to do this job,’ [I thought.] That was one of my dreams, to be second guitar behind Chuck Berry,” Keith declares. “This movie gave me the possibility to do that. In the meantime, I’d been working with the biggest prima donna in the g**damn world. Any trick Chuck could pull, Mick [Jagger] has already done it.”
In another preview clip, Slash says of Berry, “He’ll always be considered the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Former Prison Break star Wentworth Miller took to Instagram to reveal he was diagnosed as autistic last year.
“Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis,” the 49-year-old actor explained, adding, “[It was] a shock. But not a surprise.”
Miller noted that he has too much learn about the disorder to bear the mantle for it.
“There is a now-familiar cultural narrative…that goes ‘Public figure shares A, B and C publicly, dedicates platform to D, E and F,” he maintained. “[T]hat’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here….Right now my work looks like evolving my understanding. Re-examining 5 decades of lived experience thru a new lens. That will take time.”
He continued, “I don’t want to run the risk of suddenly being a loud, ill-informed voice in the room. The #autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don’t wish to do additional harm.”
Miller said he wouldn’t change his diagnosis, noting that he’s realized “being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I’ve achieved/articulated.”
The actor also thanked “the many (many) people who consciously or unconsciously gave me that extra bit of grace + space over the years, allowed me to move thru the world in a way that made sense to me whether or not it made sense to them.”
Miller revealed he was gay in 2013, and also revealed that being cyberbullied about his appearance at one point left him suicidal.
In 2019, he revealed he wouldn’t return to a Prison Break reboot, and that he was “done” playing straight characters. This season, he reprised his role on Law & Order: SVU as ADA Isaiah Holmes in an episode that revealed Holmes had been bullied because of his sexuality.
(TOKYO) — Yusra Mardini escaped the Syrian civil war in August 2015. She went from Syria to Lebanon and then to Turkey, and from there, she got on a broken boat — meant for just a few people but holding around 20 — heading to Greece. When the boat began to capsize, she swam through the sea with a couple of others to push the boat ashore.
Mardini eventually made it to Germany, and not long after, to Rio de Janeiro, where she competed as a swimmer on the Refugee Olympic Team in 2016.
“Sport was our way out,” she said in a recent Olympic Channel Instagram interview. “It was kind of what gave us hope to build our new lives.”
She didn’t take home any medals that year, but Mardini will try once more, again on the refugee team, at the Tokyo Olympics.
The team, which marches under the Olympic flag, will make its second appearance at the games this year with 29 athletes — including six who were the 2016 team in Rio.
Andrea Mucino-Sanchez of the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which partners with the International Olympic Committee to support the refugee team, said the team is a symbol of hope to the millions of displaced people around the world.
“Sport is more than a leisure activity. It has the power to foster inclusion in local communities,” she told ABC News. “It helps heal, and it really enables refugees to build a future in their host countries and beyond.”
What the Refugee Olympic Team is
The Refugee Olympic Team — which goes by the official acronym EOR based on its French name, Équipe Olympique des Réfugiés — first came onto the international stage during the Rio 2016 Olympics.
At the time, the team consisted of 10 athletes in the athletics, judo and swimming categories. This year, the team has expanded to 29 athletes in those same categories, as well as badminton, boxing, canoe sprint, cycling, karate, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling.
All of the athletes are refugees, having fled violence or persecution in their home countries. They now live in other countries across the globe.
There are various factors to qualify for the team, Mucino-Sanchez said, including athletic performance — “They are all elite athletes, but there are minimums to be able to compete in the Olympic Games,” she said — and their refugee status, which must be confirmed by UNHCR.
Why the team was created
IOC President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the team in October 2015 during what was being called the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan fueled a massive migration to Europe, and the world was still reeling from the death of Alan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body was photographed on a Turkish beach after his family tried and failed to escape to Greece on an overcrowded boat.
“This will be a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis,” Bach said of the team. “It is also a signal to the international community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society.”
Each athlete lives and trains in the country of their host National Olympic Committee (NOC). Host NOCs include Kenya, Portugal, Israel, Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland and Canada, among others. The host NOCs receive funding from Olympic Solidarity, an athlete development assistance program, to help them prepare and support the refugee athletes during their training.
Financial assistance also goes directly to refugee scholarship recipients. According to the 2020 Olympic Solidarity annual report, 52 refugee athletes received scholarship support from the program. However, not everyone supported ends up qualifying for the Olympics.
The IOC previously said that it helps athletes “build their future” outside of training for the Olympics. However, there have been some concerns about management of the program from past participants. Some members who were based in a training camp in Kenya for years left, alleging mismanagement and denied opportunities, TIME reported.
Two runners who were refugees from South Sudan claimed they not only did not get prize money they won at competitions, but also received a significantly lower stipend than program participants based in other areas.
The IOC did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
There are 29 athletes across 12 sports participating in the Tokyo Olympics. Along with Mardini, there are eight other athletes from Syria, four from South Sudan, three from Afghanistan, as well as others from Eritrea, Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Cameroon and Venezuela.
The team this year also includes five athletes from Iran, two of whom were previously on the Iranian Olympic team.
Kimia Alizadeh became Iran’s first female Olympic medalist when she won a bronze medal for the Iranian Olympic team in the -57kg taekwondo category during the 2016 Rio Olympics. She fled the country in 2020, calling herself in an Instagram post “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran” who was just a “tool” used by the country for medals.
Alizadeh, who criticized having to wear a mandatory headscarf, reportedly began receiving threats and fled Iran. The Iran Taekwondo Association has prevented her from competing for another nation, according to the IOC. She now lives in Germany and is working toward naturalization.
According to Mucino-Sanchez, one goal of supporting the refugee athletes is so they can eventually compete with their new nation.
After her participation on the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo, Alizadeh hopes to compete in the 2024 Olympics — perhaps then on the German team — as well.
(TOKYO) — Olympic athletes are set to see some reprieve from extreme weather conditions, as Tropical Storm Nepartak is now forecast to miss Japan’s capital city.
The storm is expected to make landfall in northern Japan on Wednesday morning local time. It was located approximately 134 nautical miles east-northeast of Yokosuka, Japan (a town that houses a U.S. military base and is some 35 miles south of Tokyo) at 11 a.m. ET, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
The naval weather center said in its 11 a.m. ET release that, within 12 hours, the storm will be just off the northeastern coast of Japan near the city of Sendai (some 230 miles north of Tokyo), and within 24 hours the center of the storm will have passed over the archipelago nation completely.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the storm is carrying maximum wind speeds of 44.8 mph and maximum wind gust speeds of 67.1 mph. It is moving north at just over 12 mph.
Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK reported heavy rainfall along northeastern Japan’s coastal cities and warned that the storm will likely cause downpours in the region. NHK reported that local officials are also warning of mudslides and potential flooding in low-lying areas in the region.
While the storm was never forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, news outlets and local officials have been labeling it as such. In a statement Monday, Tokyo 2020 organizers predicted that the storm will have “limited impact on the Games,” but said any changes in competition schedule would be announced on its website and via the Tokyo 2020 app.
Rowing and archery events that were scheduled for Tuesday were rescheduled, but no other changes to event lineups have been announced.
While the tropical storm is missing the Olympics host city, athletes will likely not see relief from the infamous Tokyo summer heat.
No rain is on the forecast for Tokyo throughout the rest of the week, and temperatures on Wednesday are expected to hit a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. On Thursday, temperatures are forecast to hit 93 degrees Fahrenheit. Daily weather updates, in English, are being posted on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Tokyo 2020 weather portal.
Some athletes participating in outdoor events have complained about the extreme heat conditions potentially impacting their performances. The No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player, Novak Djokovic, has advocated for matches to be moved to the late afternoon to avoid the blazing midday heat.
Athletes participating in surf competitions, which made an Olympics debut in Tokyo, reportedly embraced the extreme weather as the tropical storm churned large waves off of Japan’s coast. American Carissa Moore rode the waves into the history books on Tuesday, becoming the first woman ever to win a gold medal in surfing at the Olympics.
Maja Hitij/Getty Images; VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images
Is Lady Gaga going for the gold?
Fans have spotted the singer’s doppelganger competing in the Tokyo Olympic games, and the internet is having a field day with it.
“Why is Lady Gaga at the Olympics,” Gaga Daily tweeted on Monday along with a photo of Jordanian taekwondo fighter Julyana Al-Sadeq, who bears a striking resemblance to the star.
Other tweets and comments flooded in, with one person writing, “lady gaga said ‘f*** grammys and oscars, i want a gold olympic medal now.’”
Another referenced Gaga’s oft-quoted phrase during her A Star Is Born promo tour: “There can be a hundred people at the olympics and one of them is Lady Gaga competing for a taekwondo medal.”
And yet another fan tweeted, “Singer, actress, activist and now Olympian! Lady Gaga really does do it all!”
Neither Gaga nor Al-Sadeq has yet to comment on the similarities. Al-Sadeq unfortunately lost to Brazilian fighter Milean Titoneli on Sunday.
New York City is celebrating its comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic with a major concert.
Kane Brown has been tapped as part of the expansive lineup for We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert, a multi-act event in Central Park on August 21.
The “Worldwide Beautiful” singer is the lone country act in a massive list of multi-genre acts including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson, Jimmy Fallon and more.
The event is organized by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, legendary producer Clive Davis and Live Nation.
“This is a celebration of our city, of every working family who faced incredible challenges last year and overcame. This is a celebration for you,” de Blasio says in a statement.
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to attend the show, with 80 percent of the tickets available for free. Tickets go on sale on August 2 at 10 a.m. ET.
(TOKYO) — Simone Biles’ shocking withdrawal from the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics Tuesday put a spotlight on mental health and the extreme stress elite athletes like Biles are under.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team won silver in the team competition after Biles left the competition early following a rare stumble on vault.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that Biles, 24, withdrew “due to a medical issue,” which the gymnast later confirmed was not a physical injury.
“No injuries, thankfully, and that’s why I took a step back because I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured,” Biles said in a press conference following the competition. “So I thought it was best if these girls took over and did the rest of the job, which they absolutely did.”
Biles, aiming to win an unprecedented six gold medals in Tokyo, told reporters Tuesday this Olympics, her second, has been “really stressful.”
The Tokyo Olympics are taking place under strict restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, including no fans in the stands and no family members or friends of the athletes allowed to attend. The Games were also postponed one year due to the pandemic.
“It’s been really stressful this Olympic Games, just as a whole,” said Biles. “It’s been a long week. It’s been a long Olympic process. It’s been a long year.”
“I think we’re just a little bit too stressed out,” she said. “But we should be out here having fun, and sometimes that’s not the case.”
Biles’ comments echo feelings she shared on Instagram earlier this week, after the Americans were surpassed in the qualifying round by athletes from Russia competing under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The athletes from Russia came out on top in the final round to win gold.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles posted on Instagram after the qualifying event. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke!”
Biles has qualified to compete in individual events later this week, but it remains to be determined if she will compete.
“We’re going to take it a day at a time,” she said Tuesday. “I know tomorrow that we have a half day or at least the morning off, so it will be a good mental rest and so we will take it from there.”
Biles’ comments on the emotional toll the Olympics have taken on her came as tennis superstar Naomi Osaka was eliminated from the Games after losing a third round match in straight sets.
Osaka, who took a months-long break from tennis due to what she said were mental health struggles, also spoke about the pressure she felt at the Olympics.
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” Osaka said after her loss, adding, “I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure, so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation.”
Earlier this year, another Olympic athlete, Simone Manuel, revealed a burnout diagnosis after a loss at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, saying her body had, in her words, “completely crashed.”
Swimmer Michael Phelps, a 28-time Olympic medalist, has also been open about his mental health struggles, revealing he suffered from depression at even the height of his career.
Valorie Kondos Field, former longtime head coach of the UCLA Women’s Gymnastics team, said she hopes that athletes like Biles, Phelps, Osaka and Manuel speaking out about mental health opens the conversation on the type of pressures they face.
“You don’t just have the weight of America wanting you to win gold, you have infinitely more sponsorships than any other athlete,” Kondos Field told “Good Morning America.” “And then on a personal level you have your team and wanting to do well for your teammates.”
“It’s easy for us to put celebrities on that level on a different plane and say, ‘They brought it on themselves. They wanted it all,'” she said. “I hope that we as humans tap into our humanity and understand that all of these Olympians are people. They’re real people with real emotions and real feelings and real pressure.”
Kondos Field described how different it is for an athlete to experience a mental health issue compared to a physical injury.
“With a physical injury, you can see it and feel it and you know what’s wrong,” she said, noting that the adrenaline that comes with physical injuries can also power athletes to continue competing. “With a mental health issue, there’s no X-ray, like with a torn ACL, that can show us what’s going on.”
“And with mental stress, the concern I’ve always had is nobody really knows the layers that have compounded to get [an athlete like] Simone Biles to this level,” Kondos Field added. “She’s had to compartmentalize so much more than any of us know. It’s not just the game or the stress of being at the top of your game, it’s everything else that we don’t know.”
“You’ve got to believe in your team and I know that Simone has always shown support and believed in her teammates,” said Kondos Field. “It probably would have been a different result had she competed, but in that moment she didn’t feel that she could, and nobody can question the validity of that. That is her truth.”
“It was simply on that given day she felt that her teammates were going to be able to perform better than she could,” she said, noting that in gymnastics, competing not at the top of your game can result in severe injury.
Kondos Field added that she hopes Biles’ example sends a message of self-reliance and self-truth to people, including young athletes with hopes of reaching the Olympics one day.
“I think it’s a message to all of us that regardless of what people will say about us, if you can’t rely on yourself to take care of yourself, then you’re allowing other people to assume your truth and what’s going on really deep inside you,” she said. “I always invite young girls to be your own best friend, to take time to pause and really understand what’s going on inside of you regardless of what anyone is going to say.”
