This Friday, Ingrid Michaelson is releasing a deluxe version of her 2018 Christmas album Songs of the Season, with five new tracks. One of them is “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” a duet with actress Zooey Deschanel, and Ingrid says she’s got Twitter to thank for that.
“I love her as an actress,” Ingrid says Zooey, who’s also one-half of the musical duo She & Him. “And Elf is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and so she’s kind of stamped in my brain as a Christmas figure. So I actually wrote on Twitter last year, ‘All I want is to write a Christmas song with Zooey Deschanel.'”
“It was sort of the height of the pandemic…y’know spirits were very low and it just came to me,” she tells ABC Audio. “And she wrote back to me on Twitter, like, ‘Let’s make it happen!'”
“I was blown away that she even knew who I was and we exchanged phone numbers and she’s just, like, she is as lovely as…you would think she is,” raves Ingrid, who describes the duet as “the warm hug that we all desperately need.”
As for the rest of the new tracks, there’s “Winter Wonderland,” “Marshmellow World,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and her 2019 Jason Mraz duet, “Christmas Valentine.” Ingrid says she knew from the day she released the original album that she’d do a deluxe version eventually.
“I wanted to add more [songs], but I didn’t have time,” she says of the original album. “And I knew…John Legend and Gwen Stefani and a lot of other, like, ‘Christmas heads,’ were putting out their deluxes. And so I thought, ‘Well, you know, in a few years, we’ll do a deluxe, and we’ll add some extra stuff then.'”
Not only did “Back from the Dead” signal Halestorm’s return with new music for the first time in three years, it also served as their declaration of intent after being sidelined from the road for the longest time in their career due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is very representative of what we went through during the pandemic,” drummer Arejay Hale tells ABC Audio of “Back from the Dead.” “Now, it just seems so fitting that it’s called ‘Back from the Dead’ and we’re also kind of back from being dead in the water for a year-and-a-half.”
The song also reflects Hale’s struggles with his mental health amid the pandemic, as well as that of his sister and band mate, Lzzy Hale.
“The pandemic was a real test for both of our mental health and our mental wealth,” Arejay shares. “We really had to force ourselves to take care of ourselves mentally.”
The best way to do that, Hale found, was to “be creative.”
“The only thing that got me through the pandemic was songwriting,” he says.
After finally getting back on the road to play shows these past couple months, Halestorm will now embark on a big U.S. co-headlining tour with Evanescence starting this Friday, November 5, in Portland, Oregon. In addition to being excited to playing live again with good friends, Hale feels that working on “Back from the Dead,” and more upcoming new material, has made Halestorm an even better live band.
“I feel like these new songs have really challenged us as players,” he says. “I love it!”
The three-time Grammy winner will receive the Legend award at the 2021 Soul Train Awards.
“It’s an honor to be presented with the Legend award by a community that’s been growing with me throughout my career,” Maxwell said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m so grateful to be sharing this moment with everyone and returning to the Apollo for an evening of excellence.”
Ashanti will also receive a special award.
“I’m honored to be recognized as this year’s Lady of Soul honoree,” said the “Rain on Me” singer, who will also receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2022. “This is a full circle moment for me because I received the Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year Award at the Lady of Soul Awards in 2002. As we commemorate 50 years of Soul Train, I’m proud to be a part of this legacy and to return to the Apollo to celebrate.”
The Soul Train Awards nominations were also announced Tuesday, and H.E.R. leads with eight nods. The Oscar and Grammy winner is up for Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Video of the Year, and she also scored two nominations for the Ashford and Simpson Songwriter’s Award, and two more nods for Best Collaboration.
Jazmine Sullivan and Chris Brown each received six nominations, followed by Wiz Kid and TEMS who received five nods each.
As previously announced, Martin stars Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold will return to host the show for the fourth year in a row.
The 2021 Soul Train Awards, which will be held at the iconic Apollo Theater in New York City, airs Sunday, November 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and BET Her.
Lady Gaga throws herself 100% into everything she does, and her starring role in the upcoming movie House of Gucci is no exception. Gaga tells British Vogue that while portraying Patrizia Reggiani — who was convicted of putting a hit on her ex, Maurizio Gucci — she went so deep into the character that she had a hard time coming back out again.
“I lived as [Reggiani] for a year and a half,” Gaga tells the magazine. “And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that…[even] off-camera. I never broke. I stayed with her.”
“It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde,” she continues. “I instantly had to dye my hair, and I started to live in a way whereby anything that I looked at, anything that I touched, I started to take notice of where and when I could see money.”
However, Gaga admits, “I had some psychological difficulty at one point towards the end of filming. I was either in my hotel room, living and speaking as Reggiani, or I was on set, living and speaking as her. I remember I went out into Italy one day…to take a walk…and I panicked. I thought I was on a movie set.”
But throughout the experience, Gaga says, “Every minute of every day, I thought of my ancestors in Italy and what they had to do so that I could have a better life.”
She adds, “I just wanted to make them proud, which is why I made the decision to make the performance about a real woman and not about the idea of a bad woman.”
House of Gucci opens November 24. Gaga’s cover story is on newsstands Friday.
Machine Gun Kelly just wrapped up his Tickets to My Downfall tour over the weekend, but he’s already reminiscing.
In a tweet Tuesday, Kelly writes, “The best tour I’ve ever had is over and now I’m an emotional wreck.”
The tour, which concluded on Halloween night in Connecticut, featured Kelly playing nearly the entirety of Tickets, his 2020 Travis Barker-produced album that found the former rapper’s music transitioning to a pop-punk sound.
With many shows selling out, it’s easy to see why MGK would declare the tour to be his best. However, the run wasn’t without a few bumps in the road. During his set at Chicago’s Riot Fest, Kelly dissed beloved metal institution Slipknot as “old weird dudes with masks,” which led to the crowds at a subsequent rock festival to boo him.
Kelly is set to return to the live stage later this year for a homecoming Cleveland concert on December 18. He’s also working on a new album called Born with Horns, which will again be produced by Barker.
the best tour ive ever had is over and now i’m an emotional wreck.
(HOUSTON) — It’s been almost 30 years since the Atlanta Braves won a World Series and, on Tuesday night, the drought officially ended — hammering the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game 6 at Minute Maid Park.
The start of the Braves’ season looked rough, with the team dropping their first four games and being plagued by injuries. There were also moments where the team didn’t spend a day over .500.
Despite the rocky start, the Braves turned the season around and the team, assisted by Jorge Soler and Freddie Freeman took home their first WS in 26 years.
Max Fried’s dominant pitching took over six innings, with Soler smashing his third homer against the Astros, with one resulting in a monster three-run shot.
Freeman and Dansby Swanson also homered, bringing the score to 7 – nothing.
And, while the Braves now head into a mighty victory parade — as they are the only team to bring TWO championship titles to the city of Atlanta — the Astros now have spring training to think about, which starts February 26.
To date, the Atlanta Falcons have yet to take home a Super Bowl trophy while the Hawks have yet to declare victory in the NBA championships — not to mention the college football scene.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
Atlanta 7, Houston 0 (Atlanta wins series 4-2)
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Milwaukee 117, Detroit 89
Miami 125, Dallas 110
Utah 119, Sacramento 113
Phoenix 112, New Orleans 100
LA Lakers 119, Houston 117
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Toronto 4, Vegas 0
Philadelphia 3, Arizona 0
Montreal 3, Detroit 0
Minnesota 5, Ottawa 4 (OT)
Winnipeg 4, Dallas 3 (SO)
Nashville 3, Calgary 2 (OT)
Vancouver 3, NY Rangers 2 (OT)
Anaheim 4, New Jersey 0
San Jose 5, Buffalo 2 (In progress)
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Vancouver 1, Los Angeles FC 1 (Tie)
(NEW YORK) — Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive running his first campaign for political office, will be the next governor of Virginia, ABC News has projected.
ABC News has yet to project the winners in the races for lieutenant governor or attorney general.
Around 10 p.m., Democrat Terry McAuliffe spoke at his election night event, but did not concede defeat.
“We still got a lot of votes to count, we got about 18% of the vote out, so we’re gonna continue to count the votes because every single Virginian deserves to have their vote counted,” McAuliffe said.
Youngkin’s projected win over McAuliffe, a longtime fixture in Democratic politics and a former governor of the commonwealth, marks the first time a Republican has won the gubernatorial election since 2009 and the end to Democrats’ trifecta government control in Richmond.
It’s also a warning shot to Democrats one year out from the 2022 midterm elections.
The race, nationalized by the candidates themselves, was viewed by most as a referendum on President Joe Biden and a bellwether for next year’s contests, when Democrats have to defend their slim majorities in the House and Senate with history already against them.
Poll after poll showed Republican voters felt more enthusiastic about participating in this election than Democratic voters, and in the lead up to the election, Youngkin was able to turn the race into a dead heat.
He centered his closing message around parents’ rights to have a say in their child’s education, accusing McAuliffe of wanting to “put government in between parents and our children” after he said during the final debate that he doesn’t “think parents should be telling schools what to teach.”
Youngkin also pledged to raise the standard in schools, keep them open to in-person instruction amid the pandemic and ban critical race theory from being taught in K-12 schools, even though it’s not in the curriculum.
McAuliffe called Youngkin’s closing message around education divisive, saying, “He has pitted parents against parents. He’s got parents against teachers, and he’s bringing his personal culture wars into our classrooms.”
But according to exit polls, Youngkin’s message appears to have resonated with Virginia voters — about half say parents should have “a lot” of say in what their child’s school teaches — and now can serve as a blueprint for Republican candidates competing in bluer areas of the country.
Essentially running as the incumbent in the race, McAuliffe promised to build on Democrats’ accomplishments over the last eight years, beginning first under his administration. He made promises like increasing the minimum wage and teacher pay, making health care more affordable and requiring vaccinations for nurses, doctors and teachers.
But his campaign against Youngkin focused more on a Republican who was not on the ballot — Donald Trump — and painting a dire picture of what Virginia would look like under a Youngkin administration by asserting that Youngkin’s agenda is Trump’s agenda.
At every opportunity, McAuliffe and his allies tied Youngkin to the former president, who Virginia voters rejected by a 10-point margin in 2020. Trump endorsed Youngkin after he won the nomination and never campaigned with him directly, but that didn’t stop McAuliffe from linking them as one in the same.
The former president took partial credit for Youngkin’s projected victory, saying in a statement, “I would like to thank my BASE for coming out in force and voting for Glenn Youngkin. Without you, he would not have been close to winning.”
He mocked McAuliffe’s strategy of connecting Youngkin to Trump.
“It is looking like Terry McAuliffe’s campaign against a certain person named “Trump” has very much helped Glenn Youngkin. All McAuliffe did was talk Trump, Trump, Trump and he lost!” Trump said in a second statement. “I didn’t even have to go rally for Youngkin, because McAuliffe did it for me.”
McAuliffe’s apparent defeat Tuesday is the latest indication that trying to tap into voters’ disapproval of Trump may not be a winning strategy for Democrats — especially when they’re facing headwinds from an unpopular president and stalled agenda in Washington. According to exit polls, 54% of voters disapprove of Biden’s job performance, and nearly twice as many “strongly” disapprove of his work in office than strongly approve.
(NEW YORK) — Members of the United Auto Workers Union voted Tuesday against a tentative agreement that would have ended the ongoing strike of more than 10,000 John Deere workers.
The vote came up 55% against and 45% in favor, according to the UAW. This is the second time the union has rejected a tentative contract offer.
“The strike against John Deere and company will continue as we discuss next steps with the company,” the UAW said in a statement. “Pickets will continue and any updates will be provided through the local union.”
Earlier news of a tentative deal, which would have given approximately double the wage increase compared the previously rejected offer that kicked off the strike on Oct. 14, came as unique labor market conditions have resulted in workers wielding new power as the pandemic wanes.
An apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs has left many major companies reeling for staff and has been linked to the spate of strikes that have rocked the private sector in recent weeks. The labor crunch — combined with recent record-high rates of people quitting their jobs and record-high job openings, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data — have resulted in workers gaining new leverage as they seek to bargain for better pay or working conditions.
(NEW YORK) — Democrat Eric Adams is projected by ABC News to win the New York City mayoral race.
The win, while expected in a city with many more registered Democrats than Republicans, makes some history as Adams is only the second Black mayor in the history of the city.
Curtis Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels as a response to crime in the subway in the 1970s and was later a political commentator, was the Republican nominee.
“This is is an amazing day, to reach this point,” Adams told reporters Tuesday morning as he took to the polls. “Back in 1977, my mom brought me into that polling place. Every little boy or little girl who was ever told they’ll never amount to anything — every child with a learning disability, every inmate sitting in Rikers, every dishwasher, every child in a homeless shelter — this is for all of you. I only have three words: I am you.”
Sliwa made his own headlines at the poll, trying to bring one of his rescue cats into his voting location. The passionate animal rescue activist was told his feline friend had to stay outside.
But even once he got inside, his ballot got jammed in the scanner and technicians were needed to fix it.
“There will be safe streets, safe parks, safe subways,” he said, later reunited with one of his 17 cats, Gizmo, outside the polling spot. “There will be safe schools. That’s what I’ve been doing as head of Guardian Angels for 42 years.”
Adams currently serves as Brooklyn borough president –first elected in 2013 and reelected in 2017 — and is a former captain in the New York City Police Department. He was also in the New York state Senate from 2006 to 2013 representing Brooklyn.
David Dinkins, who died last year at 93, was the first Black mayor in New York City history, serving from 1990 to 1993 before losing to Rudy Giuliani in a heated reelection campaign.
Adams, considered a moderate Democrat after the progressive Bill de Blasio spent two terms in office, won out for the nominee in a crowded field in June. Adams separated himself from a pack that included former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and second- and third-place finishers Kathryn Garcia, the former Department of Sanitation commissioner, and Maya Wiley, who was favored by progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In the city’s first use of ranked choice voting, Adams crept over the 50% mark with Garcia at 49.6%. A snafu from the city elections board caused confusion in the weeks after the June 22 voting date before Adams was eventually declared the nominee.
De Blasio was term-limited out of office and previously explored a presidential run during his second term. Sliwa often attempted to tie Adams to the unfavorable opinion many hold for the current mayor.
