On Friday, rapper Nelly did something he’s been hoping to do for about 16 or 17 years: He released a country-flavored album.
That’s his new project Heartland, a collaborations-packed collection of songs that the singer says he’s been wanting to make ever since he first dabbled in the country genre, releasing his 2004 duet with Tim McGraw.
“The idea of the project has been ever since ‘Over and Over’ — so since 2004, 2005, after seeing that success,” Nelly tells Billboard. “But the only reason I even thought that I could have success with ‘Over and Over’ was because, even when we dropped Country Grammar, we were getting so much love from this community.”
Released in 2000, Country Grammar is Nelly’s full-length studio debut. Though it was a hip hop album, the singer realized from the very start that his music was resonating with a country fan base, too.
But it took him a while to get around to formally venturing into country music, in part because he was “doing my homework,” Nelly explains. “To get more familiar with Nashville and everything. It became a lot easier to know how to navigate and create this project, to bring it to fruition.”
Heartland features duets with the likes of Kane Brown, Florida Georgia Line, Darius Rucker and Jimmie Allen. It’s leading single is Nelly’s FGL duet, “Lil Bit.”
The latest episode of Queen‘s weekly YouTube video series Queen The Greatest premiered today, and it features profile a profile of the band’s memorable hit 1981 duet with David Bowie, “Under Pressure.”
The installment tells the story of how the track came together using interview footage with Bowie; Queen members Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor; and producer Reinhold Mack.
The episode begins by explaining how after Queen had purchased Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, the band was working on new music there in 1981 when engineer David Richards made an impromptu phone call to Bowie.
Bowie notes in an archival interview clip, “[Richards] knew that I was in town, and phoned me up and asked me if I’d…like to go down and see what was happening. So I went down and…suddenly you’re writing something together and it was totally spontaneous. It certainly wasn’t planned.”
Taylor remembers that the band and Bowie were drunk and jamming on “all sorts of old songs,” and then David said, “Look, hang on a minute, why don’t we write one of our own?”
A separate interview clips, Taylor, May and Mack recalled how Queen bassist John Deacon came up with the catchy bass riff that really got the track going.
Roger added that it was Bowie idea to put in various clicks and claps, and the track just grew from there.
“Under Pressure” was released in October of 1981 and became Queen’s second #1 hit in the U.K., after “Bohemian Rhapsody,” while peaking at #22 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100.
After Mercury’s death in 1991, Bowie famously teamed up with Eurythmics‘ Annie Lennox and Queen’s surviving members to perform “Under Pressure” at the historic 1992 tribute concert for Freddie at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Starz has renewed its hit comedy series Run the World for a second season.
Along with the renewal announcement, the network shared that Rachelle Williams will serve as the season two showrunner. She’ll executive-produce alongside Yvette Lee Bowser and series creator Leigh Davenport. As previously reported, the series, starring Amber Stevens West, Andrea Bordeaux, Bresha Webb and Corbin Reid, follows a group of successful thirty-something Black women who work, live and hang out in Harlem. A season two premiere date for Run the World has yet to be announced.
In other news, Deadline has learned that In the Heights star Corey Hawkins has signed to Warner Bros. upcoming feature adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple. Deadline reports that Hawkins will play Harpo in the film, which will be adapted from a screenplay based on Alice Walker‘s 1982 novel of the same name. WB’s The Color Purple, directed by Blitz Bazawule, is scheduled to hit theaters December 21, 2023.
Finally, ABC has shared a new trailer for The Wonder Years, a reboot to the original ’90s ABC family comedy. As previously reported, the new iteration focuses on a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama during the 1960s. It follows preteen Dean Williams, played by Elisha “EJ” Williams, in the central role, with Don Cheadle taking on the adult voice of the character and narrating the show. The Wonder Years premieres Wednesday, September 22, at 8:30 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the network also released an extended trailer for Queens, the upcoming comedy about a group of four women in their 40s trying to relive their days of hip-hop fame. Starring Brandy, Eve, Naturi Naughton, and Nadine Velazquez , Queens will premiere Tuesday, October 19, at 10:00 p.m. ET.
Weezer has premiered a new live video for for “All My Favorite Songs,” filmed on the band’s ongoing Hella Mega tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy.
The clip begins with a shot of Rivers Cuomo strumming a Flying V guitar and sporting a Billy-in-Stranger-Things mullet, suggesting that the live version is a bit different from the original, which appears on Weezer’s new, orchestral-driven album, OK Human. Indeed, the onstage rendition is much more guitar heavy than the studio recording, and would probably fit right in on Weezer’s other new album, the shredding Van Weezer.
You can watch the live “All My Favorite Songs” video streaming now on YouTube.
The Hella Mega tour continues Friday in San Francisco.
(ETHIOPIA) — As chaos envelops Kabul after Afghanistan’s government collapsed and the Taliban seized control, horrific stories and heartbreaking images also pour out of Ethiopia. Some in the U.S. with a connection to the African country are feeling a call to action.
In Washington, D.C., home to the largest concentration of Ethiopians in the U.S. and the largest Ethiopian population outside Africa, there’s an intense debate over the war and who’s at fault.
“Tigray is part of Ethiopia. Tigrayans are Ethiopians until they decide otherwise. So any war, any suffering in Ethiopia, should be a pain to everybody,” Assefa Fisseha, a man who fled the country 20 years to begin a new life in America, told ABC News.
In Fisseha’s homeland, within the northern region of Tigray, millions are caught in the middle of civil war between Tigrayan defense forces and the Ethiopian government.
Each side has been accused of atrocities throughout the conflict, with systemic rape and starvation used as weapons of war, according to the United Nations, senior U.S. officials and monitoring groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Roads, bridges, hospitals and farms have been destroyed, exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe, according to aid groups.
But information can be hard to come by. Internet outages by the Ethiopian government have disconnected families inside and outside the country for days, weeks or even months at a time, according to Internet monitor NetBlocks.
With over 110 million people, Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Africa. The conflict has left thousands dead and displaced roughly two million people in Tigray, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
“On the ground, what I’m really seeing is just hungry people there, people are extremely paranoid and protective,” Leoh Hailu-Ghermy, who made a two-day trek to the region to deliver supplies and aid to refugees, told ABC News.
Hailu-Ghermy is one of the voices in the movement to end the war many activists call a modern-day genocide.
Earlier this month, more apparent victims of the atrocities in the brutal, 10-monthlong civil war washed up on a riverbank in neighboring Sudan. Fifty bodies were believed to be Tigrayans from a nearby village, according to The Associated Press.
There have been reports of massacres, ethnic cleansing and widespread sexual assault by Ethiopian government troops, according to Amnesty International.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. has seen “acts of ethnic cleansing,” but stopped short of calling the atrocities genocide — a specific legal term in international law. The Ethiopian government has fiercely denied such accusations.
“It’s really heartbreaking to see that people’s livelihoods can be stripped away from them in such an unfair way and that the world wouldn’t care because of the geography of that place or because of the race of those people,” Hailu-Ghermy said.
Just last week, the Biden administration called out the Ethiopian government for obstructing humanitarian aid, including convoys, saying aid workers will run out of food this week.
In May, President Joe Biden issued a lengthy statement, calling for a ceasefire, negotiations to halt the conflict and an end to human rights abuses, including the widespread sexual violence.
The Biden administration also tapped a special envoy for the region to push for a diplomatic solution — and fired a warning shot at the Ethiopian government, a critical U.S. partner, by imposing limited sanctions.
In May, the State Department said it imposed visa bans on officials from Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea — whose military crossed the border to fight Tigrayan forces. Because visas are confidential by law, it did not say who was impacted but the U.S. Treasury slapped financial sanctions on Monday on General Filipos Woldeyohannes, the chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces, accusing his forces of massacres, looting, rape, torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians.
Hailu-Ghermy and other advocates say they are looking for more action.
Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed was once seen as a popular reformer when he came into power in 2018, even winning the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a decades-long war with neighboring Eritrea. His election unseated the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia politics prior to his administration, and tensions between his federal government and their regional leaders exploded into conflict last November.
“Now that the conflict has been ongoing for several months, it produces its own logic. And so every atrocity, every retaliation begets another retaliation and unfortunately, another atrocity,” Aly Verjee, a senior adviser to the Africa program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told ABC News.
Tigrayans celebrated when Abiy declared a ceasefire in June, but now their forces are on the offensive and Abiy responded with a call for all capable citizens to take up arms and join the fight to show patriotism.
“Ethiopians at home and abroad, your motherland calls upon you. History has shown that there is no force that can stand in our way when we say no more,” he said in a statement.
Analysts fear the conflict will spiral further out of control, putting hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine and potentially spilling over borders to Ethiopia’s neighbors.
“Let’s not forget that the reason the majority of Ethiopian Americans are in the United States is because, at one time or another, there was conflict in Ethiopia. Let’s not see another generation of Ethiopians feel that they have to leave the country because of conflict,” Verjee said.
ABC News Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
(TOKYO) — In his second consecutive Paralympic Games, Egypt’s table tennis player and amputee Ibrahim Hamadtou continues to produce jaw-dropping shots using only his mouth.
The 48-year-old lost to South Korea’s Park Hongkyu and China’s Chen Chao in the men’s singles contest at the Tokyo Paralympics, but the significance of his participation goes well beyond the results.
After losing both of his arms in a train accident at the age of 10 back in 1983, Hamadtou embarked on an inspirational table tennis career after being stirred up by a negative comment from a friend.
“I was in the club where I was officiating a match between two of my friends. They disagreed on a point, when I counted the point in favor of one of them the other player told me, do not interfere as you will never be able to play,” Hamadtou said in an interview with the International Table Tennis Federation’s website last year.
“It was that statement that fired me up to decide to play table tennis.”
Astonishing images of Hamadtou holding the paddle in his mouth and striking back at opponents went viral in 2014 when he made an appearance at the World Team Championships as a guest of honor, lining up against the world’s finest.
Two years later, he made his Paralympic debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, once again displaying his unique skills.
When serving, Hamadtou flicks the ball up with his right foot and hits it powerfully with the racket, which he holds between his teeth. It’s a spectacular technique that he seems to be perfecting.
“It took me nearly a year of practice to get used to holding the racket with [my] mouth and making the serve; with practice and playing regularly this skill was improved,” he added.
A father of three, Hamadtou was born in 1973 in Damietta, Egypt.
H.E.R. is hitting the road this fall with her eight-city ‘Back of My Mind’ tour.
‘”Shows are back and better than ever,” she posted on Instagram with the tour dates and a photo of her performing in concert. “You coming to see me?”
The Oscar and Grammy winner will kick off the tour October 10 in Franklin, TN, and wrap up October 28 in Detroit. Tone Stith will be her opening act. This will be the “Come Through” singer’s third headlining tour, following the “Lights on Tour” in 2017, and the “I Used to Know Her Tour” in 2018.
H.E.R is also hosting her annual “Lights On Festival” with two-day events in Concord, California and Brooklyn, New York. The Concord festival on September 18-19 features Erykah Badu, Bryson Tiller, Ari Lennox, Keyshia Cole and more. Maxwell, SWV and Skip Marley are among the artists performing at the festival on October 21-22 in Brooklyn.
The Mudvayne and HELLYEAH vocalist sings on a version of the ’90s slacker classic recorded by the band Violent Idols.
“This thing was so much fun,” Gray says of the cover. “We have a little tempo and a little teeth and I’m super happy with it.”
“Don’t take this too seriously as I didn’t,” he adds. “Just having some fun with good friends for good people!”
You can listen to the “Loser” cover now via digital outlets.
Gray, meanwhile, is preparing to return to the stage for Mudvayne’s reunion tour, kicking off in September at the Inkcarceration festival in Mansfield, Ohio.
Ashley McBryde is currently one night into her three-night headlining stand at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, and on Thursday night, she kicked those shows off with a bang, inviting none other than Eric Church to join her onstage.
To a country audience, the Heart & Soul hitmaker needs no introduction, and Ashley simply introduced him to her sold-out crowd as “Eric f***ing Church.” The two performers then jammed out on a rendition of the Allman Brothers’ 1971 classic, “Midnight Rider.”
Longtime followers of Ashley’s career will recognize that the special surprise appearance was a full-circle moment. Back in 2017, when Ashley was just starting to gain traction in the music business, Eric invited her onstage for a performance of her “Bible and a .44.”
“Midnight Rider” wasn’t the only cover song on Ashley’s set list, nor was it the only duet on her agenda. She also brought opening act Lainey Wilson back out onstage during her set, and the pair sang “When Will I Be Loved,” an Everly Brothers classic that’s also been a hit for Linda Ronstadt, and Vince Gillhas covered it, too.
Ashley’s three nights at the Ryman are part of her This Town Talks Tour, which is slated to run through January 2022.
(WASHINGTON) — House progressives on Friday urgently called on Democratic congressional leaders to pass legislation to extend the federal eviction moratorium after the Supreme Court ended an extension late Thursday night.
“As your fellow colleagues, we implore you to act with the highest levels of urgency to advance a permanent legislative solution in a must pass legislative vehicle in order to extend the life-saving federal eviction moratorium for the duration of the deadly global health crisis. We must continue to curb the spread of the Delta variant using every legislative tool at our disposal in Congress,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, exclusively obtained by ABC News.
The letter was led by Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jimmy Gomez, and Cori Bush. More than 60 lawmakers have signed on to the letter, ABC News is told.
In an eight-page ruling, the Supreme Court determined that Congress must extend the federal eviction moratorium unilaterally.
“Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion.
“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court said.
“It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID–19 Delta variant. But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends,” the court writes. “It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.”
The move will likely mean hundreds of thousands of tenants are lose their homes because they are unable to pay rent, and it comes as the Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to run rampant across the country.
Bush, who was formerly homeless, posted up on the Capitol steps to protest the moratorium ending earlier in August.
The moratorium, essentially a nationwide ban on evictions, was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last September. In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
Amid public outcry, House Democratic leadership was looking to possibly take legislative action before its summer recess, but those efforts did not take place.
The CDC ended up passing another extension in early August, largely due to the public outcry and protests led by Bush.
In a statement Friday, Pelosi did not indicate that the House would return from its recess to pass legislation. She called on state and local governments to disperse rental assistance immediately. Only about $5.1 billion of the $46.5 billion in aid had been disbursed by the end of July, according to figures released earlier in the week.
“Earlier this month, thanks to the leadership of President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the imminent fear of eviction and being put out on the street was lifted for countless families across America with the issuing of a new CDC eviction moratorium. Last night, the Supreme Court immorally ripped away that relief in a ruling that is arbitrary and cruel,” she said in a statement.
“Congressional Democrats have not and will not ever accept a situation of mass evictions. We will continue our work to ensure that families suffering hardship during the pandemic can have the safety of home, as we also work with communities to ensure the immediate disbursement by states and localities of the over $45 billion allocated by Congress for rental assistance,” she added.
Following the release of the progressives’ letter, Pelosi also sent her own letter to the Democratic caucus, again reiterating that the chamber will assess “possible legislative remedies.”
“Preventing mass evictions is a priority that unites Democrats, and I remain proud of the work that our House Democratic Caucus has done to provide relief for families and landlords, including working with the Biden Administration to secure the new moratorium and allocating the $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance initiated by Chairwoman Maxine Waters. We will continue to work with the Biden Administration and with our communities to urge a halt to evictions and to ensure the immediate disbursement by states and localities of the rental assistance,” she said in her letter.
“At the same time, the House is assessing possible legislative remedies. House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters is examining the most effective way to expedite the flow of funding of rental assistance by states and localities. Families must be protected during the pandemic, and we will explore every possible solution,” she said.
“As we all agree, eviction is a horror that no family should ever have to experience: cribs and personal belongings on the street, children in fear and distress and parents struggling to find basic shelter. As we work to prevent this crisis, I again salute our House Democratic Caucus for the relentless and values-based leadership that Members continue to bring to this fight,” she said, in a nod to progressives.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also released a statement late Thursday lamenting the Supreme Court’s decision.
“The Biden Administration is disappointed that the Supreme Court has blocked the most recent CDC eviction moratorium while confirmed cases of the Delta variant are significant across the country. As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19,” Psaki said.
“In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions – from cities and states to local courts, landlords, Cabinet Agencies – to urgently act to prevent evictions,” she said.
Psaki said Friday that President Biden supported extension efforts in Congress but also called for action at the state level.
ABC News has reached out to Pelosi’s and Schumer’s offices for comment.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.
