Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of Justin Timberlake‘s landmark sophomore album FutureSex/LoveSounds, which turned him from a rising solo artist into a global superstar. It’s no wonder he took to Instagram to pay special tribute to the multi-platinum project.
“15 years ago today, I released my 2nd album… FutureSex/LoveSounds. This album changed my life,” Justin wrote, posting snippets of the videos for the album’s many hits. “Every album is a different chapter and special to me but, this one??? I don’t even know if I have the words.”
“I’m often asked what my favorite song on the album is but they’re all my babies so I can’t pick,” Justin continued. “But I do know this: album STILL HITS.”
Released September 8, 2006, FutureSex/LoveSounds featured production by Timbaland. Justin also shared a snippet of an interview where the two men talk about their collaboration. Among the album’s hits: “My Love,” “What Goes Around…Comes Around,” “LoveStoned/I Think She Knows” and of course, “SexyBack.”
FutureSex/LoveSounds hit number one and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2007 Grammys. While it didn’t win in that category, all the singles from the album won Grammys in their respective categories.
Echoing the feelings of many fans who posted that they suddenly felt very old, actress/director Olivia Wilde commented, “I’m sorry 15 YEARS?”
The worldwide 24-hour Global Citizen Live concert. taking place September 25. has announced its lineups for both LA and London.
The show in Los Angeles will take place at the Greek Theatre and feature Adam Lambert, Demi Lovato, OneRepublic, Chloe X Halle, H.E.R., The Lumineers, 5 Seconds of Summer and Ozuna, as well as music legend Stevie Wonder. Tickets are available now at GlobalCitizenLive.la.
In a statement, Wonder said, “It is again my pleasure and honor to join with all of the artists who are using their gift of song to celebrate the Global Citizens’ event by doing our part in working against global warming, starvation and singing for equality around the world…We Are The Village!!!”
The London lineup for the show will feature dance diva Kylie Minogue, disco legends Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Duran Duran, Rag’n’Bone Man and “Beggin'” band Måneskin.
As previously reported, the New York part of the show will include Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara, Jennifer Lopez, Billie Eilish, Coldplay and more. Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, Black Eyed Peas, Charlie Puth and DJ Snake will perform from Paris, and Lorde, BTS, Usher, Ricky Martin, Green Day and Metallica will round out the broadcast.
ABC News Live will broadcast the full event starting at 12:30 p.m. ET on September 25, with a highlights show scheduled to air on ABC September 26 at 7 p.m. ET. Tickets for Paris, New York City, and Los Angeles can be earned by taking action at GlobalCitizenLive.org.
The goal of Global Citizen Live is to encourage people to call upon world leaders, philanthropists and politicians to prioritize vaccine equality, climate change and famine.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort in past weeks.
But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind. The Biden administration is now focused on a “diplomatic mission” to help them leave but some hoping to evacuate are still stuck in the country. Meanwhile, the Taliban has announced its new “caretaker” government which includes men with U.S. bounties on their heads — and no women.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 09, 8:41 am
Americans, foreigners to leave Kabul on first flight since Taliban takeover: Qatari envoy
A Qatari Airways flight has landed at Kabul’s international airport and will be the first to fly out of Afghanistan’s capital since the Taliban seized power, with U.S. citizens and other Westerners on board, Qatar’s special envoy for Afghanistan announced on the tarmac Thursday alongside the Taliban’s spokesperson.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “As we have said, our efforts to assist U.S. citizens and others to whom we have a special commitment are ongoing, but we aren’t in a position to share additional details at this time.”
Mutlaq bin Majed al Qahtani, the Qatari envoy, told reporters during the joint press conference, “Call it what you want, a charter or a commercial flight — everyone has tickets and boarding passes.”
He said the airport in Kabul will be fully up and running, telling reporters, “Hopefully life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.”
While the number and breakdown of passengers it’s unclear, this is the first large departure — the first flight out — of Americans and other foreigners since the U.S. evacuation operation ended last week, leaving hundreds of U.S. citizens and thousands of Afghan partners behind.
Sep 08, 3:00 pm
All US service members who died in Kabul attack to be awarded Purple Heart
All 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26 airport attack in Kabul will be posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Both the Marine Corps and the Army told ABC News their members will receive the decoration after the Navy announced on Tuesday that the one member of its service that died was posthumously promoted and would also be awarded the Purple Heart.
“The 11 Marines killed-in-action while supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel will be awarded the Purple Heart,” said Capt. Andrew Wood, Marine Corps spokesperson on Tuesday.
The Army’s 1st Special Forces Command said in a press release the day after the attack that its member who died, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star medal and Combat Action Badge.
It’s quite the day for Oscar-winner baby news. While Jennifer Lawrence just confirmed she’s with child, her X-Men series co-star Michael Fassbender apparently is a dad, having secretly welcomed a baby with his Oscar-winning wife, Alicia Vikander.
Vikander tells People that she and Fassbender became parents earlier this year. The very private couple, who were married in 2017, didn’t reveal to People a name or gender, but the actress tells the magazine what it’s like being a new mom.
“I now have a whole new understanding of life in general,” said The Green Knight star. “That’s pretty beautiful, and obviously will give a lot to any of my work in the future.”
The mysterious bundle of joy is the first child for Vikander, 32, and her 44-year-old husband, who met on the set of the 2014 film The Light Between Oceans.
Incidentally, it was revealed this week that another of Fassbender’s X-Men series co-stars, Olivia Munn, was expecting a child with comedian John Mulaney.
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and her husband of two years, Cooke Maroney, are expecting their first child, a rep for the couple tells Page Six.
Lawrence, 31, and her 37-year-old art gallery owner beau got engaged in 2019. They tied the knot in October of that year at Belcourt of Newport, a museum and historical site in Newport, Rhode Island, before family and a guest list that included famous friends like Adele, Emma Stone, and Cameron Diaz.
No due date for the baby was announced. This will be Lawrence’s first child.
Sony Pictures Television announced on Wednesday that it has inked a deal with Pat Sajak and Vanna White to host Wheel of Fortune through the 2023-2024 season, according to Deadline.
However, while the popular game show, which is heading into its 39th season, has locked in its longtime hosts, other features of the show are about to change.
Most notably, Sajak will no longer do the ‘final spin’ of the game. Instead, the contestant in control of the wheel at the time will spin to determine the amount each consonant is worth during the speed-up round.
“If you think about it, by doing the ‘final spin’ I, as host, had an impact on the outcome of the game and that has always bothered me because it just didn’t feel right,” said Sajak in a statement obtained by Deadline. “With this change, only the contestants determine the outcome of the game and the host does not impose themself in any way.”
Additionally, the show’s set will receive a facelift, and its theme song, “Changing Keys,” will get a modernized arrangement.
More money will also be up for grabs, too, with the “Free Play” wedge being removed from the Wheel and replaced by an $850 wedge. Also, a $4,000 bonus will be awarded to contestants who solve all three puzzles in the Triple Toss-Up Round, making the round worth $10,000.
Finally, the minimum amount that can be won on the Bonus Wheel has been upped to $39,000, in honor of the show’s 39th season in syndication.
Incidentally, Jason Alexander, wrestler and upcoming DWTS hoofer Michael “The Miz” Mizanin and Cheryl Burke will join Pat and Vanna when Celebrity Wheel of Fortune returns on its new night, Sunday, September 26 at 8 a.m. on ABC.
Meghan Trainor is the host of Peacock’s new Top Chef spinoff, Top Chef: Family Style, where talented kid chefs team up with a family member to compete. The show, whose first two episodes hit the streaming service today, features celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson as the judge, because, as Meghan admits, she knew nothing about food when she took the job.
“The first week, I would try to guess what Marcus would think. I would say, ‘Don’t tell me, don’t tell me! I’m going to try to guess,'” Meghan tells ABC Audio about offering comments on the contestants’ food. “And a lot of times I was right. So then I started trusting myself more and I would [give more] input, and Marcus would be so proud, because I was really learning!”
The Grammy-winner says by doing the show, she was introduced to many foods she’d never tasted before, like mole [MOE-lay] and sea urchin. “I learned about flavors, texture…every bite should be magical!” she explains. “I learned how to appreciate…I had no idea. I was just shovin’ it down!”
Meghan filmed the show when her baby son, Riley, was three months old, and he spent most of the time hanging out with her husband, Daryl Sabara. But Meghan reveals with a laugh, “Any time I had a break, I would tell the guest chefs, like, ‘Do you want to see a baby?’…[So Riley] had a lot of visitors.”
Between this program and her upcoming show Clash of the Cover Bands, some fans might feel that Meghan’s abandoned her music career — but don’t worry.
“I did those shows when I was recovering from the C-section and being a new mom,” she says. “And now I’m finally in my studio mode and I’m writing songs for my fourth album.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is set to speak to the nation Thursday at 5 p.m. to lay out what the White House said is a new six-part strategy to combat the delta variant, but it was unclear whether he would call for more vaccination mandates in the private sector and for the nation’s schools.
A source familiar with the president’s plans told ABC News that Biden will announce an executive order that will “require all federal executive branch workers to be vaccinated,” as well as a second order that will direct that that standard also be applied to employees of contractors working with the federal government.
As part of this effort, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the National Institutes of Health will complete implementation of their previously announced vaccination requirements that cover 2.5 million people, the source said.
This is an escalation of the president’s action in July calling for federal workers to attest to their vaccination status and submit to mitigation efforts if they are not vaccinated, such as mask usage and regular testing.
Speaking at her daily briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Biden would “outline the next phase in the fight against the virus and what that looks like, including measures to work with the public and private sector.”
She said he would be “building on the steps that we’ve already announced, the steps we’ve taken over the last few months, requiring more vaccinations, boosting important testing measures and more, making it safer for kids to go to school, all at a time when the American people are listening. Again, this will be six steps that we’ll work to be implementing over the months ahead.”
According to a White House official, the president’s plan will include six areas of focus: vaccinating the unvaccinated; furthering protection for the vaccinated; keeping schools safely open; increasing testing and requiring masking; protecting the economy’s recovery; and improving care for those with COVID-19.
Psaki confirmed there will be new components as part of the president’s announcement but wouldn’t go much beyond general comments about testing access, mandates and making sure kids are protected from the highly transmissible virus as they return to school and Americans return from summer vacations.
Psaki said plans were still being finalized as Biden met with with his COVID-19 response team Wednesday afternoon.
“Will any of those new steps influence the average American’s day-to-day life? Should we expect any new mitigation recommendations, as an example?” a reporter asked.
“It depends on if you’re vaccinated or not,” Psaki replied, but gave no further details.
She highlighted efforts the administration already has taken to try and get the delta variant under control.
“We’ve been at war with the delta variant over the course of the last couple of months. And just to remind you of some of the steps that we have announced, we have announced new government mandates on DOD, our military forces, NIH, other — the VA, the Veterans Affairs — Department of Veterans Affairs, folks who are serving on the front lines on the health — on health — in health roles in that department. We’ve also incentivized additional mandates, whether it is in home — in health care facilities, nursing homes, and others,” Psaki said.
“And we’ve also lifted up and — and incentivized private sector — private sector mandates, because we’ve seen that they have been effective. We’ve also deployed over 700 surge response teams across the country and work closely, again, with the private sector to institute more requirements on vaccinations,” she continued.
“We have more work to do, and we are still at war with the virus and with the delta variant,” she added. “So, we’re going to build on that work. And he’s speaking to it now, because this issue, of course, is on front of mind, top of mind to Americans across the country. People are returning to schools. Workplaces are either reopening, some brick and mortar, or some people are just returning to work after spending some time with family or loved ones over the summer.”
But besides ordering the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees and 1.3 million active duty service members get vaccinated, Biden has limited legal authority to institute a broad vaccine mandate for most Americans.
About 75% of the adult U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose and 64.4% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Tuesday, Psaki did seem to suggest that Biden will call on the private sector to institute more vaccine mandates. Major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Citigroup have already announced vaccination requirements.
“I will note that we’ve seen that there are a range of ways that we have increased vaccinations across the country, or vaccinations have increased, I should say. One of them is private sector companies mandating in different capacities that their employees get vaccinated. Or certain school districts mandate,” Psaki said.
Biden previewed some of what he planned to say when he spoke about the August jobs numbers, which were much lower than predicted.
“There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number. But next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns,” Biden said Friday.
A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed Americans in August souring on Biden’s handling of the pandemic, with his approval rating for his handling or the response dropping 10 points from June, down to 52%
Biden’s remarks are scheduled for just 11 days before the administration is set to begin widely rolling out booster shots of Pfizer on Sept. 20, a process mired by confusion as some public health experts say the data doesn’t yet support the need for boosters.
Reigning Entertainer of the Year Eric Church is tied for the most nominations at the upcoming 55th Annual CMA Awards, alongside Chris Stapleton, who’ll compete for the night’s biggest honor as well. Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood round out this year’s contenders for Entertainer.
Female Vocalist nominee Gabby Barrett grabs four nods, while Brothers Osborne, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Miranda, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris and Chris Young all nabbed three.
Miranda also maintains her impressive streak as the most-nominated female artist in CMA history, with 58 total. That puts her neck-in-neck with Brad Paisley for the third-most all-time nods overall.
Perhaps the most interesting nomination of 2021 comes with the return of Morgan Wallen, who’s nominated for Album of the Year, for Dangerous: The Double Album, which happens to be music’s best-selling project in any genre this year.
Though Morgan has been widely dropped from country radio and awards shows since being caught using a racial slur earlier this year, the CMA opted not to exclude him, which would’ve taken his collaborators out of the running as well. Producers Dave Cohen, Matt Dragstrem, Jacob Durrett, Charlie Handsome and Joey Moi could therefore take home trophies as well.
The 55th Annual CMA Awards air Wednesday, November 10 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. So far, the Country Music Association hasn’t revealed who’ll host this year’s show.
Thursday morning, the Country Music Association revealed the nominees for the 55th Annual CMA Awards.
Chris Stapleton and Eric Church lead all nominees, with five nods each, including Entertainer of the Year. Gabby Barrett has the second-highest number of nominations, with four, including Female Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year.
The CMA Awards will air Wednesday, November 10 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Here’s a complete rundown of the contenders:
Entertainer of the Year
Eric Church
Luke Combs
Miranda Lambert
Chris Stapleton
Carrie Underwood
Single of the Year
“Famous Friends” — Chris Young with Kane Brown
“The Good Ones” — Gabby Barrett
“Hell of a View” — Eric Church
“One Night Standards” — Ashley McBryde
“Starting Over” — Chris Stapleton
Album of the Year 29 — Carly Pearce Dangerous: The Double Album — Morgan Wallen Heart — Eric Church Skeletons — Brothers Osborne Starting Over — Chris Stapleton
Song of the Year
“Forever After All” — Luke Combs, Drew Parker, Robert Williford
“The Good Ones” — Gabby Barrett, Zach Kale, Emily Landis, Jim McCormick
“Hell of a View” — Casey Beathard, Eric Church, Monty Criswell
“One Night Standards” — Nicolette Hayford, Shane McAnally, Ashley McBryde
“Starting Over” — Mike Henderson, Chris Stapleton
Female Vocalist of the Year
Gabby Barrett
Miranda Lambert
Ashley McBryde
Maren Morris
Carly Pearce
Male Vocalist of the Year
Dierks Bentley
Eric Church
Luke Combs
Thomas Rhett
Chris Stapleton
Vocal Group of the Year
Lady A
Little Big Town
Midland
Old Dominion
Zac Brown Band
Vocal Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Florida Georgia Line
Maddie & Tae
Musical Event of the Year
“Buy Dirt” — Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan
“Chasing After You” — Ryan Hurd with Maren Morris
“Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” — Elle King & Miranda Lambert
“Famous Friends” — Chris Young with Kane Brown
“half of my hometown” — Kelsea Ballerini (featuring Kenny Chesney)
Music Video of the Year
“Chasing After You” — Ryan Hurd with Maren Morris
“Famous Friends” — Chris Young with Kane Brown
“Gone” — Dierks Bentley
“half of my hometown” — Kelsea Ballerini (featuring Kenny Chesney)
“Younger Me” — Brothers Osborne
New Artist of the Year
Jimmie Allen
Ingrid Andress
Gabby Barrett
Mickey Guyton
HARDY
