Three people were killed in a shooting in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, which authorities say appear to be domestic-related. Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services reported the 3 victims died at the scene at Arboretum Oaks Apartments near Great Hills Plaza office building and Arboretum shopping center in north Austin.
Police identified the suspect as Stephen Nicholas Broderick, 41, a black man standing 5 feet and 7 inches tall. As of press time, the suspect was still at large, and he was last seen wearing a gray hoodie, sunglasses and a baseball cap. During a news conference Sunday the police said they no longer consider the incident an active shooting as it was believed he knew the victims and targeted them in the shooting but added that “danger remains high” as there were concerns he may take hostages in the area.
The 56th annual Academy of Country Music Awards were held Sunday night, and Luke Bryan, Maren Morris and Thomas Rhett were among the big winners this year. Hosted by Keith Urban and Mickey Guyton, the show was telecast from the Grand Ole Opry House, Ryman Auditorium, The Bluebird Cafe — three of Nashville’s historic music venues.
Bryan was named Entertainer of the Year, beating out Chris Stapleton, Eric Church, Luke Combs and Rhett for the night’s highest honor. Bryan accepted the award via video from Los Angeles where he’s been recuperating since testing positive for COVID-19, which forced him to pull out of performing during the event.
Other award winners included Carly Pearce and Lee Brice who won Single of the Year and Music Event of the Year for their song “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” which they also performed during the show. Group of the Year went to Old Dominion, and Kane Brown won Video of the Year for “Worldwide Beautiful.” Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen won New Female Artist of the Year and New Male Artist of the year.
Authorities have arrested a suspect in the early Sunday morning shooting at a tavern in Wisconsin which left three dead and at least three others injured. The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department said Sunday afternoon that the suspect is expected to be charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide, and additional charges are possible. There is no threat to the community at this time, the sheriff’s department said.
The three injured men have been hospitalized, and there is at least one possible additional shooting victim, authorities said. Investigators have asked local hospitals to notify them of any additional gunshot victims. The suspected shooter was a patron who “wasn’t cooperating with the management” at the tavern, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said at a news conference. The man left the bar and returned a short time later, about 12:45 a.m., and began shooting, he said. The suspect “knew who the victims were” and targeted them, Beth said. Beth said the bar was “very busy” at the time of the shooting but did not know how many people were there.
The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office asked anyone with information about the shooting and the suspects to call them at 262-605-5100 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 262-656-7333.
Luke Bryan, Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton were the big winners at The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards, airing Sunday night on CBS, hosted by Keith Urban and Mickey Guyton.
Bryan took home the big award of the night, Entertainer of the Year. Accepting the award remotely from Los Angeles, where he’s recovering from COVID-19, he acknowledged that it has been a rough year and promised fans that he, his band and his crew will be back on the road soon.
Morris, who walked off with Female Artist and Song of the Year for her hit, “The Bones,” became emotional as she accepted the latter trophy and shouted out her co-writers and husband. She credited husband Ryan Hurd for inspiring the song. She closed by noting, “It’s just been a hell of a year, and hopefully, country music and maybe even this song brought you and your family some peace.”
Stapleton won for Male Artist, as well as Album of the year for Starting Over.
For the first time in ACM Awards show history, all of the nominees for Single of the Year were performed by women. A shocked Carly Pierce took home the awards for her collaboration with Lee Brice, “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”
Sunday’s ACMs also served as a message to country fans that Nashville is open for business, being telecast from six legendary Music City venues, including the Grand Ole Opry House, the historic Ryman Auditorium, The Bluebird Cafe, Broadway, Riverfront and the Station Inn.
“Tonight, while we celebrate the best in country music, we’re also celebrating the progress made by this city and cities across the country,” said Urban during the shows’s opening monologue. “We’ve all been through so much, but I’m proud to say we’re all on our way back.”
Special musical collaborations included Morris and Hurd, who made their first awards show performance together with their new duet, “Chasing After You.”
Carrie Underwood brought the house down with a medley from her new album of gospel hymns, My Savior, including a duet with gospel legend CeCe Winans. Kelsea Ballerini and Kenny Chesney also performed their hit, “Half of My Hometown.”
Miranda Lambert had a busy night, as well, as she appeared multiple times in different locations. She and Elle King opened the show with “Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home).” Miranda returned later, joining Chris Stapleton for “Maggie's Song,” then joined in with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall for “In His Arms.”
Dierks Bentley also covered the U2 classic “Pride (In The Name of Love)” with husband-and-wife-duo The War and Treaty.
Other performers included Blake Shelton, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of his first hit single “Austin” with a performance of the song, followed by his latest hit, “Minimum Wage.” Alan Jackson performed his hits “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” and “You’ll Always be My Baby.”
Here’s the complete list of winners:
Entertainer of the Year
Luke Bryan
Female Artist of the Year
Maren Morris
Male Artist of the Year
Thomas Rhett
Duo of the Year
Dan + Shay
Group of the Year
Old Dominion
New Female Artist of the Year
Gabby Barrett
New Male Artist of the Year
Jimmie Allen
Album of the Year Starting Over — Chris Stapleton
Single of the Year
“I Hope You're Happy Now” — Carly Pearce & Lee Brice
Songof the Year
“The Bones” — Maren Morris
Music Event of the Year
“I Hope You're Happy Now” — Carly Pearce & Lee Brice
Music Video of the Year
“Worldwide Beautiful” — Kane Brown
Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa will return in 2022, with special guest Jason Aldean. Bryan’s previous six Crash My Playa events each sold out, and the 2022 event will be held from Jan. 19-22 at Moon Palace Cancun in Riviera Cancun, Mexico.
Bryan said: “I have been so ready to tell you that Playa is back for 2022! This is one of my favorite events we get to do and it’s because all of you keep showing up and making it so much fun. Jason and I had a blast in 2020 so it didn’t take me long to talk him into coming back.”
All-inclusive “Crash My Playa 2022” packages will go on sale to the public on Friday, April 23rd at 1p (ET) at the link –here. Previous “Crash My Playa” guests can grab tickets during the pre-sale, which begins Wed, April 21st at 1p (ET). Members of Bryan’s and Aldean’s fan clubs will have access to pre-sale packages on Thursday, April 22nd at 1p (ET).
More than 12 years after Taylor Swift earned her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart in 2008 with Fearless, she’s on top with a re-recorded version of the album, titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Thd album is Swift’s ninth No. 1 and scores the biggest week of 2021 for any album.
The original Fearless debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 29, 2008, and spent 11 nonconsecutive weeks on the chart. It sold 10.28 million copies in the U.S. and is Swift’s second-biggest-selling release behind her 2014 album 1989.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) contains 26-tracks, including re-recordings of all 13 songs on Fearless, along with the six bonus songs added to a 2009 reissue of Fearless (dubbed the Platinum Edition) and the 2010 single “Today Was a Fairytale.” Beyond those 20 re-recordings, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) also includes six newly recorded “from the vault” songs that were written for the original Fearless album, but were never recorded and released until now.
Backstage in the virtual ACM Awards press room, country stars looked anxiously toward a horizon that promises a return to touring, while taking part in a socially-distanced show that was still much the same as the 55th ACMs last September.
Luke Bryan reacted to his surprise win for Entertainer of the Year from Los Angeles, after coming down with COVID-19 prevented him from performing and taking part in the show in person.
Duo of the Year winners Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney both joined from home, revealing that Dan + Shay‘s performance had been pre-recorded a day earlier, accounting for the technical difficulties some fans noticed during “Glad You Exist.”
Single of the Year winner Carly Pearce was anxious to call her mom and dad, while her “I Hope You’re Happy Now” duet partner Lee Brice bragged on Blake Shelton‘s performance.
Female Artist and Song of the Year winner Maren Morris had nothing but praise for co-host Mickey Guyton, going on to admit her steamy performance of “Chasing After You” was one she could only do with husband Ryan Hurd.
Thomas Rhett confessed Dierks Bentley was cracking him up as he took the stage to accept his Male Artist trophy, though he declined to cough up exactly what Dierks had said. Group of the Year Old Dominion revealed they’d shared some playful banter with fellow nominees The Cadillac Three prior to winning for the fourth consecutive time.
Lots of artists were focused on their families, as TR wished his wife and daughter could’ve been there. Chris Stapleton revealed wife Morgane was missing because his sister-in-law was in labor, while new mom Gabby Barrett confessed this was really the first time she’s left her daughter Baylah, who was born in January.
Julia Michaels has announced the release her debut studio album, titled Not in Chronological Order, on April 30, 2021.
The album features ten songs, including “Lie Like This” as the lead single which she released on October 2020. Another track from the album “All Your Exes” was released in March.
“My first album,” Julia posted on social media. “I can’t believe I’m even saying that. But here we are. And here it is. I made this album all throughout last year with a handful of people that understood where I was and where I was going with this album.”
As Dierks Bentley looks towards Sunday's ACM Awards ceremony, the singer says he's excited to still be a part of the show, 16 years after winning his first trophy.
“My first ACM was back in 2005. To still be invited, still be nominated for some of these bigger awards and be part of the fun is something I really appreciate and have never taken for granted,” he reflects.
But Dierks is far from a relic in the country genre: On the contrary, he's excited to be part of pushing the genre forward, and that includes inclusivity when it comes to the racial diversity of the artists being recognized. That's part of the reason why he wanted to invite The War & Treaty, a husband-and-wife vocal duo comprised of Michael and Tanya Trotter, to join him for his performance of U2's “Pride (in the Name of Love.).” The duo are Americana Music Award winners, but they haven't seen much mainstream country recognition — at least, not yet.
“They're so awesome and I've been waiting for a chance to collaborate with them again,” says Dierks. “They came out and played my Seven Peaks Festival in Colorado a couple of years ago. Lovely people, huge voices, and exciting, too, that they're both African-American, to have that element, with what's going on in country music.”
For Dierks, the push to open up the genre's boundaries is exciting, and he hopes his ACMs performance will be an example of what the genre stands to gain from being inclusive.
“They just elevate the performance so much. And it's just a really cool mixture of people on stage for this performance,” he adds.
The 2021 ACM Awards will air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Lee Brice is making his full-song performance debut on the ACM stage during the awards show on Sunday night, and he's planning to make it count.
“I performed a piece of I Drive Your Truck,' like,' 10 years ago at a commercial bumper on the ACMs. That's the only time I've ever performed on the ACMs,” he says. “So this is truly my first time every performing a full song on the ACMs. I'm super excited and want to get in there and knock socks off, if I can.”
Lee is performing “I Hope You're Happy Now,” his duet with Carly Pearce, a song that has already won the pair an early trophy for ACM Music Event of the Year.
Their spot on the show is a second chance at performing “I Hope You're Happy Now” for Lee: He and Carly were booked to sing it during last November's CMA Awards, but Lee had to step down at the last second due to a positive COVID-19 test.
“I was just by myself in my barn, watching it,” Lee recalls of that experience, as he sat in quarantine and watched Carly perform the song with Lady A's Charles Kelley instead of him.
“I will say, there was that, Ugh, I was singing that.' Although Charles killed it. I did tell him, Man, bring your A-game, because this song is, like, the hardest song I've ever had to sing,'” Lee goes on to say, adding that Charles “called me after and said, You were not kidding.'”
The ACM Awards airs on Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
