Month: May 2022

Thomas Rhett is prepping hard for tour season: “We rehearse ourselves into the ground”

Post author By abookbinder
Post date May 11, 2022
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Thomas Rhett's Bring the Bar to You Tour launches next month, and by the time it does, he'll be ready: The singer says he and his band are getting serious about rehearsals.

“We rehearse ourselves into the ground, so that the first show of the tour doesn't feel like the first show of the tour,” he explains, according to CMT. “It already feels like you're in your rhythm.

Of course, all that practice can be pretty grueling — “I think the band, at times, has definitely wanted to kill me, just for the amount of time we rehearse,” TR notes — but the singer says he knows from experience how important it is to be ready when you hit the stage.

“I've done so many cold starts to tours, especially in my early days, that I never wanted to experience that when I became a headliner,” he adds.

The Bring the Bar to You Tour launches June 17. The run takes its name from a song off of Thomas' latest album, Where We Started, featuring the lead single “Slow Down Summer.” He's got a massive batch of new music to choose from in his set list, with more to come soon: The singer's said he plans to release Side B of his Country Again project at a later date this year.

Go Country 105

Dolly Parton is starring in Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza TikTok musical: “I can't wait for you to see it”

Post author By abookbinder
Post date May 11, 2022
No Comments on Dolly Parton is starring in Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza TikTok musical: “I can't wait for you to see it”

Truth is often stranger than fiction, and Dolly Parton has signed on for a project that nobody could've seen coming. She's got a starring role in Taco Bell's new musical, Mexican Pizza, according to CMT.

“Here it is y'all,” the country legend shared on her social channels, posting a picture of the script. “We're making a musical about my favorite pizza, the Mexican Pizza. I can't wait for you to see it!”

A little backstory here: Taco Bell discontinued its Mexican Pizza in 2020, along with some other fan-favorite items like the seven-layer burrito and cheesy fiesta potatoes. The removal of all three menu items caused an uproar, but apparently, the Mexican Pizza had a particularly fervent cult following — including rapper Doja Cat.

Cat went so far as to write a song asking Taco Bell to bring the pizza back, describing the result as a “monstrosity of a beat” and posting it on TikTok. But the post caught fire — after all, the rapper's not alone in wanting to bring Mexican Pizza back. Over 171,000 pizza fans have a signed a Change.org petition asking for its return.

One of those petitioners just might have been Dolly herself. The singer is a self-proclaimed Taco Bell fan, who says she prefers Taco Supreme soft-shell tacos with sour cream, rice and beans and mild sauce.

When asked during an interview with Insider if Taco Bell should bring back the Mexican Pizza, Dolly was enthusiastic: “I think they should!” she said.

Apparently, no one can resist Dolly — or Doja Cat, or a petition with over 171,000 signatures — and so the Mexican Pizza is coming back this month. A week later, Taco Bell will go one step further, premiering the Mexican Pizza musical on TikTok on May 26 at 8 p.m. ET.

News Daypop

Elon Musk says he would reverse Twitter’s ban of Donald Trump

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
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During an interview at Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference on Tuesday, Elon Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of former President Donald Trump if he were to assume control of the social media company. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, offered to purchase Twitter for $44 billion last month.

Musk said it was a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme” for Twitter to ban Trump amid the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter said was meant to prevent the “risk of further incitement of violence.” Said Musk: “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake. It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

Musk has more than 90 million Twitter followers, and has been vocal in his criticism of the social network’s moderation decisions. Musk said that former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was in agreement that Twitter “should not have perma-bans.” Dorsey confirmed that he did agree with Musk, citing exceptions such as illegal behavior or network manipulation, writing on Twitter: “Generally, permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work.”

Musk believes Twitter exhibits a political bias that harms those on the right, saying: “I think Twitter needs to be more evenhanded. It currently has a strong left bias because it’s based in San Francisco. I don’ think the people there necessarily intend, or at least some of them don’t intend, to have a left bias. They just, from their perspective, it seems moderate, but they’re just coming after it from an environment that is very far left.”

Musk also repeated that while the company’s board had accepted his deal to purchase Twitter, it was not finalized: “I will say that I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don’t own Twitter.”

Editorial credit: viewimage / Shutterstock.com

News Daypop

Connecticut man is convicted of murdering his wife in ‘Fitbit murder’ case

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
No Comments on Connecticut man is convicted of murdering his wife in ‘Fitbit murder’ case

A Connecticut man was convicted Tuesday of all charges for murdering his wife. Despite alleging the crime was committed by an intruder, the defendant’s testimony was contradicted by a “Fitbit” activity tracker.

Following a five-week trial, a jury in Rockville Superior Court in Connecticut took less than four hours to find 45-year-old Richard Dabate guilty of guilty of all three charges — murder, tampering with evidence and making a false statement to authorities — for fatally shooting his wife, 39-year-old Connie Dabate, two days before Christmas in 2015. The murder charge carries up to 60 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 16. Court marshals handcuffed Dabate and led him out of the courtroom after Judge Corinne Klatt increased his bond to $5 million. He had been free after posting $1 million bail following his arrest. Dabate’s lawyer, Trent LaLima, said they would be appealing the verdict: “I think we put on a very strong case for why Rick did not commit this offense.”

Prosecutor Matthew Gedansky said in his closing argument that Dabate hatched a plan to kill his wife and stage a home invasion as his life was about to unravel with the birth of a child he was having with another woman. Connie Dabate was wearing the activity tracker wristwatch and data recovered from the device allegedly showed she was leisurely walking around an hour after Dabate claimed she had been killed by a large masked man with a voice like actor Vin Diesel and dressed in camouflage, and tied him up at the couple’s Ellington home in December 2015. Police said the information onConnie Dabate’s Fitbit contradicted her husband’s story.

Editorial credit: Sergii Gnatiuk / Shutterstock.com

Go Country 105

Carrie Underwood shares why she can't wait to return to her Vegas residency

Post author By abookbinder
Post date May 11, 2022
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Viva Las Vegas! Carrie Underwood returns to Las Vegas this week for her Reflection residency at Resorts World, and she couldn’t be more excited.

“We love it being in Vegas at Resorts World. We love this theater and have a great time on stage, and I think that’s the most important thing,” she expresses. “We’ve put a lot of hard work, a lot of love. The show is high-energy. We packed it full of hits, so hopefully people can just come and sing along to their favorite songs and just have fun. It’s Vegas, baby!”

Carrie offered a peek inside the awe-inspiring Vegas show with a performance of her latest single, “Ghost Story,” at the CMT Awards, where she transformed into an aerialist, suspended from the ceiling as she twirled in mid-air while belting out the track.

Reflection resumes on Wednesday and continues through May 21.

Country Daypop

Mitchell Tenpenny and Teddy Swims team up for the collaboration ‘Elephant In The Room’

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
No Comments on Mitchell Tenpenny and Teddy Swims team up for the collaboration ‘Elephant In The Room’

Mitchell Tenpenny debuted a new song and music video for his song “Elephant In The Room” featuring Teddy Swims. Tenpenny says of the song: “‘Elephant in the Room’ is about that innate thing in us as humans when we can feel it when someone is watching us. This song is a love story about two people who have this kind of chemistry and energy happening from across the room. And everyone else can feel it too because it’s so powerful.”

The music video, directed by Stephen Kinigopoulos and Alexa Stone, stars both artists and features them vying for the love of the same woman, and concludes with a “crime of passion” where the female love interest kills Tenpenny’s character and then pins the murder on Swims’ character, leading to his arrest.

Tenpenny’s current single at country radio is “Truth About You” which he debuted on TikTok before it became the highest steaming debut of his career. Tenpenny will join Luke Bryan on the Raised Up Right Tour beginning on June 9, and will join Luke Combs this fall on the Middle Of Somewhere Tour in Bangor, Maine on September 2 and 3 at the Maine Savings Amphitheater. Meanwhile, Swims is currently on the road with his Tough Love World Tour, which concludes on June 9 in Glasgow.

Check out the music video for “Elephant in the Room” – here.

Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

Country Daypop

Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde’s ‘Never Wanted to Be That Girl’ hits No. 1 on Country Radio charts

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
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Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde have the No. 1 single on country radio with their duet “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” duet. The song, co-written by Pearce and McBryde with Shane McAnally, was released as a single in September from Pearce’s third studio album 29: Written in Stone. It also marks only the second female duet to top the chart in 30 years, following Elle King and Miranda Lambert’s “Drunk.”

Pearce celebrated the achievement while on the road with Kenny Chesney’s Here and Now Tour, posting about the accomplishment on social media: “When [Ashley McBryde] and I were writing ‘Never Wanted To Be That Girl’ with [Shane McAnally], we were just in the moment, thinking about the women we want to be and the way that’s not always how life and love turn out. But nobody ever paused long enough to think about having a #1 record or winning an Academy of Country Music Award. We wanted to shake off an honest mistake, and now here we are with the No. 1 song at Country radio and the ACM trophy for Music Event of the Year. Sometimes out of something bad comes something good. Thank you to everyone who plays Country music, our fans, our record labels, management teams, agents, our bands and everyone in between. Ashley, I am so proud to call you my friend, my sister and I will forever be grateful for this song bringing us together. Gonna go cry for the 100th time!”

“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” is Pearce’s third No. 1 hit, and McBryde’s first No. 1. Said McBryde on Instagram: “First times only happen once. I’ll always remember I was in Leeds, England when I got the news. I’ll always love that Carly and I got to ride this rocket of a song together. I’ll always love that she, Shane and I trusted each other and ourselves to be brutally honest when we wrote it. It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.”

Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde score No 1 hit

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

Pop Daypop

Jack Harlow announces ‘Come Home the Kids Miss You’ tour with support from City Girls

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
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Following the release of his sophomore album ‘Come Home The Kids Miss You,’ Jack Harlow announced on social media a 22-date North American tour. City Girls will join Harlow for the entirety of the tour, except for one date at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway.

The Come Home the Kids Miss You tour is set to launch on Sept. 6 with an opening show in Tennessee at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, and will wrap up on Oct. 16 at Atlanta, Georgia’s State Farm Arena.

Pre-sale tickets for the ‘Come Home The Kids Miss You Tour’ are on sale now; general ticket sales begin on Friday, May 13th via via Ticketmaster. For more information, head to jackharlow.us/tour.

Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

Pop Daypop

Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott and more announced as 2022 Billboard Music Awards performers

Post author By Staff
Post date May 11, 2022
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Billboard announced a new slate of performers for its upcoming 2022 Billboard Music Awards, with Ed Sheeran and Travis Scott among the artists joining the performance lineup. The Weeknd has the the most nominations with 17 at this year’s BBAs.

Sheeran will perform remotely from Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he’s in the midst of his + – = ÷ x stadium tour (pronounced “The Mathematics Tour.”) The 31-year-old is nominated for nine awards, including Top Male Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist and Top Billboard Global 200 Artist.

Travis Scott will perform at his first awards show since the Astroworld tragedy in Houston. The remix of his song “Goosebumps” is a finalist for Top Dance/Electronic Song. In addition to Sheeran and Scott, Miranda Lambert, Becky G and Elle King were added to this year’s list of performers that already includes Burna Boy, Florence + The Machine, Latto, Maxwell, Megan Thee Stallion, Morgan Wallen, Rauw Alejandro, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Silk Sonic. The show will also honor this year’s Icon Award recipient Mary J. Blige.

The BBMAs, hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs, will broadcast live coast-to-coast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 15th at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on NBC, and will stream live on Peacock.

Editorial credit: Cubankite / Shutterstock.com

Go Country 105

Nashville notes: Kacey Musgraves, Cam and more

Post author By abookbinder
Post date May 10, 2022
No Comments on Nashville notes: Kacey Musgraves, Cam and more

Kacey Musgraves and The Chicks are among the headlining acts at Austin City Limits Music Festival, taking place October 7-9 and October 14-16 at Zilker Park in the Texas capital. Tickets are on sale now.

Tyler Hubbard is teaming up with celebrity fitness trainer Erin Oprea for Fitness at Fest, taking place during CMA Fest at Bridgestone Arena Plaza on June 10 at 8:15 a.m. CT. Tickets are $10 and will be donated to the CMA Foundation.

Midland will embark on The Last Resort: Greetings from Tour, beginning on September 23 in Phoenix, AZ. The tour wraps on November 18 in Seattle. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

Cam is headlining The Otherside Tour later this year, with Jillian Jacqueline and Amythyst Kiah opening on select dates. The tour kicks off July 28 in Portland, OR. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time.