Music

Chicago — R. Kelly appeared in court Monday for the first day of his second trial in Chicago in 14 years. It began with jury selection in his federal trial where he faces child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber questioned nearly 60 potential jurors over six hours at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, with a focus on how much they knew about the disgraced R&B singer. The 55-year-old singer was already convicted on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York federal court; he was sentenced...

Garth Brooks is hoping to team up with the city of Nashville to create a new police substation in the bustling Lower Broadway area.Per the Tennessean, the star is eying a space right next to his forthcoming three-story bar and entertainment venue, which is located at 411 Broadway. If approved by Metro Council, that alleyway spot could be transformed into a police substation.Brooks hopes that having a police outpost in the busy downtown Nashville hub will help control traffic and safety, providing resources for Metro police and the Nashville Department of Transportation...

Rage Against the Machine wrapped up the 2022 leg of their Public Service Announcement reunion tour with a five-night stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden that concluded Sunday. At the second-to-last show on Friday night, they broke out “Fistful of Steel” for the first time since 1997. Check out the fan-shot video right here. The song is a deep cut from their 1993 self-titled LP. They played nearly every song from the album at some point on the tour except for “Settle For Nothing,” which they haven’t touched since...

Jessica Harp is showing her support for Michelle Branch -- her band mate in The Wreckers -- during a difficult time. Days after news broke that Branch is splitting from her husband of three years, the Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, Harp posted a carousel of photos showing a series of happy memories that she and Branch share.The first image shows the two women rocking out on guitar together, big smiles on their faces. Subsequent snapshots show more onstage moments together, as well as more personal moments of the two...

Right from the start, In Search of… stood out. I discovered N.E.R.D.’s 2002 debut at a Best Buy on the rim of Houston’s I-10 loop, sitting at the front of the store on a blue kiosk marked $6.99. I was a first-year high school English teacher, struggling to pull together all the things expected of me. There was this unfussy album cover staring at me, with a twenty-something Black guy on a battered-looking couch in a nondescript apartment playing a video game in his house clothes, blankly staring at an...

Clayton Anderson is ready to get personal. The country singer-songwriter is set to release his third studio album Made in the USA on Sept. 16, marking what he notes as his most reflective and meaningful release to date.“Every song on this album has a special meaning to me," Anderson says. “It’s my most vulnerable body of work and I’m thrilled to have worked alongside Dave , Brandon , Anastasia and the entire team at Visionary Media Group."Clayton Anderson made in the USA album coverVisionary Media Grouploading...Made in the USA features 12...

The Chicks paid tribute to the late Olivia Newton-John by performing a rendition of her standout Grease single “Hopelessly Devoted to You” Saturday at the trio’s concert at the Gorge in Washington. “We lost a worldwide sweetheart last week, Olivia Newton-John,” singer Natalie Maines told the audience. “I thought I was Olivia Newton-John from like 4 to 12, and then I only wished I was Olivia Newton-John. So we worked up today at soundcheck a little Olivia Newton-John song.” “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” Newton-John’s most iconic musical moment from Grease,...

Dolly Parton once said, “There’s really only three female singers in the world: Streisand, Ronstadt and Connie Smith.” That high praise from one Country Music Hall of Fame inductee to another holds up when diving into Smith’s back catalog of throwback country tunes from the days of the polished Nashville Sound.Constance June Meador was born on Aug. 14, 1941, in Elkhart, Ind., and raised in West Virginia and Ohio. She grew up in an abusive household with 13 siblings. Like others from her generation, her respite from a less-than-ideal childhood came from...

Organizers for Baja Beach Fest, a massive reggaeton and Latin music festival held annually in Mexico’s Rosarito Beach since 2018, said Saturday morning that the event will continue as planned, despite reports of violence, fires, and roadblocks across the surrounding area, as well as a Tijuana consulate order that U.S. government employees shelter in place until further notice. Local media reported that there were multiple cars set ablaze, roadblocks, and other police activity in the areas of Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate on Friday night. In Ciudad Juarez, multiple...

Tim McGraw is always celebrating his three daughters, and this week, he sent a very special birthday shoutout to his middle daughter, Maggie.In a social media post shared on Friday, Aug. 12, McGraw wished his daughter a happy 24th birthday, including a heartfelt note to Maggie in the caption."Your mom, sisters and I are so very proud of you," he writes. "Your drive, work ethic and enthusiastic determination to make the world a better place inspires me every single day....... I love you Mags-a-Million!!!! Dad."McGraw also shared a photo of Maggie in...

One person was killed and at least 40 people were injured after high winds caused a portion of the main stage to collapse at Valencia, Spain’s Medusa Festival, an EDM fest set to feature David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Afrojack and more. The organizers of the 2022 Medusa Festival announced Saturday morning that the remainder of the fest would be canceled after “violent strong winds” reaching 50 miles per hour swept into the festival site at approximately 4:18 a.m. local time during a set by DJ Miguel Serna.  “It was a tense...

Little Big Town embrace optimism in the wake of heartbreak in their hopeful new song, "Better Love."Karen Fairchild takes over lead vocals on the group's latest track, which reflects on a relationship that didn't turn out as planned. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, she reiterates that the rewards still outweigh the risks when it comes to betting on true love."I might've missed a good one, almost had me a picket fence / But somethin' 'bout the thirst made me say, 'I love you' first / And now I haven't seen that man since," she declares....

On her breakout single “Build a Bitch,” Bella Poarch admitted she’s “filled with flaws and attitude” — but on Friday, the singer’s Twitter account began spewing hate-filled tweets aimed at rapper Cardi B that were suspiciously off-brand for the TikTok star turned pop phenom. The offending tweets, which have since been deleted, contained all the hallmarks of garden-variety toxic stan Twitter posts: egregious overuse of emojis, pitting Cardi B against fellow rapper Nicki Minaj, and making threats to post revenge porn. “I just woke up to this mess an hour...

Walker Hayes flew to the top of the charts in the summer of 2021 with the release of his viral tune, "Fancy Like." The song details a country version of a "fancy" date night, which inherently includes a trip Applebee's. Not only did the song spur a social media craze with a TikTok dance trend, but it also prompted the restaurant to bring back their previously-discontinued Oreo Shake.Applebee's even began using "Fancy Like" in their commercials following the song's success.Since the release of the song, Hayes has formed a relationship with...