Month: June 2023

Niall Horan‘s third studio album, The Show, is proving to be a hit among the fans — whether they be day-one Directioners or simply new fans of Horan’s solo music. Songs like “Heaven” and “Never Grow Up” have become instant favorites in the pop world.

The album showcases some of Horan’s most personal songwriting yet, as he shares detailed accounts of mental health, love, and heartbreak. As the album is ranking high in the Horan universe, fans are wondering if they will be able to see Horan live.

Is Niall Horan going on tour for The Show?

Horan will, in fact, tour in support of The Show, however, not until early next year.

The tour will kick off in Belfast in February 2024, then arrive to Australia following a slew of European dates. US fans will be able to see him beginning in late May of 2024.

You can see the full list of tour dates below, and purchase tickets here.

2/21/24 – Belfast, UK @ SSE Arena Belfast
2/23/24 – Dublin, IE @ 3Arena
2/27/24 – Birmingham, UK @ Resorts World Arena
3/1/24 – London, UK @ OVO Arena Wembley
3/4/24 – Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff International Arena
3/5/24 – Manchester, UK @ AO Arena
3/7/24 – Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena
3/8/24 – Paris, FR @ Zénith
3/11/24 – Berlin, DE @ Mercedes-Benz Arena
3/12/24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Royal Arena
3/15/24 – Stockholm, SE @ Hovet Ice Hall
3/18/24 – Lodz, PL @ Atlas Arena
3/20/24 – Munich, DE @ Olympiahalle
3/21/24 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum
3/23/24 – Madrid, ES @ WiZink Center
3/26/24 – Düsseldorf, DE @ PSD Bank Dome
3/27/24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
4/26/24 – Auckland, New Zealand @ Spark Arena
4/28/24 – Brisbane, Australia @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre
5/1/24 – Sydney, Australia @ Quodos Bank Arena
5/3/24 – Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver Arena
5/29/24 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Hard Rock Live
5/31/24 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
6/3/24 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
6/7/24 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
6/8/24 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
6/11/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center for the Performing Arts
6/14/24 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
6/15/24 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
6/18/24 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
6/19/24 – Bangor, ME @ Maine Savings Amphitheater
6/21/24 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
6/22/24 – Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
6/25/24 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
6/26/24 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
6/28/24 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
7/7/24 – St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
7/9/24 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
7/10/24 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
7/12/24 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
7/16/24 – Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theatre
7/17/24 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
7/19/24 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
7/20/24 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre
7/23/24 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
7/24/24 – Ridgefield, WA @ RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
7/26/24 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
7/27/24 – Inglewood, CA @ The Kia Forum
7/30/24 – Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
7/31/24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre

The Show is out now via Capitol. Find more information here.

The Toronto Raptors have spent the last month meeting with a vast number of potential head coaching candidates after firing Nick Nurse following the season.

On Saturday, word broke from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that they had finally landed on a choice, with Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic apparently finalizing a deal to become Toronto’s next head coach.

The Serbian coach has been an NBA assistant since 2014, spending the first five years of his career in Oklahoma City before stints in Phoenix and Memphis. He will take over a Toronto Raptors squad that has a ton of questions to answer this summer, as they are a candidate to potentially tear things down and rebuild, with Fred VanVleet a free agent and trade rumors continuing to swirl around OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.

If they become sellers, then this figures to be a rebuilding job for Rajakovic with what one would expect to become a young team. If not and they choose to keep most of this core group together, he will have plenty of talent on the roster but will be tasked with figuring out how to make a lot of players with overlapping talents function together in a way they haven’t over the past two seasons.

Last week Donald Trump broke yet another record: He became the first U.S. president to be indicted on criminal charges once but twice. Congrats? This one was even a federal indictment, for his alleged mishandling of classified government documents. He could eventually become the first POTUS to wind up in the slammer — and should he be convicted of every one the charges of which he’s been accused, he would face a truly staggering amount of time in the clink.

On Friday, the day after news broke that Trump was indeed being indicted, again, the Department of Justice went and unsealed their case against him, making public the 37 charges against him. The Washington Post broke down how much jail time comes with each conviction:

1. 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information — 10 years each
2. 3 counts of withholding or concealing documents in a federal investigation — 20 years each
3. 2 counts of false statements — 5 years each
4. 1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice — 20 years

That’s 400 years in prison — or, as the Post puts it, “longer than the U.S. has been a country.”

But that’s just one of the cases going to trial. Mediaite went and added 34 felony accounts he faces in the case by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who’s investigating the alleged hush money payments he made to Stormy Daniels. If convicted of all those, that’s another 136 years, bringing his tenure behind bars to 536 years.

Will Trump be convicted of all 71 counts? Probably not. Hell, he might not even be convicted of any (though this seems unlikely). But if he is, he won’t only have to campaign from the slammer, but if he wins he might have to serve from it, too. Luckily for him, he’d probably have to do so from one of those cushy country club prisons where he can rant to strangers like he does at Mar-a-Lago.

(Via The Post and Mediaite)

The Saturday Night Live writers may be on strike, but their actors are still delivering on the laughs. This week, Chloe Fineman took to social media to give us an uncanny imitation of a fictional pop star from a buzzy new show.

Though only one episode of Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s new series, The Idol, has aired so far, Fineman has her imitation of pop sensation Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) down to a T.

In a video shared by Fineman, the SNL actress dresses as Jocelyn, wearing a red lacy coat, and smoking cigarettes. In another clip, Fineman is seen wearing a black lingerie set and practicing choreography, recreating a scene from The Idol in which Jocelyn is practicing choreography for an upcoming music video. At one point, Fineman also recreates the shocking scene, in which The Weeknd’s character, a club owner and cult leader named Tedros, places red fabric over Jocelyn’s head, although Fineman’s recreation was less dark and more humorous.

The Weeknd caught wind of Fineman’s imitation, and simply replied with a series of crying emojis, implying that he couldn’t keep it together.

You can take a look at Fineman’s imitation above.

The Idol airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. EST on HBO. Episodes are available to stream on Max.

Rock, pop, and now, country — it’s safe to say that Avril Lavigne has done it all. Last night (June 9) at CMA Fest 2023, Miranda Lambert brought out Lavigne during her performance at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

Before introducing Lavigne, Lambert said she was about to “make more badass happen right now.” She then noted her “new bestie” was about to arrive to the stage, welcoming Lavigne to the performance.

Lavigne and Lambert then performed “Kerosene,” which is one of Lambert’s earliest hits. Maintaining the throwback vibe, “Kerosene” smoothly transitioned to Lavigne’s 2002 breakthrough hit, “Sk8er Boi.”

In fan-shared footage, the audience is heard cheering with nostalgia after hearing the songs that made them fans from the beginning.

In recent years, Lambert has experimented with her sound, going from country, to folk, to rock. In an interview with CNN, she revealed she’s become more comfortable switching up her musical stylings.

“There were some moments where I was being pushed in directions that I just wasn’t comfortable,” Lambert said. “So I stood my ground, but as I’ve gotten older and more into the industry, I’ve kind of relaxed in that.”

You can see some clips of the performance above.

Avril Lavigne is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump has long loved releasing propaganda videos that make him look both strong and attacked by powerful elites. He dropped a new one Saturday, featuring a two-minute montage of the former president looking powerful while a speech — about a talented person being built up by the public only be torn down — plays on the soundtrack. If the voice sounds familiar, that’s because it’s Matt Damon. If the monologue sounds familiar, it’s because it’s from the movie Air.

The speech comes from the home stretch of the docudrama, which details Nike successful attempts in 1984 to court the collegiate Michael Jordan with both money and a shoe designed in his honor. It’s not hard — if you remove all the details about Jordan’s life — for a narcissist with a martyr complex to see how the speech could be about him, too:

“People are going to build you up, and God are they going to, because when you’re great and new, we love you. Man, we’ll build you up into something that doesn’t even exist. You’re going to change the f*cking world. But you know what? Once they’ve built you as high as they possibly can, they’re gonna tear you back down. It’s the most predictable pattern. We build you into something that doesn’t exist, and that means you have to try to be that thing all day, every day. That’s how it works. And we do it again, and again, and again. And I’m going to tell you the truth. You’re going to be attacked, betrayed, exposed and humiliated. And you’d survive that. A lot of people can climb that mountain. It’s the way down that breaks them, ’cause that’s the moment when you are truly alone. And what would you do then? Can you summon the will to fight on, through all the pain, and rise again?”

In the film, this plays over images of the real-life Jordan, as he quickly becomes an NBA superstar, as he’s raked over the coals for matters now mostly forgotten by history, as his father is murdered, etc. In Trump’s ad, this plays over images of him looking mighty and defiant — as opposed to looking like a dingleberry, which happens way more often.

It’s not clear if the Air audio clip was properly licensed, but let’s assume that it wasn’t. Let’s also assume that neither Damon, a noted Democrat, nor the film’s director Ben Affleck, who also plays frequently barefooted Nike honcho Phil Knight, would appreciate that a guy who just got indicted — again — was using their work for his own benefit.

Being associated with Donald Trump rarely pays off. Just ask his Diet Coke guy.

Air now streams on Amazon Prime.

(Via The Daily Beast)

At long last, Janelle Monáe is back with new music. Yesterday (June 9), the “Lipstick Lover” artist released her fourth album, The Age Of Pleasure, which marks her first album in five years. Fans everywhere are raving over Monáe’s new liberating and unapologetically queer and sexual collection of music. Of course, with new music comes anticipation for a tour, and fans are dying to find out when they’ll get to see her live.

Is Janelle Monáe going on tour for The Age Of Pleasure?

Janelle Monáe will, in fact, be hitting the road for The Age Of Pleasure on a North American tour beginning this August. She will kick things off at the WAMU Theater in Seattle, will go until October, where she will wrap things up in Inglewood, California.

Fans are able to purchase tickets here. You can see the list of tour dates below.

08/30 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater
08/31 – Vancouver, BC @ UBC – Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
09/02 – Portland, OR @ RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
09/06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
09/07 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09/09 – Kansas City, MO @ The Midland Theatre
09/11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Armory
09/13 – St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theatre
09/14 – Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/17 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
09/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
09/20 – Montreal, QB @ Mtelus
09/21 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
09/24 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem*
09/26 – New York City, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
09/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre
10/02 – Charlotte, NC @ Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
10/03 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
10/04 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
10/06 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre Atlanta
10/09 – Dallas, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
10/10 – Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
10/11 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater
10/15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
10/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10/18 – Inglewood, CA @ YouTube Theater

The Age Of Pleasure is out now via Atlantic. Find more information here.

Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

[This is your spoiler warning that you shouldn’t keep reading if you care at all how Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ends.]

At the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, again, set in 1994, Anthony Ramos’s Noah is on yet another job interview. There’s a whole subplot about how Noah had to leave the U.S. military to take care of his little brother, who is ill and has medical bills. Michael Kelly plays the man interviewing Noah for what appears to be another throwaway job, but seems to know a lot more about Noah than would be normally possible and knows that Noah had been in Peru recently hanging out with the Autobots.

Noah plays innocent and claims he has no idea what this is about. Kelly’s character tells Noah he likes that answer then explains a war is coming and his team is looking for people like Noah. And if Noah changes his mind, well, “Here’s my card.” Kelly’s character then opens a secret door on the office wall and enters what appears to be an airport hanger. Noah looks at the card and it reads, “G.I. Joe.”

A couple of things: Obviously the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover comics have been a thing since the mid-’80s and it’s actually surprising it took until now to even tease such a thing with these movies. In the original G.I. Joe comic run of the ’80s, the G.I. Joe base was a very large underground bunker called The Pit that was located on Staten Island. (This may be where this interview takes place.) And as Transformers director Steven Caple Jr. says, yes, this would be a complete reboot of G.I. Joe and have nothing to do with the prior three movies and goes on to explain at least what he can explain so far about this crossover.

I did not see the G.I. Joe twist coming at the end. Michael Kelly plays it so straight.

Yeah, no, nice to be forward as well and try to keep it close. I feel like Michael Kelly was a nice sort of surprise. As we go into it, we wanted to make sure whoever we use isn’t like a full-blown Nick Fury. When you start to do the compare and contrast to the other franchise. So, for me, it just felt like there was a way to bring in Michael. He’s a phenomenal actor. And so to have him in the mix and be able to build a team out would’ve been really cool. But you could go any direction with him. If he wanted to be a villain, if he wanted to be a good guy, if he wanted to be down for the cause, you just don’t know. So he just felt valuable that way.

Is he a G.I. Joe character we know?

Yes, he is someone we know. He does have a relationship with someone in the past, but not necessarily in the franchises. But not the movies…

I’m assuming this is going to kind of reboot things. Is that the plan, to reboot G.I. Joe?

Yes. 100 percent. That is my plan for sure.

Okay you said “my plan” and that you’ll be involved in the future. So do you want to do more Transformers or do G.I. Joe?

I think that’s one we have to wait on. But I’m always Transformers. I want to say always Transformers. But, I mean, between you and I, I know you’ll read this later, but when you look at it, there is a Transformer, G.I. Joe collaboration in the comic books. And I read it years ago and I thought this idea would always been cool. So I’m not going to say I’m staying true to that storyline, but the fact that it was more so G.I. Joe stepping into their world was interesting to me.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Is Donald Trump really done for? They call him “Teflon Don” for a reason, so possibly not. Still, being federally indicted on 37 counts for allegedly mishandling classified government documents isn’t small potatoes. And he’s not the only one who may be going down: As per CNN (in a bit caught by Intelligencer), also indicted was Trump’s Diet Coke guy.

His name is Walt Nauta, and he’s one of the many underlings whose life has been put in jeopardy thanks to their association with the former president. The day after his latest indictment was made public, Trump took to his rinky-dink Twitter clone Friday to reveal that Natua, too, was facing indictment. (CNN later verified this as true.) Trump called Nauta a “wonderful man” who “served proudly with me in the White House” before transitioning to private life.

“They are trying to destroy his life, and the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump,’” he wrote, once again putting his name in quotation marks. “He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!”

The unsealed DOJ document revealed that Nauta had been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations.

A Navy vet, Nauta worked his way up the Trump administration, starting as a White House cook only to become one of his valets. He gained notoriety for a very specific part of his job, as The Washington Post reported last year:

Not long after Trump took office, Nauta left the mess to become one of Trump’s valets, spending some of his workday in a small passageway that connects the West Wing to a private dining room. From there, he had access to a small refrigerator stocked with Diet Cokes, which he brought to the president in the Oval Office when Trump pressed a call button on his desk, said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss activities inside the White House.

That Trump allegedly lives on Diet Coke, even having a Diet Coke button (since removed), means Nauta must have been very busy. He was also a gofer, fetching other, non-Diet Coke items and tidying things up in a place infamous for having key documents clog toilets.

Nauta was kept on the Trump payroll as part of his Save America PAC, but last summer he spoke to the FBI. At first he tried to protect his old boss, but the things changed, as per the Post:

When FBI agents first interviewed Nauta, he denied any role in moving boxes or sensitive documents, the people familiar with the situation said in interviews before Nauta’s name became public. But as investigators gathered more evidence, they questioned him a second time and he told a starkly different story — that Trump instructed him to move the boxes, these people said.

Trump appears to have forgiven Nauta for telling the feds the alleged truth; sources told CNN he was at Trump’s Bedminister, New Jersey club when he got the news of the indictment. It’s unclear if he still fetches him his Diet Cokes, but there’s a chance he might have to do that from the slammer.

(Via CNN, Intelligencer and The Washington Post)

This past week, an early version of Lil Tjay and 6LACK‘s “Calling My Phone” surfaced online. This version featured a verse by SZA, which was ultimately left off of the final version.

Until yesterday (June 9), it was unclear why SZA’s verse didn’t end up on the official release. The “Kill Bill” hitmaker took to Twitter to explain the she actually didn’t turn in her verse.

“I’m mad y’all leaked it .. but glad y’all liked it,” she said. “I punked out of turning it in … happens a lot actually. I be feeling like I can’t add anything to songs that are already fire. Respect to @liltjay + @6LACK.”

Fans responded to SZA, urging her to let go of her nerves and to have more confidence in her craft. Though, SZA indicated that adding to a song of that caliber makes for a lot of pressure.

“It’s more a respect thing to the artist,” she said. “I literally only wanna give the best of me especially if the song is already popular. If I can’t magnify it I fall back.”

6LACK caught wind of the leak, however, he jokingly suggested that he couldn’t listen to it.

“ngl i listened with my hands over my ears cz it felt like a sin,” he said. “sound like butter tho.”

SZA then sent a message of reassurance to 6LACK and Tjay, letting them know, “y’all ATE.”