Month: September 2024

A few months ago, Zayn released his fourth solo album, Room Under The Stairs. For fans, the hope with a new album is that they’ll get to see the artist perform the fresh songs on a new tour. Well, Zayn has now delivered on that front.

He broke the news himself last night (September 17) by crashing The Tonight Show. During Jimmy Fallon’s monologue, Zayn emerged from behind the curtain, holding a coffee mug and a note. He then hit play on Fallon’s laptop to play his own “Stardust.” Before leaving without having said a word, Zayn handed Fallon the note. Fallon read it, confirming that Zayn is going on the Stairway To The Sky Tour, Zayn’s “first-ever solo tour,” and that dates would be revealed today. Sure enough, the official announcement has come.

Zayn previously teased the nature of a solo tour, saying, “Not too many fancy tricks,” and noting, “This type of music that I’m making just feels like the type of music I would perform. It makes sense in my mind.”

Find the list of tour dates below.

Zayn Malik’s 2024 Tour Dates: Stairway To The Sky Tour

10/23 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
10/25 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
10/27 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall
10/30 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
11/02 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
11/20 — Edinburgh, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy
11/23 — Leeds, United Kingdom @ O2 Academy
11/24 — Manchester, United Kingdom @ O2 Apollo
11/26 — London, United Kingdom @ Eventim Apollo
11/29 — Wolverhampton, United Kingdom @ Wolverhampton The Halls
12/03 — Newcastle, United Kingdom @ O2 City Hall

It has been an eventful past few days for Diddy (real name Sean Combs). On Monday, September 16, he was taken into federal custody. The next day, it was revealed he was charged with “racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.” Also yesterday, Diddy was denied bail.

As Rolling Stone reports, US Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky denied Diddy bail, due to her “very significant concerns” over his alleged substance abuse, his “anger issues,” and his supposed attempt to influence the outcome of his prosecution. Tarnofsky noted that she considered alternatives, but said, “Your lawyer asked us to trust you — [I don’t think] you can trust yourself.” She later added, “Your lawyer can’t control you.”

One of the alternatives Tarnofsky considered was Diddy’s request to be kept in his home with electronic monitoring and a $50 million bond.

Diddy was eventually taken away by US Marshals. After that point, Marc Agnifilo, Diddy’s attorney, told reporters, “Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this until the end. He is innocent. We’re going to fight this case with everything we have.”

CNN notes Diddy is expected to appeal the decision today (September 18), at a court appearance in front of US District Court Judge Andrew Carter at 3:30 p.m. ET. In the meantime, Diddy is being held at the Special Housing Unit in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The Phoenix Mercury entered Tuesday night in the seventh spot in the WNBA standings with just two games left before the playoffs, and while there isn’t any drama regarding where they’ll end up in the playoff seeding — they’re locked into the 7-seed as the best they can do is tie the Indiana Fever for sixth, but the Fever have the head-to-head tiebreaker — they still want to head into the postseason on a positive note and have a chance to finish with a .500 season.

The good news was they were up against the league’s worst team in the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday, but they found themselves in a more heated contest than expected, edging out an 85-81 win that featured some fireworks. At the end of the first half, Brittney Griner and Rickea Jackson got tangled up while boxing out on a Mercury free throw and got into a kerfuffle that led to both players being ejected.

Griner clearly didn’t like something Jackson did and swung her elbow up high at Jackson to send a message, but the Sparks’ rookie star didn’t back down from the veteran and the two started jawing before squaring up at each other. As typically happens on the professional basketball court, the two were separated before anything went down, but they did enough to earn early exits from the game. That news came as a surprise to Jackson, who tried to walk back on the court from the tunnel before being informed she’d been tossed.

Phoenix would go on to win the game, as the Sparks weren’t able to hold onto their halftime lead without Jackson as the Mercury dominated the third quarter, 28-10, to take control of the game and held on in the fourth for the win.

Allison Russell is a fearless voice for social causes and music. Now, the “Stay Right Here” singer’s Grammy Award-winning vocals are heading to Broadway.

Today (September 12), Allison Russell revealed that this winter she will make her Broadway debut in Hadestown. On November 12, Allison will star in the production as Persephone. Over on Instagram, Allison penned a touching note about the career milestone.

“Impossible for me to fully convey how deeply meaningful, resonant, uplifting, full circle and THRILLING it is to be making my Broadway debut,” she wrote. “Starring in the role of Persephone (a Goddess and archetype I have explored in both poetry and song myself since childhood) in this generational masterpiece and my favorite musical.”

Currently, the role is held by Lana Gordon. Sadly, Yola is set to exit the production on October 20. But come November 12, Allison will join cast mates Stephanie Mills, Jordan Fisher, Maia Reficco, and Phillip Boykin.

Read Allison Russell’s full statement below.

And now it can be told… I first heard Anaïs Mitchell sing “Why We Build The Wall” in 2008 at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA. She was opening the show at a concert series called “Sings Like Hell” (really) for my partner’s band JT & The Clouds.

I was transfixed. When Anaïs told me later that night that she was working on a “folk opera” based on the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice all my hairs stood on end — I had a premonition that it would be become a piece that would outlive us all…

It has been a keen and continuous joy to have a front row seat to the evolution of this great opus – from the 2010 album to Off Broadway to the Edmonton Theatre to the London Theatre and finally to Broadway and the Walter Kerr Theatre and the Herstoric Tony Awards sweep in 2019. Anaïs has been and is a lodestar artist, writer and friend to me since that night in 2008…

Impossible for me to fully convey how deeply meaningful, resonant, uplifting, full circle and THRILLING it is to be making my Broadway debut, starring in the role of Persephone (a Goddess and archetype I have explored in both poetry and song myself since childhood) in this generational masterpiece and my favorite musical.

I am proud to be joining the sisterhood of artists who’ve embodied Persephone, proud to be joining this extraordinary ensemble, proud to become a part of this living, growing legacy. This is a World I’ve dreamt of and one I get to live in now. I am excited and grateful beyond measure to be joining Hadestown! See you way down under the ground!

Allison Russell’s run as Persephone in Hadestown on Broadway will begin on November 12. Find more information here.

Dolly Parton is arguably the Queen of country music. So, when Beyoncé decided to creatively venture into the genre, she was sure to tilt her brim to her classic “Jolene.” Despite the homages to country greats, rising stars, and critical acclaim, Cowboy Carter was notably missing from the CMA Awards nomination list.

While the BeyHive are fuming over the “snub,” Dolly Parton feels differently. During an interview with Variety, Dolly Parton said she doesn’t believe Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album was intentionally ignored.

“Well, you never know,” she said. “There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that. But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question.”

Dolly went on to praise the project, saying: “But it was a wonderful album. She can be very, very proud of, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good. So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose. I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”

Dolly isn’t Beyoncé’s only Cowboy Carter collaborator to subtly address the matter. Although Shaboozey secured his own collaboration, he went on to thank Beyoncé for pushing the genre forward.

“That goes without saying,” he wrote. “Thank you, Beyoncé for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!”

Beyoncé hasn’t issued a response to the nominations list.

The Carolina Panthers decided to demote Bryce Young two games into his sophomore season in the NFL. Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft who the Panthers went all-in to get, has just not worked so far during his time in the league, and after his latest difficult performance during his second season as a professional, new Carolina coach Dave Canales benched him for veteran signal caller Andy Dalton.

The way the Panthers have handled Young — a talented prospect but one who has his limitations and was not exactly dropped into the best situation in the league as a rookie — led to a ton of criticism, with ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. carving them up on television on Tuesday morning. And later in the day, LeBron James got in on the pile-on, as he took to Twitter to offer up a message of support to Young where he made clear he does not view his current situation as his fault.

It’s unclear how long Young, who has started every time he’s been active during his career, will sit and watch behind Dalton. Through two games this year, Young has gone 31-for-56 (55.36 percent) for 245 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. Reports indicated that he did not see the team’s decision to bench him coming.

Tyrese Haliburton’s love of professional wrestling is pretty well-documented. During the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, we spoke to the Pacers star about what he wanted to see at WrestleMania 40, and before he joined up with USA Basketball for the Paris Olympics, he appeared on an episode of WWE SmackDown with Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks.

While we can’t say for sure if Haliburton is the biggest WWE fan in the NBA, he is certainly the most visible one. And on Tuesday night, Hali continued his takeover of the WWE universe by heading to its developmental brand, NXT, where he was tasked with getting a contract signed for an upcoming match between Trick Williams and Ethan Page for the NXT Championship that Page recently took off of Williams.

Haliburton eventually made his way down to the ring and introduced his teammates with the Pacers, who joined him at NXT. The crowd booed the defending Eastern Conference runners-up, which led to Haliburton deciding to troll the fans at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando for being Magic fans.

That line did not go over well with the NXT Universe, which decided to give Haliburton some crap for being the 12th man on Team USA’s roster by chanting “you did nothing” at him.

I, truly, cannot wait to see how far Haliburton can take his wrestling fandom, which will hopefully lead to him competing in the Royal Rumble when it takes place in Indianapolis next year.

Lil Reese is reportedly a wanted man, and it has nothing to do with fans’ demand for more music.

According to TMZ, authorities are on hunt for the “All That Haten” rapper after he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend. The outlet’s report accused Lil Reese of “punching and strangling” a woman believed to be his former partner.

Near the top of the month, Lil Reese was spotted in popular Houston, Texas nightclub, The Pinkhouse. While there, witnesses claimed to have spotted the two in close quarters. A bystander alleged that near 6:30 am, Lil Reese attempted to make romantic advances toward the woman but was “rejected several times” after which he “grew enraged.”

However, before the woman could de-escalate the situation Lil Reese allegedly became violent. A report obtain by the outlet claimed that Lil Reese “punched” the supposed victim “in the right cheek.” Then he allegedly “applied pressure to her neck with both arms.”

Fans of the alleged victim supposedly called the establishment’s security for assistance separating the two. Once the police arrived, they claimed to have “observed fingernail scratches and redness along the victim’s throat.” Ultimately, this served as enough for an arrest warrant. Houston Police Department have not yet made an arrest in the matter as they claim to not know where Lil Reese is currently.

Back in May 2021, Lil Reese was arrested in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois for domestic violence.

At this time, Lil Reese has not issued a public statement regarding the incident.

It feels like we’ve been waiting 17 years for Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Best Picture-winning masterpiece Parasite. The trippy clone film was delayed for conflicting reasons, but now, at long last, the first trailer is here. And it looks like it was worth the wait.

Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, an unlikely hero who “has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living,” according to the official plot synopsis. Mickey is what’s known as an “expendable,” and every time he dies, knowledge is gained and “humanity moves forward.” What might surprise you with that premise is how funny Mickey 17 looks. Check out the trailer above.

The cast also includes Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.

Earlier this year, Pattinson explained why he wanted to star in Mickey 17, other than needing a paycheck to fund his weird couch habit. “I’ve been the biggest fan of Bong for many, many years; he’s my hero,” The Boy and the Heron and The Batman star said at CinemaCon. “I got sent the script. I was told, ‘You’re gonna love the script, but the part is impossible.’ That was very, very exciting to me. I thought it was the most unusual, bizarre, funny script.”

Mickey 17 comes out in theaters on January 31, 2025.

Pharrell Williams confessed that he is “annoyed” when “celebrities trying to tell you [who to vote for].” But that didn’t stop Billie Eilish and Finneas from publicize their candidate of choice in the 2024 presidential election.

Today (September 17), Billie Eilish and Finneas shared their endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris‘ 2024 presidential campaign with Tim Walz. In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), the dynamic duo stressed the importance of practicing one of your civic duties—voting. “It’s National Voter Registration Day,” they wrote. “We are voting for Harris-Walz. The choice is clear.”

The pair echoed that within the clip. “We can’t let extremists control our lives, our freedoms and our future,” said Finneas. “The only way to stop them and the dangerous Project 2025 agenda is to vote and elect Kamala Harris.”

Billie mirrored that sentiment by emphasizing the importance of this presidential election. “Vote like your life depends on it,” said Billie. “Because it does.”

The Grammy Award-winning siblings are the latest pop stars to publicly announced their support of the Harris-Walz campaign. Back on September 10, Taylor Swift shared her endorsement of Harris with a quippy line about former president Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance stance on “childless cat ladies.”

Other musicians to throw their support behind Harris include Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo.