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Dan + Shay are "all up in our emotions" reflecting on 8th anniversary

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABCDan + Shay are looking back on the first day they met. 

The Grammy winning duo turned to Instagram yesterday to commemorate the 8th anniversary of when they met at Dan Smyers‘ house party in Nashville in 2012 and played music together for the first time, the letter serving as an ode to fans for their support. 

“Just wanna say thanks for everything y’all have done for us, it truly means the world. We’ve been able to accomplish some really cool things since we started this band, and it’s all because of you believing in the music. Kinda all up in our emotions today,” the twosome write alongside a photo of them in Rockefeller Center.

They asked fans to share their favorite memories of the duo in the comments.

“We’re gonna read ‘em all and try not to cry,” they add. “Sending lots of love to all of you.”

Dan + Shay also performed their two original Christmas songs, “Take Me Home For Christmas” and “Christmas Isn’t Christmas,” on the Today show this morning. 

By Cillea Houghton
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Billy Porter to join Ryan Seacrest and Lucy Hale for 'Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021'

• No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Gavin Bond(NEW YORK) — Most of us can’t wait for the calendar to flip from 2020 to 2021, and now we know with whom we’ll be celebrating — at least on TV. 
Ryan Seacrest will return to host Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021, and once again he’ll be joined by Lucy Hale — but this time Pose star Billy Porter is coming along for the ride. 

Porter, an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner, hosted the telecast’s festivities from New Orleans last year, but this year he’s coming to the Big Apple for the biggest New Year’s Eve party in the world. 

“2020 has been a trying year for the world and I’m thrilled to have Billy and Lucy join me in ushering in a new year with fresh beginnings,” said Seacrest in a statement. “We look forward to making sure it’s a night for everyone to remember.”

Leading the party on the West Coast will once again be multi-platinum recording artist Ciara.

Seacrest’s 16th year as host of America’s most-watched New Year’s Eve special kicks off on Thursday, Dec. 31, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on ABC. 

While the traditional crowds of Times Square won’t be there this year, thanks to COVID-19, the telecast promises to bring out some major star power in the form of musical performances from the “crossroads of the world” and across the country; artists and other guests will be revealed in the coming weeks.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Tenet' director Christopher Nolan says he was in "disbelief" when Warner Bros. announced deal with HBO Max

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Melinda Sue Gordon; ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — Hindsight is 20/20 but Tenet director Christopher Nolan is feeling “very lucky” that he was still able to release his film in theaters amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It was great to see how audiences in places where the virus had been managed carefully and efficiently, where they could safely go back to movie theaters, people came back in great numbers,” he told Entertainment Tonight.

Even so, Nolan admitted that there was some “frustration” that arose as well around not being able to travel and experience the film with audiences across the globe. 

“But at the end of the day, 2020 has been a year of tremendous adversity for everybody on the planet, so we feel very lucky — I feel very lucky — to have been working and to have been engaged in a creative pursuit,” he said.  

Nolan was one of the first directors to release a film in theaters in the middle of the global pandemic, and it doesn’t seem like many are following in his footsteps.

It was also recently announced that Warner Bros. made a deal to simultaneously debut their 2021 blockbusters both in theaters and on HBO Max, a decision which Nolan said left him in “disbelief.”

“There’s such controversy around it, because they didn’t tell anyone,” he explained. “They’ve got some of the top filmmakers in the world, they’ve got some of the biggest stars in the world who worked for years in some cases on these projects very close to their hearts that are meant to be big-screen experiences… And now they’re being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service — for the fledgling streaming service — without any consultation.”

Nolan added, “They deserved to be consulted and spoken to about what was going to happen to their work.”

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. 

Scoreboard roundup — 12/7/20

• No Comments • Sports News

iStockBy ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Washington 23, Pittsburgh 17
Buffalo 34, San Francisco 24

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Richmond 77, Wofford 72

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Seattle 3, Minnesota 2

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

"That Ain't My Truck," but that IS my dad: Thomas Rhett tips his hat to his father

• No Comments • Country Music News

L-R: Thomas Rhett and father Rhett Akins; Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Pepsi’s Rock The SouthThomas Rhett namechecks one of the biggest hits by his dad, singer/songwriter Rhett Akins, in his latest top-twenty hit, “What’s Your Country Song.”

While the two are both co-writers on the tune, it was TR’s idea to include the shout-out to 1995’s “That Ain’t My Truck.” 

“Well, it actually started as a joke,” TR tells ABC Audio. “We were in a hotel room in Dallas writing the song, and we had already finished the chorus and had nowhere to go in the verses.”

“And I just started saying old country song titles that kind of told a story,” he continues, “and Dad’s happened to be the first one that I said. And we all laughed about it, and then it kind of turned into what the whole verse vibe became.”

By the time they finished, they’d mentioned more than a dozen country classics, by everyone from Hank Williams, Jr. to Garth Brooks to Barbara Mandrell. 

“We just kind of took a bunch of amazing songs from our past and tried to write a story with song titles, and then the chorus hits,” TR explains. “So it was a really unique, fun way to write a song.  And I’m really glad to kind of give my dad some some props and credit in that song.”  

“That Ain’t My Truck” isn’t Rhett Akins biggest hit, as it turns out. That distinction belongs to “Don’t Get Me Started,” which topped the chart back in 1996.

“What’s Your Country Song” is the lead single from Thomas Rhett’s forthcoming fifth album. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBzduwzZH-w&w=640&h=360]

By Stephen Hubbard
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.