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Luke Combs isn’t letting himself imagine winning CMA Entertainer of the Year tonight

• No Comments • Country Music News

CMA/ABC2020 has been a huge year for Luke Combs, and it just keeps getting bigger. At the 2020 CMA Awards, the singer is a first-time nominee in the coveted Entertainer of the Year category.

But Luke says he’s not letting himself imagine what it might be like to win the trophy, especially because the competition in the category is so fierce. Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert are all in the running alongside Luke, which he admits is a little “intimidating.”

“I’m in there with some people I would consider heroes of mine,” the singer points out. “You know, as songwriters and artists and people who I view as, you know, a heck of a lot more talented than me.”

Still, no matter what happens when the winner is announced, Luke believes that just being nominated in the category is worth celebrating.

“It’s going to be fun, man. We’ll see what happens if we take it home,” he continues. “Obviously, that would be the achievement of a lifetime for me. But it would also be the achievement of a lifetime for anyone else nominated. And I would be so happy for them. They’re all great folks.”

Luke’s Entertainer mention is one of six nominations he nabbed at the CMAs. He’s also up for Album, Male Vocalist, Single and Song of the Year.

The 2020 CMA Awards air tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Dating Amber' stars discuss making a "hopeful" queer coming-of-age story

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films(NEW YORK) — In the new comedy Dating Amber, Fionn O’Shea and Lola Petticrew play gay classmates in mid-90s Ireland who pretend they’re dating in order to avoid ridicule from their peers. Along the way, they help each other come to terms with who they are.

O’Shea and Petticrew, who became best friends in real life during the making of the film, tell ABC Audio it was important for them to portray a hopeful queer coming-of-age story on screen.

“You don’t want to scare people out of coming out of the closet, you want to show them that, you know, especially within the LGBTQ+ community, your family can be the family that you choose and that there are going to be people there that will love you and accept you,” Petticrew says. “And I think that was always in the back of our mind when we made this film.”

In fact, making the film helped Petticrew come to terms with her own sexuality.

“During filming, before and after, I had realized that I’d given Amber and her journey all of this weight and I hadn’t done it for myself,” she says.

“It sort of gave me this sort of re-coming out in a way, and I found the label queer to fit me most,” she adds. “It really was a completely sort of life-transforming experience for me, playing Amber.”

O’Shea, who most people know as the much-hated character Jamie in Normal People, was happy to play someone a little more likable this time around. He says he felt a connection to his character, Eddie.

“I absolutely felt from the moment I read it that I really understood Eddie and just knew that I wanted to play him,” he says. 

Dating Amber is out on demand and digitally now.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVU_e0Kq4A8&w=640&h=360]

By Andrea Tuccillo
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ohio State-Maryland game cancelled due to COVID issues

• No Comments • Sports News

Jamie Sabau/Getty ImagesBY: LEIGHTON SCHNEIDER, ABC NEWS

(NEW YORK) — Third-ranked Ohio State’s game against Maryland has been canceled due to COVID-19 issues on the Terripans, according to Maryland.

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“We’re obviously extremely disappointed that we’ll be unable to host Ohio State this Saturday,” said head coach Michael Locksley in the statement announcing the decision. “It was an opportunity that our team was preparing for and excited about. However, we have and always will keep our players, coaches, and staffs safety at the forefront of our decision making process. We’ll continue to operate as much as we can virtually as we monitor the situation in hopes of returning to play when it’s deemed safe.”

Eight Terrapin players tested positive over the past week, according to the school.

The game will not be made up.

The game becomes the third Big Ten game of the year to be canceled because of the coronavirus.

The other two were Wisconsin’s past two games against Nebraska and Purdue.

Ohio State’s next game will be against Indiana on November 21.

The Buckeyes become the fifth-ranked team to have a game postponed or canceled this weekend because of coronavirus issues, four of them are in the SEC.

Top-ranked Alabama’s game against LSU, number 5 Texas A&M’s game against Tennesee, number 12 Georgia’s game against Missouri, and number 24 Auburn’s game against Mississippi State have all been pushed back, according to the conference.

LSU, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Auburn, and Missouri all had positive tests this week leading to contact tracing and quarantining.

The Mississippi State-Auburn and Texas A&M-Tennessee game’s have been tentatively rescheduled for December 12.

The Alabama-LSU game has not yet been rescheduled since LSU already has a postponed game against Florida scheduled for that date.

The Georgia-Missouri game has also not been rescheduled, because Missouri is already scheduled to play a postponed game against Vanderbilt on December 12.

The SEC is thinking about using December 19, the day of the conference championship game, as another day to play games.

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Happy Valentine's Day! Luke, Lionel and Katy are back on ABC's 'American Idol' February 14

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/John FleenorIf by February, you still aren’t able to go out to a restaurant and have a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner, then tune into the premiere of American Idol instead.

The show returns for its new season ABC February 14, 2021 — earlier than in the past few years.  Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie are all returning as judges, albeit on socially-distanced sets.  Ryan Seacrest is also returning as the host.

Last season’s show — which crowned New York singer Just Sam as the winner — was forced to switch to at-home performances and remote judging as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most live TV productions.

By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

“My love was real”: Carly Pearce opens up about her split from husband Michael Ray

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LA2020 has been the biggest year of Carly Pearce’s musical career to date, with her success underscored by an early CMAs win for Musical Event of the Year, courtesy of her hit duet with Lee Brice, “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”

But personally, Carly sums up 2020 as being “single-handedly the hardest year of my life.”

This summer, the singer filed for divorce from her fellow artist Michael Ray after just eight months of marriage. Now, she tells People that the breakup left her questioning everything.

“I truly thought I was gonna die,” Carly says. “There were moments I seriously did not know if I could breathe. It was awful. It is awful.”

The singer stresses that she doesn’t consider her marriage a mistake. “My love was real. I will stand by that forever,” Carly notes.

While she declines to mention the specifics of how the relationship fell apart, Carly does explain that divorce wasn’t something she took lightly.

“This was not a flippant decision,” she adds. “This was something that I really took time to make sure I was doing the right thing. It was very clear that this was not the marriage I wanted.”

As she looks ahead toward the future, Carly is bolstered by the support of her close friends. The same woman who served as her maid of honor will be accompanying her to the 2020 CMA Awards, and she feels a lot of warmth and love from her musical community, too.

“I feel like country music keeps hugging me when it knows I need it…I just feel this huge hug of, like, ‘We got you.’ And it’s awesome,” Carly says.

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

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.