singer

Duncan Sheik, who earned a Grammy nomination for his ubiquitous 1990s hit “Barely Breathing” and won a Tony Award for composing the music for “Spring Awakening,” died Thursday. He was 56.

“It is with profound sadness that we confirm the passing of Duncan Sheik,” a statement posted Friday on Sheik’s Instagram account read. “The world has a lost a singular talent, and deeply influential voice in music and theater…. Duncan’s artistry touched many and leaves an indelible mark on the cultural landscape.

“Duncan was a father, husband, son, brother, and friend. He will be remembered for his sensitivity, wit, inteligence, and depth of spirit he brought to those who knew and loved him.”

The statement added that “Duncan passed away last night surrounded by love.”

His mother, Suzanne Sheik, told the New York Times that her son died of organ failure. A statement posted to his Instagram account Thursday said that Sheik was “receiving medical care and remains in critical but stable condition.”

Sheik, a New Jersey native, went to Brown University, where he played in an early band with singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb. His 1996 self-titled debut LP was a hit on the strength of “Barely Breathing,” an exemplar of the upbeat coffeeshop rock that emerged in the wake of grunge on the pop charts. The single stayed on the Hot 100 for over a year, and the album went gold, earning earned him a Grammy nomination for male pop vocal performance.

Sheik’s followup, 1998’s “Humming,” featured rich orchestration, but he already had an eye on Broadway (his sister Kacie Sheik is a stage actor who has appeared in “Hair,” “American Idiot” and “Because of Winn-Dixie,” for which Duncan wrote the score).

He wrote his 2001 album “Phantom Moon” with poet and playwright Steven Sater, whom he’d again collaborate with on the score for the musical “Spring Awakening” — based on the play by German Expressionist Frank Wedekind, which won him a Tony Award — and “Alice by Heart.” His 2009 album “Whisper House” yielded a companion musical of the same name. He also composed the score for the 2004 film “A Home at the End of the World.”

While Sheik sought treatment for alcohol addiction after canceling a tour in 2011, his stage and studio career never slowed. Other major stage credits include hit productions of “American Psycho,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” the thriller “Noir” and “The Secret Life of Bees,” along with Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” His last album, “Claptrap,” came out in 2022.

Rosalind Ashford, the soprano behind hits from Martha and the Vandellas including “Dancing in the Street” and “Heat Wave,” has died. She was 83.

The singer died of natural causes on Tuesday in the Michigan suburb of Redford Township, per the Detroit Free Press.

Ashford was an original member of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas, best known for their timeless soul pop songs. She sang on more than 20 of the group’s top 40 singles on Billboard’s R&B chart, including “Heat Wave,” which hit No. 1, and “Dancing in the Street,” which peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Rosalind Ashford,” Martha Reeves said in a statement. “Rosalind played an important part in the early days of Martha and the Vandellas. Her voice will forever be with us through our great recordings together, and she will be missed, but never forgotten. Our Motown Family has just gotten a little smaller. My heart is heavy.”

In 1995, Martha and the Vandellas were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, becoming the second all-female group to land the acclaim.

Born on Sept. 2, 1943, to John and Mary Ashford, the budding soprano developed her chops singing in the church choir and then in the glee club at Wilbur Wright High School in Detroit. In 1957, the musically inclined teen landed an audition at the Detroit YMCA, and it was there that she, Annette Beard and Gloria Williams linked up with local music manager Edward “Pops” Larkins, and formed the girl group the Del-Phis.

According to the Motown Museum, the Del-Phis invited Reeves — then a secretary to William “Mickey” Stevenson, Motown’s Artists and Repertoire director — to join their girl group. Together, they took on gigs as backup singers, including on Marvin Gaye’s early songs “Hitch Hike” and “Pride and Joy.”

The Del-Phis became Martha and the Vandellas when “My Guy” singer Mary Wells missed a fortuitous recording session. Reeves, with the Del-Phis singing backup, filled in for Wells, and Motown was so impressed, the label signed the group to the Gordy label in 1962, sans Williams, who left the group around this time.

The trio’s breakout hit, “Come and Get These Memories,” was released in 1963 and performed well on the Billboard charts, reaching No. 6 on the R&B singles chart. “(Love Is Like a) “Heat Wave” dropped the same year and topped the charts, followed by “Quicksand,” which also became a top-10 hit. The 1967 song “Jimmy Mack” went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and was the final top-10 hit in the U.S. for the group.

“Heat Wave” scored the group a Grammy nomination for best R&B recording for 1964 and made the trio the first Grammy-nominated Motown group.

Ashford left the group and the music business behind in 1969, and worked at the Michigan Bell Telephone Co., though she would occasionally reunite with former Vandellas members for reunion performances.

Classic Motown posted a tribute to the singer on Thursday, writing that her harmonies served as the soundtrack to a generation. “The Motown family mourns the passing of a true icon, Rosalind Ashford,” read the statement. “As an original founding member of Martha and the Vandellas, Rosalind’s vocal talent helped define the golden era of the Motown sound.

“Rosalind’s contribution to American music and Motown history will never be forgotten. Rest in power, Rosalind. Thank you for the music.”

Chris Brown is speaking out after lawmakers honored him during his concert in Arlington, Texas, then apologized for the honor.

On Sept. 12, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Democratic Texas Rep. Venton Jones appeared at AT&T Stadium for Brown and Usher’s R&B Tour, where they honored both singers for their contributions to music. The politicians presented them with a Congressional Record recognition and state proclamation.

“Right now, we are experiencing Black joy to the highest level,” Crockett said on stage. “And I wanted to make sure we document that in the Congressional Record.”

Usher was not on stage when either honor was presented.

The incident sparked public backlash because of Brown’s history of domestic violence. In June 2009, the “Forever” singer pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault for physically attacking Rihanna.

On Monday, the 37-year-old singer and dancer took to social media to apologize to Crockett for the criticism she received following the recognition, uploading a photo of the two to his Instagram story with text that read: “I apologize for any backlash you have to deal with for awarding for me. I’m not political but I move off of frequency and energy and I’m so grateful. Once again, thank you.”

But by Tuesday, Jones released a statement apologizing to his constituents for his role in presenting Brown with a state resolution.

“Over the past few days, I have listened closely to the conversations, concerns, and heartfelt feedback shared across our community following my presentation honoring Chris Brown with a state resolution,” Jones said.

Jones, who first assumed his role in 2023, said that the presentation was an attempt to reach voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.

“First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the women, the Black women, whom my actions have hurt. In moments like these, I think it’s important to be specific and just as loud with an apology as our original actions were,” Jones added in his statement. “I apologize.”

After Jones’ statement, Brown called out the representative.

“I didn’t ask to be honored because I knew some s— like this would happen and [Venton Jones] immediately started tap dancing and apologizing because he didn’t wanna lose voters and support,” Brown wrote on Sept. 15 on his Instagram. “I have a great idea.. how about [y’all] leave me the f— alone and let me focus on the fans that spent their money to actually see and support me.”

Outside of the most widely recognized incident involving Rihanna — which occurred hours before the couple was set to appear at the 2009 Grammy Awards — there have been multiple domestic violence allegations against Brown, including by his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. She was granted a restraining order against the singer in 2017.

Brown has been accused in several other cases of violence against women from 2018 to 2022, either dismissed, settled out of court, or the investigation dropped.

This summer, the singer pleaded guilty to beating up a man in a London nightclub with a glass bottle in 2023. There is an active $50-million suit against Brown and members of his entourage by four male concertgoers who allege they faced a “brutal, violent assault” backstage following a Fort Worth, Texas, show in 2024.

Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, in the span of less than two weeks, became an unexpected lightning rod for controversy and conversation about artist activism amid Israel’s deadly war in Gaza. Still, the show will go on.

Sheeran’s tour will proceed as planned, The Times has learned. He is scheduled to play on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The venue also confirmed on Wednesday that the Saturday concert is still a go, but that supporting acts have yet to be finalized.

A representative for Sheeran’s tour did not immediately respond to requests for additional information, including who will be the new supporting acts.

In a rapid turn of events since rapper and former opening act Macklemore called for Palestinian liberation onstage earlier this month, Sheeran — the singer of inoffensive hits including “Thinking Out Loud” and “Shape of You” — fell out with the fellow Grammy winner, witnessed all supporting acts drop from his lineup and defended himself against accusations of complicity in silencing criticism of Israel. Additionally, Sheeran confronted scrutiny over his largely apolitical public presence. He attributed this to his longtime desire to “bring people from all backgrounds and cultures together” via his music and performances.

“I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict,” he wrote Tuesday on Instagram. “Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.”

Ahead of Sheeran’s first concert since the scrutiny surrounding Macklemore’s performance, read on for what preceded the fallout of Sheeran’s Loop tour.

Macklemore goes from “Thrift Shop” to “Hind’s Hall”

Macklemore performs at Rod Laver Arena on May 15, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia.

(Morgan Hancock / Getty Images)

Before hitting the stage for Sheeran’s Loop tour, Macklemore famously burst onto the music scene in 2012 as part of the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. The pair gained popularity for the then-inescapable hit “Thrift Shop,” the fourth single off their acclaimed debut album, “The Heist.”

The duo gained further notoriety with hits “Can’t Hold Us” and same-sex marriage anthem “Same Love.” They notoriously bested Kendrick Lamar at the 2014 Grammy Awards in the rap album category. Lamar was nominated for his striking debut “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.”

A year after releasing their 2016 album, “This Unruly Mess I’ve Made,” the duo announced an indefinite hiatus. Macklemore focused on his solo work, including collaborations with Kesha, Lil Yachty and Skylar Grey. In recent years, Macklemore has taken on a new purpose with his platform.

Macklemore, like many musical acts including Kehlani, Finneas and Irish rap group Kneecap, became a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause after Israel began its offensive in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. The rapper has channeled his views on the conflict into his music, releasing his protest song “Hind’s Hall” in May 2024. The song calls for a ceasefire, an end to Israeli occupation in Gaza and highlights pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

Ed Sheeran announces his Loop tour

Ed Sheeran performs during iHeartRadio Kiss 108’s Jingle Ball 2025 at TD Garden on Dec. 14, 2025, in Boston, Mass..

(Scott Eisen / Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

Last September, Sheeran unveiled his plans to hit the road to promote his eighth studio album, “Play.”

The British “A Team” singer announced at the time that his tour would begin June 2026 with a stop at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium and would run through early November. The announcement did not disclose the supporting acts set to share the stage with him, but informed fans the singer would perform shows across large venues including Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium in August and a pair of performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The concerts at MetLife Stadium would later embroil Sheeran, his tour, Macklemore — and somehow pop star Pink — in controversy.

Macklemore calls to ‘Free Palestine’: Performance or ‘propaganda?’

When Macklemore took the MetLife Stadium stage as the supporting act for Sheeran’s Sept. 4 and 5 concerts, he did not mince words in his message. During his set, Macklemore criticized Israel for its war in Gaza and accused it of genocide of Palestinians. He also projected an edited version of his “Hind’s Hall” music video, which features footage of pro-Palestinian college encampments and protests and military strikes in Gaza.

Video of Macklemore’s performance spread online, drawing ire from some Jewish advocacy groups including StopAntisemitism, which accused Macklemore on Instagram of turning “a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state.” Pop star Pink, who is Jewish, shared StopAntisemitism’s post to her Instagram story. She faced backlash for the repost and later clarified in a three-part statement that she took issue with the imagery Macklemore displayed during his performance. She also accused the rapper of taking “the mic to tell all the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.”

In the wake of Macklemore’s performance, the Israeli American Council and the Anti-Defamation League also decried Macklemore’s performance on social media, with the former publishing a petition calling on Sheeran to remove the rapper from the remaining shows of his tour.

“Freedom of expression does not give anyone the right to turn someone else’s stage into a platform for political propaganda,” the Israeli American Council said on Instagram.

Amid the mounting backlash, Macklemore defended his stance and shared video on social media of his full address to the MetLife crowd. “I said ‘Free Palestine.’ I want those words to be loud and clear so that the people in Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them,” he tells concertgoers in his introduction to “Hind’s Hall.”

“To all my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you,” he adds, according to video of his address. “My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.”

The fallout begins: Macklemore fired from Loop tour

Whether Macklemore would remain on Sheeran’s tour amid the public outcry remained uncertain, until he confirmed his status earlier this week. He said in a lengthy statement shared to Facebook that his continued, vocal support for Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza has cost him professionally.

The rapper said he was removed after “some difficult conversations” with Sheeran. He also went into depth about the inner workings that led to his removal from the tour, including conversations between Sheeran and wealthy venue owners, including billionaire Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, where Sheeran is set to play later this month.

“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote. “Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”

Sheeran in a separate statement shared on Tuesday confirmed he had conversations with Kraft but did not speak to the alleged ultimatum. The singer also said removing Macklemore from the tour “was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine” and that Macklemore’s contract was with its promoter. Messina Touring announced on Monday it had dropped Macklemore from the remaining tour dates “after discussions with stakeholders.”

Additionally, Macklemore wrote that Sheeran’s “typical apolitical stance was being challenged” amid the public scrutiny and “he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.’”

Sheeran appeared to address that criticism, writing in his missive that attendees at his concerts “do not expect a political forum.” The singer also wrote he thinks there can be different ways to work toward peace.

“If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change,” he wrote.

Macklemore said in his Monday statement he was hopeful this turn of events would not mean an end to his friendship with Sheeran and he was grateful for the opportunity to play on tour, regardless.

“I didn’t need 10 Shows from Ed. I needed 2,” he wrote. “Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say … ‘Free Palestine.’”

Supporting acts depart tour in solidarity

Grammy winner Finneas was among the supporting acts who announced their departure from Ed Sheeran’s tour on Tuesday.

(Monica Schipper / Getty Images)

Hours after Sheeran shared his side to the controversy, numerous musical acts including Grammy winner Finneas and folk band Beoga, Sheeran’s backing band, pulled from the Loop tour in solidarity with Macklemore and in support of Palestinians.

“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran,” wrote Finneas, who has been a vocal supporter of Palestinians. “I stand with Palestine and its people.”

Pop band Lukas Graham and Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe, both billed as supporting acts for several upcoming dates on Sheeran’s tour, voiced support for the Palestinian people and spoke against the inner workings that led to Macklemore’s removal.

In its statement, Lukas Graham wrote: “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we’re allowed to acknowledge.”

Rowe in his Instagram statement said that Sheeran “has been a friend to me and has changed my life” but that he is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. “As Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation,” he wrote. The “Hey Ma” singer accused elites of leveraging their power to “silence the rightful voices” and criticism of Israel.

“I need to be true to myself and my ancestors who resisted colonisation, and fought for a freedom that I enjoy today in Ireland,” Rowe continued.

Macklemore announced Wednesday that he will donate his earnings from his shows with Sheeran to charities supporting Palestinians. He also invited Kraft to match his donation and reaffirmed his dedication to the Palestinian cause.

“This is what this has always been about,” he wrote. “Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy.”

The North American leg of Sheeran’s Loop tour is scheduled to end Nov. 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. — the same venue that platformed controversial rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) earlier this summer.

NOUGHTIES pop singer La Roux has said “she’s back” after disappearing from the spotlight – revealing a “nervous breakdown” ended her career.  

La Roux – real name Elly Jackson – shot to fame in 2009 and is known for her number one single Bulletproof. 

But it’s been a long time since La Roux released a new album and, ahead of her upcoming LP Old Flames, she posted on TikTok to tell fans she’s back. 

She wrote: “You think you can hurt me?

“I literally wrote and sung this song, lost my voice, had a nervous breakdown and disappeared for 10 years.” 

Speaking about releasing new music, La Roux told Another: “It’s been a long time coming, so I’m very eager to get back out there. 

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“Supervision [my third album] being totally marred by the [Covid-19] pandemic wasn’t ideal, so I’m very excited.”

She added: “I’d only just finished my last album when the pandemic hit, so I wasn’t ready to start making a new record instantly. You need a gap before you make new work. 

“I started f***ing around with new sounds and new ideas. It took a couple of years to know if I even wanted to make another record or if there was any point.”

La Roux’s mum is actress Trudie Goodwin, who drama fans will know best for playing Sergeant June Ackland in ITV’s The Bill.

She previously shared the advice Trudie, 74, gave her on dealing with fame. 

La Roux said: “She’s really good at saying things like, ‘Never have a drink when you do an interview’ – which I don’t always take notice of! And ‘Only give away what you need to give away’.

“And she says that if there’s paparazzi, just give them a picture and they’ll f**k off.”

Mother Monster has reportedly welcomed her first baby.

Pop singer Lady Gaga and her fiancé, tech investor Michael Polansky, were recently photographed with a newborn child during an outing in Northern California, according to Page Six.

The “Bad Romance” singer and 16-time Grammy winner was seen wearing a large ring and holding the child, supported by a baby wrap, tightly to her chest, according to photos published by the outlet.

A representative for the singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

She confirmed her engagement to Polansky at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she was said to have introduced him to then-French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

The pair was first spotted together kissing at a Las Vegas party in 2019.

In October, Lady Gaga revealed on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” that she was ready to become a mom.

“That’s my next starring role, I hope,” she said.

Harry Styles isn’t ready to end his Together Together tour just quite yet.

The three-time Grammy winner and One Direction alum announced on Thursday that he will extend his tour well into 2027. The newest leg will include additional stops across several locations including Los Angeles, where he will take over the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on April 23 and 24 with some assistance from Kylie Minogue.

Styles begins his tour extension in April with Tinashe in Phoenix before later hitting the road with additional guests including LCD Soundsystem, the Womack Sisters and Caroline Polachek. His stateside shows include stops in Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago. The “As It Was” and “Watermelon Sugar” singer will also take his music back across the Atlantic for concerts in Berlin, Paris, Madrid and London, where he will close out the tour in late August.

The 32-year-old musician launched his Together Together tour in May and is currently in the second month of his marathon 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden. He obviously knows a thing or two about going the distance.

Styles announced his Together Together tour in January, with some help from NBC’s Steve Kornacki, ahead of the release of his latest album “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” This year’s album marked Styles’ fourth solo release, following 2022’s “Harry’s House,” which earned the singer two Grammy awards including album of the year in 2023.

 GRAMMY-WINNING 90s singer Cassandra Wilson has died aged 70.

The jazz singer died surrounded by family and friends on Wednesday.

The award-winning jazz vocalist from Jackson, Mississippi, worked with the Roots and co-founded the M-Base Collective.

Her manager of 20 years Robert Torre told WBGO: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist.

“Cassandra Wilson transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager.”

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The singer was nominated for four Grammys, and won two in the Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Cassandra won for her 1997 album New Moon Daughter and for her 2007 album Loverly.

She was described by critic Gary Giddins as “a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field”.

Cassandra was named as a Jazz Master in 2022 by the National Endowment of the Arts.

Tributes flooded in for the star, with fellow NEA Jazz Master Dorthaan Kirk saying she is “devastated” by the loss.

She said they were like family and Cassandra called her “Mother Kirk”.

Dorthaan said: “I’m just devastated. Cassandra completely related to me because she looked up to me as an elder and somebody that was in the business.”

Cassandra took up piano at six, guitar at 12 and launched her career as a vocalist in the 70s, moving to the Big Apple the next decade where she became one of the founding members of the M-Base Collective.

She later signed with Blue Note Records in 1992 and released her seminal album titled Blue Light ‘Till Dawn.

The singer collaborated on albums with Coleman, Greg Osby, and Wynton Marsalis.

Cassandra sang as the character Leona in Marsalis’ recording of his Blood on the Fields oratorio, which became the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer Prize.

She was a guest vocalist on the Roots’ Silent Treatment and One Shine.

And star collaborators on her own work included Elvis Costello, John Legend, Jon Batiste and Ravi Coltrane.

She told The New York Times in 1994: “I continue to choose the path I take musically,

“And it’s not motivated by becoming famous or having a lot money, or any other pop motivation.”

Kehlani has rescheduled the two concerts she had to postpone because of illness.

On Thursday, the “Folded” singer announced new dates for her Camden, N.J., and Columbia, Md., shows on Instagram. The Camden show, which was originally scheduled for Aug. 26, will now happen on Sept. 5. The Columbia show will follow on Sept. 6. The latter had previously been scheduled for Aug. 27.

The two stops on Kehlani’s self-titled world tour had to be postponed after the two-time Grammy winner needed to seek treatment at a hospital for pain that prevented her from being able to swallow.

“[A]fter two off days feeling completely normal.. ive been up all night unable to swallow & in so much pain,” Kehlani wrote in a social media post Wednesday. “[I] just left the hospital & am not cleared to sing for the next two shows. i’m so sorry.”

In the since-deleted Instagram post (which is still available on Facebook), the “Nights Like This” singer expressed her frustration that she wasn’t able to perform as planned.

It “breaks my heart to have to ever do this,” Kehlani wrote. “i do everything i’m supposed to do to ensure my health stays up to par & it still isn’t guaranteed.”

The “After Hours” singer kicked off the North American leg of her world tour in support of her self-titled album in Minneapolis earlier this month. She is scheduled for back-to-back Southern California stops at the Viejas Arena in San Diego and the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Sept. 23 and 24, respectively.

Gladys Knight has announced she’s gearing up to embrace the next phase of her life and career at 82.

The announcement comes after recent performances raised alarm with fans and staff worried about the storied singer’s health.

“After much soul searching I’ve decided that I will be easing into fewer performances while focusing on transitioning into the next stage of my career and life moving forward,” Knight said via Instagram on Thursday.

Knight said she’ll be spending more time on projects with her husband and manager; William McDowell, 68; and visiting with her grandchildren.

“I’d like to take a moment, in advance, to thank all my fans over this last three quarters of a century for making a little girl’s dream come true and supporting her every step of the way,” she continued. “I am immensely grateful to all of you and send my eternal love back to you. … I hope to see your smiling faces out and about and on the road.”

Her publicity team declined further comment Friday.

During her Aug. 18 show in Detroit, Knight took several breaks. And back in July at the Hollywood Bowl, the Grammy-winner seemed to lose her place while belting, “Midnight Train to Georgia,” one of her signature songs.

Backup singers appeared to come to the rescue more than once, guiding the singer back toward the stage as she wandered off and filling in when the lyrics to her classic soul hits seemed to escape her.

In an interview with the Shade Room last year, Knight’s son, Shanga Hankerson, claimed McDowell pushed the singer into performing and manipulates her.

Hankerson said that he drove to North Carolina to see his mom and was kept from being alone with her. He subsequently filed a complaint with the state Department of Health and Human Services.

“I noticed that William would always chime in, make sure that I didn’t get to speak with her by myself or by herself,” he said.

During a performance, Hankerson said he was concerned watching as his mom, who’s been performing for 75 years, fumbled through the set.

“The band played two or three extra bars, and she zoned out. The background singer started singing, and that brought her back. They’re having to rewind the teleprompters because my mom is forgetting to even look at them,” he said.

SINGER Miguel has called out abuse and racist attacks on his partner and child in a furious online rant.

The record producer, 40, has been in a relationship with former Vogue China editor-in-chief Margaret Zhang for three and a half years.

The couple are parents to a son named Angel and are currently expecting their second child together.

However, the performer has claimed that he and his family have been subjected to racism and harassment.

Taking to his Instagram feed, he began: “Over the past year, my family and the people I love have been subjected to racism, harassment, stalking, invasions of privacy, and false allegations.

“Recent racist and anti-Asian attacks directed at my partner – including comments and DMs, as well as abusive comments about my child – crossed a line that should require no explanation.

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“People can have opinions about me, about the music, about the work.

“I accept the realities that come with doing anything in public but racism, threats, harassment, stalking, invasions of privacy, and targeting of children are abuse. not opinion.”

The Adorn singer continued: “It doesn’t become acceptable because someone dresses it up as criticism, fandom, speculation, or “concern.”

“Responsibility also lies with organizations and individuals that knowingly amplify or enable racism, harassment, or false allegations for attention and engagement.

“If you participate in this behavior, you are not supporting me, you are not part of this community.

“Where legal and ethical lines have been crossed, action has been and will continue to be taken,” he warned.

“To everyone who has treated my family with kindness, dignity, and respect: we see you. we deeply appreciate you,” Miguel signed off.

His loyal fans rushed to the comments section as one said: “This makes me really sad. People just need to let people LIVE!

“Praying for you and your family @miguel and continue to make great music!”

Another penned: “You have a beautiful family and no one deserves the hate ya’ll receive.

“Children are to be celebrated no matter their ethnic background. We love you Miguel and fam.”

He went on to write in the comments: “Overwhelmed reading your comments of support loved ones, thank you.”

Miguel and Margaret began dating in 2022 and quietly welcomed their son in 2024.

He was previously married to his high-school sweetheart Nazanin Mandi but they got divorced in 2022, shortly before he met Margaret.

Dolly Parton, the singer and songwriter from Locust Ridge, Tenn., who willed herself into being the very symbol of country music stardom, has died in Nashville.

Parton died peacefully Tuesday, her nephew Bryan Seaver announced in a press release shared with The Times. Seaver also announced her death in a video shared to the singer’s Instagram page. She was 80.

The fabled entertainer died after a series of health issues that led her to postpone several performing commitments. In September 2025, she missed the announcement of a Dollywood attraction to recover from a kidney stone. Later that month she delayed her residency at Caesars Palace — her first residency on the Las Vegas Strip in more than 30 years — due to unspecified “health challenges.”

Over the course of a flamboyant 50-plus-year career as a songwriter, recording artist, actor and businesswoman, Parton reinvented the American success story through a combination of grit and wit, faith and sex appeal, virtuosity and plainspokenness, empathy for the human condition and plastic surgery.

She seized on the roles that American culture allowed for women in the spotlight — waif, trollop, fallen woman, country girl in over her head — and played them to the hilt, achieving artistic and financial heights few female performers have ever reached. By the time of her death, she was said to be one of the few things that Americans of most every persuasion could agree on.

One of the most honored musicians in modern history, Parton earned 10 Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, a Primetime Emmy, 10 Country Music Assn. awards, and in 1999 she was enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2005 President George W. Bush presented Parton with the National Medal of the Arts, and a year later she was given a Kennedy Center for the Arts Award for her lifetime contribution to the arts. Parton logged some 25 gold or platinum records and 25 No. 1 songs on the country chart. Parton also won a Liseberg Applause Award, the biggest prize in the theme park industry, for her fabled tourist attraction Dollywood.

Parton’s rags-to-riches tale reads like a classic country music story-song. But before it became mythical, it was only incredibly hard.

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tenn., in the Great Smoky Mountains, on Jan. 19, 1946. Her father was a tobacco sharecropper and she was the fourth of 12 children. In her autobiography, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,” Parton related how her parents were so poor they paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal.

Raised in a one-room cabin with no electricity, she listened to the Grand Ole Opry on a battery-powered radio. When she was 7 she started writing songs; a year later she picked up the guitar. At 10 she was singing on a Knoxville radio and TV program, “Cas Walker Farm & Home Hour.”

The Parton family was musical, and there were always banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars around the cabin. Her voice, a birdlike soprano with an animated trill, hadn’t changed much from her youth: “I sound like a little girl singing all these Lord-awful songs,” she told “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross in 2001.

On a Friday night in 1964, Parton became the first in her family to graduate from high school. The next afternoon she was on a bus heading for Nashville, targeting a career in country music.

Bob Hope gets an adjustment to his reindeer costume as he and Dolly Parton prepare to tape a 1988 Christmas special on a cruise ship docked in Miami.

(Kathy Willens / Associated Press)

Women had little real power in Nashville at the time, and though rural women were a growing part of the country music audience, they were marginalized as artists. Parton signed to the Monument label, but felt that they wanted a pop singer more than they wanted her. An early breakthrough came when singer Bill Phillips heard a demo version of her “Put It Off Until Tomorrow”; not only did he want to record the song, but he recorded it with Parton singing harmony on it. The song went to No. 6 on the country chart in 1966.

In 1967 she recorded Curly Putman’s “Dumb Blonde,” her first charting song as a singer and a savvy choice that spoke to her as both an image and as flesh and blood, as she sang:

Just because I’m blond
Don’t think I’m dumb
‘Cause this dumb blond ain’t nobody’s fool

Nashville noticed. That year, country music star Porter Wagoner was looking for a new “girl singer” for his popular TV show, after Norma Jean left. Parton got the gig, and for weeks, legend has it, was greeted by the studio audience shouting “Norma Jean” when Parton opened her mouth. It was the kind of challenge she lived for. Carefully deferential to the star, Parton carved out a foothold for herself.

They were a complicated team. Tall, gaunt and calculating, Wagoner’s angles had angles, but somehow standing next to her, his pompadour dwarfing her considerable bouffant, it worked. At their peak, they had a weekly TV viewership of over 3.5 million, and recorded numerous hit duets, “Holding on to Nothin” (1968), “If Teardrops Were Pennies” (1973) and “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” (1974) among them.

On her solo recordings at the time, Parton included a raft of songs about poor children in trouble. These gothic, occasionally autobiographical compositions, including “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy,” “Evening Shade,” “Daddy Come and Get Me” and “Down From Dover,” would have been more than enough to make her, if not a star, at least a country music legend. But the kind of attention even her lesser work with Wagoner enjoyed continued to elude her own material.

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers laugh together backstage at an April 2010 show honoring her “Islands in the Stream” singing partner.

(Rick Diamond / Getty Images)

By 1973, Parton realized that if she was going to be her own star she would have to be on her own. Wagoner fought and threatened, and finally, Parton wrote a song as a way to help him understand both her gratitude and her need for independence, “I Will Always Love You.” He liked the song, but it didn’t convince him. Wagoner sued her for $20 million over breach of contract and settled for $1 million.

But Parton had won her freedom, and she made the most of it. Her album from that year, “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was a reintroduction to her audience, an autobiographical cycle of songs telling the story of a singer leaving home to make it on Music Row. And in 1974, “Jolene” became her chart-topping breakthrough.

The title was the name of a red-haired, green-eyed young fan Parton met signing autographs, and the story of a woman begging a rival to leave her man alone. Parton said she made it up after discovering a bank teller had a crush on her husband. With a beveled chord progression and a haunting repetition of the name, it became perhaps her most requested song, and was covered by many, including the White Stripes, Candi Staton, Reba McEntire and Olivia Newton-John.

“I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be recognized, I wanted to be a star,” she explained. The last part was now coming into focus.

In 1976 she hosted a short-lived variety TV series, “Dolly!” Her name was her brand, and so, too, was her profile: the full bosom and tiny waist, platinum wig and baubles like sprinkles on an ice cream cone, 5 feet tall standing in five-inch heels. She was a disarming contradiction: manufactured and utterly sincere.

“A country girl’s idea of what glamour was,” she explained.

“I didn’t have any money to have stuff and I’ve often joked about it, but it’s the real truth that I patterned myself after what they considered the trash in our hometown.” She took shame and made it a flag, one big enough for all sorts of Americans to settle beneath.

Dolly Parton checks out an exhibit honoring her life and career at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in May 2025.

(Jason Kempin / Getty Images)

Building on her fame, in the mid-’70s Parton decided to reinvent herself by reaching beyond the confines of country music. She signed with L.A.-based talent manager Sandy Gallin, who had made Mac Davis a country crossover star and would soon work with Cher and Michael Jackson.

Parton laid off her longtime Traveling Family Band and sought out musicians and songs that were more purely pop. Hits that followed included “Here You Come Again” (No. 20 on the pop chart, 1977), “Heartbreaker” (No. 37, 1978) and duets with Kenny Rogers like “Islands in the Stream” (No. 1, 1983).

The pop move was muttered over and seen by gatekeepers as a rejection of Southern-based authenticity. It was the era of “Urban Cowboy” and purity was being policed. “I love country music. It’s my first love,” she told the SoHo News. “But it was confining. You can only go so far in a circle.”

The movie “9 to 5” from 1980 settled her broadening stardom; acting alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in a comedy about three office workers who get even with an abusive boss, Parton charmed viewers. It was her first acting role, and Roger Ebert called her “a natural born movie star.” She wrote and sang the movie’s theme song, which topped Billboard’s pop and country charts.

Dolly Parton and her “9 to 5” castmates Jane Fonda, left, and Lily Tomlin assemble at a 1980 news conference to promote the movie.

(Wally Fong / Associated Press)

Parton would go on to act in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982), “Rhinestone” (1984), “Steel Magnolias” (1989), the “Hannah Montana” TV series (she was Miley Cyrus’ godmother in real life too), and in many more films and TV shows. But her biggest cinematic moment came with a song she’d written years before; “I Will Always Love You” was sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” turning her air kiss to Porter Wagoner into a No. 1 hit for 14 weeks.

In the mid-1980s, Parton suffered a number of setbacks. She experienced depression. “I was just broken down,” she said later. In 1982, abdominal pain and bleeding forced her to cancel a tour, and in 1984 she had a partial hysterectomy. There were bouts of binge eating, and when she hit bottom she considered suicide. A series of conversations with God were instrumental in her recovery, Parton said.

Underscoring her connection to her origins while also illustrating how far she had gone, in 1986 she bought an old amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and reinvented it as Dollywood, a booming theme park, resort and theater. Other businesses included Sandollar Productions, a film and TV company. In the 1990s Parton formed her own label, Blue Eye Records.

Success meant she could settle into being Dolly. A trio of beloved bluegrass albums, “The Grass Is Blue,” “Little Sparrow” and “Halos & Horns,” around the turn of the millennium reestablished her as a performer with extensive roots in rural America. She recorded with everyone from Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Her 2019 cover of John Hiatt’s “Faith,” made with Swedish duo Galantis, topped the EDM charts.

She embraced her Christian and LGBTQ+ fans, and perhaps no American artist had more of each. Inclusivity mattered to Parton. She was an icon to the LGBTQ+ community. In 2002 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, Parton replaced the name Jolene with “drag queen” and sang her famous song as a roster of drag performers looked on.

Dolly Parton at the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2022.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

Just two years later, in 2004, the Library of Congress presented Parton with the since-retired “Living Legend Medal,” which sought to recognize those that made significant creative contributions to American life.

Singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile called Parton “an angel on my shoulder and also the devil on my other shoulder.”

“When I was 15 years old I read the back of Dolly Parton’s book when she became the first country artist ever to speak out in support of LGBTQ people. And I can tell you that as a queer kid from a small town, getting love from Dolly is second only to God.”

Parton has been honored in musical tributes by Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss and Shania Twain. “Jolene” became the subject of the short story “Jolene: A Life,” by E.L. Doctorow. In 2019 WNYC and Jad Abumrad presented “Dolly Parton’s America,” a nine-segment podcast devoted to, and with the cooperation of, Parton; it examined her persona and impact on American life.

That same year Netflix presented “Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings,” an anthology series in which each episode presents a fictional narrative built around a Parton song; the series features appearances by Kathleen Turner, Delta Burke and Melissa Leo.

Dolly Parton and President Carter embrace as First Lady Rosalynn Carter looks on before a White House luncheon in October 1979.

(Georges / Associated Press)

Her influence was so vast she has even been proposed as a field of academic study, and scrutinized in the 2018 academic study from Leigh H. Edwards, “Dolly Parton, Gender, and Country Music.”

She was married to the same man, Carl Thomas Dean, for over 50 years. They met on the day she arrived in Nashville in 1964, as she stood outside a laundromat. Parton and Dean were rarely seen in public together, and renewed vows in 2016. Dean died at age 82 in March 2025.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton said in a statement at the time. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”

Parton remained a source of interest and fascination, and though few if anyone could really claim to know her, many thought they did. As she once put it: “I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination.”