You Can Take Shawn Mendes or Dolly Parton on Your Walk With New Apple Fitness+ Feature

You can take a leisurely stroll while Shawn Mendes and Dolly Parton take you down a memory lane of their most meaningful moments with the latest Apple Fitness+ feature Time to Walk.

The new audio walking experience allows Apple Watch for Fitness+ subscribers to feel like they’re walking (virtually) alongside their favorite stars, who share their most personal moments in episodes they narrated from relevant locations or while walking outdoors. Mendes, Parton, NBA player Draymond Green and Emmy-winning actress Uzo Aduba guest host the first four episodes, which were released Monday (Jan. 25).

Episodes ranging from 25 to 40 minutes will appear on the Workout App every Monday until the end of April. The weekly episodes will also flash photos on the Apple Watch that are synced with the guest host’s storytelling and will include short playlists of their motivational and inspirational songs.

“I’ve loved walking ever since I was a little girl in the Smoky Mountains,” Parton said in the official Apple press release. “I think it’s so important to be able to get out and walk if we can during this time. I do my best thinking when I walk. And while many of us feel confined during this time, I’m hopeful that people will take a walk down memory lane with me and we can all feel a little more freedom taking the time to walk together.”

“Taking a walk is a great way to clear your mind,” Mendes said in the release. “It’s the most simple thing you can do to calm the body and soul, reflect, and slow down. I hope people get to feel the same sense of calm I do while walking and can bring that to their own experiences.”

Fitness+ subscribers can enjoy Time to Walk episodes on their Apple Watch with AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones. New episodes will automatically appear on the Workout app on Apple Watch and on the Fitness+ tab in the Fitness app on the iPhone. Apple Watch users who use a wheelchair will have access to Time to Push, which automatically starts an Outdoor Wheelchair Walk Pace workout.

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Which Country Act Should Get Kennedy Center Honors After Garth Brooks? Vote!

Garth Brooks is the ninth country act (and youngest country act) to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. But who else in the genre is worthy of this distinction and hasn’t gotten it yet?

Billboard awards editor Paul Grein named 16 artists who have been voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame but have yet to receive Kennedy Center Honors: Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, The Everly Brothers, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, The Statler Brothers, George Strait, Randy Travis and Hank Williams Jr.

Out of the nine country acts honored by the Kennedy Center so far, no country groups or duos have made the list. Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, The Statler Brothers and The Oak Ridge Boys are likely vying to become the first. Since the Kennedy Center rarely honors artists posthumously, late country legends Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers and Charlie Daniels, who all died in 2020, might not make the cut.

So which top country star should be up next to receive the Kennedy Center Honors? Vote below!

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Here’s what Venezuelans who want to stay in the U.S. need to know about deferred deportation

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Florida reports 9,535 new COVID cases and more than 155,000 people fully vaccinated

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Tacoma police officer under investigation after driving SUV through crowd

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SZA Says She’ll Ask Frank Ocean to Feature on ‘Good Days’

Someone put forth into the world the idea of Frank Ocean joining SZA on “Good Days,” and SZA is all about it.

“Good days by SZA ft. Frank ocean would literally cure corona,” a Twitter user wrote recently.

SZA shared that tweet and a response in a now-expired post on Instagram Stories on Saturday (Jan. 23).

“Imma ask lol,” she wrote.

While there’s no update as of Sunday, fans of both artists have already started daydreaming about a “Good Days” remix.

“Ok but the frank ocean remix….let’s talk,” one person wrote to SZA on Twitter.

Another tweeted: “If Sza really gets frank ocean on the good days remix my soul will quite literally leave my body.”

“sza and frank ocean are both scorpios so if they do collab i know it’s gonna hit emotionally and i’m gonna cry for days,” wrote another fan.

“The day Frank Ocean hops on Good Days by SZA is the day I pass away peacefully,” another person joked.

See some of the reactions, and enjoy SZA’s “Good Days” again, below.

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Miley Cyrus to Perform at ‘TikTok Tailgate’ Super Bowl Pre-Show for Vaccinated Health Care Workers

The NFL invited 7,500 “health care heroes” who have already received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Super Bowl. Those essential workers will get to see the game and the already announced festivities, and they’ll also get to experience seeing Miley Cyrus perform live.

Cyrus will be at the the Super Bowl for the TikTok Tailgate pre-show, where she’ll perform in honor of these special guests.

“SUPER BOWL LV!!!” Cyrus wrote on Instagram on Sunday (Jan. 24). “I’ll be there for TIKTOK TAILGATE!!! I can’t wait to put on a show for the NFL’s honored guests before the game…. Health care workers from Tampa and around the country!”

The official NFL Twitter account gave some more context for the event: “@mileycyrus will be at Super Bowl LV to perform at the first-ever #TikTokTailgate – the NFL’s pregame event for the 7,500 vaccinated health care heroes who have been invited to attend.”

“These dedicated health care workers continue to put their own lives at risk to serve others, and we owe them our ongoing gratitude,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement about giving Super Bowl tickets to people working in health care during the pandemic. “We hope in a small way that this initiative will inspire our country and recognize these true American heroes. This is also an opportunity to promote the importance of vaccination and appropriate health practices, including wearing masks in public settings.”

The TikTok Tailgate can be watched on Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m. ET, either on TikTok or CBS.

It was previously announced that H.E.R. will perform “America the Beautiful” and Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church will sing the National Anthem at this year’s kick-off show at 6 p.m. ET. The Weeknd is the headline performer of the 2021 Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.

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Morgan Wallen’s ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’ No. 1 for Second Week on Billboard 200

Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album spends a second straight week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 159,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 21 (down 40%), according to MRC Data. The album arrived atop the list a week ago with 265,000 units.

Dangerous is the first country album to spend two weeks in a row at No. 1 since Chris Stapleton’s Traveller in 2015 (charts dated Nov. 21-28 that year), and the first country set to spend its first two weeks at No. 1 since Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights that year (Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 2015). Traveller debuted on the chart dated May 23, 2015 at No. 14, and was off the chart by October. It then re-entered at No. 1 on Nov. 21, 2015, after Stapleton’s multiple wins and well-received performance on the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 4.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 30, 2021-dated chart (where Dangerous holds at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Jan. 26. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Dangerous’ 159,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending Jan. 21, SEA units comprise 133,000 (down 26%, equaling 177.11 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), album sales comprise 22,000 (down 70%) and TEA units comprise 4,000 (down 39%).

Since the Billboard 200 began ranking albums by equivalent album units in December of 2014, Dangerous is the first country set to log two weeks of at least 150,000 units.

Notably, in the last 12 months, Dangerous is just the fourth album, among all genres, to log at least two weeks of 150,000-plus units. It follows Taylor Swift’s Evermore, Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die and Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake — all with two weeks each of 150,000-plus units.

Pop Smoke’s former No. 1 Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon rises 3-2 on the new Billboard 200 with 47,000 equivalent album units earned (up less than 1%). In the album’s 29 weeks on the chart, it has been absent from the top 10 for only one week (Jan. 2-dated chart, No. 11).

Why Don’t We nets a career-high chart rank as the group’s latest album The Good Times and the Bad Ones bows at No. 3. The set starts with 46,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 38,000 comprise album sales (making it the top-selling album of the week), 7,500 comprise SEA units (equating to 11.34 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs) and a little under 500 comprise TEA units.

Why Don’t We’s previous high on the Billboard 200 came with the quintet’s last album, 8 Letters, which debuted and peaked at No. 9 on the Sept. 15, 2018-dated chart.

The new album was led by the single “Fallin’,” which marked the act’s first Billboard Hot 100 hit, when it peaked at No. 37 on the Oct. 17, 2020, list. The track also marked the group’s fifth hit on the Pop Airplay chart, reaching No. 22 in November.

Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Evermore dips 2-4 on the new Billboard 200 (41,000 equivalent album units earned; down 26%) and Ariana Grande’s previous leader Positions climbs 7-5 (39,000; up 17%).

As Republic Records is the distributing label for Dangerous, Shoot for the Stars …, Evermore and Positions, the company has four of the top five albums of the week. It’s the first time a label has claimed four-fifths of the top five since Republic itself did it on the Sept. 1, 2018-dated chart.

Lil Durk’s The Voice falls 5-6 on the new Billboard 200 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned (down 11%). Eminem’s former No. 1 Music to Be Murdered By jumps 19-7 with 33,000 units (up 51%) following the Jan. 15 release of the album’s deluxe reissue on CD. The deluxe edition, dubbed Music to Be Murdered By – Side B, added extra tracks to the year-old album and first dropped on digital retail and streamers on Dec. 18, 2020. A vinyl release of the deluxe package is due in August. (All versions of the album are tracked together on the chart.)

A trio of former No. 1s closes out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200, as The Weeknd’s After Hours falls 6-8 (33,000 equivalent album units; down 6%), Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die is steady at No. 9 (32,000; up 3%) and Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get descends 8-10 (just under 32,000; up 1%).

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