When Vanessa Williams hosts this year’s televised Capitol Fourth celebration, she will not only honor the nation’s traditional independence day, but also the country’s newly designated holiday: Juneteenth.

Williams, who was the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America, will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has served as the Black National Anthem.

“It’s in celebration of the wonderful opportunity that we now have to celebrate Juneteenth. So we are reflective of the times,” she told the Associated Press on Thursday while promoting this year’s show.

Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves and has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States. It was made a federal holiday this year.

A Capitol Fourth is marking 41 years on the air. The show is broadcast to millions of viewers on PBS and streaming platforms as well as troops around the globe.

Williams serves as host this year but it’s not be the first time that she‘s brought current social changes to the festivities. At last year’s show, Williams said her musical selections expressed the angst that Black women — especially mothers — were feeling.

She sang the Stephen Sondheim song, “Not While I’m Around,” from his musical Sweeney Todd, an attempt to communicate what she was feeling as the mother of a Black son.

The song “talked about just the connection that you have with your child and wanting to protect them, which was definitely reflective of George Floyd and how everybody felt that pain,” Williams said.

Another Sondheim song, “Somewhere” from West Side Story, conjured the dream of hope for a better world. “It’s a big epic idea about there’s a place for us somewhere,” Williams said. “Peace and quiet and open air, we’ll get there someday. So, I got a chance to address that last year.”

Williams has been no stranger to the annual show, having performed or co-hosted numerous times since 2005. She recalled her first duet partner was Elmo. “So, this year, Kermit is going to be doing a couple of songs with me as I host. And, of course, I’ll be singing.”

While COVID restrictions have recently eased up, the show will still respect social distancing. None of the performances will be live on the West Lawn as they were in previous years. “Performers will be remote in New York and California, Nashville, all over the place,” Williams said,

This year’s lineup will include Broadway phenoms like Cynthia Erivo, Christopher Jackson and Laura Osnes. R&B legend Gladys Knight, country stars Alan Jackson and Jennifer Nettles, and the iconic Jimmy Buffett.

And then there are a few guests that are out of this world — literally. “We have three of our astronauts that are up in the space station that will be giving us a special message for the Fourth of July” Williams said.

A Capitol Fourth airs Sunday (July 4) at 8 p.m. ET/PT on PBS.

Legendary bassist George Porter Jr. has released the video for “Crying for Hope,” a powerful anthem that combines the signature sound of Porter’s iconic funk group The Meters with a message of  resistance and urgency for 2021.

The New Orleans funk master and Meters founding member released the title track for his 2021 album on March 26 via Controlled Substance Sounds Labs and Color Red. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, named one of the 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone, is continuing to keep his message of struggle, perseverance, comfort and rejuvenation at the forefront of a movement driven by a belief that music is the ultimate requital and The Meters’ pioneering funk sound is the rhythm that fuels the march toward change, one beat at a time.

Crying for Hope was recorded with the Runnin’ Pardners, spearheaded by Porter on bass and vocals, Terrence Houston on drums, Michael Lemmler on keyboards and Chris Adkins on guitar. The album was recorded  virtually from home studios and sessions at Ora’s Third Floor Sound Lab.

Check out the video for “Crying for Hope” below and click here for streaming and physical copies of the album.

Four days after Jamie Lynn Spears spoke out in support of her big sister Britney Spears, she’s pleading with people to stop sending her family death threats.

“Hi, I respect that everyone has the right to express themselves, but can we please stop with the death threats, especially the death threats to children,” she wrote in a short note on her Instagram Story with her initials “JLS.”

Jamie has two daughters, Maddie Briann Aldridge, 13, and Ivey Joan Watson, 3.

In an emotional Instagram Story video on Monday, days after her big sister’s powerful testimony, the 30-year-old actress addressed her highly criticized silence on Britney’s conservatorship, which gave their father Jamie Spears control over Britney’s life and career for the last 13 years.

“I think it’s extremely clear that since the day I was born that I’ve only loved adored and supported my sister. This is my freakin’ big sister before any of this bulls—,” the Zoey 101 star said in her video from June 28, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’ve made a very conscious choice in my life to only participate in her life as her sister. Maybe I didn’t support her the way the public would like me to with a hashtag on a public platform. But I can assure I have supported my sister long before there was a hashtag, and I’ll support her long after…. I’m not my family — I’m my own person. I’m speaking for myself. I’m so proud of her for using her voice.”

During Britney’s first public testimony since her conservatorship began more than a decade ago, the 39-year-old singer expressed her desire to end the conservatorship to Judge Brenda Penny and went into painstaking detail about the level of control she’s under. She also argued how her family and management has been taking advantage of her for years and exploiting her situation for their own financial gain.

“I would honestly like to sue my family, to be totally honest with you. I also would like to be able to share my story with the world, and what they did to me, instead of it being a hush-hush secret to benefit all of them. I want to be able to be heard on what they did to me by making me keep this in for so long, is not good for my heart,” the pop icon told the judge. “I’ve been so angry and I cry every day, it concerns me, I’m told I’m not allowed to expose the people who did this to me.”

Yale University has announced it is eliminating tuition for its drama students thanks to a $150 million gift from entertainment magnate David Geffen.

The gift to what is being renamed the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is believed to be the “largest on record in the history of the American theater,” the school said in a news release Wednesday.

It will allow the drama school to eliminate tuition for all degree and certificate programs, the university said.

“David Geffen’s visionary generosity ensures that artists of extraordinary potential from all socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to cultivate their talent at Yale,” Yale President Peter Salovey said.

Geffen is best known for founding Asylum Records, Geffen Records, Geffen Pictures and co-founding the film studio DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

His relationship with Yale dates back to the 1978-79 academic year when he led a semester-long seminar on the music industry.

“Yale already provides some of the best professional training available to actors, writers, directors, designers and theater managers from diverse backgrounds,” Geffen said in a statement. “Removing the tuition barrier will allow an even greater diversity of talented people to develop and hone their skills in front of, on, and behind Yale’s stages.”

He added that he hopes the gift will inspire others to join him in making advanced arts and theater education accessible and affordable to all students.

Theater studies at Yale began in 1925 and graduates of its drama school include actors such as Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand, Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti.

Salovey said Yale is also committed to pursuing additional fundraising for the school, with plans to build a state-of-the-art facility for theater education and production.