NFL fans seem to have mixed feelings about all the coverage Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship is getting across various sports broadcasts, but Thursday Night Football announcer Al Michaels is all for it.

“We love it, man,” Michaels told Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Related

Swift attended last week’s Thursday night game between Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos, once again making headlines for sharing a suite with Travis’ mother, Donna Kelce, and hugging Brittany Mahomes, wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“We had to be judicious,” Michaels told Kimmel about figuring out how best to address Swift’s presence on the Prime Video broadcast. “We had the game last Thursday night in Kansas City. We knew she’d be there. So how much do you show her? She’d been on twice, and football fans were going, ‘Enough.’ But we were praying she’d come into the booth and sing for us,” he said with a laugh.

Kimmel played a clip of Michaels fumbling his words while trying to describe Swift on the broadcast, as he settled on calling her Kelce’s “good buddy and girlfriend.”

“So is she his good buddy or his girlfriend, Al?” Kimmel said, ribbing the announcer. “You can’t be both!”

“You know, you’re doing a game like that, I know the Internet’s gonna blow up,” Michaels said. “Page Six is waiting for whatever I say. You know what I really wanted to say? ‘Fiancee.’ I didn’t because I figured Travis would beat me up at the end of the game. … Or [Swift] would have beat me up.”

In the end, Michaels and company wanted to make sure football came first in the broadcast. “It’s hard because people tune in to watch a football game,” he said. “I’m not doing Access Hollywood.”

Following Thursday’s game, Swift and Kelce confirmed their long-rumored relationship by attending the Saturday Night Live afterparty over the weekend hand-in-hand. (Find a full timeline of their relationship so far here.)

Watch Michaels’ Kimmel appearance below:

Carla Bley, leader of the free jazz movement, pianist and composer, has died following complications from brain cancer, according to The New York Times. She was 87 years old.

The Oakland, Calif., native and five-time Grammy nominee was born Karen Borg, and changed her name to Carla in 1957. She married jazz pianist Paul Bley that same year, and kept his last name even after the couple divorced in 1967. Throughout their marriage, the couple toured together and Paul Bley’s 1964 album Barrage featured Carla’s compositions entirely. 

Throughout her career, Bley released albums as a bandleader and collaborator. She’s had three albums hit the top 20 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart, with Carla’s Christmas Carols (in collaboration with Andy Sheppard and The Partyka Brass Quintet) peaking at No. 16 in 2009, Andando El Tiempo (in collaboration with Sheppard and Steve Swallow) peaking at No. 14 in 2019 and Trios (with Sheppard and Swallow) peaking at No. 19 in 2013. Two of her solo albums, Heavy Heart and The Very Big Carla Bley Band, peaked at No. 27 and 25 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums chart, respectively.

She was also prominent in the jazz music business, as she was involved in organizing the Jazz Composers Guild in 1964. She also founded record labels JCOA Records and the ECM-distributed Watt. She worked with Michael Mantler — whom she was married to until 1991 — to open the nonprofit New Music Distribution Service, which expanded JCOA, ECM and other labels to larger audiences.

Bley released her final album, a collaborative project with Sheppard and Swallow titled Life Goes On, in 2020.

She was also decorated with awards throughout her life, receiving the 1972 Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition. In 2015, she received the NEA Jazz Masters Award.

Gas prices are going down, down, down. Across Florida, gas prices dipped 15 cents a gallon this week from last, according to the AAA. In the Miami area, average prices … Click to Continue »
An expert in forensic pathology testified Monday in the ongoing trail of three Tacoma, Washington, police officers charged with the death of Manuel Ellis that Ellis likely would have lived … Click to Continue »
To safely fly Americans from Israel to Tampa on Sunday, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration partnered with a nonprofit that specializes in bringing U.S. citizens home from conflict zones around the … Click to Continue »
When Miami-Dade County Schools restricted Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem and other titles only to middle school students in a K-8 school, Lissette Fernandez, a parent, was “completely taken aback.” In … Click to Continue »

ITZY‘s latest mini album, Kill My Doubt, arrived in July and marked the K-pop stars’ fifth entry on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking on the all-genre tally at No. 23. After promoting the album in the United States in recent months, the quintet sat down with Billboard News to discuss what separates their most recent release from their other previous mini albums throughout the years.

“We talk about the confidence a lot, but this time, we talked about the darkness inside so we could love ourself because we defeated the darkness inside. I think it’s a big difference from [our] previous albums,” Ryujin told host Tetris Kelly.”

“Cake” was released as the lead single from the project and features each of the group members — Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna — enacting various larger-than-life scenarios like those featured in Netflix’s Squid Game and other shows with main character energy. (The track later peaked on Billboard’s Global Excl. U.S. chart at No. 194.)

“I love the story of the music video because it’s a little bit cute and it’s talking about the main character who never dies,” Ryujin explained.

Lia chimed in, adding, “the costumes made it very fun, it really went with our songs. And not only Squid Game … Korean dramas and Korean movies also appear, but I think for our global fans, Squid Game would be the most [recognizable].”

Elsewhere in the interview, the girls talk about attending KCON in Los Angeles, their current favorite television shows and what fun activities they got up to during their recent trip to the States.

Watch ITZY’s full Billboard News interview in the video above.

K-pop girl group ITZY shares what makes their latest EP, Kill My Doubt, different from their previous albums, what their favorite songs from the album are, how they are inspired by Korean dramas and their favorite ones, how they felt about performing at KCON this year, their future plans to tour the U.S. and more!

Chaeryeong:
Yesterday, we went to the bish … beach!

ITZY:
All in us. Hey, this is ITZY …

Lia:
… and this is …

ITZYL
… Billboard News.

Tetris Kelly:
Hey, it’s Tetris with Billboard News, and I’m hanging out with ITZY. Hi, ladies!

ITZY:
Hi!

Tetris Kelly:
Thank you for coming. I got to say congratulations. Kill My Doubt is the fifth album you guys have had on the Billboard 200. How did that feel?

Yeji:
Very thankful for our fans, MIDZY. Thank you so much.

Tetris Kelly:
Five albums in, and what made this album different than the ones prior?

Ryujin:
We talk about the confidence a lot, but this time, we talked about the darkness inside so we could love ourselves because we defeated the darkness inside. So I think [it] is a big difference from previous album.

Tetris Kelly:
That’s such a good message. What are some of your favorite tracks? I want to know — I’m sure everybody has a different opinion. So what’s your favorite track on the album?

Chaeryeong:
“Psychic lover.”

Ryujin:
Oh, I love that song too.

Yuna:
And mine is “Bratty.”

Yeji:
My pick is “None of My Business.”

Lia:
Mine’s also “None of My Business.”

Tetris Kelly:
Oh. Why is that one so personal to you? You think?

Lia:
From the first time I listened to it, I really liked the song. Like, the vibe of the song is very easy listening. It’s kind of a good song to drive and just listen to.

Watch the full interview above!

P!nk has postponed two shows on her just-launched Trustfall Tour due to “family medical issues,” the singer announced Monday (Oct. 16).

The two shows affected are Tuesday and Wednesday’s concerts in Tacoma, Washington.

Related

“I am so sorry to inform the Tacoma ticket holders that the two shows October 17 and October 18 (tomorrow and Wednesday) will be postponed,” P!nk wrote in a message shared to Instagram. “Live Nation are working on future dates to reschedule. Family medical issues require our immediate attention. I send everyone my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this has caused. I am sending nothing but love and health to all.”

P!nk is three dates into her Trustfall Tour, which launched in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday and had two dates in San Francisco over the weekend. The pop singer had just wrapped the North American leg of her Summer Carnival stadium tour, which has one rescheduled date remaining on Nov. 26 in Arlington, Texas — after she canceled a September show due to a sinus infection — and will pick back up in Australia and New Zealand in February.

According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Summer Carnival has so far grossed $257.6 million and sold 1.8 million tickets across 41 shows. Summer Carnival began with 19 shows in Europe, bringing in $106.8 million from 871,000 tickets, then arrived Stateside for a $150.7 million run in the U.S. and Canada, selling 914,000 tickets.

Her current tour is in support of her ninth studio album, Trustfall, which arrived Feb. 17 via RCA.

See P!nk’s Instagram message below:

At opening night of her Celebration Tour on Saturday night in London, Madonna proved that she still has all her life to live and all her love to give by covering Gloria Gaynor‘s disco classic “I Will Survive.”

Madonna took a moment during her first show to talk about the serious health scare that postponed the tour from its original planned start over the summer. She credited her children — Lourdes, 27; Rocco, 23; David, 18; Mercy, 17; and twins Stella and Estere, 11 — with pulling her through after her hospitalization for a bacterial infection in June.

Related

“I forgot five years of my life, or my death — I don’t really know where I was,” she said onstage at The O2 arena. “But the angels were protecting me, and my children were there. And my children always save me every time. If you want to know my secret and you want to know how I pulled through and survived, I thought, ‘I have to be there for my children. I have to survive for them.’”

Gaynor approved of Madonna performing her signature hit, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979.

“@Madonna congratulations on the launch of #TheCelebrationTour at @TheO2,” Gaynor shared via X on Sunday, alongside a video of Madonna’s cover. “So happy that you are in good health and ready to have a holiday with fans around the world! By the way, you have excellent taste in music!”

Madonna has two more dates (Oct. 17 and 18) remaining of her four-night stint in London before heading across Europe and returning to The O2 for two more shows on Dec. 5 and 6.

See Gaynor’s Madonna appreciation below: