Entertainment Shorts

Ariana Grande announces new album arriving in 2024

Thank you, next: On Wednesday, Ariana Grande announced that she will release a new album in 2024.

The two-time Grammy award winner teased the future full-length album on her Instagram page. It will be her seventh studio album and first since 2020’s Positions.

“See you next year,” she wrote in the caption of the Instagram post, which included images in a studio and in front of a mixing board, and a video where someone off screen tells her it is “almost the last day of this album.” Grande responds, “I’m so tired,” and laughs. “But so happy and grateful. I also feel like I weigh 3,000 tons.”

On her Instagram story, she shared a screenshot captured from FaceTime with the text, “The two moods of the album.”

She also shared posts from fans who received packages from her in the mail containing red lipstick from her R.E.M. Beauty line and a note that also read, “See you next year.”

The announcement arrives a few weeks after news broke that Ariana Grande signed to Good World Management firm, following her split with long-term manager Scooter Braun.

The new album will also be her first since her marriage and subsequent separation from real estate agent Dalton Gomez.

A representative for Republic Records did not immediately return AP’s request for confirmation.

Shakira’s hometown unveils giant statue of the beloved Colombian star

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP):

Pop star Shakira was immortalised in her Colombian hometown of Barranquilla, where officials unveiled a giant bronze statue of the music diva known around the world for her catchy tunes and exhilarating moves.

The six-metre (20-feet) tall monument depicts the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner in one of her famous belly dancing outfits, with her hips swaying to her right and her arms raised gracefully toward the sky.

A plaque under the statue says that on February 2, 1977, the town of “Barranquilla and the world witnessed the birth of a heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, a voice that moves masses and a pair of bare feet that walk for the good of children and humanity.”

The statue, located on a recently built promenade along the Magdalena River that runs along the edge of the town, was unveiled in a small ceremony on Tuesday attended by Shakira’s parents and the mayor, Jaime Pumarejo.

However, the bronze giant is not the town’s first Shakira statue. In 2006, Barranquilla unveiled a Shakira monument that depicts the pop star in her early days, playing an acoustic guitar and wearing jeans and boots. That statues stands near the entrance of the local soccer stadium.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Shakira thanked sculptor Yino Marquez and his students at Barranquilla’s public art academy for the latest statue, which she described as proof of the “enormous talent” of Barranquilla’s citizens.

The Colombian pop star won three Latin Grammys earlier this year, and also made headlines in January, when she published a fiery rap song about her ex-partner that broke YouTube records.

She also settled a tax-fraud case in Spain with a US$7.5 million dollar payment this year, and recently moved to Miami with her two children.

Pierce Brosnan accused of trespassing in a Yellowstone thermal area

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP):

Pierce Brosnan, whose fictitious movie character James Bond has been in hot water plenty of times, is now facing heat in real life, charged with stepping out of bounds in a thermal area during a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park.

Brosnan walked in an off-limits area at Mammoth Terraces, in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana line, on November 1, according to two federal citations issued Tuesday.

Brosnan, 70, is scheduled for a mandatory court appearance on January 23 in the courtroom of the world’s oldest national park. The Associated Press sent a request for comment to his Instagram account Thursday.

Yellowstone officials declined to comment. Brosnan was in the park on a personal visit and not for film work, the US Attorney’s Office for Wyoming said.

Mammoth Terraces is a scenic spot of mineral-encrusted hot springs bubbling from a hillside. They’re just some of the park’s hundreds of thermal features, which range from spouting geysers to gurgling mud pots, with water at or near the boiling point.

Going out-of-bounds in such areas can be dangerous: Some of the millions of people who visit Yellowstone each year get badly burned by ignoring warnings not to stray off the trail.

Getting caught can bring legal peril too, with jail time, hefty fines and bans from the park handed down to trespassers regularly.

In addition to his four James Bond films, Brosnan starred in the 1980s TV series Remington Steele and is known for starring roles in the films Mrs Doubtfire and The Thomas Crown Affair.

Heat exhaustion killed Taylor Swift fan attending Rio concert

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP):

Heat exhaustion is the cause of death of a Brazilian fan who attended a concert of singer Taylor Swift in November, a forensics report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday shows.

Ana Clara Benevides, 23, passed out during Swift’s second song in the November 17 concert in Rio de Janeiro, Cruel Summer, and died hours later at a local hospital. Temperatures in the city that day were at about 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit).

Fans lined up for hours before the show, and many accused organisers of failing to deliver enough water supplies for the more than 60,000 attending the concert at the Nilton Santos Stadium. They said they were not allowed to take their own water into the stadium.

The report by Rio’s Forensic Medical Institute said Benevides’ heat exposure led to a cardiorespiratory arrest. It also said she did not have preexisting conditions or substance abuse that could have led to her death.

The forensics expert who analysed her body said in the document she had “serious compromise of her lungs and sudden death” due to the heat.

One of Benevides’ friends, who also attended the concert, told local media outlets in November they had been given water while waiting to enter the stadium.

Organisers T4F said in a statement the company “followed the best practices,” complied with “every demand from authorities” and “distributed thousands of bottles of water” to fans. TF4 also denied it did not allow people to bring their own water to the concert.

The office of Rio’s public prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation. Rio police said in a statement on Wednesday that after the forensics report is analysed “representatives of the company organising the event will be called to testify.”