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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘80s Music Icon Shares a ‘Highlight of My Life'
'80s Music Icon Shares a 'Highlight of My Life' originally appeared on Parade. has likely experienced several amazing moments since breaking out of the Los Angeles club scene in the '80s with The Bangles, and yet, the singer is calling one of her recent concert appearances 'a highlight of my life.' Hoffs, 66, took to Instagram on Friday, May 30, to share a clip from her recent appearance at the Beach Life Festival in Redondo Beach, Calif. In front of a massive crowd, Hoffs performed The Bangles 1989 No. 1 hit 'Eternal Flame.' 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 The clip also features video of Hoffs herself superimposed, adding commentary about the moment with a huge smile on her face and occasional laughs. 'This was a highlight of my life—to be able to walk out on the ramp and share such a special moment with the audience!' she wrote in the caption. 'I finally had the chance to do what I'd always dream of onstage!' reads text overlaid on the video prior to Hoffs beginning her commentary. 'I had thought that it was time to go back and then I didn't want to go back,' Hoffs said as she watched the video of herself on the ramp. She then rocked back-and-forth to the power ballad before she observed the crowd. 'Whoa! Look at all the people,' she added. At one point in the performance, Hoffs knelt and held the hand of one fan. That prompted her to comment, 'I wanted to hold everyone's hand.' As she successfully hit a high note during the song's crescendo, Hoffs held up her hands in victory. Fans in the comments on Instagram were there to give Hoffs their approval. 'Wow… you are so special and sweet. 😍,' wrote one. 'Protect this woman at all costs!' added another. 'Omg!!this is so beautiful and so moving!! Forever Eternal Flame dearest @susannahoffsofficial ❤️❤️,' a third fan wrote.'80s Music Icon Shares a 'Highlight of My Life' first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Why Clarkson's cracks about Scotland make him a bloody idiot
The expression "word salad" is often linked to disordered discourse. Eliot Higgins, who runs the investigative journalism outfit Bellingcat, has been discussing it, and seems to be on to something. We talk about living in the post-truth age. Indeed, we've transited through the post-truth age to the post-reality age where disparate groups share no common ground. The death of any shared reality reveals itself in thoughts and ideas – discourse – which seem truly bizarre, or disordered. We hear comments today that frankly would have seen you jeered from the public stage a decade ago. The disorder is a two-way street afflicting both left and right. No group is immune as the very nature of being in a group today – a hard-delineated political subset fixed around identity – means estrangement from all other groups. Estrangement causes derangement, perhaps. The left is guilty, certainly, though it's on the ascendant right where you'll find discourse that's truly disordered. Read more by Neil Mackay Among the left, it's primarily on the swivel-eyed fringes where you'll hear people claim that songs like Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles are acts of cultural appropriation, or that The Tempest subjects audiences to colonial trauma (in fact, if you've studied the play, it's more accurately interpreted as Shakespeare's critique of colonialism). On the right, though, grotesque exaggeration, thin-skinned fragility and wild demonisation of opponents is now commonplace. Check any internet message board – even computer game forums, for pity's sake – if you're in doubt. Both sides behave deleteriously towards democracy, but the greater danger lies firmly to the right. Given we now live in a world that's more ridiculous than sublime, it's unsurprising to find Jeremy Clarkson emerging as the zeitgeisty exemplar of disordered discourse. Clarkson, a newspaper commentator, chose to describe the SNP's scrapping of peak rail fares as 'communism'. Clarkson regularly boasts about his terrible A-level results, so history and political science were clearly not his strengths. In theory, communism heralds a workers' utopia. I struggle to see how tweaking train prices ushers in an era of universal brotherly love and income equality. In practice, communism involves marching your opponents into the gulag and shooting them in the head for thought-crime. I'm pretty sure this hasn't happened in Scotland. Evidently, blokey old Jeremy will say it's just the bantz. He's only having a larf, isn't he? Well, yes and no. Firstly, Clarkson is a commentator not a comedian. He can say what he wants, but maybe stand-up suits his talents better than journalism. Secondly, even Clarkson sometimes makes sensible points about sensible issues. So what he's doing with his absurd exaggerations is blurring the line between what's real and should be taken seriously and what's nonsense. He's telling us it doesn't matter if you make stuff up as everything you read is just garbage. At the risk of becoming a po-faced liberal misery, I'm not sure that's wise. Clarkson plays his part in disintegrating intelligent debate. He also comes across as a bloody idiot, frankly. I'm pretty old-fashioned in believing that language should be used in a way which at least attempts to reflect reality. He could have called the rail issue a middle-class bribe, mocked the SNP for constantly changing tack, and said it was all the biggest load of cobblers since the Elves and the Shoemaker. But communism? Surely, he just makes himself and his argument ridiculous? Disordered. And by doing so encourages his readers to be ridiculous and disordered. The more we do this, the more commentary becomes meaningless, the more we carpet bomb ways of speaking to each other intelligently. During the debate about short-term holiday lets in Scotland, an Airbnb host described licensing plans as a "pogrom". A pogrom is defined as the mass murder of Jews. They debased their own argument; they debased the meaning of pogrom. It disintegrated shared reality. Boris Johnson just called Keir Starmer the EU's 'orange ball-chewing gimp'. Funny? Yes. In the pub, I'd spit my pint out laughing. But when an ex-Prime Minister says this he's telling us: don't care about truth, we need no shared way of debating. Britain is a "police state", Johnson says. Why? Because a woman was jailed for inciting racial hatred after tweeting 'set fire to the hotels' following the Southport murders which sparked mass rioting. Police state? Or justice you disagree with? We hear the same in Scotland. The 'Gestapo' and 'Stasi' would arrest you in your home thanks to anti-smacking laws. Just say you want to beat your kids. Don't invoke totalitarianism. The new Pope, who appears politically centrist, has been dubbed a 'woke Marxist' by leading MAGA commentators. Boris Johnson, who said Britain is a police state (Image: PA) But then MAGA owns the disordered discourse crown. Evidently, nothing comes close to telling the entire world Haitian immigrants were eating people's pets. The same disordered thinking appears in extremist claims that all trans women are rapists, all refugees are economic con-artists, and any criticism of Israel is antisemitic. It's silencing. British talk-show host Kevin Sullivan said after this week's new EU deal: 'I like standing in the non-EU passport lines! I'm proud not to join the Brussels-gang losers.' I guess he means he hated the deal, but rather than say that he claims to like wasting his life in queues. Evidently, much of this is attention-seeking. Much is also motivated by the playground mentality of "owning the libs". Thus you get people attacking the "be kind brigade". Since when was being kind bad? I guess if you're disordered it is. This all creates a society incapable of intelligent conversation. In Scotland today every issue is a crisis. Remember when a bottle return scheme was going to bring the nation to its knees, even though other nations had the same scheme? I'm not saying the legislation was right, I'm just saying we could rediscover an ordered way of expressing ourselves. If you cannot talk to your neighbour, you will hate them, and that way hell lies. Neil Mackay is The Herald's Writer at Large. He's a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics.
USA Today
04-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Breaking down Ahmed Hassanein injury history and defensive edge review
Breaking down Ahmed Hassanein injury history and defensive edge review The Lions did not end up drafting a defensive end/edge player in the first three rounds like many (including me) had anticipated. It may not have been for lack of trying though as Brad Holmes post-draft stated he aggressively attempted to trade up about 30 times in round 2 and 3. The Lions finally picked up an edge in the 6th round who happens to be the only Egyptian ever selected in the NFL draft - Ahmed Hassanein. Here is my analysis of his medical history along with the rundown of the other key edge players. (Age at start of 2025 season) Ahmed Hassanein (23) - signed through 2028 2024 In final game, was playing through a suspected right ankle injury. Played all 14 games. 2023 Played all 14 games. Shoulder labrum surgery after the season. 2022 Played 12 of 14 games. Unspecified injury caused 1 missed game. 2021 Played 9 of 12 games. Regarding his shoulder surgery, Hassanein has a full season of proof of recovery which is reassuring. It is something to monitor going forward though. Regarding his suspected ankle issue in his final college game, circumstantial evidence on video suggests that he tweaked a pre-existing right low ankle sprain. In reviewing the tape, I didn't find any significant mechanism of injury and his right ankle was already taped up at the start of the game. He was able to tough it out the entire game and then participate a month later in the East-West Shrine Bowl practices, so it wasn't too serious and there is proof of recovery. Hassanein should enter his rookie year healthy and ready to produce. When you look at the rest of the group listed below, you'll see that the two starters are coming off significant injuries, the depth has much to prove, and there is no long-term player beyond Aidan Hutchinson. All these factors means that Hassanein has an excellent opportunity to make an impact his rookie season and become a core edge player for many years beyond. Forty years after The Bangles inspired the world to 'Walk Like an Egyptian", maybe Hassanein can inspire the world to "Sack Like an Egyptian". Aidan Hutchinson (25) - team control through 2026 October 13, 2024: Left tibia/fibula fracture Hutchinson lately has been posting very promising videos of his rehab. I expect him to be a full-go physically by training camp. From a mental standpoint, there may be a confidence hurdle to overcome early in the season which could affect his aggressiveness. It's also possible he will take time to tweak his technique to minimize the leg-whip mechanism. Marcus Davenport (29) - signed through 2025 September 22, 2024: Left triceps tear The past two seasons have not gone well for Davenport due to a triceps rupture and a high ankle sprain. He only played in two games last year and four games the year prior. The Lions re-signed him to a 1-year, incentive-laden, prove-it deal. Hopefully, he can bounce back from the past two seasons and indeed prove his reliability. Josh Paschal (25) - signed through 2025 Paschal has a remarkable medical history but is healthy going into the last year of his rookie contract. He has been solid albeit unspectacular with just 5 sacks in his first three seasons. The hope is he can take a big step forward this contract year. Al-Quadin Muhammad (30) - signed through 2025 Muhammad joined the Lions last season and was moderately productive with three sacks in ten games. While he enters next season healthy, the main concern might be his six game suspension in 2023 for performance-enhancing substances. Any further positive tests could result in a 2-year suspension. Mitchell Agude (26) - signed through 2025 then ERFA (exclusive rights free agent) After spending most of last season on the practice squad, Agude played in four games towards the end and enters next season healthy. However, a severe head injury at age nine could become relevant if he has any future concussions. Isaac Ukwu (26) - signed through 2025 then ERFA 2020 ACL 2019 ACL (other side), MCL, and meniscus tear As an undrafted rookie, Ukwu only appeared in two games last season and should be healthy going into next. He does have a history of significant injuries to both knees which is something to keep in mind.
Extra.ie
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
35 years ago: Sinéad O'Connor hit No.1 in the US with Nothing Compares 2 U
This week 35 years ago, Sinéad O'Connor kicked off a four-week run at No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart with her iconic rendition of the Prince-penned track 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The single, which featured on Sinéad's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, topped charts around the world and has since been listed among the greatest songs of all time. To mark its anniversary, we're looking back at some special Hot Press reflections on 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. Over the years, Prince provided several memorable hits for other artists, including Manic Monday for The Bangles and Nasty Girl for Vanity 6. Perhaps the most iconic of all, however, was Nothing Compares 2 U, which became a career-defining smash for the extraordinary Sinéad O'Connor. Originally an obscure soul ballad tucked away on an album by funk group The Family, O'Connor and Bristolian trip-hop pioneer Nellee Hooper gave the track a dramatic new arrangement, topped off by O'Connor's epic, heart-wrenching vocals. Niall Stokes on 'Nothing Compares 2 U' published in Hot Press in July 2023, as part of a tribute to Sinad O'Connor: 1990. A week into the new year, Chrysalis released the headline single from Sinéad's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, her version of Prince's song, 'Nothing Compares 2 U.' The accompanying video was a masterstroke. Shot by John Maybury, it consists almost entirely of a close-up ofSinéad'ss face. As she navigates the song and delivers the lyrics, the emotional shifts are visible in the young singer's baleful expression. And then she hits the opening lines of the final verse. All the flowers you planted, Mama, she sang, In the back yard / All died when you went away…Sinéad would later say that singing the word Mama had reminded her of her own mother, who had died in a car accident early in 1985. That caused a tear to flow down one cheek. The camera didn't flinch. As the song neared its climax, a second tear flowed down the other cheek. It was a moment of accidental pop profundity, a marriage of music and video that achieved a riveting impact on what was, suddenly, the ultimate break-up song. The video captured the imagination, especially among the emerging generation of young women, catapulting the single to the top of the charts worldwide. Sinéad O'Connor was the hottest star on the planet. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got followed, going to No.1 in almost 20 countries and selling over 2 million copies in the US alone. Sinad O'Connor on 'Nothing Compares 2 U' originally published in Hot Press in 2000: I still get told that the video for Nothing Compares 2 U is a landmark in videomaking, that it still stands up. Which is amazing and quite funny, because the concepts we had for it were not remotely what happened in the end. What happened was that during one of the setups, we originally had about 15, and all the emotion of the song kind of came up for me. All the associations I had, and all the things I'd been thinking about, that linked me with the song, suddenly came together at once. Cos, you know, I guess I'm the sort of performer where the stuff I do is quite emotional and all. I only sing songs that mean something to me personally. I'm not really, if you like, an Ooh, baby baby kind of singer. So I was sitting there, doing this one shot, and suddenly all the emotion of it occurred to me, and I couldn't help having a little cry for a minute. And in the end, when they looked at the rushes, they decided to just go with that one shot, which had never been done before. But it wasn't in the plan. Mind you, it wasn't in the plan to be crying, either. An extract from the late Bill Graham's review of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got for Hot Press (1990): …the magnificent 'Nothing Compares 2 U' will endure long past most pop hits' natural radio shelf-life exactly because this song of supplication also so acutely conveys an undercurrent of sulky defiance in its confrontation of love love. I've already heard it sung on the last bus, and that's the ultimate compliment…
Gulf Today
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Why a popular, all-female pop rock band broke up
In the autumn of 1989, and just six months after their irrepressibly pretty 'Eternal Flame' had hit the top of the charts the world over, The Bangles imploded. It had been an intense run. Three years earlier, they'd reached No 1 with the novelty smash 'Walk Like an Egyptian'. A year before that, Prince had jammed with the jangle-pop unknowns on stage in an LA nightclub and offered them a song he thought they might like — 'Manic Monday'. Why The Bangles broke up has been subject to debate. Was it the result of an ambitious member with her eye on solo stardom? Or was their management a set of nefarious businessmen who'd divided, conquered and destroyed one of the most significant bands in modern American history? That might have been it. Or maybe The Bangles began fraying much earlier, the inevitable finale for a group whose most famous tracks were sonically at odds with their initial punk-rock leanings. Perhaps, even, it was all to do with their name. Because of a potential lawsuit from a pre-existing band, The Bangs — loud, made-you-look, not rigidly gendered — became the softer, more overtly feminine The Bangles. The writing may have been on the wall from there. Eternal Flame, a new biography cum oral history of the group by the music journalist and cultural historian Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, does not provide an easy answer to the demise of The Bangles – but therein lies its unexpected thrill. The same incidents are recalled in different ways. Three members of the band's lineup – Susanna Hoffs and sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson, who all shared vocals while playing different instruments – contribute separately, celebrating their incredible highs and often disagreeing on their most destructive lows. Producers, songwriters and friends including Boy George and Terence Trent D'Arby supply their two cents. 'There are multiple unreliable narrators in the book,' explains Hoffs today from her home in Los Angeles. (She was that aforementioned member with eyes on solo stardom... or not.) 'Even within the band, everyone has their own point of view. Vicki and Debbi had one way they saw things. I had mine. [Bassist] Michael Steele had hers. I suppose that's what makes it interesting.' For Bickerdike, an early Bangles superfan, her book felt essential. 'The group showed me that you could be totally gorgeous, smart, talented and in control,' she remembers. 'And I asked myself, 'why is there no book on this band that meant so much to me and to other women?'' She corrects herself. 'And not just to other women — The Bangles showed men what women could be.' But the story of The Bangles — as told by its key members — was a lot messier than she had anticipated, serving as a microcosm not just of how the music industry chews up and spits out its talent, but also of the heated interpersonal dynamics of pop groups that attain unimaginable success, then splinter. 'This was the Eighties, and everything was changing,' Vicki recalls. 'As a band, we were (representing) complete and utter freedom, liberation and power.' She chews it over. 'And yet... did we really have those things? There were things we thought were happening, and then this subtext underneath being decided behind closed doors, and mostly by men in suits.' The early days, at least, were blissful. The Petersons grew up in California's San Fernando Valley, raised on a diet of The Beatles, The Mamas & the Papas and The Beach Boys, bands that fused rock and roll with sunny, melodious harmonies. They were determined to start up a band themselves, later recruiting LA native — and fellow Beatles fan — Hoffs via an ad in The Recycler, a Los Angeles newspaper that played a part in forming all sorts of bands from Guns N' Roses and Metallica to Hole. Steele, who'd played with Joan Jett in The Runaways, would join later.
