Grammy Chief Responds to The Weeknd’s Claims of ‘Corruption’ in Nominating Process

Not many people feel the heat in the Arctic Circle.

Boris Johnson has promised the toughest UK response to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

Renfrewshire awoke to a blanket of snow this morning as overnight flurries left a carpet of the white stuff across the area.

New Saints boss Stephen Robinson revealed he’s delighted to be back on Scottish soil again.

We're back on the courses to follow the live action as it happens from Huntingdon and Sedgefield over the jumps as the countdown to the Cheltenham Festival continues.

Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus games for March and they include Ark: Survival Evolved, Ghost Of Tsushima: Legends and two more titles.In a blog post on the PlayStation site, the games were unveiled. All games will be available to download from Tuesday, March 1 and can be downloaded and added to your library until Monday, April 4. The games include Ghostrunner, Team Sonic Racing, Ark: Survival Evolved, and Ghost Of Tsushima: Legends.Ark: Survival Evolved is a MMO survival game.

Kate Garraway released her new documentary Kate Garraway: Caring for Derek on Tuesday as a follow-up to Finding Derek, which aired last year. Her former GMB colleague Piers Morgan could be seen rallying behind her on Twitter yesterday. Kate, 54, left viewers in tears once again as she gave them a startlingly honest glimpse into the realities of being a carer. Her new documentary, Kate Garraway: Caring for Derek, provides insight into her family as they come to terms with their husband and father’s condition. Derek, 54, caught Covid in March 2020 and was put into an induced coma by doctors, spending a total of 374 days in hospital.Kate has kept the public up-to-date with Derek’s condition ever since he was struck down with the virus. She won a National Television Award last year for Finding Derek, which documented her family’s struggles during her husband’s 13 months in hospital.Derek, who did not return home for over a year, has since admitted that the debilitating nature of his continued illness has left him feeling suicidal at times.Since then, he has received specialist treatment at a clinic in Monterrey, Mexico, with the hope that it could make a long-term difference to his condition. Piers, 56, tweeted out a message of support in view of his 7.9 million followers yesterday.“This was such unbelievably heart-rending television,” the journalist wrote.“Keep battling, Kate - you and your remarkable family are a towering testament to the power of stoicism, courage & never-give-up spirit in the face of appalling adversity.

This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby has "rallied around" her best pal and co-host Phillip Schofield amid his feud with Eamonn Holmes.The silver-haired Oldham-born star, 59, was called out by Irish native Eamonn, 62, in a recent interview, where he hit out at him for "snubbing" his wife, Loose Women host Ruth Langsford, on TV three years ago.Following the harsh words from Eamonn, Holly is reportedly now supporting her co-star more than ever.A source claimed: "Phil's This Morning family are rallying around him after the comments, none more so than Holly."It's no secret there is no love lost between Phil and Eamonn but Holly felt she had to defend her 'work husband' after all the support he's shown her over the years, particularly on the week he celebrated 40 years in showbiz," they added to OK! Magazine."She thought the comments were very below the belt," the source added.The feud comes after Eamonn's recent interview which saw him take issue with Phillip over an on-air exchange with Ruth.Eamonn spoke to the Daily Mail's Weekend Magazine on Saturday about the moment when Phillip seemingly cut his wife Ruth Langsford off while she was talking to ITV viewers in 2019.Addressing the moment, he said: "Phillip is renowned for snubbing people."It's up to Ruth to say how she felt, but I was feeling hurt for her."No one would have snubbed me like that," he added.Eamonn went on: "I have a good Belfast street fighter in me… I would be direct."I don't go for presenters who think they have a special privilege or aura or influence."At the time, Express.co.uk contacted Phillip's representatives for comment.On the ITV show three years ago, Phillip and Holly cut to Ruth so she could introduce what was coming up on Loose Women that

Countryfile star Julia Bradbury was devastated to learn last autumn that she was battling breast cancer.Since then, she has been re-evaluating her lifestyle - and that involves ditching a food addiction that has plagued her life.Brandishing an irresistible piece of chocolate cake for a photo, which she emblazoned with a nuclear warning sign, Julia confessed that the habit she'd been struggling to kick was her love of sugar."I've always had a sweet tooth," she admitted to over 203,000 Instagram followers of her worst habit."[I] felt lucky that I could eat the doughnuts, dunk the biscuits every day & snaffle the brownies, without putting on weight."However, in just a few short months, breast cancer changed Julia's life completely, and perhaps irreversibly.The 51-year-old recently had a mastectomy to give herself the best chance of survival, and she is now re-assessing and tackling all of the bad habits that have crept up in previous years too."Since my breast cancer diagnosis I've been re-evaluating my diet & lifestyle & I realise that I'd let my sugar addiction creep up on me."A treat is a treat, but loading up on refined sugar every day, just isn't healthy - whatever your weight."And it's not easy to avoid - sugar is hidden in foods under so many names."Julia, who has clearly been reading up on dietary requirements, then reeled off a mammoth list of suspect ingredients that the aspiring healthy eater should recognise and try to avoid."Anhydrous dextrose, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, crystal dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose sweetener, fruit juice concentrates, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, liquid fructose, malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses, pancake

ITV talk show host Lorraine Kelly has explained how she feels that celebrities uploading highly-edited pictures of themselves to Instagram creates unrealistic beauty standards for the younger generation in an interview with Express.co.uk.The journalist has teamed up with WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) to support healthier lifestyle habits, without as much emphasis on weight loss.Lorraine, 62, revealed that a lack of exercise and indulging in more junk food during lockdown had caused her to go from a size 10 to a size 14.The star agreed that, while the perfect size is different for every person, she wanted to get back to feeling like herself again with the help of WW.“It’s not about how much space you take up in the world,” Lorraine said. “It’s about what’s right for you.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTo celebrate the (slightly more than) one-year anniversary of its release, The Weeknd and superstar Spanish singer Rosalía have teamed up for a remix of “Blinding Lights,” Variety’s Hitmakers Record of the Year and one of the biggest hits in recent memory.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is indisputably one of the landmark songs of 2020 —and the only reason it isn’t even more dominant is because it was released on Nov. 29, 2019, and racked up significant numbers that year as well.Written by The Weeknd with Max Martin (the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years) and Oscar Holter and produced by the trio with Jason “DaHeala” Quenneville and Ahmad “Belly” Balshe, the song has racked up a jaw-dropping 4.5 billion global streams.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd, Doja Cat, Ty Dolla $ign, Brandy, Bebe Rexha, Nav, Bryson Tiller, French Montana — that’s not the top of a 2020 singles or albums chart. Those are just a few of the artists handled by the rapidly growing Salxco, the management-and-more concern founded by Wassim “Sal” Slaiby.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs they do at this time every year, Spotify has unveiled the top artists, albums, tracks, playlists and podcasts that its 320 million users streamed the most in its survey 2020.MUSIC (GLOBAL)PODCASTS (GLOBAL) Spotify 2020 Wrapped Global Top Lists:Most Streamed Artists GloballyMost Streamed Female ArtistsMost Streamed Albums GloballyMost Streamed Songs GloballyMost Popular Podcasts GloballyMost Popular Podcast Genres GloballySpotify 2020 Wrapped U.S. Top Lists U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Thanksgiving break has done little to calm the anger over the Grammy Awards’ baffling shutout of The Weeknd and several other artists from the 2021 nominations, and on Saturday Halsey — who was herself shut out from nominations — took to Instagram to air her feelings on the issue, as have Drake, Elton John, Kid Cudi, Charlie Puth and others.In a social media post last week, The Weeknd accused the Recording Academy of being “still corrupt,” which prompted a response from interim Grammy chief Harvey Mason jr., who insists the process is legitimate, and, in an interview with Variety earlier in the week, defended the voters who made the widely criticized decision.“All the records get the fairest of fair

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd, who began sounding off on social media on Tuesday night over his being shockingly shut out of Grammy nominations in a year he dominated, kept up his criticism on Wednesday afternoon, posting a statement on Instagram that reads:“Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!”What that refers to, sources tell Variety, is the following:Along with most of the rest of the world, The Weeknd’s team and Grammy organizers assumed that he would be one of the year’s biggest nominees and were in advanced discussions about his performance on the show.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd’s absence from all Grammy nominations in a year that he dominated the music scene and the charts has astonished nearly all observers, and the artist himself has leveled an accusation of corruption against the Recording Academy.“The Grammys remain corrupt,” he wrote on social media. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”The Grammys remain corrupt.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn the day of the Grammy nominations, many observers were surprised at the big look Justin Bieber and his “Changes” album and its singles received — four nominations, including Best Pop Solo Performance (for “Yummy”), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Intentions,” featuring Quavo), Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Country Duo/Group Performance (for his feature on Dan + Shay’s “10,000 Hours”).But on a day when such major R&B artists as The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Summer Walker and Kehlani were shut out of the Grammy nominations completely, Bieber took to Instagram to complain about being nominated in Pop categories instead of R&B.“To the Grammys,” he wrote (Variety has added punctuation to his post).

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Grammy Awards nominations are always a cascade of joy and tears, but this year is exceptional for a number of reasons.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe annual nominations for the Grammy Awards are always full of surprises. But in our many collective decades of Grammy watching, we have never witnessed an omission on the level of the one that the Recording Academy committees who decide the nominees have given to The Weeknd this year.His “Blinding Lights” single is arguably the most ubiquitous song of the past year, and his “After Hours” album will be at or near the top of many sales and critics charts; he’s even playing the Super Bowl halftime show the Sunday after the Grammys.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd literally lit up Los Angeles with his American Music Awards performance, setting a new standard for the how-to-get-creative-with-social-distancing-during-an-awards show.Playing a pyro-loaded medley of “Your Eyes” and “Save Your Tears,” the performance started off with a solo from superstar saxist Kenny G — who performs on the song’s remix — before cutting to The Weeknd, dressed as the red-suited, busted-nose character featured in the artwork, videos and TV appearances around his blockbuster latest album “After Hours.”A post shared by American Music Awards (@amas)On “SNL,” “Jimmy Kimmel” and other TV spots, The Weeknd has attempted to break down the proverbial fourth wall by bringing the character and