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27 Mar 2023

Jeremy Renner Sings ‘House of the Rising Sun’ in ‘Rennervations’ Clip: Exclusive

Jeremy Renner‘s reality docuseries Rennervations is coming to Disney+ on April 12, and ahead of the premiere, Billboard is sharing an exclusive clip in which the Hawkeye star shares how music has impacted his life.

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Following a haunting piano cover of The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun,” Renner is heard explaining over a piano melody, “Music has always been my first love. It’s a very personal thing for me, something that I fell into when I was younger to get me out of trouble. Becoming an adult, it still is. Any time I get overwhelmed with personal problems or my job, music is such a therapeutic outlet for me.”

He added that his decision to share his own music over the past few years was life changing. “In doing so, it opened my eyes and opened my heart,” he revealed. “It gave me a sense of belonging. Music unites people and that, to me, is exciting.”

Jeremy Renner, Rennervations

Jeremy Renner, ‘Rennervations’

The series follows Renner in his hometown of Reno, Nevada, as well as three other cities — Chicago, Illinois; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; and Rajasthan, India — where he works with a team of builders to identify decommissioned vehicles that can be rebuilt to serve a new purpose.

Rennervations comes just two months after a terrifying accident in which Renner’s 14,000-pound PistenBully snowplow ran him over on his Mt. Rose Highway-area property while he was trying to divert it away from his nephew while clearing the snow, leaving him with more than 30 broken bones.

Watch the exclusive Rennervations clip below, and sign up for Disney+ here.

27 Mar 2023

Miley Cyrus Holds Atop Hot 100, Coi Leray & Bailey Zimmerman Score First Top 10s

Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” adds an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

Meanwhile, two acts notch their first Hot 100 top 10s: Coi Leray’s “Players” pushes 12-9 and Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place” rolls 11-10.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated April 1, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (March 28). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

“Flowers,” released on Smiley Miley/Columbia Records, drew 107.9 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 1%) and 24.7 million streams (down 12%) and sold 11,000 (down 26%) March 17-23, according to Luminate.

“Flowers” claims a sixth week at No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart and falls 2-4 on Streaming Songs and 2-7 on Digital Song Sales, after it ruled the rankings for four and five weeks, respectively.

The song, from Cyrus’ new album Endless Summer Vacation, debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated Jan. 28 and spent its first six weeks on the chart at the summit; it then ranked at No. 2 for two weeks and has since logged its latest two frames on top.

Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” holds at No. 2 on the Hot 100, two weeks after it hit No. 1, as it tops Streaming Songs for a third week (35.9 million, down 8%). It leads the Hot Country Songs chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, for a seventh week, as parent album One Thing at a Time commands the Billboard 200 for a third frame.

SZA’s “Kill Bill” keeps at No. 3 on the Hot 100 after seven weeks at its No. 2 high. It tops the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts for a 14th frame each.

Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage’s “Creepin’ ” rises 5-4 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 3; The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die for You” retreats 4-5, three weeks after it reigned; PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” holds at No. 6, after hitting No. 3; and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is steady at No. 7, following a personal-best eight weeks at No. 1 in November-January.

Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” is stationary at its No. 8 Hot 100 high and ascends to the Radio Songs top 10 (11-9; 49.6 million, up 12%). Rema achieves his first Radio Songs top 10, while Gomez earns her ninth, following “Lose You to Love Me” (No. 5, December 2019); “Back to You” (No. 5, October 2018); “It Ain’t Me,” with Kygo (No. 4, May 2017); “Hands to Myself” (No. 7, April 2016); “Same Old Love” (No. 3, January 2016); “Good for You,” featuring A$AP Rocky (No. 4, September 2015); “The Heart Wants What It Wants” (No. 9, February 2015); and “Come & Get It” (No. 6, July 2013).

The track concurrently tops the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a milestone 30th week – extending the longest reign since the survey began almost a year ago (in partnership with music festival and global brand Afro Nation).

Coi Leray’s “Players” surges 12-9 on the Hot 100, with 58.5 million in airplay audience (up 11% – good for top Airplay Gainer honors), 10.5 million streams (up 3%) and 4,000 sold (up 5%).

Leray, who was born in Boston and raised in Hackensack, N.J. – and presented SZA as the 2023 Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music celebration March 1 – posts her first Hot 100 top 10, following two top 40 entries: “Blick Blick!,” with Nicki Minaj (No. 37, April 2022), and “No More Parties,” featuring Lil Durk (No. 26, March 2021).

“Players” samples Grandmaster Flash’s classic “The Message,” which hit No. 4 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (and No. 62 on the Hot 100) in 1982. “I feel like this record was to connect the new with the old,” Leray recently told Billboard. “There’s a lot of older cats and OGs … and it just feels good to bring everybody together. Whether you’re 10, 2, 80 or 30, everyone’s bopping, and those are the moments I love.”

“Players” also tops the multi-metric Hot Rap Songs chart for a second week.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Bailey Zimmerman’s “Rock and a Hard Place” lifts 11-10 – as with Leray, becoming his first top 10 among three top 40 hits – with 35.8 million in airplay audience (essentially even week-over-week), 15.3 million streams (up 3%) and 3,000 sold (up 9%).

The track hits the top 10 in its 41st week on the Hot 100 – rewriting the record for the longest climb to the top 10 for a song by a soloist in the chart’s history. Among all acts, only Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” took longer, reaching the tier in its 42nd week in November 2021. Now in third place overall, Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange,” Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” (both this January) and Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” (2007) all completed 38-week trips to the top 10.

As previously reported, “Rock and a Hard Place” becomes the Louisville, Ind., native’s second No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart, after “Fall in Love” led for a week in December. Notably (and unlike the far steadier climb for “Rock” on the Hot 100, where it was first driven most heavily by streaming), his three-month, three-week span between his first two Country Airplay leaders is the quickest for any act’s first two in nearly a quarter-century – since The Chicks took three months between “There’s Your Trouble” and “Wide Open Spaces” in August-November 1998.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d see my name or any of my songs on the Billboard charts, so the fact that I’ve now had two reach the No. 1 spot is mind-blowing,” Zimmerman says. “Thanks to everyone who has supported me and my music. I owe everything to y’all.”

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated April 1), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (March 28).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

27 Mar 2023

‘American Idol’ Contestant Cam Amen Scores Platinum Ticket With Stunning ‘Hallelujah’ Rendition

American Idol judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan became visibly emotional when contestant Cam Amen sang a rendition of Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” during Sunday night’s (March 26) auditions.

Before launching into his passionate version of Cohen’s track, the judges asked Amen about his back story, in which he revealed that he and his siblings lost their mother and ended up in the foster care system. Once 18, Amen took care of his brother and sister until it was time for them to graduate, and tearfully shared he is now chasing his dream on Idol.

Accompanied by a piano player, he sang, “Now I’ve done my best, I know it wasn’t much/ I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch/ I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come here to London just to fool you/ And even though it all went wrong/ I’ll stand right here before the Lord of song/ With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah/ Hallelujah, Hallelujah/ Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”

All three of the judges were noticeably moved by Amen’s rendition of the song, with Bryan visibly tearing up. “This is our sixth year here. Stylistically … your style is so beautifully unique. I don’t have anybody that I’ve seen in this chair to compare you to, and every time I wanted you to do something amazing, you did it,” he said. “It was just incredible. You came out of being upset and crying and just started singing like that. You didn’t even have all the tears dry.”

Richie added, “Cam, do you believe in divine guidance? It just happened, for whatever reason, that divine guidance brought you to us. And my friend, you are going to have one heck of a ride.”

After requesting Amen bring his girlfriend in the room, Bryan told his fellow judges, “He might be the best soul singer we’ve ever had.”

Bryan then revealed that Amen was the winner of a platinum ticket, allowing the hopeful to sit out the first round of Hollywood week. “This is the first time I ever went for something for myself, and it’s a dream,” Amen shared following the audition.

Watch Amen’s platinum ticket story unfold in the video above.

27 Mar 2023

Nick Cannon Addresses His Past Antisemitic Comments, Calls Backlash a ‘Growth Moment’

Nick Cannon addressed his history of anti-semitic comments and what he learned from the public backlash over them in a new interview that published Friday (March 24).

Speaking to All Hip-Hop, the host of The Masked Singer reflected, “I’m going to be super honest with you, man. That process was a growth moment for me, on so many levels as a man,” after the reporter lumped his past remarks about Jewish people in with similar antisemitic rhetoric from the likes of Kanye West and Kyrie Irving.

Cannon cited his podcast Solutions: To Hate or Not To Hate with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, as a way he’s shown growth on the issue. He said of the podcast: “It’s really talking about the equation of our two communities from two different perspectives. We voice our side, or the perspective as a Black man, and then he voices his side from a Jewish man. Just even that alone is helpful and educational for both communities. And again, because that’s the thing, we can sit up here and be enraged, but if we don’t engage, what are we really doing, if we can’t even learn from one another? And clearly, we all know the issues, we all know the tropes, we all know the stereotypes.”

The singer-actor also said he’s “no longer about just talk.”

“I’m really putting my money where my mouth is and my energy to where my heart is,” the father of 12 said. “To me, that situation says, ‘All right, I’m done talking. Everybody talk. Let’s figure it out, let’s solve it. What’s the problem?’ The next people who say something in front of a microphone can have an understanding of what it is, so they don’t stumble and fumble and have to lose opportunities or get so-called canceled and all of that stuff on the next go around. Really, it’s just about bringing people closer together. Ultimately, nobody’s monolithic, but we’re all one organism that allows this thing to keep pumping.”

Back in the summer of 2020, Cannon perpetuated controversial conspiracy theories about Jewish people on his now-axed podcast Cannon’s Class during a conversation with former Public Enemy member Professor Griff.

While he issued a public apology at the time, he was fired by ViacomCBS from his long-running MTV improv show Wild ‘N Out. (The media company has since resumed its working relationship with the star.)

27 Mar 2023

Shawn Mendes Goes Shirtless to Show Off His Red Hot Sunburn

Shawn Mendes got a little too much sun on his recent trip to Mexico. The 24-year-old pop star posted a series of photos from his time in the country Sunday (March 26), including a couple snapshots showing off his buff upper body glowing a painful-looking shade of red.

One of the captionless photos shows the “Señorita” singer from the front, laughing off the sting of his scorched skin. Another shows him in the same spot, facing away from the camera, the outline of a tank top temporarily stamped on his back.

Mendes also shared photos of the sights he explored in Mexico City, including the pyramids of Teotihuacan, a street musician and a cluttered bookstore. The sunburn photos definitely got the most attention from friends and followers though, with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder commenting, “Protek that skin bruhhhh.”

The Grammy nominee’s brush with strong UV waves isn’t the first time he’s faced the elements recently. Shortly after the winter holidays, he took an underwear-only dip into an ice cold river and posted a video of the adventure to Instagram.

The musician’s trip to Mexico comes just a few days after he denied rumors he’s dating Sabrina Carpenter, with whom he’s been photographed a couple times in the past month or so. “We are not dating but I think we should talk about Tommy Hilfiger probably more than Sabrina,” he reportedly told RTL Boulevard during an interview about his recent Tommy X Shawn Classics Reborn collection with the designer.

27 Mar 2023

Meek Mill, Tom Brady Join Robert Kraft’s $25 Million Antisemitism Initiative

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has enlisted a pair of his celebrity friends to help spread the word about his family’s new multi-million dollar effort to fight back against an unprecedented wave of antisemitism in America.

People reported that the 81-year-old billionaire is investing $25 million in a multi-level campaign to fight antisemitism through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), teaming up with the Patriots’ former QB legend, Tom Brady, as well as rapper Meek Mill to help spread word about their efforts.

The Foundation has been promoting stories about efforts to combat anti-Jewish hate on its social feeds and is launching a campaign with a blue square emoji that Kraft said he hopes will “educate all Americans” on the rise of hateful acts against Jewish Americans. “What’s happening in America today, it is a big part of my life,” Kraft told People. “There’s been work done that shows that 50% of Americans do not realize that antisemitism is any problem, and the Jewish population is roughly 2.4% of the population in the US but yet receives over 55% of the hate crimes.”

Kraft said the American Jewish community — which numbers approximately 7.6 million per most recent estimates — needs the help of “all Americans” to combat the highest level of antisemitism in the country in a quarter century; the ADL recently reported that antisemitic incidents increased 36% in 2022.

The Patriots owner said he’s already reached out to recently re-retired QB Brady about the blue emoji symbol in advance of the new campaign’s launch. “He and I are still very tight and he will be using this blue emoji when we kick off again,” Kraft said, noting that he hopes the emoji will become a “symbol of solidarity” that will help fight anti-Jewish hate and other forms of discrimination.

Mill — who has received funding from Kraft to build his REFORM Alliance to push for parole/sentencing/probation reform — is also on board with the team owner’s cause. In fact, People reported that Meek (born Robert Rihmeek Williams) will fly with Kraft to Poland next month, where the NFL boss will lead the this year’s annual March of the Living event that takes thousands of visitors on a walk between the remains of concentration camps in the country.

The billionaire said he wanted Meek to join him in Poland to “see what went on” in Holocaust death camps. “So when I tell you there are 15 million Jews in the world today, what happened 75, 80 years ago with the killing of 6 million, they would’ve represented 60, 70 million people today,” Kraft said. “And it is really horrible.”

Check out FCAS’ YouTube video for its #StandUpToJewishHate campaign below.

27 Mar 2023

March Madness: Men’s NCAA Basketball Final Four Is Set

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NCAA BASKETBALL: MAR 25 Div I Men's Championship Elite 8 - Gonzaga vs UConn

The Final Four field for the Men’s NCAA basketball tournament was set over the weekend with three schools making it to the hallowed quartet for the first time in over 50 years. One of the teams celebrated its first entry into the Final Four, and everything will kick off this coming weekend.

March Madness for both the men’s and women’s teams is an unpredictable affair every year and this tourney was no different. The Elite Eight field was one for the books as not one No. 1 seed advanced that far in 2023 in the men’s division. In fact, brackets were busted on day one of the tournament but few could’ve predicted the outcome of the field like this.

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The University of Connecticut Huskies are in line to win their fifth national championship since 1999. The Florida Atlantic University Owls never had a tournament win ahead of landing in the Final Four over the weekend.

The University of Miami Hurricanes is priming itself to win its first national championship along with celebrating its first Final Four appearance and is the current ACC champion. The San Diego State Aztecs are also in a position to win their first chip.

Florida Atlantic and San Diego State will battle it out on Saturday, April 1 at 6:09 PM EST. The Huskies and the Hurricanes will play at 8:49 PM EST.

Check out the NCAA coverage of the Final Four field here.

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Photo: Getty

27 Mar 2023

Harry Styles Was Spotted Kissing Emily Ratajkowski & Fans Are Incredulous: See the Reactions

Harry Styles is doing some late-night talking with someone new, apparently. The pop star was just spotted getting up close and personal with model, actress and author Emily Ratajkowski on a recent trip to Japan, and naturally, the internet is undergoing a volcanic eruption of emotions in response.

It’s not unlike the deluge of reactions that flooded Twitter more than two years ago, when Styles was first confirmed to be dating his Don’t Worry Darling director and costar, Olivia Wilde. The two were together up until just a few months ago, when it was revealed in November that the pair had gone their separate ways.

Now, it looks like the “As It Was” singer is moving on. He and Ratajkowski — who was linked to comedian Eric André as recently as last month — were filmed kissing against the side of a car during a rainy day in Tokyo, where Styles just closed out the Asian leg of his ongoing Love on Tour with two shows at Ariake Arena Friday (March 24) and Saturday (March 25).

By strange coincidence, the footage surfaced on the exact date — March 25 — that Zayn Malik broke hearts across the globe by announcing his departure from One Direction

Reactions to footage of the new romance ranged from happy for the potential new couple to heartbroken that Styles may once again be off the market. But overall, the unifying feeling was one of pure shock. “Just saw harry styles passionately making out with emily ratajkowski… i can’t breathe,” one fan tweeted.

“harry are you dating emily ratajkowski? it’s not really my business i’m only 14 and stuff but i have always thought that we were going to get married,” joked another.

Some were excited for the new pairing, with one fan tweeting, “emrata and harry styles honestly power couple.”

See some of the best fan reactions below:

27 Mar 2023

Seven Returning ‘Idol’ Stars Talk Mentoring Season 21’s Contestants

Finally, what are you doing now and what is next for you?

Noah Thompson
Image Credit: David McClister

Justin: I’m finishing up the last bit of my Star Code course. I’m teaching that live online. I also have a master class that I teach, which is a lead-in to that. And then I’m gearing up for what will be my seventh Broadway show, Once Upon a One More Time, which is opening in the summer. It’s a Britney Spears musical and I’ve been with it for five years and we are finally getting our due to come to Broadway and I could not be more excited. It is legitimately my most favorite role I’ve ever played, and it is going to be something where people come to it, they will laugh, they will cry and it will feel like they are watching the most kick-ass music video they’ve ever seen on Broadway.

Clay: I semi-retired from performing nine years ago. In 2013 I said, “I’m going to step away from this.” And then in 2018 Ruben wanted to do something and we had an opportunity to do a Broadway show, so I came back and did that. And then I said, “Okay, dude. I’m not going to keep going.” And he said, “It’s our 20th anniversary. We’ve got do something.” I said, “Fine, let’s do it.” There’s nobody who could get me to come back and perform except for Ruben. I love doing that. We’re going to go out on our 20th anniversary tour, and it’ll be the first time I’ve been on tour in over a decade now. We’re putting everything we’ve got into this tour. I might fall on the ground afterward and be done for a while again. We’ll see.

Jordin: I am still doing music. I am in the final stages of choosing the songs that are going to go on the new album. Last season, they were talking to me about music while I was on stage with Ruben during the finale and I had over 100 songs and now I have almost close to 200 and so I really have to figure out which songs are the best. I want to take people on a journey and make them feel something. So I’m hoping to get that done in the next couple weeks, because after that I’m going to film a Christmas movie for BET+ and then I’m hoping that I can tour internationally. So there are a lot of dreams and ambitions. I’m also just being mom. I’m really grateful that I still get to do what I love.

David: I did a Christmas tour, and I was supposed to go on a spring tour, but I put that on hold because I need time to reassess myself. Because not only did I come out, but I also had a transition in faith. Before, my faith was the ship that steered every decision I made. I involved it in my career and now that it’s not there, it’s like I lost myself and I’m asking, “Who am I now?” But it’s also an opportunity to start again and decide who I am without my faith as a buffer. I’ve been writing a lot of music and I’m really excited to share my journey with everybody. Learning how to love yourself when you spent so much time believing that you were supposed to hate yourself and believing that that was the right thing to do: to be afraid of a piece of you, feeling like you have to hide this for your own safety and for the safety of the people around you. To think that if it ever came out, you would be hurting not only yourself but the people around you in your life. I am in the process of learning how to change that way of thinking. It hasn’t been easy, but I feel like I’m entering a whole new space of my career because I’m entering this new space personally. It’s always been important for me to share what’s in my soul and in my heart. Now, I feel so much passion in my career — [there’s] this fire that’s coming out of me that’s given me this new fuel into what I do and into the music and I just can’t wait. I’m looking for ways to share my story, because I know so many other people, especially those coming from religious backgrounds, they’re still in the thick of it and I want to help them learn because I know what it’s like. It’s like being a mentor on Idol: I was there, so this is what I wish I would have known. While it’s easier for some, it’s especially tricky for people in religious conservative households where you are still being taught, “This is not okay. Resist it. Do not give into it. Do not accept this part of you. If you do, you’re a failure.” Too many [people] who share my beliefs feel like it’s better to end their lives than to accept their sexuality if they’re queer. I was there as well. I thought, “Before I accept this about myself, maybe it’s better for me to not be here and to end my life, so that I save my soul in the long run.” I realized, “Even if you’re queer, David, maybe your life is still worth living.” I had to take that chance and it has been worth it and I realized I’m not this evil person. I’m just now understanding this love that everyone wrote love songs and romance movies and romance novels about, expressing how beautiful of a feeling it is. I didn’t understand before. I couldn’t relate to it and now I’m able to comprehend that and write those songs myself and tell my story of what it’s like to feel that feeling of loving someone and wanting to be there for them. I feel like that will help people understand, like, “Oh, that’s not very much different from what I experienced, so maybe it’s not as foreign than what I thought it was.” To help them not demonize that feeling because they feel it too and it’s a pure, wholesome feeling to experience.

Phillip: I released a song earlier this year called “Dancing With Your Shadows.” I love that song. And I’m releasing another song when this is airing called “Before I Loved You” and I’m really proud of that song. It’s a beautiful love song about me and my wife. There’ll be an album toward the end of the summer called Drift Back and all of these songs are representations for the past three to five years for me through COVID and show where I am now. It’s an honest album of love through ups and downs, not just your significant other but relationships with family and friends. My little boy Patch, he sings every word to one of these songs and that’s really sweet. I’ll say, “Is that a good song?” He’ll say, “Yup, that sounds good, daddy.” I’m like, “That’s good. Thank you.”

Catie: I am releasing a new single called “Hyperfixations” and it shows what the inside of my brain sounds like, if anyone’s ever wondered that before. I wrote this song with my producer in Nashville, Ruslan. I was discovering a new sound for myself because I went from very acoustic to very pop and I wanted to find a way to honor both but still feel authentic to myself. I’m finding the nice middle ground of acoustic lyrics but with a more produced sound and in a way to where it’s not so pop. I’m having a really fun time with that.

Noah: I recently moved to Nashville. I’ve been on tour, and I’ve been writing every day. I really don’t want to stop. Hopefully we’ll get some tour dates back up pretty soon. We’ve got some cool shows coming up, opening for Luke Combs.

27 Mar 2023

Teacher Says Miley Cyrus/Dolly Parton Duet ‘Rainbowland’ Pulled From Spring Concert at Wisconsin Grade School: ‘No Reason Given’

A language teacher at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha, Wisconsin has called out her school’s administration after saying that they vetoed the inclusion of a pair of rainbow-themed songs in the spring concert. “My first graders were so excited to sing ‘Rainbowland’ for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end?,” she tweeted last week along with hashtags for the school system, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, GSafe (which create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin schools) and civil rights.

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Teacher Melissa Tempel also included the lyrics to “Rainbowland,” the Cyrus/Parton duet about acceptance that appeared on Miley’s 2017 album Younger Now. “Living in Rainbowland/ Where you and I go hand in hand/ Oh, I’d be lying if I said this was fine/ All the hurt and the hate going on here/ We are rainbows, me and you/ Every color, every hue,” they sing on the song. Why was that track about living in harmony together reportedly banned?

On March 24, Tempel wrote, “The latest I heard is that the song was banned bc @MileyCyrus is controversial. D’oh, I thought for sure it was @DollyPartonvand her beautiful drag queen followers! Oh well, I can’t stop my students if they still sing ‘Rainbowland.’ It’s a fun, catchy song!” First grade teacher Tempel later said her guess as to why the duet was pulled was because of its “beautiful LYRICS. Because saying an ARTIST is controversial would be a very slippery slope and they wouldn’t want to go there. Amirite?,” she wrote.

When a commenter asked why the song was pulled from the concert Tempel responded, “no reason given.” A day later, Tempel reported that the administration also banned the Muppet Movie classic “Rainbow Connection,” writing, “so it seems the reason is rainbows.” Tempel provided another update on March 23 when she reported that “Rainbow Connection” had been unbanned after “parents sent emails to admin,” though it seems “Rainbowland” is still off the menu.

At press time spokespeople for Heyer Elementary and the Waukesha Country board of Education had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the reported song bans. At press time it also did not appear as if Parton or Cyrus had responded to the reported “Rainbowland” ban on their socials.

In a statement to People, the Alliance for Education’s Becky Gilligan said that their organization, “continues to advocate for our community… This is the most recent decision by a school district administration intent on stifling the diversity and denying equality to the community it serves, further ostracizing Waukesha in the eyes of the nation.”

The mother of a first-grader at the school, Sarah Schindler, told the Los Angeles Times that her daughter came home last week with a list of songs she was going to perform at the spring concert. Among the tracks Schindler pulled up on YouTube were “Rainbowland,” Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Schindler said both she and her daughter were very excited because they love Parton.

Then a few days later, her daughter came home and told Schindler, “we can’t sing it anymore. We can’t sing ‘Rainbow Connection’ and we can’t sing ‘Rainbowland.’” Schindler said she reached out to Tempel, her daughter’s teacher, and the school’s principal as well as the district superintendent for answers and was told that the administration had pulled the songs because they were too “controversial.”

Schindler told the Times that the school board had undergone a “conservative flip” recently in the wake of COVID-19 mitigation strategies during the global pandemic that has has killed more than 1.2 million Americans to date. “One of those is a controversial topics policy saying that teachers can’t have any kind of signage that could be deemed political. … Discussion of pronouns with students was another thing that came up. And teachers aren’t allowed to wear rainbows,” Schindler said.

Another parent with a student enrolled in the district told the paper that the Waukesha school district has “really cracked down on anything LGBTQ… so this song being an ‘issue’ has not in any way come as a surprise… My daughter is 17 and has been in the marching band community for four years. It’s a very welcoming community for kids that are LBGTQ. She has a lot of friends that identify as part of that community so it hurts her deeply. All that Miley and Dolly are saying is that they want to live in a world that is accepting, with no judgment and where people can be who they want to be.”

See Tempel’s tweets below.