Katy Perry has announced her upcoming album will be titled “Witness” and will be released on June 9.   Perry has also announced an extensive tour of North America to promote the release.   The singer’s website says Perry’s first tour since 2015 begins Sept. 7 in Columbus, Ohio, and …

Paris bid leaders want to capitalize on the sense of optimism surrounding new President Emmanuel Macron to beat Los Angeles and secure the Olympic Games in 2024 — not 2028. With the IOC currently assessing a proposal to award the next two Olympics — one to each city — Paris …

Veteran Irish rock band U2 is the top-selling live music act in the United States for summer 2017, ticket seller StubHub said on Sunday, outpacing pop acts such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga with a concert tour celebrating its seminal “Joshua Tree” album. U2’s 13-stop “The Joshua Tree Tour …

Renee Fleming sang the famous “Ja, ja” one last time, acknowledging the ascendancy of youth, and made a graceful exit from the stage.   The 58-year-old soprano, the most well-known American classical singer, performed the Marschallin in Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” for the final time Saturday in what may have been …

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was the scene of the final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the annual europop song fest that was expected to garner a television audience of some 200 million. …

Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with a gentle romantic ballad that challenged the event’s decades-long reputation for cheesy, glittery excess. Sobral sang his Amar Pelos Dois (Love For Both) in a high, clear tenor accompanied by quiet strings and a piano. Unlike the 25 other …

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is bracing to host the finale of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the annual europop song fest that is expected to garner a television audience of some 200 million. …

A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out; here are the real facts:   NOT REAL: U.S. Department of State suspends New York Times …

Across the U.S., there are stores where people can play a musical instrument even if they have no intention of buying it. VOA’s Yahya Albarzinji spoke with music enthusiasts at one such store in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia. …

Five of the contestants vying for the Miss USA title have a message to immigrant girls and women watching the pageant this weekend: Set goals, work hard and don’t stay in the shadows. The contestants know what they are talking about, as they were all born in other countries and …

Melissa McCarthy has gone into the streets of Manhattan to lampoon White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The comedian was captured on video Friday morning riding a motorized podium in midtown while dressed as Spicer, presumably a sequence that will air when McCarthy hosts the next “Saturday Night Live.” In …

We’re launching the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, for the week ending May 13, 2017. The chart again rises to the occasion, giving us another big new hit. Number 5: Future “Mask Off” Future spends a second straight week in fifth place with …

A rare Harry Potter prequel handwritten by author J.K. Rowling on a postcard was stolen during a burglary in central England, police said Friday as they appealed for help from fans of the wizard across the world. The 800-word story, set three years before Harry Potter is born and which …

The sympathy cards came from places like Germany and Italy, where Steven Holcomb was their bobsled enemy. Mourners flew in from all across the country. Generations of Olympians packed a ballroom, sharing in grief.   They wept. They hugged. They laughed.   “Steven Holcomb was like no one else,” Olympic …

As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer continued exploring the numerous national park sites within the vast state of Texas, he’s been overwhelmed by the beauty of Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River. Located in southwestern Texas, on the U.S. border with Mexico, the huge …

Evaluating Los Angeles’ readiness to host the 2024 Olympic Games takes some imagination. That’s because a lot of the pitch still relies on images on a computer screen, or a blueprint of what’s to come on a dusty construction site. Los Angeles Olympic organizers often say their plan for two …

A watercolor by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is being auctioned along with a Cartier watch she wore for years. Christie’s said Thursday that the then-first lady, who painted as a hobby, created the artwork in 1963 as a gift for her brother-in law, Stanislaw Radziwill. Radziwill gave her the watch. Both …

Sprinkle the sequins, spark up the disco lights and get ready for battle — it’s time for the Eurovision Song Contest , a celebration of kitsch and cheesy pop with an undercurrent of politics and patriotism. More than a singing contest, it’s diplomacy in dancing shoes. This week musical acts …

Montenegro’s historic port city of Kotor has earned the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site for the beauty of its well preserved medieval town. But Kotor’s international fame has become a source of trouble in recent years. Excessive construction is now threatening to diminish the town’s beauty and its reputation …

Early on in their career, the country group Rascal Flatts often dealt with critics of their pop-country sound and being labeled a country music boy band. Bassist and producer Jay DeMarcus noted that one early review referred to their music as “bouncy, bouncy, flop.”   Seventeen years later with the …

Netflix, the U.S. video-on-demand company, will not be allowed to compete at the Cannes Film Festival after this year unless it changes its policy and gives its movies a cinema release, organizers said Wednesday. The 2017 festival, which begins next week, has Netflix films in its competition for the first …

Modern history. Political change. Urbanization, emotion, and the colors of Washington, DC. For Ukrainian-born photographer Val Proudkii, it’s all filtered through the lens of his camera. In his repertoire: numerous photography competition awards and one printed image signed by former president Barack Obama. After spending a day looking at the …

It will be lights, camera, action with the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid in the spotlight when the International Olympic Committee visits Tinseltown this week as the race to host the Summer Games heats up. The IOC’s Evaluation Commission will hear a well-worn sales pitch during a three-day visit that …

Visitors to Romania who yearn for a taste of communist-era kitsch now have an entire museum to enjoy. From the mundane (wedding champagne flutes covered in sequins and bows) to the spectacular (a life-sized Dracula and flashing neon crucifixes), Bucharest’s Kitsch Museum celebrates questionable taste of the past and present. …

Latin pop star Prince Royce will tour 21 U.S. cities this summer to showcase his new music, which he says has a bit of a new twist. Known for his Dominican bachata hits, Royce released his fifth studio album, “FIVE,” in February, collaborating with musicians Chris Brown, Zendaya and Shakira. …