Voters across the Ozarks and the state decided elections that will shape our future on Tuesday.
You can track unofficial final results in Greene County here, or all statewide races at the Secretary of State website.
Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” is one of the biggest hits of the summer. It holds at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, just behind monster hits by Lizzo and Harry Styles.
Fans want to know if there’s any way it could get some attention when the nominations for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards are announced on Nov. 15. In addition to being a major hit, “Running Up That Hill” is the kind of record that Grammy voters often respond to – both classy and accessible.
Bush first released the recording in 1985, so it won’t be eligible for record of the year, though a live or alternate recording of it could be. The Recording Academy’s current Grammy rule book explains: “A song…must have been released on a recording for the first time, or achieved prominence for the first time, during the current eligibility year.”
How did the song fare with Grammy voters in 1985? It wasn’t even nominated, though it came out fairly late in the eligibility year (on Aug. 5, 1985, less than two months before the eligibility year closed on Sept. 30). It peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 on Nov. 30. That’s not bad, but it’s below the level that a record generally needed back then for a nomination in a marquee category.
All five of the 1985 nominees for record of the year were top 10 hits on the Hot 100; three of them were No. 1 hits. Four of the five nominees that year for best pop vocal performance, female were top five hits on the Hot 100. (Long-time Grammy favorite Linda Ronstadt rounded out the category with Lush Life, her follow-up to her smash album What’s New.)
Bush has never been a Grammy favorite. She has received just three nominations and has never won. Moreover, just one of her nominations was for a recording. The other two were for music videos.
Of her 10 studio albums, the only one to receive a Grammy nomination was her sixth album, The Sensual World, which received a 1990 nod for best alternative music performance. In that, the first year of that category, Bush lost to Sinéad O’Connor for I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
Bush’s other two nominations were for music videos. “The Whole Story” was nominated for best concept music video (1987), but lost to Genesis’ “Land of Confusion.” “The Line, The Cross & The Curve” was nominated for best music video, long-form (1995), but lost to Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live.
Bush and Gabriel had a collab, “Don’t Give Up,” on his 1986 album So, which was an album of the year contender. Under current Grammy rules, Bush would be a nominee as a featured artist on the album, but that wasn’t the case back then. The only people who received nominations when So was in the running for album of the year were Gabriel, as the artist and co-producer, and Daniel Lanois, as his co-producer.
The Recording Academy is far more generous nowadays (perhaps to a fault). Grammys for album of the year are awarded to any and all lead and featured artists, songwriters of new material, producers, recording engineers, mixers and mastering engineers. The Grammys draw the line at arrangers and songwriters of sampled or interpolated material, but even they qualify for certificates.
The success of “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” could help propel Stranger Things: Music from the Netflix Original Series, Season 4 to a Grammy nomination for best compilation soundtrack for visual media. The companion album to the second season of Stranger Things was nominated in this category four years ago, but lost to The Greatest Showman.
Stranger Things: Music from the Netflix Original Series, Season 4 would be the second compilation soundtrack from a TV show to win in the category, following Boardwalk Empire: Volume 1, which won 10 years ago.
But even if the album wins, Bush would likely not win. The award in this category generally goes to the compilation producer and music supervisor. It goes to the artist only in the event that the artist dominates the album, as Andra Day did last year when The United States vs. Billie Holiday won in the category. With Stranger Things, each of the 16 tracks on the album was recorded by a different artist. From the current rule book: “Award to principal artist(s) with significant contributing performances, and/or in-studio producer(s) of a majority of the tracks on the album. In the absence of those, award to the individual(s) proactively responsible for the concept and musical direction of the album and for the selection of artists, song and producers, as applicable.”
At the rate she’s going, Bush may receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy before she wins a Grammy in competition. Which, come to think of it, wouldn’t be a bad way to recognize this unique artist and her extraordinary, long-delayed hit.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, the late Indigenous Australian singer whose rare gifts were described by Quincy Jones as “unbelievable,” will be inducted into the NIMA Hall of Fame, with a celebration during the 2022 National Indigenous Music Awards this Saturday (Aug. 6).
On the night, Gurrumul will be remembered with a tribute performed by fellow Saltwater Band member Manuel Dhurrkay.
Blind from birth and raised in the remote Galiwin’ku community on Elcho Island, off the coast of Arnhem land in the Northern Territory, Yunupingu was recognized as one of Australia’s great talents when he died in 2017, aged 46.
Gurrumul left an indelible mark on Australia’s music landscape. His solo breakthrough came with his debut 2008 album Gurrumul, released locally by Skinnyfish Music and MGM.
Sung entirely in his native Yolngu language, the LP peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart following his stunning performance at the 2008 ARIA Awards, where he collected a pair of trophies, for best world album and best independent release, adding to the one he earned with “Treaty” band Yothu Yindi in 1992.
His followup LPs Rrakala and The Gospel Album both peaked at No. 3 in his homeland.
A year after his death, Gurrumul made history with Djarimirri (Child Of The Rainbow), which debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart to become the first LP in an indigenous language to lead the national survey. Djarimirri took out the Australian Music Prize and Gurrumul posthumously won four ARIA Awards, including best male artist.
In the same year, his life and extraordinary talents were explored in a feature-length documentary, Gurrumul.
His posthumous induction sees Gurrumul join the likes of previous inductees including Warumpi Band, the late Archie Roach, Kev Carmody and Yothu Yindi, and his works will be celebrated further with an exhibit at Melbourne’s Australian Music Vault from this Friday (Aug. 5), and a special performance tomorrow (Aug. 4) in Darwin of his music.
The NIMAs, the first in-person ceremony since 2019, will also be honoring the life of Archie Roach, who passed Saturday (July 30) at 66.
“The NIMAs play an incredibly important role in championing emerging artists and honouring legends in the First Nations music community,” comments Adam Manovic, head of entertainment, events & creative, NITV.
“We’re proud to once again support this incredible music event, and share the biggest and brightest First Nations talents Australia wide with our broadcast.
With four nominations, BARKAA, the Malyangapa and Barkindji woman and rising star, is in the box seat, while singer and rapper Baker Boy has three chances, including artist of the year.
Nominees this time include The Kid Laroi, Jessica Mauboy, Electric Fields, King Stingray, Miiesha, Mo Ju, Emma Donovan & the Putbacks, Birdz, Dallas Woods, Archie Roach and Tasman Keith.
The show will take place at the Darwin Amphitheater, presented by Amazon Music and broadcast around Australia on NITV, SBS Viceland, NIRS, Facebook and SBS On Demand.
The Northern Territory Government and Australia Council for the Arts in association with Darwin Festival are supporters of the annual event.
As local and national news outlets call the race, it appears Eric Schmitt will be the Republican nominee for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat.
CNBC, NBC, CNN, NPR, Politico and others have called the race for Schmitt, beating out Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and former Governor Eric Greitens.
In a very early concession, fellow primary candidate, Congressman Billy Long took to Twitter to congratulate Attorney General Eric Schmitt on his victory on the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Missouri.
While results are not final, Long tweeted his full support towards Schmitt for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming general election in November against the other party nominees.
The tweet Long sent can be seen below.
With polls closing tonight for primary elections throughout Missouri, KWTO News wants to keep you updated.
Tune in live at 93.3 FM and AM 1060 from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. to hear breakdown of all the races from News Director Don Louzader and former Speaker of the House Tim Jones.
You can also track results in Greene County here, or all statewide races at the Secretary of State website.
Check back in to the KWTO website, as we’ll be publishing news stories throughout the night as results go final.
Beyoncé has removed the interpolation of Kelis‘ 2003 hit “Milkshake” from her Renaissance track “Energy” on Tidal and Apple, after the latter called out Bey and The Neptunes for allegedly failing to seek permission for usage.
While Kelis sang “Milkshake,” written by The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, only the production duo are credited as songwriters. The artist, upon hearing the song, aired her grievances via Instagram on Thursday (July 28) via comments from her Bounty & Full business account.
After a Kelis Instagram fan page announced that “@Beyonce‘s RENAISSANCE album will include a @kelis sample on the song ‘Energy,’” alongside a mind-blown emoji, Kelis commented: “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding .”
At the time, she noted that she found out about the interpolation “the same way everyone else did,” suggesting that she had not gotten a heads up beforehand, slamming people in the music business who have “no soul or integrity.”
Another fan wrote in the comments section, “Thats a collab the world really needs,” with Kelis responding, “It’s not a collab it’s theft.”
The Hot 100 chart-topping artist made it clear that she’s not mad about the lift itself, but that “not only are we Black female artists in an industry where there’s not many of us,” pointing out that she and Bey have met, know each other and have mutual friends. “It’s not hard. She can contact, right?” Kelis said, noting that 20-year-old singer Ashnikko reached out when her 2021 song “Deal With It” sampled Kelis’ “Caught Out There.”
Thursday’s comments aren’t the first time Kelis has called out her former collaborators The Neptunes, who produced Kaleidoscope. Due to being “blatantly lied to and tricked” to sign contracts based on “what I was told,” Kelis told the The Guardian in 2020 that she does not make any money from her debut or sophomore album, Wanderland.
“I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” Kelis told the outlet then. “Their argument [from The Neptunes and their team] is, ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’”
At press time spokespeople for Williams and Beyoncé had not returned requests for comment on Kelis’ claims.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A southern Missouri high school teacher was sentenced in federal court today for a sextortion scheme in which 11 identified child victims, and dozens more child victims who have not been identified, were coerced to send him pornographic images and videos.
“This defendant, a high school teacher, pretended to be a teenager online in order to prey upon young victims across the country,” said U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. “He victimized 11 children who have been identified, and many more who have not yet been identified, in a horrific sexploitation scheme. He enticed countless child victims to send him explicit images of themselves, then threatened to share those images with their families and friends over social media unless they continued to send him even more explicit images and videos. Such appalling criminal behavior warrants the severe penalty he received today.”
Brandon Lane McCullough, 31, of Branson, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 30 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced McCullough to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration, and to pay $204,199 in restitution to one of his victims.
“Today’s sentencing is reflective of just how despicable and damaging McCullough’s crimes against children are and emphasizes HSI’s dedication to hold perpetrators accountable,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge of the Kansas City area of operations Katherine Greer. “We, alongside our law enforcement partners, are committed to the eradication of sextortion from our communities, but we need the public’s help. HSI asks parents, guardians, teachers, caregivers – anyone who interacts with a child – to be on the lookout for, and report, suspicious online behavior to the proper authorities, regardless of whether the individual is in a position of public trust, like McCullough.”
McCullough was a business teacher at Cassville High School in the Cassville R-4 School District at the time of the offense.
On Aug. 4, 2021, McCullough pleaded guilty to three counts of the sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of coercing and enticing a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity.
The federal investigation began on Feb. 14, 2020, when a police detective in New Jersey contacted federal agents in Missouri. The mother of a 14-year-old victim had reported to the local police department that her daughter was using the Kik application to have sexually explicit conversations, and to send sexually explicit images, to McCullough.
McCullough portrayed himself as a 15-year-old boy when he began chatting via Kik with Jane Doe 1 in May 2019. McCullough threatened to send the sexually explicit images and videos to the Jane Doe 1’s family and friends unless she sent him additional images and videos. Jane Doe also engaged in a Kik conversation with another user, who was actually McCullough portraying himself as a 17-year-old boy. When Jane Doe told this false persona that she was being blackmailed, he told her to continue meeting his demands.
On May 7, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at McCullough’s residence. They seized an external hard drive that was concealed beneath a basket under a bathroom sink in the basement. The hard drive contained dozens of Kik folders, which contained chats as well as thousands of images and videos of child pornography that were self-produced by the child victims, some of whom were younger than Jane Doe 1.
Based upon a forensic examination of the computer hard drive recovered from McCullough’s residence, investigators were able to identify 10 additional child victims of McCullough’s sextortion scheme. Dozens more child victims could not be identified. McCullough followed a similar pattern with each victim, extorting the victims to produce sexually explicit images and videos with the promise he would delete all the images once the new ones were sent. When the victims sent the videos and/or images, McCullough would start the cycle again. This activity began at least as early as Nov. 1, 2018.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, and the Florham Park Borough, New Jersey, Police Department.
Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara revealed her brand new baby with her partner via the band’s official social media on Tuesday (August 2).
Without showing off the newborn’s face, the singer posted a mirror selfie wearing an oversized knit sweater with a giant yellow smiley face on the front as she cradled the baby on her shoulder. “My #crybaby” she captioned the snap in a clever reference to the duo’s upcoming 11th album, which is also titled Crybaby.
The identical twins inked a new record deal with Mom + Pop Music last April ahead of their forthcoming album. The LP is set to arrive October 21 and will include singles “F–king Up What Matters” and “Yellow.” The move to Mom + Pop also reunites Tegan and Sara with Michael Goldstone, who first signed them to Sire/Warner Records back in 2006 before abruptly departing for the indie label before he could actually work with the pair.
Back in January, Tegan and Sara sat down for an exclusive interview with Billboard all about their new Substack newsletter, “I Think We’re Alone Now” and dished on their 10th studio set Still Jealous, which was released in February. “The people who like Tegan and Sara treat us like we’re people they know. If you really want to know what it’s like to be around Sara and me — what our communication’s like, what making things is like — this is the place where we can show you,” Tegan said of launching the media newsletter, which features tiers of both free and paid content.
Check out the first glimpse of Sara and her newborn below.
Five years after Harry Styles introduced his solo career with “Sign of the Times” in 2017, the atmospheric music video reached one billion YouTube views on Tuesday (Aug. 2).
“Sign of the Times” is from the 28-year-old former One Direction singer’s self-titled debut album, released on May 12, 2017, via Columbia Records. The single debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100.
“Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals … Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. … ’Sign of the Times’ came from ‘This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last time,’” Styles told Rolling Stone at the time of the song’s release. “The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication. The mother is told, ‘The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, ‘Go forth and conquer.’”
Styles’ self-titled debut went on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as did his following two albums, 2019’s Fine Line and 2022’s Harry’s House.
Relive the energy of “Sign of the Times” through watching the music video below.
Eminem unveiled the tracklist for his upcoming two-disc collection of greatest hits titled Curtain Call 2, due out this Friday (Aug. 5).
“#CC2 OFFICIAL TRACKLIST #Relapse #Recovery #MMLP2 #Revival #Kamikaze #MTBMB #MTBMBSIDEB #Southpaw #ShadyXV #HellTheSequel,” he simply captioned his Instagram post on Tuesday.
The Instagram post, which features Eminem’s vocals from his collaborative track “From The D 2 The LBC” with Snoop Dogg, opens with an image of the rapper making horns on his head with his hands.
The Curtain Call 2 set list includes collaborations with fellow artists including: Bruno Mars, Rihanna, P!nk, Snoop Dogg, Juice Wrld, Kehlani, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Ed Sheeran, Lil Wayne, Ceelo Green, Gwen Stefani and more.
The project is a follow-up to Eminem’s 2005-released original, Curtain Call: The Hits. The compilation spent the last two weeks of 2005 at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
In total, Eminem has appeared on the Hot 100 chart 94 times, with 11 albums on the Billboard 200.
Eminem’s track list announcement comes one day after he released the ominous music video for his collaborative track “Crack a Bottle” with 50 Cent and Dr. Dre. The song was originally released as the lead single for Eminem’s sixth studio album, Relapse, and features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, though the rappers do not appear in the video.
It also arrives less than two months after Eminem and Snoop Dogg jointly released their track “From The D 2 The LBC,” which features the duo’s Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT characters.
Curtain Call 2 will be released via Shady Records/Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records.
See the tracklist for Curtain Call 2 below: