Mandrell returns for Opry anniversary
Country Music Hall of Famer and Grammy winner Barbara Mandrell retired from music more than two decades ago, but the Grand Ole Opry still feels like home to her.
Mandrell, 73, made a rare public appearance on Saturday at the Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, to celebrate her 50th anniversary of being an Opry member. “Here we are at home again,” Mandrell said before the long-running radio and TV program. “50 years. Not everybody gets that blessing.”
Mandrell was just 23 years old when she became a member in July 1972. But she was already a seasoned entertainer by the time she came to Nashville, after her teenage years were spent playing steel guitar and appearing regularly on the country TV show “Town Hall Party.”
Over her decadeslong career, the actor, multiinstrumentalist and singer turned millions of fans onto country music in the ’70s and ’80s, not only through her popular TV show “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,” but also through hits such as “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” and “If Loving You is Wrong (I Don’t Want to be Right).”
During Saturday’s show, Mandrell enthusiastically applauded the all-female artist lineup, including CeCe Winans, Carrie Underwood, Linda Davis and Suzy Bogguss, as they performed her hits.
“I already feel on top of the world. I feel the deepest of gratitude and excitement because I am such a huge fan of these ladies,” said Mandrell, who hasn’t played music or sung — other than in church — since she retired in 1997.
Beyonce to remove offensive word from song: Beyonce is removing an
offensive term for disabled people from a new song on her record “Renaissance,” just weeks after rapper Lizzo also changed lyrics to remove the same word.
“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” a spokeswoman for Beyonce wrote in a statement.
The song “Heated,” co-written with rapper Drake among others, uses a word that is considered a derogatory reference to the medical term spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy. Lizzo also removed the word from her song “Grrrls” in June after disability advocates complained.
Disability advocate Hannah Diviney, who pointed out Lizzo’s lyrics that lead to the change, wrote on Twitter that hearing the word again used by Beyonce “felt like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo.”
Actor Carroll dies: Emmy winner Pat Carroll, a
comedic television mainstay and the voice Ursula in “The Little Mermaid,” has died at age 95. Her daughter Kerry Karsian said Carroll died Saturday at her Massachusetts home.
Carroll won an Emmy for her work on the sketch comedy series “Caesar’s Hour,” was a regular on “Make Room for Daddy,” a guest star on “The DuPont Show with June Allyson” and a variety show regular on “The Danny Kaye Show,” “The Red Skelton Show” and “The Carol Burnett Show.” A new generation would come to know and love her voice thanks to the 1989 Disney film “The Little Mermaid.”
Aug. 2 birthdays:
Keyboardist Garth Hudson is 85. Singer Kathy Lennon is 79. Actor Butch Patrick is
69. Musician Butch Vig is
67. Actor Victoria Jackson is 63. Actor Apollonia is 63. Actor Mary-Louise Parker is 58. Director Kevin Smith is 52. Actor Sam Worthington is 46. Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer is 41. Singer Charli XCX is 30.