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ZHU Takes ‘BLACK MIDAS’ on the Road With the “ON THE MOVE” World Tour

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ZHU has a new album out and a world tour to match. The GRAMMY-nominated producer and DJ has announced “ON THE MOVE,” a run of dates across Europe, South America, and North America in support of ‘BLACK MIDAS,’ out now on Broke/BLACKLIZT Sound Syndicate. Artist presale launches Wednesday, April 29 at 10 AM EST via laylo.com/zhu/m/ONTHEMOVE, with general on sale Friday, May 1 at 10 AM local time.

‘BLACK MIDAS’ is a focused, dancefloor-driven statement, deep house and melodic techno built for rooms that move. Tracks like “5STARRR,” “LEVELZZZ,” and “BURN” hit with the kind of atmospheric weight ZHU has been refining since his 2014 breakout “Faded” earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Dance Recording. The album also features collaborations with Mahmut Orhan, GCBestBelieve, THEY., and Joyia.

The “ON THE MOVE” dates kick off May 15 in Bogota and roll through a mix of clubs and festivals that map ZHU’s global reach. Festival slots include Into The Horizon in San Diego, Audioriver in Poland, and Tomorrowland in Belgium. First-time plays include Medusa Club in Medellin, Club Chinois Ibiza, Pacha Munich, The Concourse Project in Austin, and SILO in Dallas. He also returns to London’s The Roundhouse and Turkish clubs La Nouba, Yuzu Beach, and MAGI Beach, where his BLACKLIZT events previously made their mark.

ZHU is encouraging fans to wear all black to “ON THE MOVE” shows, an extension of the immersive BLACKLIZT concept he’s been building for years. This isn’t just a DJ tour. It’s a full atmospheric experience, and ‘BLACK MIDAS’ gives it the right soundtrack.

2026 ON THE MOVE Tour Dates:

May 15 — Bogota, Colombia @ Octava

May 16 — Medellin, Colombia @ Medusa Club

Jun 27 — San Diego, CA @ Into The Horizon Festival

Jul 10 — Lodz, Poland @ Audioriver Festival

Jul 17 — Cetinje, Montenegro @ Monte 1350

Jul 18 — London, England @ The Roundhouse

Jul 22 — Ibiza, Spain @ Club Chinois Ibiza

Jul 24 — Munich, Germany @ Pacha Munich

Jul 25 — Boom, Belgium @ Tomorrowland

Jul 31 — Yani, Cyprus @ La Nouba

Aug 1 — Izmir, Turkey @ Yuzu Beach

Aug 2 — Bodrum, Turkey @ MAGI Beach

Aug 14 — El Paso, TX @ The Elmont

Aug 15 — Chicago, IL @ Navy Pier Open Air

Sep 11 — Brooklyn, NY @ Pacha New York

Sep 25 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern

Oct 16 — Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheatre

Oct 23 — Austin, TX @ The Concourse Project

Oct 31 — San Francisco, CA @ Goldbar Distillery Treasure Island

Nov 13 — Albuquerque, NM @ Revel

Nov 14 — Dallas, TX @ SILO

‘BLACK MIDAS’ Track Listing:

MIDAS INTRO

BLACK MIDAS

IN THE WILD with Mahmut Orhan

LEVELZZZ with GCBestBelieve

5STARRR with THEY.

BURN with Joyia

ONE DESIRE

HURTS4ME

WHAT I NEED

KEEP IT MOVING

FIREAWAY

NEW SHOES

TANGIER

RAINDOWN

Simple Plan Are Bringing Their Pop-Punk Legacy to Niagara Falls This December

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Simple Plan are coming to the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino on Saturday, December 19, 2026, and it’s the kind of booking that makes a lot of sense. One of Canada’s most enduring rock exports, playing one of the country’s top-ranked venues, right before the holidays. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m. through ticketmaster.ca.

The Montreal-formed quartet have accumulated over 10 billion streams worldwide and built a catalog that’s held up across two decades of pop-punk. Their 2002 multi-platinum debut ‘No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls’ launched with “I’d Do Anything,” “I’m Just A Kid,” “Addicted,” and “Perfect,” and the hits kept coming from there. “Welcome To My Life,” “Summer Paradise,” and “Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?)” are the kind of tracks that still move rooms full of people.

“Simple Plan has been a defining force in Canadian rock, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino this December,” said Cathy Price, Vice President of Marketing and Resort Operations for Niagara Casinos.

The OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino holds 5,000 and is ranked the number one venue in Canada based on size. For a band that’s headlined main stages around the world, it’s a fitting room. December 19 is going to be a good night.

Show Details:

Simple Plan Saturday, December 19, 2026 Showtime: 8:00 PM OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls, ON Tickets on sale Friday, May 1 at 10:00 AM via ticketmaster.ca

Bring Me The Horizon Bring “POST HUMAN: NeX GEn – The Third Ascension Program” to North America This Fall

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Bring Me The Horizon are heading back to North America, and this run is a long time coming. The BRIT and GRAMMY-nominated Sheffield outfit have announced “POST HUMAN: NeX GEn – The Third Ascension Program,” a nine-date headline tour spanning Canada and the U.S. this fall. Support comes from Motionless in White and The Plot in You.

The dates matter beyond the scale. This marks the band’s first performances in nearly 15 years in select Western Canadian cities, a gap that makes stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg feel genuinely significant. The Canadian run kicks off September 20 in Vancouver and works its way east before crossing into the U.S. for dates in Grand Rapids and beyond.

The tour expands on the fully immersive live universe the band has been building throughout the POST HUMAN era, a high-impact, multi-sensory experience blending cutting-edge visuals, cyberpunk aesthetics, and relentless energy. If you’ve seen what they’ve been doing on the current global run, you already know what’s at stake.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 1 at 10 AM local time at BMTHofficial.com/live. An artist presale runs Wednesday, April 28 at 10 AM local for 36 hours, followed by a Spotify presale Thursday, April 30 at 10 AM local for 12 hours. VIP packages are also available, including premium tickets, early entry, exclusive merch, and access to a curated display of rare and archival band items.

The Third Ascension Program tour announcement comes alongside news that the band’s seminal 2006 debut ‘Count Your Blessings’ is getting a full re-recording for its 20th anniversary. ‘Count Your Blessings | Repented’ arrives July 10 on vinyl, CD, and streaming, with Sykes and guitarist Lee Malia joined by Buster Odeholm on mixing. The album will also be celebrated live at Outbreak Festival in Manchester on July 10.

Bring Me The Horizon have sold over 7.2 million albums worldwide and hold multiple UK No. 1 records. The Third Ascension Program is the next chapter in a live show that keeps raising the bar.

2026 Tour Dates:

POST HUMAN: NeX GEn – Ascension Program 2

Tues Apr 28 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

Weds Apr 29 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre

Fri May 1 — Worcester, MA @ DCU Center

Sat May 2 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

Mon May 4 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena

Tues May 5 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena

Thurs May 7 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena

Sat May 9 — Daytona, FL @ Welcome to Rockville

Mon May 11 — St Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center

Tues May 12 — Kansas City, MO @ T Mobile Center

Weds May 13 — St Paul, MN @ Grand Casino Arena

Fri May 15 — Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena

Sat May 16 — Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple Festival

Festival & International Dates

Jun 3–6 — Solvesborg, SE @ Sweden Rock Festival

Tues Jun 9 — Kraków, PL @ Tauron Arena

Fri Jun 12 — Hradec Králové, CZ @ Rock for People

Sun Jun 14 — Nickelsdorf, AT @ Nova Rock

Thurs Jun 18 — Clisson, FR @ Hellfest

Sat Jun 20 — Dessel, BE @ Graspop

Jun 24–27 — Oslo, NO @ Tons of Rock

Thurs Jun 25 — Copenhagen, DK @ Copenhell

Jun 25–27 — Seinäjoki, FI @ Provinssi

Jun 26–28 — Helsinki, FI @ Tuska

Thurs Jul 2 — Ferrara, IT @ Ferrara Summer Festival

Fri Jul 10 — Manchester, UK @ B.E.C. Arena (Outbreak Presents: Count Your Blessings | Repented)

Fri Aug 14 — Budapest, HU @ Sziget Festival

Sat Sep 5 — Rio de Janeiro, BR @ Rock in Rio

POST HUMAN: NeX GEn – The Third Ascension Program

Sun Sep 20 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena

Weds Sep 23 — Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place

Thurs Sep 24 — Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome

Sat Sep 26 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre

Weds Sep 30 — Quebec City, QC @ Videotron Centre

Fri Oct 2 — Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre

Sat Oct 3 — Hamilton, ON @ TD Coliseum

Tues Oct 6 — London, ON @ Canada Life Place

Thurs Oct 8 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena

Bella Kay Drops Guitar-Driven New Single “Promise?” and She’s Just Getting Started

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Bella Kay has a new single out, and it hits exactly the way you’d want it to. “Promise?” is a guitar-driven anthem that builds into a soaring, cathartic bridge, raw and emotionally precise in the way that’s become her calling card. The Texas-born singer-songwriter is 20 years old and already operating at a level most artists spend years trying to reach. Listen here.

The new track follows her February 2026 EP ‘a couple minutes out,’ which produced the breakout hit “iloveitiloveitiloveit.” That song earned an American Music Awards nomination for Song of the Summer, landed on the Billboard Hot 100, and has racked up over 250 million streams and 2.2 billion TikTok views across 1.2 million creates. It’s also climbing at pop radio right now.

Before that, there was “The Sick,” the viral ballad that surpassed 175 million streams and generated over 2 billion TikTok views. Kay’s catalog is young and already stacked with moments that connect. Her writing pulls from heartbreak, alienation, and survival, delivered with a vulnerability that doesn’t feel performed.

She recently wrapped a U.S. run supporting Maisie Peters, and the live show is clearly catching up to the streaming numbers. This May, she launches sold-out European and UK headline dates, followed by her first U.S. headline tour this summer, with multiple dates already sold out before she even arrives stateside.

Later this fall, she joins Noah Kahan as support on his UK and Ireland arena tour, her largest performances to date. She’ll also make festival debuts at The Great Escape, All Things Go, and Lollapalooza. “Promise?” is out now and worth your full attention.

2026 Tour Dates:

EU / UK Headline & Festival

May 6 — Amsterdam, NL @ Tolhuistuin [SOLD OUT]

May 8 — Paris, FR @ Les Etoiles [SOLD OUT]

May 10 — Dublin, IE @ Academy Main Room [SOLD OUT]

May 12 — London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington [SOLD OUT]

May 15 — Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape (Festival)

May 17 — Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy 3 [SOLD OUT]

May 19 — Berlin, DE @ Prachtwerk [SOLD OUT]

May 20 — Cologne, DE @ Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld [SOLD OUT]

North America Headline & Festival

June 4 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall [SOLD OUT]

June 6 — Toronto, ON @ All Things Go (Festival)

June 10 — New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg [SOLD OUT]

June 13 — Austin, TX @ Brushy Street Commons [SOLD OUT]

June 16 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy [SOLD OUT]

July 30 — Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza (Festival)

UK & IE Supporting Noah Kahan (Arena Tour)

Nov 5 — Glasgow, UK @ OVO Hydro

Nov 6 — Glasgow, UK @ OVO Hydro

Nov 9 — Manchester, UK @ AO Arena

Nov 10 — Manchester, UK @ AO Arena

Nov 13 — London, UK @ The O2 Arena

Nov 14 — London, UK @ The O2 Arena

Nov 17 — London, UK @ The O2 Arena

Nov 19 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena

Nov 21 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena

Nov 22 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena

Nedra Talley Ross, the Last Surviving Ronette and Voice Behind “Be My Baby,” Dies at 80

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Nedra Talley Ross, the last surviving founding member of The Ronettes, died on the morning of Sunday, April 26, 2026, at her home in Virginia Beach. She was 80, and with her passing, the curtain closes on one of the most influential girl groups in pop history.

Born Nedra Yvonne Talley on January 27, 1946, in Manhattan, she began singing as a child alongside her cousins, sisters Ronnie and Estelle Bennett. They performed at sock hops and bar mitzvahs, calling themselves the Darling Sisters, then Ronnie and the Relatives, before landing on the name that combined pieces of each of their own: The Ronettes. It was a fitting origin for a group that always felt like something built from the inside out.

Their 1963 audition for producer Phil Spector changed everything. “Be My Baby,” co-written by Spector with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the most recognizable opening drum beats in recorded music. The hits kept coming: “Baby I Love You,” “Walking in the Rain,” and “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up” all charted, and their sole album, 1964’s ‘Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes,’ cemented their place in pop’s upper tier.

The Ronettes’ reach was staggering. They toured the UK, where the Rolling Stones served as their opening act. Keith Richards later wrote that they were “the hottest girl group in the world.” They joined the Beatles on their final world tour in 1966, a fact made even more remarkable by the backstage details: Talley Ross took lead vocals alongside Estelle on that tour, as Phil Spector had forbidden Ronnie, by then his partner, from performing.

The group split in 1967, partly due to Spector’s increasingly controlling grip on their career, and partly because Talley Ross had found a deeper calling in Christian music. She married DJ and media personality Scott Ross that same year and moved to Virginia. In 1978, she released ‘Full Circle,’ a solo contemporary Christian album produced by her husband, with guitarist Phil Keaggy backing her throughout.

The legal fight that followed the group’s breakup was long and grueling. The Ronettes spent decades pursuing Spector over unpaid royalties, eventually winning a court order for $2.6 million in 2000. It was a hard-fought recognition of what their music had always been worth.

In 2007, Keith Richards introduced The Ronettes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. “They could sing their way right through a wall of sound,” he said. “They touched my heart right there and then, and they touch it still.” The group performed three songs, including “Be My Baby,” to a standing ovation. Talley Ross and Ronnie performed without Estelle, who was present but not well enough to sing.

Those who knew Talley Ross described her as someone who never let stardom reshape who she was. Her son Ryan, sitting beside her during one of her final interviews in Cleveland earlier this year, put it simply: “She would talk to anybody. She was nice to everybody. She never really thought of herself as a star in that sense. She was always a mother, and a sister, and a cousin and a wife.”

Estelle Bennett died in 2009. Ronnie Spector died in 2022. Talley Ross outlasted them both, and carried the story forward with grace. She is survived by her four children.

Mariclare Costello, Beloved Actress of “The Waltons” and Cult Horror Classic, Dies at 90

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Mariclare Costello lived a life that moved between stages, screens, classrooms, and communities with the same quiet authority. The actress, born February 3, 1936, in Peoria, Illinois, died April 17, 2026, in Brooklyn, at the age of 90. She leaves behind a career of remarkable range and a legacy that extended well beyond any single role.

Most audiences knew her as Rosemary Hunter on CBS’s The Waltons, where she appeared in 15 episodes across the show’s first five seasons. Her character, the schoolteacher who eventually married the Rev. Matthew Fordwick (John Ritter), was warm and grounded, exactly the qualities Costello brought to everything she did. “I had the greatest time with Richard Thomas and John Ritter,” she recalled in a 2011 interview. “We laughed from the beginning of the day until the end of the day.”

Horror fans claimed her just as firmly. Her turn as Emily Bishop in the 1971 cult film ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death,’ a hippie-vampire who rises from a lake in a wedding dress, remains one of the genre’s most haunting performances. It’s the kind of role that follows an actress forever, and Costello wore it well.

Her theatrical roots ran deep. She studied improv with Viola Spolin at Catholic University, earned her master’s in Theater and Education, and performed for President Kennedy as Nerissa in a production of ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ In 1964, she was among just 30 actors selected for the original Lincoln Center Repertory Company, where she originated the role of Louise in Arthur Miller’s ‘After the Fall,’ directed by Elia Kazan, opposite Jason Robards.

Broadway followed, four times over, including a 1970 revival of ‘Harvey’ alongside Jimmy Stewart and Helen Hayes, and an early production with Stacy Keach. She was a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, and trained alongside Jerome Robbins, James Earl Jones, Faye Dunaway, Hal Holbrook, and Austin Pendleton.

Her television work spanned decades. She appeared in ‘Ordinary People,’ ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,’ ‘Raid on Entebbe,’ and episodes of Ironside, Kojak, Lou Grant, Murder She Wrote, Chicago Hope, and Judging Amy. In 1974, she played the wife of Martin Sheen’s title character in the Emmy-winning telefilm ‘The Execution of Private Slovik.’ Each credit was another proof of her versatility.

After her on-screen career wound down, she poured that same energy into teaching. She led the drama program at St. Paul the Apostle Elementary School in Westwood, directed at Loyola High School and Loyola Marymount University, and led a theater group at Homeboy Industries, the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. Her basement was filled floor to ceiling with costumes and props. Her productions, by all accounts, were works of extraordinary care.

She met her husband, actor Allan Arbus, in an acting class taught by Mira Rostova. They fell in love rehearsing a Dorothy Parker one-act, moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, and married at home in 1977 after twelve years together. Arbus died in 2013. The last production she saw was ‘Waiting for Godot,’ directed by her daughter Arin at Theater for a New Audience.

Costello is survived by her daughter Arin and her partner Ethan, granddaughter Bird, step-daughters Amy and Doon, and her nieces and nephew.

Kenny Beecham Launches New Postseason Show on SiriusXM NBA Radio

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SiriusXM announced today that popular basketball media personality Kenny Beecham, founder of the media and lifestyle brand, Enjoy Basketball, is joining SiriusXM to host a series of exclusive shows airing throughout the 2026 NBA postseason.

“The Kenny Beecham Hour,” Beecham’s first live radio show, debuts today, April 27, and will air live every Monday at noon ET/9 am PT on SiriusXM NBA Radio (channel 86) through the 2026 NBA Draft. Beecham, a rising star in basketball media, will share his unique take on postseason matchups and results, interview players, and take live calls from fans across the country.

“I’m thrilled to partner with SiriusXM to bring ‘The Kenny Beecham Hour’ to the airwaves during the NBA Playoffs,” said Beecham.  “This is an incredible opportunity to connect with fans at the most exciting time of the season.”

Beecham has built a following of millions of basketball fans through his media and lifestyle brand, Enjoy Basketball, his social media posts, newsletter, and the shows and podcasts he hosts and produces on YouTube, NBC, Peacock and ESPN. He began his career in 2011, streaming NBA 2K on Twitch and posting recordings on YouTube, and this year was featured by Forbes in its prestigious 30-under-30 list of standout leaders in business, culture and entrepreneurship.

SiriusXM gives NBA fans access to every NBA game broadcast live throughout the regular season, playoffs and Finals. For a schedule of games go to www.siriusxm.com/sports.

SiriusXM also offers the only 24/7 radio channel dedicated to the NBA – SiriusXM NBA Radio – to listeners across North America in their cars and streaming on the SiriusXM app. The channel’s roster of analysts features several former players, coaches and executives including Brian Scalabrine, Antonio Daniels, Eddie Johnson, Ryan McDonough, Sam Mitchell, Amin Elhassan, Greg Anthony and Sarah Kustok as well as insiders Frank Isola, Justin Termine, Rob Perez, Gerald Brown, Zach Harper, Chris Haynes, Marc Stein, Jason Jackson, Vince Goodwill and Brian Geltzeiler.

7 Times Album Artwork Told a Story Before You Even Pressed Play

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There is a reason people still talk about album covers decades after the music inside them has already become part of the furniture of their lives. A great album cover is not decoration. It is argument, confession, provocation, and poetry compressed into a single image. Here are seven times artists used that square of real estate to say something that the music alone could not quite say on its own.

Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here (1975)

Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis created one of the most quietly devastating images in rock history: two businessmen shaking hands in a parking lot, one of them silently on fire. The story it tells is about emotional armour, about the professional smiles people wear while something inside them is burning, and about the music industry’s particular talent for turning genuine feeling into a transaction. It is also, of course, about Syd Barrett, the man who wasn’t there anymore, and the grief of watching someone disappear while the world just keeps doing business.

The Beatles, Yesterday and Today (1966)

The so-called butcher cover is still one of the most genuinely shocking images any major pop act has ever attached to their name. The band surrounded by raw meat and dismembered doll parts was partly a sardonic commentary on the American practice of chopping up their UK albums into different configurations for the US market, and partly something darker and harder to pin down. Capitol Records recalled it almost immediately, pasting a bland replacement cover over the top, which means that underneath many surviving copies of the record, the original image is still there. Hidden, papered over, but not gone.

Neil Young, On the Beach (1974)

This one hurts to look at for too long. A Cadillac buried hood-first in the sand. Empty lawn chairs. A solitary figure facing the ocean with his back to everything. Young staged the entire scene deliberately on a Santa Monica beach as a portrait of complete psychic exhaustion, the feeling of having arrived somewhere and found nothing waiting. It came out during what Young himself called the ditch trilogy, a run of albums that documented a deliberate retreat from the spotlight into something more honest and considerably more painful. The cover does not promise you a good time. It warns you.

The Clash, London Calling (1979)

Pennie Smith almost did not submit this photograph. She thought it was too blurry, too chaotic, not good enough technically. Paul Simonon smashing his bass into the stage at the Palladium in New York, caught in a moment of pure physical fury, was apparently not what she considered her best work. The band disagreed, and they were right. That blur is the whole point. Clarity was never what punk was after. The image became one of the most reproduced rock photographs in history, and it captures something no sharp, well-lit photo ever could: the precise sound of something breaking on purpose.

Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

Drew Struzan, who would go on to paint some of the most iconic movie posters of the twentieth century, designed a cover that functions as a complete moral and philosophical argument about mortality. The front depicts a man in the grip of a demonic nightmare, a bad death, violent and terrifying. Flip the record over and the same man exists in a state of peaceful transcendence, a good death, surrendered and at ease. Sabbath were always more interested in the big questions than they were given credit for, and this cover makes the case better than any press release could.

Green Day, Dookie (1994)

Richie Bucher’s cartoon artwork for Dookie looks like chaos at first glance and reveals itself as biography the longer you look. The Berkeley streets, the Gilman Street scene, the band’s own faces buried in the crowd, the specific texture of being young and broke and restless and furious and finding your people in a sweaty punk club. It is a document of a time and a place that no longer exists in the form it once did, and the fact that it looks like a mess is entirely the point. Teenage life is a mess. The cover knows that.

Pink Floyd, Animals (1977)

The photograph almost didn’t happen at all. The forty-foot inflatable pig that was supposed to float above Battersea Power Station for the shoot broke free of its moorings, drifted into controlled airspace, forced the temporary grounding of flights at Heathrow, and was eventually found in a field in Kent. The image that made it onto the cover is from the day before, when the pig was still tethered. But the story of what happened the next day is so perfectly in keeping with the cover’s whole Orwellian argument about power, control, and the inevitable moment when things refuse to stay where they are put, that it feels less like an accident and more like the album making its own point.

Dylan Carter, ‘The Voice’ Season 24 Contestant and Lowcountry Soul, Dies at 24

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Dylan Carter had already lived more lives than most people twice his age. A singer-songwriter, a realtor, a campground co-owner, a community fundraiser, and a young man who carried his mother’s memory with him everywhere he went, Carter died on Saturday night in Colleton County, South Carolina, the result of a car accident. He was 24 years old. The Lowcountry community he had spent his life entertaining is in mourning, and the silence where his voice used to be is going to take a long time to fill.

Carter grew up in St. George, South Carolina, a small town in the Lowcountry about an hour outside Charleston, and discovered his passion for music at the age of ten. He started writing songs and performing at local farmers markets, churches, weddings, and special events, building a following one room at a time in the way that only artists who truly love what they do actually build one. He auditioned for NBC’s The Voice twice before earning his four-chair turn on Season 24, and when he chose to join Team Reba, he became part of country music legend Reba McEntire’s first-ever team on the show. The song he sang for that blind audition was Whitney Houston’s “I Look to You,” a tribute to his mother, who had passed away the year before. He had tried to sing it at her funeral and couldn’t finish it. On that stage, he did.

After The Voice, Carter came home and kept working. He performed throughout the Lowcountry, booked weddings, fundraisers, restaurants, and backyard parties, and described himself with characteristic warmth as a one-man band who promised every audience laughter, smiles, singing, and perhaps a little boot scootin’ boogie. He worked as a realtor by day to support his music career and was a co-owner of Sunny Days Campground near Lake Marion in the Santee community. He was also co-founder of The Local Voice, a nonprofit based in Santee that provides care to women fighting breast cancer, and threw himself into that work with the same generosity he brought to everything else.

The Local Voice shared the news of his passing with words that said everything about who he was. “Dylan was the heart of what we do,” the organization wrote. “He believed every voice matters and lived that every day. Through his music, his kindness, and his smile, he brought people together and made everyone feel seen.” Moncks Corner Mayor Thomas Hamilton Jr., who had to cancel a Music on Main event that Carter was scheduled to headline on Monday, wrote that Carter was far more than an entertainer to his community. “He was our friend,” Hamilton wrote, “and we are deeply saddened.”

Reba McEntire told Carter to use his voice to touch people’s hearts. By every account from everyone who knew him, that is exactly what he did, every single time he walked onto a stage. He was 24 years old and just getting started.

McDonald’s Stranger Things Happy Meal and a Secret Menu Are Making 2026 Its Most Interesting Year in Decades

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Nobody expected fast food to be this entertaining in 2026. But McDonald’s, the golden arches institution that has been selling Big Macs since 1968, is doing two things this year that are so perfectly timed and so smartly conceived that the industry is paying close attention. A secret menu that actually becomes official. A Stranger Things Happy Meal designed just as much for the adults who grew up watching the show as for their kids. This is not your grandfather’s McDonald’s, and that is kind of thrilling.

The secret menu is where things get genuinely clever. For years, McDonald’s fans have been creating unofficial ordering hacks, the Surf N’ Turf burger, Big Mac sauce applied to everything, and sharing them relentlessly on TikTok and Reddit. McDonald’s spent years either ignoring this or quietly tolerating it. In 2026, they decided to do the smart thing and own it entirely, formally launching an official secret menu inspired by those viral customer creations and debuting it internationally. It is a masterclass in letting your audience tell you what they want and then giving it to them with a bow on top.

Then there is the Stranger Things tie-in, which launches in the US on May 5 and is already rolling out across Latin America and Europe. Each Happy Meal comes with a custom-designed box featuring artwork inspired by the Upside Down, one of 12 collectible character toys, a Stranger Things activity book, and a QR code that unlocks an interactive digital game where fans can join the Hawkins Investigators Club and battle monsters threatening the town. Two new characters are revealed every week, which means McDonald’s has quietly engineered a reason for people to come back repeatedly throughout the entire campaign. That is not a Happy Meal. That is a loyalty program disguised as a toy collection.

What makes all of this more impressive is the context in which it is happening. McDonald’s is navigating a more challenging operating environment, with rising food costs, slowing customer traffic, and increasingly cautious consumer spending weighing on the fast-food sector. Competitors are closing locations. Consumers are watching every dollar. And McDonald’s response is to lean into pop culture, nostalgia, digital engagement, and the very online communities that have been talking about their food for free for years. Digital platforms now reach nearly 210 million 90-day active users across 70 markets, and loyalty customers generated about $37 billion in systemwide sales in 2025, up 20 percent year over year. These are not vanity metrics. They are the whole strategy.

The bigger picture here is that McDonald’s is quietly repositioning the Happy Meal itself as something more than a kids’ lunch. It is an entry point into a digital ecosystem, a collectible series, a conversation starter, and a piece of pop culture all at once. The Stranger Things generation grew up. They have disposable income, nostalgia for Hawkins, Indiana, and apparently a genuine willingness to go through a drive-thru to pick up a toy of Eleven or Dustin. McDonald’s figured that out before most of their competitors did, and in a year when the fast food industry is under real pressure, that kind of creative thinking might be exactly what the doctor ordered. Or in this case, what the Demogorgon ordered.