Go ahead and add award show host to the list of career accomplishments of singer-songwriter Jhene Aiko and actress Niecy Nash.
On Tuesday (Mar. 2), Aiko was announced as the host of the official Grammy Awards’ pre-show, Grammy Premiere Ceremony, set live stream on Sunday, March 14. Not only will this be the Los Angeles bred artist’s first major gig as a host, but she’ll also be the first host to also be nominated for Album of the Year on the same night.
Aiko’s third studio Chilombo album is also nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album, while her John Legend-assisted single “Lightning & Thunder” is one of fives songs up for a Grammy for Best R&B Performance.
But Women’s History Month doesn’t end there.
Claws star Niecy Nash—who revealed her marriage to musician and long-time friend, Jessica Betts last year—will serve as the host of this year’s 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, set to air virtually on Hulu and YouTube on Thursday, April 8.
“I was not suppressing my sexuality my whole life. I love who I love,” she told People after her surprise announcement. “At one point in my life, I married twice and I love those people. And today I love this person. I’ve done everything I wanted to do on my own terms and my own way.”
This isn’t Nash’s first rodeo as a host. Nash stepped in as guest host of Season 5 of FOX’s hit show, The Masked Singer after the current host, Nick Cannon, was diagnosed with COVID-19. It’s also been revealed that Nash may serve as the host of an upcoming daytime talk show which will air on CBS if given the green light.
The Grammy Awards’ Premiere Ceremony kicks off at 12 pm PT on Sunday, March 14 on Grammy.com while the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards’ live telecast—hosted by comedian and Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah—starts at 8 pm ET on CBS.
As for the Nash-hosted GLAAD Awards—which “recognizes and honors media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ+ community and the issues that affect their lives”—you can tune into the stream on YouTube at 8 pm ET and then at 10 pm ET on Hulu.
Congratulations to both ladies!
NEWS
Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.
The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.
Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.
Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.
While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.
Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.
At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.
The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.
In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.
Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.
