NEW YORK (AP) — Phil Collins, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol, Queen Latifah, Oasis, Sade and Joy Division/New Order will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with first-time nominees Wu-Tang Clan and the late Luther Vandross.
The list was revealed on Monday night's airing of “American Idol.” Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals.
Soft rocker Collins, who already is in the hall as a member of Genesis, has had such solo hits as “In the Air Tonight” and “One More Night,” and has earned eight Grammys, including album of the year in 1985 for “No Jacket Required.” Collins got in the first time he appeared on the ballot.
Soul-jazz vocalist Sade, also nominated in 2024, had such soft rock hits as “Smooth Operator” and “The Sweetest Taboo.” The Wu-Tang Clan have been hailed as rap innovators since their game-changing 1993 debut album “Enter the Wu-Tang.”
Iron Maiden, nominated twice before, helped power the new wave of British heavy metal with iconic albums like “The Number of the Beast.” Vandross, who sold more than 25 million albums and had the hits “Here and Now” and “Any Love,” died in 2005 and inspired Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther.”
This year, the hall will open its arms to the sounds of Manchester, England, inducting post-punk pioneers Joy Division and New Order — which shared most of the same members — as well as Britpop’s recently reunited Oasis, made up of Noel and Liam Gallagher. Idol, also English, has brought a punky sneer to pop with songs like “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell.”
The induction will be held Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. A TV presentation will air in December on ABC and Disney+. Next year, the ceremony will return to the hall's home of Cleveland.
Those nominated this year but who came up short for the class of 2026 include Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, Pink, New Edition and Shakira.
In addition to the performer category, inductees entering the hall can arrive under three special committee categories: early influence, musical excellence and the Ahmet Ertegun Non-Performer Award.
The early influence award this year will honor Queen Latifah, Cuban singer Celia Cruz, Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, rapper MC Lyte and country rocker Gram Parsons. The musical excellence will honor songwriter Linda Creed and producers Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin.
More than 50 years after his death, Ed Sullivan, the legendary host of his self-titled appointment-viewing TV show, will go into the hall with the Ahmet Ertegun Non-Performer Award. It's a recognition of how important his Sunday night stage became as a launchpad for nearly every musical icon of the 1950s and '60s and of how his show helped break racial barriers in American entertainment.
Last year, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, Salt-N-Pepa, The White Stripes, Carol Kaye, Nicky Hopkins, Lenny Waronker, Thom Bell and Warren Zevon all were inducted.
FILE - Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Members of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, from left, Dave Murray, Nicko McBrian, Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Janick Gers and Adrian Smith hold up their hands after being inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, 2005. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
This combination of images show, from left, Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Queen Latifah, Sade and Luther Vandross. (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to push forward with a fund to compensate his allies if two Republican holdouts do not support his nominee for attorney general, injecting fresh uncertainty into a Senate confirmation vote planned for next week and underscoring once more his interest in securing payouts for supporters who feel unjustly persecuted.
Trump asserted in his Truth Social post that he would keep acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and press ahead on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” if Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refuse to back the former federal prosecutor who was a key member of Trump’s defense team at a time when the Republican battled four indictments.
The administration needs their votes, but both lawmakers have protested Blanche's selection because of a lawsuit settlement that created a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.
In a sign of apparent progress Friday, Trump pronounced the fund “dead.” As negotiations continued into the night, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, rescheduled a committee vote for Blanche that had been postponed earlier in the week.
A spokesperson for the committee said Grassley, R-Iowa, would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess and that putting the Tuesday vote on the calendar “gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee.”
But by Saturday morning, those plans were in jeopardy with a new announcement from Trump that appeared to put the fund back on the table — and dinged the two senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.
“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard” to restore the fund. The president insisted, as he previously has, that the fund “takes care of those who have been so badly treated” during the administrations of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Tillis, who is retiring, took note of the president's turnabout by saying in a post on X that despite Trump's comments Friday, he “clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against.”
He added: “It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday."
Blanche had said at a hearing two months ago that the anti-weaponization fund would not move forward after Republican senators revolted and held up an immigration funding bill.
But Tillis and Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, said they want to ensure that the White House does not reverse course, especially as Trump continues to argue that a fund is needed.
The Department of Justice has provided the senators with language that says Blanche’s May 18 order establishing the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is “rescinded and shall have no force or effect,” according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.
Cornyn and Tillis have said they also want clarification on a separate part of the settlement that would grant Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits. Cornyn said this week that it was his understanding the audits could extend to more than 100 Trump Organization subsidiaries in the future.
“Todd Blanche said it was limited to the parties to the litigation — and it was retrospective, not prospective,” Cornyn said. “And all we’re doing is asking them to put that in writing.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., arrives for a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
FILE - Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is sworn in as he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
President Donald Trump, left, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe speak as they depart following a cabinet meeting at Camp David, near Thurmont, Md., Friday, July 31, 2026. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)
