Music

While Taylor Swift hasn’t been seen out and about much lately, her presence seems to hover over everything that’s happening in pop culture, from Capitol Hill to reality TV.

Of course, the disaster that was the ticket sale for Taylor’s Eras tour helped to bring about the congressional hearings on the concert and ticketing industries earlier this week.  The hearing, called “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” was spearheaded by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who’s now she’s revealed her favorite T. Swift jam.

As previously reported, the senators constantly quoted Taylor lyrics during the hearing, from “All Too Well” to “Blank Space” to “Anti-Hero.”  But Klobuchar tells Variety that her favorite song is actually “I Knew You Were Trouble” —  “because that’s how I feel like when several of our committee members walk in the door,” she laughs.

Meanwhile, over on ABC’s The Bachelor, one of the contestants also has a Taylor connection: Christine Mandrell, one of the women vying for Bachelor Zach Shallcross’ attention, appeared in the video for Taylor’s 2008 single, “Fifteen.” In the video, Christine, the niece of country legend Barbara Mandrell, is seen looking at Taylor as she stands in the rain.

Christine posted a clip of her appearance on social media and wrote, “Apparently I look at Zach the same way I look at Taylor Swift..New Conspiracy theory, first I stared at Taylor, then stared at Zach, which inevitably leads to me crying on the STAIRs.”

Meanwhile, Taylor herself will make an appearance via video Thursday night. She’s revealed on Instagram that the premiere of the video for “Lavender Haze” will debut today — at midnight, naturally.

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Last week, John Mayer teased an announcement, and now we know what it is: For the first time in his career, he’s going to do a solo acoustic tour.

The arena tour starts March 11 in Newark, NJ and will wrap up April 14 in L.A.  Tickets go on sale February 3 at 9 a.m. local time via JohnMayer.com.  Presales start February 1 at 9 a.m. local time; you can sign up for access at John’s website.  VIP packages are also available.

Singer/songwriters Alec Benjamin, Lizzy McAlpine and a “special guest” to be named later will open the shows, which will feature some new material, as well as performances of hits like “Gravity,” “Daughters,” “Waiting on the World to Change” and of course, “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”

On Instagram, John writes, “I began my career on stage with only a guitar and a microphone. A lot has changed since then, but I knew one day I’d feel it in my heart to do an entire run of shows on my own again, just like those early days. It took a couple of decades, but I feel it now. I’ll be playing old songs. Newer songs. Songs you haven’t heard yet that I’ll be road testing – all on acoustic, electric, and piano.”

At each show, two pairs of front-row tickets will be auctioned off via charityauctionstoday.com, with proceeds going to the charity Back to You Fund. The Fund has supported charities including programs for at-risk youth, the homeless and John’s own Heart & Armor Foundation.

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Lady Gaga shared her reaction to being nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Academy Awards for “Hold My Hand,” from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, along with an update on the status of the upcoming Joker sequel.

“Thank you so much to the Academy for nominating my song ‘Hold My Hand’ for an Oscar this year!” she wrote on her Instagram, alongside a photo of herself holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Writing this song for the film Top Gun: Maverick was a deep and powerful experience that I will never forget,” she continued. “So grateful for the magic of music and cinema. Love you my co-writer @bloodpop.”

“I’m on set filming now big love to little monsters!” she added, followed by a joker card emoji, referring to her role in the upcoming Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, set to hit theaters in 2024.

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The explanation for the title of Elle King‘s first full-length country album, Come Get Your Wife, is every bit as colorful as you might expect from the “Ex’s and Oh’s” rocker.

“In the past 10 years of my life, the only fistfights I’ve ever gotten into were at concerts,” she begins. “And it was usually sticking up for somebody else. But that’s kind of what happened. You know, people giving elbows.”

This time, however, it was Elle who was throwing a few jabs.

“In the sense of the title of my album, the elbows I was throwing were just inappropriate jokes,” she recalls. “And, you know, somebody shouted over me to my partner, ‘Come get your wife!'”

“And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good album title,'” she laughs.

Come Get Your Wife comes out Friday, January 27, and features Elle’s second country #1, “Drunk (And I Don’t Want to Go Home)” with Miranda Lambert, as well as her current single with Dierks Bentley, “Worth a Shot.” Elle’s first country #1 was 2016’s “Different for Girls” with Dierks.

Friday morning, Elle celebrates her new record’s release with an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America.

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Saturday Night Live musical guests sometimes have other artists to join them onstage, but nobody could’ve predicted that Sam Smith‘s special guest for their performance of “Gloria” last weekend would be iconic actress Sharon Stone. So how’d that happen? Turns out all Sam had to do was ask.

Stone tells Variety that she first met Sam in 2019 through singer/songwriter Rufus Wainright at the premiere of the Judy Garland biopic Judy. She explains, “Sam DM’ed me, maybe a month ago, and said, ‘I know it’s really a long shot, but would you like to do this?'”

At that exact moment, Stone recalls, she was listening to “Sam Smith Radio” on a streaming service and told them, “Well, I think the universe has already decided this.” She added that she’d be “absolutely ecstatic” to do it because she thinks Sam is the “most astounding performer.”

Stone then had a special dress made, and Sam showed her sketches of the stage setup, which had her lying on a box surrounded by a choir dressed in sequined hooded robes, with Sam in the middle dressed in gold.

During the performance, Stone didn’t say anything: She just looked straight up, then sat up and looked off into the distance with a strange expression on her face.

“Sam did not ask for anything from me — just asked me if I would do it and trusted me,” she explains. “We just innately understand each other, at an almost intimate level.”

“We have no judgment of each other; we have only affirmative feelings about each other as an artist,” she adds. “It’s not a competitive sport, but we want each other to bring our best game, and in order to do that, it’s like, ‘Just go for it, girl.’”

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Måneskin is set to play Amazon Music’s City Sessions series.

The online event will broadcast a live performance from New York City, featuring renditions of songs off the new Måneskin album Rush!, along with a Q&A with the Italian rockers.

You can tune in to watch this Friday, January 27, at 9 p.m. ET via the Amazon Music Twitch channel.

Måneskin’s week also includes a stop by NBC’s The Tonight Show on Thursday, during which they will be interviewed by Jimmy Fallon and perform the Rush! track “Gossip” alongside Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello.

Rush!, Måneskin’s first album since their 2021 breakout, was released last Friday. It also includes the singles “Supermodel” and “The Loneliest.”

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Cher is a proud Armenian-American and is using her “political capital,” as she puts it, to call for the U.S. government to come to the aid of Armenians who are currently under attack in Western Asia.

Cher has written an op-ed for Newsweek in partnership with her friend Eric Esrailian, an Armenian-American doctor, humanitarian and film producer. Called “You Cannot Erase Us,” it describes how the people of Armenia and the breakaway state of Artsakh, an ancestral Armenian homeland, are “enduring a brutal campaign” that threatens over 120,000 people.

Armenia and the neighboring country of Azerbaijan are fighting over Artsakh, with Azerbaijan blockading the only road between the two areas, cutting off delivery of food and supplies.

Azerbaijan has also destroyed some of the area’s holiest Christian sites, according to the op-ed. Cher and Esrailian describe the country’s actions as “a campaign of ethnic cleansing,” and a barbaric and “brazen attempt at cultural erasure.” According to the op-ed, hatred toward Armenians is formally taught to children in Azerbaijan.

“We will keep sharing our stories, helping our brothers and sisters in our homeland, and providing support to protect our sacred structures,” Cher and Esrailian write.

“In turn, we ask our political leaders in the United States, and the people of the world who care about justice and decency, to boycott and sanction these murderous regimes, to cut off the incessant flow of money to them, and to apply more consistent standards when it comes to championing human rights.”

Recently, Cher and Esrailian teamed up with Metal Alchemy, a jewelry line owned by an Armenian-American, to create and sell bracelets whose proceeds will go toward restoring Armenian holy sites.

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Incubus bassist Ben Kenney will miss the band’s upcoming shows in Costa Rica, Texas and New Orleans over the next week as he continues to recover from a medical procedure.

In a statement posted to their Twitter, the “Drive” rockers share that Tal Wilkenfeld, who’s played with artists including Mick Jagger, Prince and Jeff Beck, will be filling in for Kenney during the performances.

“We look forward to performing with [Wilkenfeld] on these shows!” Incubus writes. “We wish Ben a speedy recovery and can’t wait for him to rejoin us onstage soon!”

Incubus will next hit the road in May to play a run of dates including the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas and shows with Coheed and Cambria.

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