Music

Mariah Carey was floored by a fourth-grader’s impassioned performance of her 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

The video, shared by mom Jen White-Johnson on Twitter, shows her son belting out the hit while bouncing happily to the music. “Timeline cleanse if you need one! Knox tonight at his 4th grade school winter concert singing @MariahCarey ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You,'” she wrote, adding, “#AutisticJoy on full display!”

White-Johnson expressed her love for her child before closing, “I hope Mariah sees this!!”

Mariah did, in fact, see the video and heaped praise on young Knox when retweeting the video. “Your kid IS everything!!!!!! Knox, you made my day,” the singer raved. “Your JOY gives me and everyone watching JOY. THANK YOU for reminding me why I wake up in the morning and do what I do. I love you.”  

White-Johnson was overjoyed by Mariah’s response and wrote back, “We thank you Mariah for giving us the best Christmas ever. We appreciate you showing us your amazing love and light this holiday season and for amplifying Knox’s #AutisticJoy #BlackBoyJoy This made our world!”

This isn’t the only Christmas Mariah helped make more special. The other day she upgraded a fan’s tickets to front row seats after learning she was flying over 5,000 miles from Uruguay to see her show, Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas To All, at Madison Square Garden.

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When Andy Grammer appeared on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars in 2015, his pro partner was Allison Holker. He and his wife, Aijia, became good friends with Allison and her husband, Stephen “tWitch” Boss. Following the devastating news Wednesday that Boss died by suicide, Andy took to Instagram to post a heartfelt tribute to his friend.

Struggling to hold back tears, Andy said he was “feeling rocked” by the news and wanted to sing something for “anyone that is going through it … and specifically Allison, I just love you so much.” He then sang his hit “Don’t Give Up on Me,” which carries the message to keep going because people will be there to support you.

Andy barely got through the song without crying and ended it by saying, “tWitch, we love you, buddy! We miss you already and you were such a light, my dude. I love you desperately.”  

Emotionally drained, he concluded, “That’s all I got.”

He captioned the video, “A true light left this world. Thank you for all the goodness you brought into the world through your unique movement and insanely huge heart. I love you my friend.“

Aijia posted a series of photos and videos of tWitch and wrote that the late dancer, DJ and Ellen DeGeneres Show executive producer was “a GEM of a human,” sharing, “We reconnected post COVID at his birthday party just a few months ago. It was a blast and he was smiling ear to ear all night.”

She added, “I am sending all my love to his beautiful family … Plus all his friends and family that we met celebrating his life so recently. I hope the pain he was in is over now.”

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The story of the man who discovered Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, The Isley Brothers and Bill Withers is coming to the big screen. Spinning Gold, based on the life of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, is set to release March 31, but the trailer for the movie is out now.

The trailer takes us back to the ’70s when Bogart decided to open what would become the most successful independent record company at the time. It captures the moment LaDonna Adrian Gaines learned her moniker would be Donna Summer; the studio session during which the song title “Midnight Plane to Houston” became Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia”; and the financial battles the label faced while competing against other record companies. In multiple scenes, Bogart is seen talking his artists out of doubt, and into fame and stardom.

Written, directed and produced by Bogart’s son Timothy Scott Bogart, Spinning Gold sees a star-studded cast playing the icons who inspired them. Wiz Khalifa will star as George Clinton, Jason Derulo as Ron Isley of The Isley Brothers, Tayla Parx as Donna Summer, Pink Sweat$ as Bill Withers and Ledisi as Gladys Knight.

Michelle Monaghan, Jay Pharoah, Dan Fogler, Jason Issacs, Lyndsy Fonseca, Chris Redd, Casey Likes, Sebastian Maniscalco and Jeremy Jordan are also part of the cast.

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Slipknot and Korn will perform at the 2023 Knotfest Japan.

The festival takes place April 1-2, with the Knot themselves headlining both days. The full lineup will be announced at a later date.

For more info, visit KnotfestJapan.com.

Knotfest was previously held in Japan in 2014 and 2016. The planned return in 2020 was postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other Knotfest news, Motionless in White has dropped off the lineup for this weekend’s Knotfest Brazil, citing “widespread and serious illness amongst our band and touring crew.” The group was also scheduled to perform in Brazil this week with Bring Me the Horizon.

Motionless canceled a U.S. concert earlier this month due to frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli battling an upper respiratory infection.

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A behind-the-scenes video of an executive producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show saying farewell to the chat show’s crew is being seen in a new light after the death by suicide of Stephen “tWitch” Boss.

Boss, the show’s in-house DJ and an executive producer on the show, is seen behind his fellow EP Andy Lassner as the latter gives a poignant toast to the crew as the long-running, Emmy-winning program wrapped in the spring.

“This is a life change, and we’re all going through it,” Lassner says of the show’s ending in a video that was shared on Instagram by former Warner Bros. Television senior communications executive Johanna Fuentes. “And it’s OK to be sad, and to reach out to each other.”

He added, “Keep each other close, don’t keep in the pain, talk to someone — anyone,” as Boss nodded behind him.

Fuentes’ caption read, “Have have been rooting for Twitch through every chapter, from when I first saw him audition on SYTYCD [So You Think You Can Dance] and every moment in between, including our work at WB and Ellen.”

She called him “an immense talent who brought joy to every room he walked into,” describing Boss, as many have — including DeGeneres herself Wednesday — as “such a bright light.”

Boss’ body was found in a Los Angeles motel room Tuesday evening. The medical examiner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or by visiting 988lifeline.org. You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

This year, Dan + Shay threw a “Holiday Party,” but only after they’d taken time to “Pick Out a Christmas Tree.”

Those are just the two latest holiday tunes keeping with Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney‘s tradition of delivering a couple original yuletide jams every year. The happy surprise is, it won’t be too long before they have enough tracks for their own seasonal record.

“We’ve written several, you know, original Christmas songs, right, you know, as of now,” Shay reflects. “And it’s kind of crazy because that is a daunting task because everything’s been written.”

“I mean, you have all these classics and we’re excited to have that moment to be able to finally put together a full Christmas album, because we have the songs now,” he adds.

Shay figures the only thing missing may be a few tried-and-true favorites.

“You obviously have to record some of the classics, as well,” he points out. “And we have a couple of those, as well. I think the first one we ever did as far as a cover, Christmas cover, was ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ which is one of our favorite songs of all time.”

Dan + Shay’s version of the Judy Garland classic dates all the way back to 2013, with “Christmas Isn’t Christmas” and “Take Me Home for Christmas” following in 2020, before “Officially Christmas” arrived last year.

While Shay agrees Dan + Shay’s holiday album is “in the works at some point,” he’s not revealing exactly when that might be. These days, the duo’s busy writing and recording their follow-up to 2021’s Good Things, as Shay and wife Hannah await the birth of their third son in the new year. 

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