Dolly Parton has a string of talk show appearances planned for this week. Catch her on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, The TODAY Show on Thursday morning and The Kelly Clarkson Show on Thursday afternoon. She’ll be discussing her upcoming holiday movie, Dolly Parton’s Magic Mountain Christmas, which airs Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn to play the harmonica, you’re in luck: Chris Janson just posted a short video tutorialwith beginner harmonica tips on his social media.
In a new, behind-the-scenes video, Brett Eldredge explains how his latest album, Songs About You, differs from the albums he’s put out in the past.
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” is the most-streamed song of 2022, according to music tracker Luminate.
In a Tuesday press release, the music sales data giant crowned this year’s most-streamed hits and noted that 2022 marked a historic first in the music streaming industry. For the first time ever, total U.S. music audio streams reached 1 trillion in a single year.
To illustrate just how massive that is — if those trillion songs were played back to back in a playlist-like style, it would take 960,000 years to listen to each and every one.
To celebrate this historic first, Luminate crunched the data to see what other major music feats were made in 2022.
As for the songs that Americans listened to most, Harry’s “As It Was” leads the pack with 558 million total streams this year. Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” was the second-most listened to song, with an impressive 493 million digital spins.
In other charts, Taylor Swift’s Midnights made waves on streaming platforms when it was first released because, between October 21 and October 27, its songs accounted for one out of every 42 streams in the country.
Also, thanks to Stranger Things, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” surged 20,995 percent during the week of May 27.
John Legend released the new EP Legend (Solo Sessions) on Monday, featuring stripped-down versions of songs from his most recent album, and it was a somewhat new experience for him.
“I never have really done an album like this where I just stripped the arrangements down and just did a simple piano version of each song,” he tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “It was beautiful recording…I loved just sitting down with the piano and coming up with the way that I would arrange the song and express the song.”
With the holiday season upon us, John is looking forward to celebrating but says he is “easing” into it because he still has some work to do on The Voice, as well as some recording to finish. “We’ll try to get all of that done before the middle of December,” he says. “And then once that comes, it’s just going to be family time, holiday time. And I love that part of the year.”
For John, one of the most important parts about this Christmas is caring for his wife, Chrissy Teigen, who is pregnant with the couple’s third child. “I always have to make sure she’s take taken care of, and course appreciated for all that she does for our family,” he says. “And then we take care of our kids and those are our main focus for Christmas, for sure.”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are headed back to Saturday Night Live.
Karen O and company will be the musical guests on the NBC sketch show’s upcoming December 17 episode. It marks the trio’s second SNL performance following their debut in 2009.
Elvis star Austin Butler will host the episode.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs will likely be performing material off their new album, Cool It Down, which was released in September nine years after their last record, Mosquito, dropped.
Cool It Down is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2023 Grammys, while the Perfume Genius-featuring single “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” is up for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Engelbert Humperdinck is ready to drop some new music. The singer will release his new EP, All About Love, on Friday.
The EP features a cover of the Bee Gees’ classic “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart,” which Humperdinck first premiered back in October during his YouTube Live special. Also on the album is Humperdinck’s take on Barry White’s “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything,” Lou Rawls’ “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” the Mel & Tim classic “Starting All Over Again” and his own “Take Me Back Again.”
This is the third EP Humperdinck has released since 2019. He is planning to drop a full-length album early next year.
Brian May is working hard on a reissue of his 1983 solo EP, Star Fleet Project. The Queen guitarist shared on Instagram that it will be his next Gold Series reissue box set, and he’s expecting it will be out summer 2023.
“It won’t be just a remaster- we’re remixing everything from highest definition transfers from the original multitracks,” he writes. “You’ll still be able to hear the old mixes, but I’m excited about what we’re cooking up now,” noting, “All the original material – every detail rescued – magnificently remixed – and much more !!!”
The EP featured the late Eddie Van Halen, who May says fans will hear “in his prime that nobody ever heard before.”
May notes, “Wish I could unleash it all now – but such is the state of record production now it will take until meet Summer to turn it around. It WILL Be worth the wait – I promise !!!”
Could this newspaper ad be teasing a new Fall Out Boy album?
In a Reddit thread this week, fans shared an image from Monday’s issue of the Chicago Tribune featuring the phrases “FOB 8” and “If you build it, they will come.”
“FOB 8” seemingly refers to the next Fall Out Boy album, as their most recent record, 2018’s M A N I A, is the group’s seventh studio effort. “If you build it, they will come” references the famous line from the 1989 film Field of Dreams.
Fall Out Boy hasn’t announced anything official yet, though, so stay tuned.
Few artists make all the right decisions when it comes to their career, but there are some who make spectacularly bad decisions, and Rolling Stone is taking a long hard look at them. The mag has just come out with a list they’ve dubbed “The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History,” created by artists like TheRolling Stones, The Beatles, Eric Clapton and more.
Coming in at number one is The Rolling Stones’ decision to hire Hells Angels for security at their 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway, which ended with the death of concertgoer Meredith Hunter. Others making the top five include: Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his underage cousin at two, Decca Records passing on The Beatles in 1962 at three, Eric Clapton and his anti-vax conspiracy theories at four and the 1999 Woodstock festival at five.
Other bad decisions making the list include: U2 giving away their album Songs of Innocence for free on iTunes in 2015, Billy Squier’s cheesy music video for “Rock Me Tonight,” Steve Van Zandt quitting the E Street Band ahead of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984, John Lennon saying The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” in 1966 and lots more.
Police recovered two diamonds that had been stolen by a man posing as an executive working for Justin Timberlake, reports the Miami Herald.
Con artist James Sabatino reportedly duped jeweler Forevermark in 2017. He reportedly passed himself off as a Universal Music executive and claimed he needed jewelry for a music video featuring Justin and his wife, Jessica Biel, which would be filmed in Miami Beach.
Forevermark fell for the ruse and loaned out nine pieces, including an 8.55-carat diamond that was worth $580,000 and a 7.29-carat oval cut diamond, valued at $326,000. They filed a report with Miami police days later.
The diamonds’ whereabouts remained unknown until they were acquired by the Gemological Institute of America in June. The institute works to verify gem quality and suspected they were stolen by Sabatino.
The organization notified the FBI, and they confirmed they were a match.
As for the 46-year-old Sabatino, he was already behind bars when he first contacted Forevermark.
Between 2014 and 2017, the con artist carried out his scheme behind bars and bilked roughly $10 million in goods from other luxury brands by impersonating music executives and requesting items for music videos.
He reportedly used smuggled cell phones to communicate with the brands via email, where he’d direct his victims to send their goods to locations such as luxury hotels. A colleague of his would then sign for the delivery and try to sell the objects for a profit.
Sabatino was sentenced to spend 20 years in prison for fraud in 2017.
Kane Brown is repping country music at Super Bowl LVII.
The singer is joining the lineup for the 2023 Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest, a three-day festival leading up to the big game. He’s splitting the bill with headlining act Imagine Dragons on Saturday, February 11, the final day of the festivities before the Super Bowl takes place Sunday, February 12.
The Music Fest is set for February 9-11; Aside from Imagine Dragons, Paramore and Dave Matthews Band are each headlining a day. Anderson .Paak is performing under the stage name DJ Pee.Wee, and the Paramore-helmed night features a yet-to-be-announced “special guest.”
More names are expected to be added to the Fest, which has a reputation for producing surprise guest stars. The Super Bowl itself will take place in Glendale, Arizona, at State Farm Stadium. Rihanna is booked to play the halftime show.
Tickets to the festival go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
