Music

Is Britney Spears about to return to the stage?

In an Instagram post on Thursday night, Britney shared a photo of herself sitting on a piano bench at the 2002 American Music Awards after performing “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” She captioned it, “Sending this piano to my son this year!!!”

She went on to write, “I will never perform in the U.S. again because of extremely sensitive reasons but I hope to be sitting on a stool with a red rose in my hair, in a bun, performing with my son… in the UK and AUSTRALIA very soon. He’s a huge star and I’m so humbled to be in his presence!!! God speed, little man!!!”

Britney didn’t specify which son she was referring to, but it’s likely her younger son, Jayden James Federline, whom she has previously shared videos of playing the piano.

In the same post, Britney addressed the many videos of herself dancing on social media.

“Interestingly enough, I dance on IG to heal things in my body that people have no idea about,” she wrote. “Yup and it’s embarrassing sometimes… but I walked through the fire to save my life.”

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Morrissey has announced a new album called Make-up Is a Lie.

The 14th studio effort from the ex-Smiths frontman will arrive March 6. You can listen to its title track out now.

Make-up Is a Lie marks the first official Morrissey album since 2020’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain. He’d recorded an album called Bonfire of Teenagers in between, which he claimed was shelved by his former label, Capitol Records.

Morrissey has since singed to a new label, Sire/Warner Records. He previously released his early solo records on Sire.

Morrissey has a number of live shows lined up, including a run of U.S. shows beginning Saturday in San Antonio. Of course, he has a reputation for canceling concerts; he has already postponed one show and canceled another in 2026.

Here’s the Make-up Is a Lie track list:
“You’re Right, It’s Time”
“Make-up Is a Lie”
“Notre-Dame”
“Amazona”
“Headache”
“Boulevard”
“Zoom Zoom the Little Boy”
“The Night Pop Dropped”
“Kerching Kerching”
“Lester Bangs”
“Many Icebergs Ago”
“The Monsters of Pig Alley”

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Bruno Mars is truly back, with an upbeat, retro-sounding jam about dancing and love.

He’s dropped “I Just Might,” the first single and video for his new album The Romantic, and in it, you get multiple Mars: Bruno sings the song while fronting a band whose members are all himself. While he sings about hoping a woman’s dance moves match her beauty, two other Brunos play guitar, one plays drums, one plays percussion, one DJs and another one films him with an old-fashioned handheld camera.

Bruno, wearing a three-piece light-green embroidered suit and white shoes, sings, “Hey Mr. DJ, play a song for this pretty little lady/ ’cause if she dances as good as she looks right now/ I just might make her my baby.”  

“It’s party time! The self proclaimed Aura Lord is Back,” Bruno wrote in an Instagram post premiering the video.

The Romantic arrives Feb. 27 and Bruno will promote it with his first-ever headlining stadium tour, which kicks off April 10 in Las Vegas. You can sign up for the presale now through Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. PT; it starts Jan. 14 at 12 p.m. PT. All remaining tickets will go on sale Jan. 15 at 12 p.m. PT via Ticketmaster.

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With a collection of CMA and ACM awards, two #1 duets with Riley Green and one on her own with “Weren’t for the Wind,” it would have seemed that Ella Langley‘s career couldn’t get much hotter. 

But the Alabama native envisioned something more: a meeting of the minds with superstar Miranda Lambert.

“I put her on my manifestation board to write a song with for two years in a row,” Ella tells ABC Audio. “It’s just crazy how things work out. You know, you just think of something and you just hope one day that maybe that can happen. And next thing you know you’re putting out the song and she’s a writer on it. So that’s been so cool.” 

“The guidance I’ve gotten from her is incredible,” Ella adds.  

Not only is Miranda a co-writer on “Choosin’ Texas,” she’s also a co-producer on the song.

The lead single from Ella’s sophomore album has just become her biggest hit so far on Billboard‘s all-genre Hot 100, coming in at #5, which happens to be its current rank on the Country Airplay tally as well. 

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If you’ve enjoyed Alter Bridge‘s brand of hard rock over the band’s last seven records, it’s probably safe to say you’ll be a fan of their newly released eighth album. 

In putting together their latest studio effort, frontman Myles Kennedy tells ABC Audio, “We’re not trying to come up with some brand-new approach to what the genre is.”

“I think we’re really leaning into what we love about it and what has proved to be kind of timeless and avoiding any sort of trends,” Kennedy says. “[We’re] really just doing what we do and what we grew up listening to and what we love about heavy music.”

The new album is self-titled, and while Kennedy jokes that decision was based in laziness, he does acknowledge that the music reflects the self-actualization he and his bandmates have gone through over Alter Bridge’s 20-year career.

“That’s the one thing after all these years I feel like we definitely have achieved is we’ve kind of found our little niche,” Kennedy laughs. “There’s just a certain way we approach things. I think any band or any artist, that’s what you hope for after two decades, is you kind of establish what your sound is, what your identity is.”

He adds, “I feel like [the album is] just really leaning into what we’re about and kind of just being unapologetic about it.”

Lyrically, one of the themes of Alter Bridge is avoiding or removing yourself from toxic situations, which is reflected in the single “Silent Divide.” 

“The idea of taking the high road, attempting to, seemed kind of paramount to explore with some of these lyrics,” Kennedy says. 

Alter Bridge the album is out now. You can catch Alter Bridge touring the U.S. starting in April.

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Pixies fans, here comes your band, four decades later.

The “Where Is My Mind?” rockers have announced a retrospective series marking the 40th anniversary of their founding in 1986.

The series will focus on different tracks from throughout the Pixies catalog, beginning with the song “Here Comes Your Man,” a single off the 1989 album Doolittle.

As Pixies point out in a Facebook post, “Here Comes Your Man” has been featured in movies and TV shows including (500) Days of Summer and The Simpsons, as well as the recently premiered series finale of Stranger Things.

The most recent Pixies album is 2024’s The Night the Zombies Came.

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It may be a new year, but DJ Cassidy’s mission remains the same. As he’s done for years through his DJ sets and Pass the Mic Live! shows, he aims to unite people through music while giving flowers to the artists he loves.

“In 2026, I just want to continue using music and my craft to bring people together — uniting people from all walks of life, from all over the world, across generations — through the spirit of celebration,” Cassidy said in an interview with ABC’s On the Red Carpet. “[I want to] continue passing the mic to my heroes and bring as many smiles to as many people as possible in this crazy world.”

Cassidy is set to do just that with a special show taking place on Valentine’s Day. The one-night-only event will see him pass the mic to Ashanti, Busta Rhymes, En Vogue, Fabolous, Ja Rule, Lil’ Kim, Mya and other surprise guests at the Kia Forum, marking the first time he’s brought his popular series to California. Tickets are still available.

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After dropping a solo EP on Thanksgiving titled hi, my name is Alex, Backstreet Boy AJ McLean is releasing his full-length project, My Name Is Alexander James, on Friday. The release coincides with his birthday, which he sees as a positive sign from the universe.

“This album’s taken me four years to make … and I’m beyond proud of this entire project,” he told ABC Audio. “And the way that everything timing-wise and date-wise is all happening, it was meant to be this way. Like, the fact that my birthday lands on a Friday, I’m like, ‘This is meant to me. This is awesome!'”

The album’s title was inspired by what AJ, who is now sober, learned while enrolled in an intensive outpatient support program aimed at helping him get to the root of his addiction.

“I basically discovered that I suffered from very low self-esteem my whole life. And being in the entertainment world, you can kind of mask that pretty well. And it worked until it didn’t,” he explained. “But I was never able to shut off the AJ persona, on and off stage, which got me into a lot of s***, unfortunately.”

“I’m lucky and grateful I came out the other end and I’m still standing,” he added.

AJ’s EP featured six songs. The album adds another eight, including “Can’t Love You Anymore,” which was co-written with Teddy Swims. AJ says his two daughters gave lots of feedback on the new songs.

“They’re fans of all of daddy’s stuff. And it just fills me up with so much joy [that] every time I picked them up to go to school, [they’d say], ‘Dad, do you have a brand new song? Can you send me some new stuff?'” he said. “And so they’re my, like, strongly opinionated focus group!”

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