Music

“It should cost a billion to look that good” must have been some sort of manifestation. According to Forbes, Beyoncé is now officially a billionaire, becoming the fifth musician to achieve the feat — she joins husband Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna.

Forbes pinpoints the launch of Parkwood Entertainment as the moment she started building her business empire, taking control of “every aspect” of her career in-house. While she’s earned income from businesses including Cécred, SirDavis and the now-discontinued Ivy Park, a large part of her wealth comes from her global tours, the most recent being Cowboy Carter.

“In total, the Cowboy Carter Tour grossed more than $400 million in ticket sales, per Pollstar, and another $50 million in merchandise sold at the shows, according to Forbes estimates,” Forbes writes.

The addition of earnings from her music catalog and sponsorship deals, according to Forbes, brings her to “$148 million in 2025 before taxes, making her the third-highest paid musician in the world.”

The Cowboy Carter era also led to a series of Western-inspired Levi’s commercials, which brought her roughly $10 million, as well as a halftime performance on Netflix’s NFL Christmas Day broadcast, for which she reportedly earned an estimated $60 million from the streamer.

Also notable is the Renaissance World Tour in 2023, followed by the release of its concert film distributed through AMC theaters. Bey earned nearly half of the movie’s $44 million global box office gross from the release.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you watched Taylor Swift‘s Disney+ docuseries, you saw the scene where she gives everyone on the Eras Tour bonuses. But her generosity also extends to people she doesn’t know that well — or at all.

An employee at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, revealed on a Taylor Swift fan Facebook group that she encountered Taylor, Travis Kelce and his mom, Donna Kelce, during her shift at the Chiefs’ Christmas Day game, and was surprised when Taylor handed her an extremely unexpected tip.

The employee, Robyn Gentry, wrote of Taylor, “She was running around telling everyone merry Christmas and came towards me, saying thank you so much for working on Christmas, please take this, Merry Christmas. My mind just froze. Of course I said Merry Christmas and thank you so much.”

“Travis and her were smiling so big and just kept saying merry Christmas, thank you for working Christmas,” Gentry continued. “But then they were gone and I stopped to look at what was in my hand…. $600. My whole paycheck for two weeks. I had just dropped that much for Christmas for 8 kids. I immediately started crying.”

Gentry goes on to say she couldn’t bring herself to spend the money — immediately, anyway — and posted a photo of a framed $100 bill.

“I framed one,” she wrote. “Still havent spent any, but I wanted to share the story with people who will appreciate it with me. Taylor and Travis are beautifully kind people.”

Prior to Christmas, Taylor donated $1 million to the American Heart Association and another $1 million to Feeding America.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(A previous version of this story was published on 12/29/25 at 12:53 p.m. ET. This version has been updated to include new remarks from Chappell Roan.)

The French movie icon and sex symbol Brigitte Bardot died Sunday at age 91, and Chappell Roan paid tribute to the late star on her Instagram Story.

Chappell, who was born over 40 years after Bardot became a worldwide sensation in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, posted a photo of the actress and wrote, “She was my inspiration for red wine supernova. Rest in peace Ms. Bardot.”

“Red Wine Supernova” is from Chappell’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. It was originally released as a single in 2023, but hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024 thanks to the success of “Good Luck, Babe!”  The opening lines of the song are, “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot/ She showed me things I didn’t know.”

Chappell’s not the only artist who has name-checked Bardot in a song. She also appears in the lyrics of songs by Billy Joel, Elton John, Bob Dylan and the Pretenders.

Following Chappell’s initial post, fans apparently informed her of some of Bardot’s more controversial views, which the actress espoused later in life. She supported right-wing politicians, made disparaging comments about gay people and immigrants, and was convicted and fined multiple times by French courts for “inciting racial hatred.”

Chappell wrote on her Instagram Story, “Holy s*** i did not know all the insane s*** Ms. Bardot stood for obvs I do not condone this. very disappointing to learn.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is working on a new album, he revealed to Deon Cole during a comedy show at the Hollywood Improv.

Cole brought Ye onstage to thank him for attending the show and asked the crowd to give his “good friend” a round of applause. He asked Ye if he enjoyed the show, jokingly asking him to clarify whether his laughter was genuine or just “symphony laughs.”

With Ye mostly staying quiet onstage, Cole quipped, “This is good, a good, healthy conversation. Two great friends.”

Cole asked if Ye had anything fans should be looking out for, to which Ye revealed a “new album [is] coming out.” Cole suggested he could appear on an interlude for the project, prompting a laugh from Ye.

Cole then asked Ye to send him a care package and gave him his flowers. “Thank you for being the legend that you are,” he said.

Ye was also spotted over the weekend at Disneyland with girlfriend Bianca Censori.

The rapper was expected to release his album Bully on his daughter North West‘s birthday, June 15, but it has been delayed multiples times. It’s unclear whether the new album he mentioned is an entirely different project.

The news comes ahead of his first solo performance in Italy this summer. Ye will be playing at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on July 18 as part of the Hellwatt Festival.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

50 Cent shared an Instagram post on Sunday that some believe is his way of brushing off the diss track from the men of the Let’s Rap About It podcast. He writes, “Let’s toast to success, health, and prosperity. I’m planning my new year. When I’m done, I’ll come out to play. You know everyone who plays with me wishes they didn’t in the end.”

Last year, John Legend celebrated his birthday with his wife, Chrissy Teigen, and children at a bubble experience in London and a performance of the Devil Wears Prada musical. This year, the family marked his 47th lap around the sun at the Sloomoo Institute in New York. Chrissy shared an Instagram Reel capturing highlights from their day.

A$AP Rocky teamed with the rewards program Bilt for a limited-edition vinyl of his forthcoming Don’t Be Dumb album. The vinyl, which Rocky described to People as his “love letter to New York,” is now available for preorder on Bilt’s app and website. Bilt is also covering January rent for tenants in Rocky’s old Harlem apartment building, which will also receive donations. Rocky also appears in Bilt’s game show Rent Free, where he offered free rent payments of up to $2,500 to Bilt Members. Ten winners will also get the exclusive vinyl, complete with Rocky’s signature. Don’t Be Dumb arrives on Jan. 16.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Warning performed alongside Billy Idol during a special called A Grammy Celebration of Latin Music, which aired Sunday.

The set began with the sister trio rocking out the iconic Mexican folk song “La Bamba” before Idol joined the stage alongside his guitarist Steve Stevens. Together, they transitioned into the song “Twist and Shout,” which has famously been performed by artists including The Beatles and The Isley Brothers.

“La Bamba” and “Twist and Shout” notably have a very similar chord progression, and have been previously mashed-up by Bruce Springsteen.

“The blend of these two songs and how they compliment each other in their history of how they were influenced in incredible,” The Warning said in a preshow interview. “For us, being Mexican, to be able to play ‘La Bamba’ is super, super incredible.”

You can watch footage of the performance via The Warning’s Instagram Story.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

This is how we remind you of what it sounds like when the D meets the ‘Back.

Jack Black busted out a half-remembered rendition of the Nickelback hit “How You Remind Me” during an interview with IMDb about his latest film, Anaconda. 

“What was Nickelback’s biggest hit?” Black asks aloud during the conversation. The interviewer starts to move onto the next question as the Tenacious D frontman remains deep in thought — until he finally remembers “How You Remind Me.”

Black then proceeds to sing the 2001 #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit, adding a few lyrical and vocal improvisations, along with some extra profanity not heard in the original.

“I think, amazingly, I got every lyric right,” Black declared.

Anaconda is in theaters now. As far as we know, Nickelback is not involved at all.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon says his former Sex Pistols bandmates didn’t reach out following the death of his wife, Nora Forster, in 2023.

“I expected some kind of connection when Nora died, but nothing,” Lydon tells the U.K.’s The Times.

Lydon has remained estranged from the rest of the Pistols — guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook — for some time; the band has since reformed with Frank Carter on vocals.

Lydon’s previously criticized the current iteration of the Pistols as “karaoke” and reiterates to The Times he has no interest in being part of the band.

“I still have a very great fondness for the chaps from that period,” Lydon says. “What they evolved — or devolved — into since is another consequence.”

Lydon is currently playing a run of U.K. dates with Public Image Ltd. The Carter-fronted Sex Pistols will launch a European tour in June.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Britney Spears appeared to throw shade at her family with a Christmas tree post.

On Sunday, she posted a photo of a beautifully decorated tree and captioned it, “Merry late Christmas to my beautiful family who have never disrespected me, harmed me, ever done anything completely unacceptable or caused unbelievable trauma, the kind you can’t fix.”

She continued, “to my dear sweet innocent family … so so sorry I was busy this Christmas but I will definitely show up and surprise you soon …I can’t wait ….hello, beautiful Ivy … I just want to hold you, my love … Godspeed, friends.”

The photo appeared to be a response to a Christmas post from Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn Spears, which showed her posing at home in Louisiana with their mom Lynne Spears, husband Jamie Watson and their daughters Maddie and Ivey Watson, and Britney’s older son, Sean Preston Federline.

A source told People that Britney spent Christmas with her younger son, Jayden James Federline. There have been reports that Sean stayed in Louisiana due to “work obligations.”

Britney has been estranged from her family for several years and has blamed them for placing her under what she has described as an abusive 13-year conservatorship. She has also expressed displeasure with her sister’s 2022 book, Things I Should Have Said. 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.