Megan Moroney’s ‘Blue Christmas …duh’ (Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records)
Megan Moroney‘s top yuletide moments involve a classic movie, a sweet treat and a saltwater crustacean.
“I think my favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve, my whole family and I, my dad makes us watch It’s a Wonderful Life, the black-and-white version, every single year,” she says. “And he makes chocolate chip cookies.”
“And then on Christmas Day, we have lobster,” she adds.
For lots of Megan Moroney fans, listening to her Christmas EP, which came out in 2024, is a new tradition. The three-track Blue Christmas …duh features her cover of the Elvis Presley classic, plus two originals, “Christmas Morning” and “All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy,” which she performed on this year’s CMA Country Christmas special.
If you missed the ABC special, you can now stream it on Hulu.
Artwork for The Speaker Wars holiday single ‘Brighten the Corner’ (Frontiers Music SRL)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch and his new band The Speaker Wars are getting into the holiday spirit with the release of a new Christmas song.
The band — made up of Lynch, singer-songwriter Jon Christopher Davis, Jay Michael Smith on guitar, Brian Patterson on bass, Steve Ritter on percussion and Jay Brown on keyboards — has just released the holiday song “Brighten the Corner.”
“The Speaker Wars are wishing y’all a soulful, joyful and peaceful holiday season,” says Lynch.
The Speaker Wars released their self-titled debut album in May. For the holidays, fans who purchase the album through the band’s web store will get the Christas single, along with a Christmas card signed by Lynch, as an extra bonus, while supplies last.
AJR performs on ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
AJR‘s latest hit, “The Big Goodbye,” sounds very different from the other songs on their What No One’s Thinking EP. For one thing, it starts with a very unusual sample of a group called The Fortunairs Barbershop Quartet singing a song called “The Auctioneer.” AJR’s Jack Met tells ABC Audio that they wrote the song because they really wanted to use that sample.
“We were sitting on this sample for like five years, ‘The Auctioneer’ sample,” he says. “And we didn’t really know how to make a song out of it. We tried to make this kind of happy party song. We made this, like, really weird song with a weird concept.”
When those didn’t work, Jack says, they decided to embrace the EP’s overall vibe.
“And then we said, ‘This is an emotional EP, probably our most emotional body of work,'” Jack notes. “We said, ‘Let’s try to put some emotion into this.'”
What they ended up with is a song that covers the “mixed feelings” that come with “leaving home and leaving your hometown,” Jack says.
“The best day of your life is you going off and living your dream, and then the mixed feelings about leaving your friends and family behind,” he explains. “And they’re gonna kind of go off and do their own thing together, and go get married, while you’re sort of off alone, achieving your dream. There’s sort of that complexity there. So that was the mindset behind ‘The Big Goodbye.'”
You can hear AJR perform “The Big Goodbye” on their upcoming album, Live from the Hollywood Bowl. You might also hear them sing it when they perform on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2026, airing Dec. 31 on ABC.
Snoop Dogg attends the 2025 BET Awards at Peacock Theater on June 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
Snoop Dogg’s Doggyland is expanding beyond the internet. The rapper has announced a new children’s book inspired by the “Affirmation Song” from his YouTube series Doggyland: Kids Songs & Nursery Rhymes.
Titled Snoop Dogg’s Doggyland: Affirmations Song, the book will feature positive affirmations from the original 2022 track.
“Doggyland’s been killing it with our music and our videos, so it only made sense to bring the magic to the world of books,” Snoop tells People.
The book will be released on Feb. 24, 2026, through Little Bee Books — a partnership Snoop says feels like the ideal match for the project. “They understand what Doggyland is all about — how to bring our fun and engaging methods of learning to kids in a whole new way,” he explains. “You know when you got the buzz from the bee and the woof from the dog that these books are going to make noise.”
Affirmations Song will be the first installment in a nine-book series that will span board books, sound books and activity books. Like the show, the series will spotlight the upbeat songs and life lessons taught by beloved characters such as Bow Wizzle, Woofee, Yap Yap, Chow Wow and Barks-A-Locks.
The remaining eight books are scheduled for release between spring 2026 and fall 2027.
Brent Smith of Shinedown performs at The Grand Ole Opry on October 10, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Mickey Bernal/Getty Images)
Shinedown has shared a mini documentary chronicling the band’s debut performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry in October.
The video, titled “The Road to Opry,” features footage of Brent Smith and company rehearsing for the gig and touring the famed venue ahead of the show.
Reflecting on the performance following its conclusion, bassist Eric Bass shares, “There are things in life that you never knew you needed to have happen. Tonight, that was exactly what this was.”
Shinedown’s Grand Ole Opry set included performances of the songs “A Symptom of Being Human” and “Three Six Five,” along with the live debut of the single “Searchlight.” The band was introduced to the stage by Carrie Underwood.
“Searchlight” and “Three Six Five” are two of the four new singles Shinedown released in 2025, along with “Dance, Kid, Dance” and “Killing Fields.” Shinedown’s most recent album is 2022’s Planet Zero.
Andy Grammer attends ‘The Drop: Andy Grammer’ at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on October 30, 2024 in Los Angeles ( Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Honey, I’m good … at fashion? Andy Grammer has officially launched his new clothing line, Kindtagious.
Andy explained on Instagram that the name of the clothing line comes from the concept that “kindness is contagious” and shared why he felt inspired to branch out in this direction.
“Let me start by saying I am by no means a fashion designer (we hired way better people than me to design), and if this were a fashion brand solely about style I wouldn’t trust myself to make it, nor would I even be interested in doing it,” he wrote.
Instead, Andy said he’s pursuing the project because he feels “unreasonably passionate about … spreading kindness,” “creating moments of connection” and “inspiring kindness in large groups, one on one, through music, concerts, honestly in any way I can.”
He added that he owns three hats, and he always reaches for the one that says “treat people with kindness.” “This is the team I want to be a part of,” he noted. “It’s what I want to represent to the world.”
Reflecting on buying “status” brands in school to be cool, Andy admitted, “I don’t know that wearing Kindtagious clothing will get you status … [S]tatus and kindness are like oil and water. Maybe this whole idea is doomed from the start, but we’re gonna try anyway.”
He wrapped up his announcement, saying, “My most likely misguided foray into the fashion world officially begins today … if you like any of these clothes or not, go out of your way to be kind to someone today. The world needs more of it.”
You can order Kindtagious cothing now, including hats, tees, sweats and other items.
Twenty One Pilots at 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Disney/Cristian Lopez)
Twenty One Pilots have premiered a new live video for the song “RAWFEAR.”
The performance was recorded during the “Stressed Out” duo’s intimate concert at the 1,500-capacity Bellwether in Los Angeles in October.
“Near the end of tour we had the opportunity to play a small show in LA with just a handful of friends,” Twenty One Pilots say in an Instagram post. “Here is our performance of RAWFEAR from that night.”
You can watch the “RAWFEAR” live video on YouTube.
“RAWFEAR” is a track off Twenty One Pilots’ new album, Breach, which was released in September. Breach also includes the singles “The Contract” and “City Walls.”
Charli XCX‘s film The Moment, loosely based on her experience launching her album Brat, will have its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, held Jan. 22 through Feb. 1 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Another one of the films Charli appears in, I Want Your Sex, will also have its world premiere during the festival.
What album was #1 on Travis Kelce‘s Spotify Wrapped this year? No bonus points for guessing it wasTaylor Swift‘s The Life of a Showgirl. Travis revealed that tidbit on the Wednesday episode of his New Heights podcast. His brother, Jason Kelce, said the album was #2 for him, after a doo-wop album he sings along to when he puts his daughterto bed. “I can’t sing Tay songs,” said Jason, admitting that he can’t stay on pitch. “You can sing along, they’re catchy,” argued Travis.
Demi Lovato will be the first guest on TikTok In the Mix, a live four-episode podcast series featuring artists chatting with Jack Coyne of Track Star. She’ll talk about her new album, It’s Not That Deep, the meaning behind some of her lyrics and whether or not she’s collaborating with Zara Larsson. You can watch it live on TikTok Thursday at 6 p.m. PT.
Marianne Faithfull in Liverpool, 8th June 1965. (Photo by Terry Mealy/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
A documentary about the late singer and actress Marianne Faithfull is set to screen at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Broken English, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2025, is set to have its U.S. premiere at Sundance as part of its Spotlight program.
The film, from co-directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, is described as a “hybrid, genre-bending piece.” It has Faithfull being interviewed about her life and career by Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, who play employees of the fictitious Ministry of Not Forgetting.
The film features archival footage and performances by Faithfull, as well as Courtney Love, Nick Cave and others.
Faithfull, best known for her hit “As Time Goes By” and for her association with The Rolling Stones, passed away Jan. 30 at the age of 78.
Sundance 2026 takes place Jan. 22 to Feb. 1 in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson speaks onstage during Day 3 of the 2024 Invest Fest at Georgia World Congress Center on August 25, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
50 Cent’s Diddydocumentary, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, explores many aspects of the mogul’s life, including his relationship with ex Cassie Ventura. It’s a section of the film 50 believes “she’s going to understand,” noting that he made a point of reaching out to her for her perspective.
“It was important that I spoke to her to understand how things transpired. I had conversations with her and her husband, Alex Fine,” he tells Us Weekly. “We had separate, individual communication. When you hear things multiple times from different people, it rings true.”
The documentary also examines Diddy’s childhood, which 50 says is essential to understanding the man he became. “The things you go through make you who you are. You can’t understand a man without understanding where he came from,” he says, adding that the film “doesn’t shy away from any part of his legacy—the success, the trauma, the power, the contradictions.”
Although 50 was able to secure many interviews for the project, he tells Us Weekly he wishes he could have spoken to the woman who dated Combs for three years and testified during his trial under the pseudonym Jane Doe. Her perspective, he believes, would have shown “that every woman around him wasn’t a victim.”
“She accepted that lifestyle,” 50 says. “He got what he wanted from her the first time she hung out with him, and then he saw what she was willing to do. He didn’t do things to every woman he came in contact with.”
