Music

It’s not even Halloween, but plenty of Christmas albums and songs have already been released, or will be in the next couple of weeks.  However, the Queen of Christmas is here to tell you that it’s too early to start pumping the holiday tunes.

In what’s become an annual tradition, Mariah Carey has posted a video declaring that it’s not the proper time to start listening to or playing Christmas music — and especially not her number-one hit holiday classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

In the clip, a friend comes up to Mariah while wearing a hoodie decorated with a cartoon rendering of the diva in a Santa outfit.  The friend asks, in a foreign language — which Billboard says is Portuguese — “Look what I found today!  Can I wear it?”

Mariah responds by wagging her finger and crooning, “Not yet!” followed by a sheepish smile and a shrug.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” has hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the past two years.  So far, it’s yet to be revealed what special Christmas content and activities Mariah has in store for fans this year, but you know it’s coming.

#notyet pic.twitter.com/aCqbdEunrh

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) October 21, 2021

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Halsey’s album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power — produced by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — might be the project to finally score the singer some Grammys love.

But in a new cover story for Billboard, Halsey says as long as the album has longevity, they don’t care about the awards.

“The record is outstanding, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done,” they say. “The most important thing to me is that it continues to have a life and continues to grow and burns and burrows slowly with the audience instead of coming in fast and burning out just as fast, like most records seem to do these days.”

With or without a Grammy, Halsey says making the album has changed their life. “And seeing it work has given me a type of confidence that I think will change what my fifth album sounds like. [And] my sixth, my seventh, my eighth,” they say.

We may have to wait a bit for the next album, though, as Halsey enjoys being a new mom to son Ender. They say they’ll “probably do nothing” for the next couple of years.

“I’m glad we got to make this album when we did because being a mother to my son makes being a musician seem pretty boring,” Halsey says. “…[The] only expectation I have for myself is to be a really good mom, and the rest will fall into place around that.”

 

 

 

 

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Rise Against has announced a new EP titled Nowhere Sessions.

The six-track collection, due out November 12, is described as a “live expansion” of the Chicago punk outfit’s latest album, Nowhere Generation. It includes renditions of the Nowhere Generation cuts “Talking to Ourselves,” “Broken Dreams, Inc.” and the title track, as well as the 2008 song “Savior.”

Additionally, you’ll also find covers of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic “Fortunate Son” and the Misfits ripper “Hybrid Moments.”

You can download the Nowhere Sessions version of “Talking to Ourselves” now via digital outlets.

Nowhere Generation, the ninth Rise Against album, was released in June. Its title track is the first Rise Against single to hit number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.

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In what universe does Bruce Springsteen open for The Jonas Brothers?  It happened Wednesday night in New York City at the annual Robin Hood Foundation benefit, Rolling Stone reports.

The Robin Hood Foundation has been fighting poverty in New York City for more than 30 years, and its annual gala always attracts the most “A” of A-List stars. In addition to JoBros and Bruce, Wednesday night’s roster included Alicia Keys, Paul McCartney, SNL cast members, famous politicians, legendary sports stars, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

After Bruce opened the show with a solo acoustic set, Paul McCartney was presented with a special award as Alicia Keys sang the Beatles standard “Let It Be.” That was just the warmup, though: After dinner, The Jonas Brothers did an hour-long set on a concert-size stage.

“This crowd looks exactly like our usual shows,” Nick Jonas joked to the superstars, millionaires and billionaires in the room.

Rolling Stone then goes on to write, “It was an odd scene where the younger attendees were crammed to the front and screaming along to songs like ‘Cake by the Ocean,’ ‘Lovebug,’ ‘Jealous,’ and ‘Sucker,’ while the older ones hovered in the back while they sipped cocktails and eyed the exit doors.”  

The publication also suggested that next time, JoBros should open for Bruce. All in all, though, the event raised a staggering $77.5 million for charity.

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Blake Shelton, Eric Church, Dan + Shay, Brothers Osborne and Jimmie Allen are among the first round of just-announced performers at the 2021 Country Music Association Awards.

Blake will share a live rendition of “Come Back As a Country Boy,” his brand-new single. The song will be included on the deluxe version of his Body Language album, which is set for release in December.

A couple of exciting collaborations are already on the books, too. Mickey Guyton will perform, bringing rising act Brittney Spencer and soul-jazz singer-songwriter Madeline Edwards to the stage with her. They’ll treat fans to a live version of a song off Mickey’s new album, Remember Her Name.

Also, Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde will join forces for a performance of “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” which comes from the track list of Carly’s latest project, 29: Written in Stone.

More performers are expected to be announced in the weeks ahead. Luke Bryan is hosting the show solo this year.

The 2021 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Lil Nas X has even more to celebrate after releasing his successful debut album, Montero.  On Wednesday, Atlanta revealed that October 20 will henceforth be known as Lil Nas X Day.

The “Industry Baby” artist shared the news to his Instagram story, along with a snapshot of the official plaque awarded to him by the Atlanta City Council.

Council member Antonio Brown, who is the city’s first openly gay city councilman, signed the proclamation that certified the new holiday.

The council highlighted why the Grammy winner was deserving of the honor, declaring “his tremendous success and ability to break barriers in music and popular culture” in tandem with his “artistic influence and transformative music” has made a positive and lasting impact on the city.

Other reasons given were LNX’s “considerable impact on the LGBTQ community” by challenging how queer artists are treated in the music industry and “empowering others to break barriers and be more open, expressive, and personal through music and art.”

The city council also commended the success of his debut album, how “Old Town Road” shattered the Billboard Hot 100 record for most consecutive weeks at number one, the recognition he’s received at various music award shows and the seismic impact he’s had on streaming services.

Lil Nas X was born Montero Lamar Hill and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.

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On Friday, Lady A‘s eighth studio album, What a Song Can Do, arrives, completing the cycle started by June’s seven-song Chapter One.

Recorded “around the same time” as the EP, the seven new tracks were chosen from “up to sixty songs” Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood wrote during the pandemic. 

“Obviously, we finished [2019’s] Ocean, we were preparing for that tour, and had to cancel it because of the pandemic,” Dave recalls. “So we just put our heads down and started writing for an indefinite amount of time. We didn’t know how long the pandemic was gonna last, and so we just wrote and wrote and wrote, kind of like we did for our very first album.”

The album’s bouncy lead single, “Like a Lady,” doesn’t begin to hint at the deeper messages on What a Song Can Do, as Charles explains.

“I feel like I had kind of my midlife crisis this past couple years of just, ‘What’s our purpose going through all the stuff we went through?'” he says, “and feeling like some of your intentions got twisted and misinterpreted, obviously, with our name change and all these things.”

“And it was like it only brought us stronger in our conviction of what we want to represent as a band,” he adds.

Charles affirms there’s no doubt what that is, as Hillary agrees.

“Nothing is going to deter us from trying to leave our mark in a positive way,” he proclaims. “[There’s] a little bit more determination — not just survival, and trying to make sure we stay on the radio, making sure we can maintain this certain level of success — but actually going like, ‘What are we leaving behind?'”

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Now that 90-year-old William Shatner, aka Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk, has ventured into space in real life aboard one of Jeff Bezos‘ ships, which celebrity will be next to boldly go where only a few have gone before?  Well, you can actually place bets as to which pop star is most likely to shell out big bucks to take a ride with Bezos…or Elon Musk, Richard Branson or any other billionaire who has their own spacecraft.

MyBookie.com, an online sportsbook, is now offering prop bets on the likelihood of celebs going to space, and there are plenty of musicians to choose from.  For example, the odds on Justin Bieber blasting off are +1200, which means if you bet $100, you’d get $1,200 if he were next.  Odds on Lady Gaga going are just a bit higher: You’d win $2,000 if you bet $100 on her.

*NSYNC‘s Lance Bass, who once legitimately trained to be an astronaut and was set to fly on a Russian Soyuz space capsule before his sponsors pulled out, is more likely to launch than both of those stars.  According to MyBookie, If you bet $100 on him, you’d only get $700 back.

Other stars whose space futures you can bet on include Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kanye West and music manager Scooter Braun, who represents Justin, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato.  Maybe Taylor Swift would foot the bill to send Braun, her arch-enemy, to outer space — if he promised never to come back.

If music’s not your thing, you can also bet on actors going into space. Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise — all of whom have made movies set in space — are some of the names available.

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