Taylor Swift, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ cover image (Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot)
Taylor Swift and The Weeknd are the queen and king of Spotify.
Taylor’s upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl has become the most pre-saved album Countdown Page in Spotify history. The page shows how many days, hours, minutes and seconds until the Oct. 3 release of the album, as well as the track listing. The previous record holder? Taylor’s 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd has set a record of his own. He already has more songs that have hit a billion streams on Spotify than any other artist — a total of 28 — but one of them has just achieved a very impressive milestone. The artist’s smash “Blinding Lights” is now the first song in Spotify history ever to hit five billion streams.
Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton (Terry Wyatt/ACMA2021/Getty Images for ACM)
Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton‘s “A Song to Sing” was a surprise when it debuted it July, even though the duet had been in the works for years.
The superstars wrote the tune in 2023 and recorded it last year at producer Dave Cobb‘s studio in Savannah, Georgia. So why release it now?
“I think I just felt like ‘A Song to Sing’ felt very summery,” Miranda says. “I’ve had a few singles off my record Postcards from Texas, and … I’m working on a bunch of new stuff right now, just in a creative mode.”
“But this song was a good segue and a good summer song to see what comes next for Chris and I both, I feel like,” she adds.
Miranda’s 10th album came out in 2024, while Chris’ fifth, Higher, dates back to 2023.
The two teamed up to shoot the ’70s-inspired, roller rink-themed music video for “A Song to Sing” at Brentwood Skate Center near Nashville. If you listen closely near the end, you can hear an announcer mentioning what might become the superstars’ moniker as a duo: “Lamberton,” a combination of their last names.
Cover art for ‘Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition)’/Capitol/UMe
A never-before-seen video of John Lennon and Yoko Ono performing during their One to One benefit concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden has been released.
The clip is a performance of Lennon’s solo hit “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On),” which he performed during the concerts on Aug. 30, 1972. It features newly restored and edited footage of the performance, with newly remixed and reengineered audio.
The performance of “Instant Karma! (We All Shine)” is one of the tracks featured in the new box set Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition), produced by the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. It will be released Oct. 10, on what would have been John’s 85th birthday.
The performance will also be featured in the upcoming film Power To The People, directed by Simon Hilton, which will be released next year.
Power to the People (Super Deluxe Edition) is a nine-CD/three-Blu-ray box set, featuring 123 tracks, 90 of which have either never been heard before or were previously unreleased.
The set includes demos, outtakes, home recordings and more, along with a new version of John and Yoko’s 1972 album Sometime in New York City, plus the completely remixed One to One concerts, which were John’s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles.
The super deluxe edition will come with a 204-page hardcover book and more goodies. There will also be two-CD, four-LP and two-LP colored vinyl editions.
Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher walkout together during their Oasis Live ’25 world tour at MetLife Stadium on August 31, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Oasis took a moment during their concert Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to honor the victims of the Aug. 27 Minneapolis Annunciation Catholic School shooting, which left two children dead and over a dozen injured.
“This tune’s for the kiddies from Minneapolis,” frontman Liam Gallagher declared before launching into the song “Live Forever.”
Oasis previously used “Live Forever” on their tour to pay tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, who died July 22.
Oasis’ tour, which marks the first time the formerly feuding Liam and Noel Gallagher have shared the live stage in 16 years, continues Monday with a second show at MetLife. They’ll then play shows at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7.
Fifth Harmony performs in San Jose, CA, December, 2017 (Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
Fans have wanted a Fifth Harmony reunion for years, and Sunday night, they got one — at a Jonas Brothers concert.
Jonas Brothers have been bringing guests onstage to join them throughout their current tour, and at their stop in Dallas on Aug. 31, fans were treated to guest appearances by Kelsea Ballerini, Plain White T‘s, Ryan Cabrera and 5H’s Normani, Lauren Jauregui, Dinah Jane and Ally Brooke, performing together for the first time since 2018.
The group sang two of their biggest hits: “Worth It” and “Work From Home,” complete with matching outfits and choreography.
On Instagram, the group posted footage of themselves taking the stage to deafening screams, with the caption, “Where were you on August 31, 2025? Thank you @jonasbrothers for having us. Felt amazing to be back.”
JoBros posted video of themselves doing the “I hope they play” trend, speculating about “Work From Home.” In the caption, they wrote, “An honor to have our friends @fifthharmony up on stage tonight in Dallas on the Greetings From Your Hometown Tour.”
It’s not clear if this performance is the start of a bigger reunion plan for the group, who went on hiatus in 2018 and have since released solo projects. Their website has been updated, though, and they’ve launched a Weverse fan community.
Former member Camila Cabello, who left the group in 2016, wasn’t present for the reunion — she’s currently in Australia doing solo shows.
Cyndi Lauper performs in Wantagh, NY, July 2025 (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Cyndi Lauper)
Cyndi Lauper is headed to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall, and to celebrate the final show of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, she brought out fellow female members of the Hall to join her onstage.
Cher and Joni Mitchell — the latter in only her second public appearance of 2025 — were special guests at Lauper’s show Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl, as were pop/R&B superstars John Legend and SZA.
Mitchell joined Lauper for a version of “Carey,” from Mitchell’s iconic album Blue. Lauper has performed the song herself multiple times in concert over the years. Legend then appeared to join Lauper on “Time After Time,” and SZA popped up for “True Colors.”
The final song of the night was, of course, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” with Lauper’s good pal Cher joining her to perform that number.
You can find footage of all of these performances on YouTube.
Billy Corgan on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
My Chemical Romance‘s concert at Chicago’s Soldier Field Friday featured a surprise appearance from Windy City native Billy Corgan.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman joined Gerard Way and company onstage for a rendition of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” which MCR has been covering throughout their summer tour.
Corgan shared footage of the onstage collaboration in his Instagram Story, alongside a photo of a stage video screen reading, “Regardless of expressing immense frustration, vermin are to remain caged at all times,” a reference to the “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” lyrics.
My Chem’s U.S. stadium tour continues Sept. 7 at Boston’s Fenway Park, and concludes Sept. 13 in Tampa, Florida. Each night, MCR is performing their 2006 album The Black Parade in full.
Bob Weir sings as Dead & Company performs at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on August 3, 2025. (Photo by Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Dead & Company’s three San Francisco shows celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead helped promote a lot of causes that are important to the band.
Like most Dead & Company concerts, the band had a Participation Row at the San Fran shows, promoting causes like Reverb.org and HeadCount.org, and it produced some pretty positive returns.
According to a post on Instagram, the shows raised over $2.2 million for Dead Family charities. In addition, there were over 17,700 positive activations from fans, including over 5,300 voter actions and over 13,100 environmental actions.
“Dead Heads make a positive impact everywhere they go,” the band said on Instagram. “Thanks to all the fans that took action and supported @headcountorg, @reverb_org and other nonprofits, we accomplished all of this together. THANK YOU for showing up.”
Dead & Company’s three shows at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park took place Aug. 1, 2 and 3. They featured guest appearances by Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Phil Lesh‘s son Grahame Lesh, as well as Billy Strings and Sturgill Simpson.
You can check out the new live version of “Trailblazer” from Reba McEntire‘s show at Music City Rodeo back in May, complete with a surprise appearance by Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson.
Three rare albums from two-time CMA female vocalist of the year Janie Fricke are available on streaming services for the first time ever. Bouncin’ Back, Tributes to My Heroes, and Roses & Lace were recorded between 2000 and 2008.
Margo Price‘s new album, Hard Headed Woman, is out now. It’s the first time she’s recorded in Nashville. On Friday night she’ll celebrate by playing the Grand Ole Opry in a dress that belonged to Loretta Lynn.
Cover of Rihanna’s ‘Music of the Sun’/ (Def Jam Recordings)
Twenty years ago Friday — Aug. 29, 2005 — Rihanna released her debut album, Music of the Sun, featuring her first hit, “Pon de Replay.” To celebrate her two-decade music career, she’s put some special merch up for sale and also announced a vinyl box set.
The items include a $125 black pullover hoodie with Rihanna’s “Rhenna” character — the dooble she uses on her Instagram profile — on the front. It says “20 years with you” on the back. There’s also a double-layered T-shirt with a photo of Rihanna on the front; it says “Rihanna since 2005” on the back. That costs $65; both ship Oct. 17. There’s also a “Rhenna” doll that costs $50 and ships Oct. 31.
Plus, there’s something called an R20 vinyl box set, which looks fairly hefty and is printed with the “Rhenna” character. It’s not clear which albums are included, but you can sign up at her merch store to be notified when details become available.
Twenty years into her career, Rihanna has now sold 100 million records, scored 14 #1 hits, racked up over 150 billion streams and won nine Grammys. And, oh yeah, she’s also a billionaire, thanks to her Fenty Beauty line.
There’s only one thing left to say: “Where’s the album?”
