With less than a month to go before we ring in the new year, YouTube is looking back at the biggest music videos of 2021. Among the artists who videos racked up the most views are The Weeknd, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Nas X.
The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” is YouTube’s second-most popular song in the U.S., racking up nearly 615 million views since its January 5 release. Close behind him is Lil Nas X, whose “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) came in third after amassing over 400 million times since March.
Silk Sonic‘s “Leave the Door Open” landed in seventh, while Olivia Rodrigo claimed the ninth spot on the countdown with “drivers license.”
YouTube also took a walk down memory lane to reflect on some of the biggest music moments of 2021, which include K-pop group BLACKPINK becoming the website’s most-subscribed artist. Other highlights include Selena Gomez‘s intimate “Artist Spotlight Stories” and BTS‘ viral “Permission to Dance” challenge.
YouTube also saluted Rick Astley, Shakira, 4 Non Blondes, Bon Jovi, Nelly and the many others who became first-time members of their prestigious Billion Views Club.
Nine Inch Nails, Arctic Monkeys and Lorde are set to headline the inaugural Primavera Sound Los Angeles.
The long-running Spanish festival, which has been held in Barcelona since 2001, will make its U.S. debut September 12-18, 2022 at the L.A. State Historic State Park. Primavera Sound L.A. had originally been announced in 2019 to launch in 2020, but has been delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Registration for access to pre-sale tickets is open now. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning this Friday, December 10, at 2 p.m. PT.
Mariah Carey will not only fill her fans’ bellies with her upcoming collaboration with McDonald’s — she also plans to fill their Christmas stockings.
With a week to go before the Grammy winner launches the upcoming Mariah Menu, where fans can chow down on her personal favorites like the Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets, she’s sweetening the deal with some exclusive Mariah x McDonald’s merchandise.
For two days only, Mariah will hook up a limited number of fans with a specialty designed t-shirt and beanie. The beanie comes with Mariah’s signature on it, while a the tee-shirt features a throwback photo of the singer enjoying a cheeseburger with extra pickles.
According to the press release, the beanie can be redeemed on December 15 and the tee will be made available on December 21. The first 10,000 fans to redeem the Mariah Menu deal — which is a bakery item and a Sausage McMuffin with Egg — using the McDonald’s app and pay using mobile order will score the exclusive merch.
Mariah said in a statement, “Just like so many of my fans, I have such amazing memories with McDonald’s over the years. I always get a sense of nostalgia when I see the Golden Arches, so creating throwback merch with one of my favorite photos from the 90s was really fun for me.”
In addition, Mariah stars in her very own McDonald’s television commercial, which began airing Monday.
The Mariah Menu launches December 13 and runs through December 24.
Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent have lost out on an Album of the Year nomination for next year’s Grammys.
The pair had been credited as songwriters on Olivia Rodrigo‘s SOUR, and thus would earn a Grammy trophy themselves should it win the 2022 Album of the Year award. However, an update from the Recording Academy shows that both Antonoff and St. Vincent have been removed as nominees.
Rodrigo had given Antonoff and St. Vincent writing credit on the SOUR song “deja vu” because it borrowed from the bridge of Taylor Swift‘s song “Cruel Summer,” which the pop superstar had originally written with the Bleachers frontman and the “Los Ageless” rocker. Swift’s songwriting nomination for SOUR has been removed, as well.
Hayley Williams is also a credited songwriter on the SOUR song “good 4 u” due to its similarities to Paramore‘s “Misery Business.” However, Williams was never listed among the nominees.
While he won’t win a Grammy with SOUR, Antonoff is still an Album of the Year nominee as a contributor to Swift’s evermore. He’ll also compete for the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.
St. Vincent, meanwhile, is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album with her 2021 record, Daddy’s Home.
Luke Combs and Carrie Underwood are performing in the Grand Ole Opry’s first USO show this holiday season.
Created in partnership with United Service Organizations, a nonprofit that provides entertainment to service members and their families, Opry Live: USO Holiday Special will feature additional performances by Josh Turner, Lauren Alaina, Craig Morgan, himself an Army veteran, plus Jessie James Decker and duo The War & Treaty.
The show will be hosted by American Idol alum and USO Global Ambassador, Kellie Pickler. “I’ve never worn the uniform, but I’m a proud supporter for those who do. As a Global Ambassador for the USO, I hope to share the importance of serving those who serve us all,” Kellie says in a statement.
Opry Live: USO Holiday Special will air on the Circle Network on December 18 at 9 p.m. ET and will be livestreamed on the USO and Circle All Access’ Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels.
Sixty-three-year old Diane Berberian was an avid runner and triathlete who ran marathons across the globe, but her world was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with bone cancer.
ABC affiliate WLNE reports that Diane was given one year to live — and that’s exactly what the Pennsylvania-native has been doing. Boston named a day after her in honor of the many marathons she’s run in the city, and she even dropped the first puck at a Flyers game. But one of the biggest items on Diane’s bucket list was checked off thanks to Pink, whom she is a big fan.
The “All I Know So Far” singer learned of Diane’s plight and reached out to meet her. The two were able to hold a lengthy conversation on Zoom last month.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to try and make connections…. our dream came true!!!!!,” Diane shared on Facebook, revealing that Pink also serenaded her with Queen‘s “We Are the Champions.”
When Diane wondered if their conversation was cutting too much into Pink’s busy schedule, the Grammy winner assured her, “You haven’t wasted a second of my time” and began asking Diane questions about her life.
Pink also called Diana “incredible” because she “has a kind of bravery that I don’t understand” and commended Diane for “bringing comfort to other people” with her positive outlook on living life to the fullest.
The wait for Olivia Rodrigo to go on tour is finally over. The singer unveiled her first worldwide trek on Monday that’ll promote her debut album, Sour.
“SOUR TOUR IS FINALLY HAPPENING!!!,” Olivia announced on Instagram and posted all the dates she’s locked down so far. She also announced that she’ll be hitting the road with three “angels” — Gracie Abrams, Holly Humberstone and Baby Queen — who will accompany her on different dates.
The North American leg of the trek starts on April 2, 2022 in San Francisco. The Grammy-nominee plans to hit up the biggest cities in the U.S. and Canada, with pit stops set in New York City, Las Vegas, Houston, Detroit, Toronto and many others before wrapping on May 25, 2022 in Los Angeles.
Olivia will then jump across the pond, with her first European date set for June 11 in Hamburg, Germany. The Sour tour concludes July 7, 2022 in London, England. It is unknown at this time if more dates will be announced, so stay tuned.
Tickets for the Sour tour go live on Friday, December 10 and Olivia wants to be sure they wind up in fans’ hands. She’s teamed with Ticketmaster and says those who register for a Verified Fan account by Tuesday, December 7, at 11:59 p.m. PT will get first dibs on the North American dates.
The tour announcement comes a few days after her Olivia’s ex, Joshua Bassett, whom fans believe was the subject of the SOUR album, opened up in a tell-all interview with GQ about their relationship. The actor claimed Olivia, quote, “hasn’t spoken to me since ‘Drivers License’ came out” despite his reaching out to her several times.
Olivia hasn’t yet publicly reacted to the interview.
Tool has added an extra date to the band’s 2022 U.S. tour.
The newly announced show will take place January 28 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, right after an already sold-out concert in nearby Denver on January 27.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 10, at 10 a.m. local time. Members of the Tool Army fan club will also have access to a pre-sale.
Tool’s 2022 U.S. tour marks the band’s return to the live stage after their last outing in 2020 was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The run will stretch from January 10 in Eugene, Oregon, to March 20 in Cleveland, Ohio.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit ToolBand.com.
Ahead of her performance at the National Christmas Tree Lighting event in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night, Maren Morris got a special tour of the White House.
The superstar took to her Instagram Stories to take fans along for the ride, sharing sweeping shots of the Red Room, which that features one of many giant Christmas trees under a decadent chandelier. Maren’s back is to the camera as she stares up at a portrait of Angelica Singleton Van Buren.
The singer also shared a bit of history, writing alongside a portrait of George Washington, “Dolley Madison saved this portrait from burning in a fire from the British Invasion of the White house in 1814.”
Several massive trees, an extravagant manger scene and a live jazz band were all sights to behold on the tour, with Maren donning a mask in the Green Room, shaking her head in awe.
“At the Christmas party hop,” she captions the experience.
Later, the hitmaker took to President’s Park to perform a cover of Brenda Lee‘s classic holiday hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” for the annual holiday special that aired on CBS.
The deluxe 50th anniversary reissue of The Doors‘ classic 1971 album L.A. Woman was released Friday.
The three-CD/one-LP collection features a newly remastered version of the album on one CD, and two CDs of unreleased studio outtakes, as well as a new stereo mix of the original album pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
Doors guitarist Robby Krieger tells ABC Audio that the deluxe reissue is “a good package,” noting that the unreleased material includes “some cool stuff…that you’ve never heard before.”
He says one standout tracks is an alternate version of “Riders on the Storm” that’s “almost better than the [original] one, but not quite.”
Some of the outtakes are cover tunes that The Doors recorded on one specific day that they devoted to blues material, because, according to Krieger, frontman Jim Morrison “was totally into the blues at that point.”
Robby recalls, “He kept saying, ‘Hey, when are we gonna do some blues? Come on. Blues, blues, blues.’ And then we said, ‘OK, Tuesday will be Blues Day.’ So, oh, he was so happy.”
Krieger remembers, however, that the notoriously unpredictable Morrison didn’t show up to the Tuesday session, “so Wednesday became Blues Day.”
The previously unreleased blues covers featured on the L.A. Woman box set include renditions of Junior Parker‘s “Mystery Train” and Big Joe Williams‘ “Baby Please Don’t Go.”
The unreleased bonus tracks also include multiple consecutive takes of four L.A. Woman songs — “The Changeling,” “Love Her Madly,” “Riders on the Storm” and the title track.
Doors drummer John Densmore tells ABC Audio that he thinks the L.A. Woman box set is the most interesting of the band’s deluxe reissues, noting that there’s “more little…behind-the-scenes things that make it really special.”
Here’s the track list of L.A. Woman reissue’s CDs:
Disc One: Original Stereo Mix Remastered
“The Changeling”
“Love Her Madly”
“Been Down So Long”
“Cars Hiss by My Window”
“L.A. Woman”
“L’America”
“Hyacinth House”
“Crawling King Snake”
“The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)”
“Riders on the Storm”
Bonus Tracks
“Hyacinth House” (Demo)
“Riders on the Storm” (Sunset Sound Version – Original Demo)*
Disc Two: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 1
“The Changeling”*
“Love Her Madly”*
“Riders on the Storm”*
“L.A. Woman” (Part 1)*
Disc Three: L.A. Woman Sessions, Part 2
“L.A. Woman” (Part 2)*
“She Smells So Nice”*
“Rock Me Baby”*
“Mr. Mojo Risin'”*
“Baby Please Don’t Go”*
“L.A. Woman” (Part 3)*
“Been Down So Long”*
“Get Out of My Life Woman”*
“Crawling King Snake”*
“The Bastard Son of Jimmy & Mama Reed (Cars Hiss by My Window)”*
“Been Down So Long”*
“Mystery Train”*
“The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)”*
