State Champ Radio Author: djfrosty
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For the last 30 years, Lance Bass has been inexorably famous, known to the general public as one of the five founding members of boundary-breaking boy band *NSYNC. Yet amongst his family, he’s still considered the second-most famous member.
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That No. 1 spot among the Bass clan continues to belong to his paternal grandfather Jimmy, an icon in his hometown of Laurel, Miss., thanks to his years of military service during World War II. “He’s so proud of his service, so proud of his family, and so proud of his town,” Bass tells Billboard of his grandfather over a video call. “He’s the famous one in our family, not me. I’m just a little side note.”
Yet while Bass grew up hearing his grandfather’s stories from the front he says it wasn’t until very recently that he got to learn much more about Jimmy Bass’ service in WWII. In his latest partnership with Ancestry as part of the organization’s Thank You for Your Service campaign, Bass got to learn even more about both of his grandfathers’ service in the war.
The new campaign from the genealogy company is designed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, providing users with free access to over 200 million documents from WWII from Nov. 10 to 12, in honor of Veteran’s Day in the U.S.
For Bass, that access allowed him and his family members to find even more information about both of his’ military history, including enlistment cards, photos, and even documentation that his maternal grandfather Elza was a dance hall manager, a fact that he’d never learned before his death in 2019.
“It made so much sense, because he loved to square dance — so it was just kind of fun to take that picture I saw of him and put him in this dance hall and see him in that element of knowing that he just loved that,” Bass says.
Bass’ new work with Ancestry comes at a critical time, he says. With misinformation spreading rampantly across the internet — in some cases at the behest of Donald Trump’s administration in the U.S. — Bass hopes that access to these records reminds people the importance of preserving history so we don’t make the same mistakes of the past.
“We know history repeats itself. We’ve been told that over and over and over again — but as you can see, it’s happening again,” he says. “I feel like no one’s really paying attention to that and honoring what they fought for, because I feel like we’re just going backwards right now. It’s an insult to what these brave men and women went through.”
Specifically, Bass points to the administration’s orders to scrub government websites of certain words, photos and historical references — oftentimes related to the LGBTQ+ community, anti-racism efforts and the civil rights movements of the past — as an attempt to alter our perception of reality.
“It is important that we tell these stories of the past in a truthful way, because so easily you can rewrite history,” he says. “We see it happening right now, in front of our eyes, they’re physically rewriting history on websites of our official government documents. It’s insane. What is this Twilight Zone that we’re living in?”
Bass takes it a step further and points out many of those same politicians use their ties to the military to redefine what is and is not patriotic — which, he says, is not what his grandparents fought for. “It’s sad to see people using veterans and military service and their patriotism … they’ve changed what patriotism is,” he says.
It’s why Bass calls it an “honor” to learn more about his own family’s history of service. “It makes you proud. You’re honored to be attached to that past, and you get to learn from the past,” he says.
Even when looking at his own history, Bass says he sees the influence of both of his grandfathers imbued in him. After *NSYNC celebrated their 30th anniversary earlier this year — “it’s insane that that went so quickly,” Bass quips — the singer found himself thinking about the ways his grandfather Jimmy helped mold his own outlook on his work.
“Everything correlates to how he is as a person. It really was the biggest influence in my life,” he says with a smile. “I was always raised with this man that everyone loved, especially the way that he just brought this positivity with all the stories he would tell, and the way he treated people. I think he really rubbed off on me, and my personality really comes out because of him.”
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The highly anticipated outcome of the race to become New York City’s mayor concluded Tuesday (Nov. 4) with Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani winning decisively. As he walked out to greet the crowd at his victory party, the song chosen for the moment was Ja Rule’s “New York,” a standout song featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss from the Queens, New York, native’s 2004 album R.U.L.E.
The song choice didn’t sit well with another Queens rapper and Ja Rule’s rival, 50 Cent. In a now deleted post quoting a post by MSNBC host Ari Melber on X, formerly Twitter, he commented, “of course he would walk out to that fool.” The entertainment mogul didn’t stop there, as he also posted a key clip from Mamdani’s victory speech where the mayor-elect directly challenged President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked him. In the caption of that post, 50 Cent wrote, “3 words..no funding coming…NYC finished,” with a facepalm emoji.
50 Cent has been a constant critic of Mamdani on social media, particularly because of the progressive politician’s plans to tax the rich. “Where did he come from? Whose friend is this? I’m not feeling this plan. No. I will give him $258,750 and a first class one-way ticket away from NY,” the artist wrote in another Instagram post from June.
Mamdani addressed those critiques during an interview with Melber on his MSNBC show, The Beat, before the election was decided. “What I would say to you, 50, if you are indeed watching or anyone else is watching…I continue to think that having the top 1% of New York City or making more than a million dollars a year, having them pay 2% more for an economic agenda that would transform every New Yorker’s life, including their own,” he said.The 34-year-old followed up by further detailing his platform of providing more affordability to New Yorkers, and made it clear that he is still a fan of 50 Cent despite their differing stances. “And I do have to say, even though we have a disagreement on tax policy, every time I get a death threat, I still listen to ‘Many Men,’” Mamdani said with a laugh, referencing the hit from 50 Cent’s debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
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A former manager of Guns N’ Roses claims in a new lawsuit that the band has unfairly blocked the release of his autobiography by threatening to sue him and his publisher as he tries to “tell his story.”
Alan Niven, who managed the iconic rock band during its late 80s heyday, claims that GNR has wrongfully invoked a confidentiality clause in his 1991 termination contract and made “repeated threats” of legal action over the memoir, Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories.
“Due to GNR’s threats, Sound N’ Fury languishes in a warehouse,” Niven’s attorneys write in the lawsuit, which was obtained by Billboard. “Thousands of copies of Sound N’ Fury have been printed and continue to incur storage expenses.”
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Niven says his book “includes stories involving the members” of the band like Axl Rose and Slash, but that the contract is clearly unenforceable. He says that GNR members have also repeatedly discussed his role in the band’s history – meaning he’s allowed to speak about it too as a matter of free speech.
“These public disclosures by defendant’s members and agents have collectively placed the relevant facts of the band’s relationship with plaintiff into the public domain and made them matters of public interest,” Niven’s lawyers write. “Enforcement of the confidentiality provision would be illegal and in violation of the Constitutional protection of free expression.”
A rep for Guns N’ Roses did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
Niven started managing Guns N’ Roses in 1985, shortly after the band solidified its best-known lineup: Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. And he was there for GNR’s rise to stardom with the chart-topping Appetite for Destruction, which featured smash hit singles like “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City,” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” Niven was fired in 1991 by Rose, who reportedly refused to release the band’s next album until Niven was gone.
As Niven tells it in his lawsuit, he was instrumental in the band’s success: “Niven’s work with GNR is the stuff of legends, as he took them from nowhere to headlining Wembley Stadium in less than six years.”
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After he was “betrayed” and fired by the band, Niven admits that he signed a “buy out” agreement covering the terms of his exit. He says it contained a “privacy/confidentiality” provision that required both sides to avoid sharing information about the other learned during their long partnership.
But Niven says that in the years since, GNR members have made “many references” to him, including “inflammatory or even defamatory” ones. He specifically cites several examples, including a 2008 magazine interview in which Rose suggested that Niven was “always tryin’ to convince someone they should fire me” and was seeking a “a personal pay day” from their record label.
“Members of GNR have mentioned Niven, sometimes in a derogatory [way], starting at least as far back 1991,” his lawyers write. “Niven’s comments about the band are thus justified by the agreement, which allows him to comment on matters raised by the band first.”
He also claims the agreement is void for an even simpler reason: That Hudson, McKagan and Stradlin signed the deal, but that Axl himself never did so: “It is unclear who is attempting to enforce the agreement now, and whether they have standing to do so,” his attorneys say. “Rose did not sign the agreement, and one signatory (Stradlin) has remained silent.”
In technical terms, Niven is seeking a “declaratory judgment” that the 1991 contract is unenforceable, or that he is not violating the terms of it by releasing his book. He is also suing the band for damages over accusations that it “intimidated” his publisher into delaying the books release.
“Defendants’ interference has resulted in damages to Niven from lost sales and lost reputation in the market for his book and life story, only a fraction of which has anything to do with Defendants’ rock group,” he says. “Individual advance orders have been cancelled. The books have incurred storage fees. Niven’s momentum in the press has been destroyed.”
A documentary and scripted series about the life and legacy of the late Assata Shakur are reportedly in development. Assata Shakur, who was living in Cuba, died this past September.
In an exclusive report from Variety, siblings Giselle and Stephen Bailey are developing the documentary and scripted series centered on the life of the activist, who remained on the run from American authorities for 45 years.
“Assata’s story is important to all Americans as it reveals the powers that divide us and our capacity to heal,” Giselle and Stephen Bailey shared in a statement. The pair also brought HBO’s Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television. Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, has given her blessing for the development of the projects, which will be produced by the Baileys’ Indigo Films.
Shakur was born Joanne Byron on July 16, 1947, and became a political activist before joining the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Party. In the early 1970s, Shakur and other members of the BLA were involved in a shootout with New Jersey state troopers, killing one of the officers. In 1979, Shakur escaped prison with the assistance of the BLA and lived in Cuba from that point on.
Professor and activist Angela Davis is one of the executive producers of the documentary, with civil rights lawyer Lennox Hinds providing support to help round out the development of the project.
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Photo: Getty
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Gwen Stefani is in a joyous holiday mood, but she definitely has some notes for old St. Nick. The solo star and No Doubt frontwoman dropped a new Christmas classic on Wednesday (Nov. 5) morning, “Shake the Snow Globe,” as part of Amazon Music’s new clutch of holiday exclusives from artists including Marc Anthony, Mariah the Scientist, Vanessa Mai and others.
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“Oh this season’s got me thinking ’bout Mrs. Claus/ Why does Kris get the credit?/ Can we take a second and give her a round of applause?,” Stefani sings over the bouncy, horn-spike arrangement of the original song that is part of Amazon MGM’s upcoming star-studded holiday film Oh. What Fun. The movie, directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, The Idea of You) stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Leary and Chloë Grace Moretz and will debut on Dec. 3.
Gwen Stefani
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“This is the first time I’ve ever been asked to write a song for a specific moment in a film,” Stefani said in a statement. “It made me nervous, excited, and inspired to take on the challenge of creating a Christmas song that feels up tempo, nostalgic and reflects the sentiment of the movie, Oh.What.Fun.” The singer also previewed the snow-flaked, technicolor video for “Shake the Snow Globe” on her Instagram on Wednesday morning, writing, “the Holidays are so magical and i wanted this video to capture the sparkle + joy of the szn.”
In addition to Stefani’s ray of sunshine track, other artists contributing to the Amazon Music holiday celebration include Anthony, with a cover of José Feliciano’s Christmas classic “Feliz Navidad/ I Wanna Wish You a Merry Christmas,” Mariah the Scientist’s take on Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” and Mai’s new original, “Christmas in the Room.”
Other Amazon Music Originals holiday songs from the international lineup of artists include: composer/pianist Kris Bowers’ new composition “Someplace Like Here,” France’s Amir covering F.R. David’s “Words,” Canadian singer Jamie Fine taking on Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe,” Australian indie act Spacey Jane covering the Eagles’ “Please Come Home For Christmas,” Italian singer Marco Mengoni’s first English-language release, the original “Coming Home,” a medley of carols from Las Migas titled “Navidad con Las Migas (Medley)” and Canadian singer-songwriter Eli Rose’s dance-y cover of Beau Dommage’s “23 Décembre.”
“The holidays are about cherishing traditions while making space for new ones, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with our Amazon Music Original holiday songs and programming throughout our service,” said Amazon Music’s U.S. head of music Stephen Brower in a statement. “We’re privileged to work with both legendary and emerging artists to create fresh holiday music that resonates with fans and becomes part of their seasonal traditions. The incredible success of our Original holiday tracks shows how contemporary holiday music can bridge the gap between nostalgia and discovery, creating new classics that families will enjoy for years to come.”
Past Amazon Music Originals holiday hits include Taylor Swift’s “Christmas Tree Farm (Old Timey Version), as well as Katy Perry’s “Cozy Little Christmas” and Carrie Underwood’s “Favorite Time of Year.”
Amazon Music is also launching limited edition vinyl and merch collections from artists around the world to celebrate the holidays, including Mariah Carey’s new Christmastime Holiday Collection with cozy apparel, holiday décor and kitchen accessories, Mai’s collection of T-shirts, sweaters and custom-designed phone cases and Mengoni’s exclusive limited-edition vinyl of “Coming Home,” which will be available beginning on Nov. 14.
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Plenty of drag queens can sing, and plenty of drag queens who can’t sing have released songs anyway. So when an alumnus of RuPaul’s Drag Race makes a foray into the world of recorded music, you can be forgiven for greeting it with a shrug.
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Which is part of the reason why season 16 breakout Plasma is making her debut a live album. She wants you to know that when she’s teasing out those melancholic money notes or whizzing through a difficult-to-untangle patter song, there’s no studio trickery and it isn’t the tenth take — it’s just her honest-to-goddess voice doing what it does best.
As Drag Race viewers know, Plasma is a Broadway baby through and through, a Gay White Way devotee whose humor and style draws on legends like Barbra Streisand and Bernadette Peters. While Plasma’s decision to make her debut LP a live record is an impressively risky one, the fact that it consists mainly of Broadway faves isn’t a shock — but smartly, the 26-year-old from Texas has peppered in a few surprises.
When I attended the Joe’s Pub show where Is Miss Thing On? (Live from Joe’s Pub) was recorded on July 28, there were two tunes I didn’t recognize: “A Schloon for the Gumpert” and “80 or Above.” The former is a song Streisand trotted out at her famous A Happening in Central Park show in 1968 but wasn’t included on the live album’s track list; the latter, however, is neither a Broadway classic nor an obscurity — it’s a new tune written by Plasma herself. But damned if it doesn’t sound like it could be a long-lost gem from some old musical forgotten over the decades.
Ahead of its release on Friday (Nov. 7) via Joy Machine Records, Plasma hopped on a Zoom with Billboard to talk about the advice from her family (both biological and drag) that influenced this album, how she landed Tony and Grammy winner J. Harrison Ghee for a duet, and which post-Covid Broadway show gave us “one of the most pivotal performances in American theater history.”
Why did you decide to make your debut album a live album, as opposed to a studio LP where you can do multiple takes and fix mistakes?
The primary inspiration was from my dad, actually. He raised me listening to Michael Bublé Meets Madison Square Garden and Adele’s Live From SoHo sessions, and all the greats who recorded live in the mid-century up until now.
When it came up that I wanted to record a debut album, my dad said, “Well, you could do it in the studio and feel perfect about it — but as we’ve always taught you, perfect is the enemy of great, and you are great in front of a live audience, because you are always better when you are performing, instead of sitting in a silent room worrying about the way you sound. So do it, don’t leave anything out. Don’t leave any stone unturned. Do it live, do it bold. Do it bravely, and don’t look back.” My dad’s very wise.
That’s great advice. Another marvelous live album you mentioned during your Joe’s Pub show is Barbra Streisand’s Live at the Bon Soir, which she recorded in 1962 but didn’t release until 2022. It’s so good, I can’t believe she didn’t release that back in the day.
I can’t either. And I found out very recently that the day after she recorded her last session at the Bon Soir, she did a cabaret series at the bar in the West Village called the Duplex in their upstairs cabaret space. That is genuinely, literally, the first bar in New York City that gave me a weekly show and it was in the upstairs space. So the Barbra connection deepens and deepens. That is the album that truly inspired this live album.
How did you pick the songs? Obviously there are Broadway faves, but there’s also some random, obscure stuff, even one I wasn’t familiar with.
Good! That is the goal. I’m actually wearing a t-shirt from an off-Broadway show called The Big Gay Jamboree, which is a very niche hit. I realized in my adult homosexual life that an obscure, niche reference gets me a lot of street cred with a tiny group of people that I respect, so the niche reference really guides my hand a lot in my work. I had a live show last year, right on the heels of my run on Drag Race, called All That Plazz. It was a diaristic approach of my life as it stood a year and a half-ish ago. I took that as a blueprint, and I whittled out the kinks or the things that didn’t really feel relevant anymore, or the things I didn’t identify with as personally, and I filled them in with things that felt really personal.
“Cry Me a River” [ed. note: the Arthur Hamilton song from the ‘50s, not the Justin Timberlake single] has always been one of my favorite songs. I’m also a Scorpio, so “Cry Me a River” is a bit of a vengeance anthem, which I love. “More” from Dick Tracy — I never sung that live until Joe’s Pub, but that was one of the first songs I lip synced to when I started doing drag in New York. I like to lure people in with songs that they will know, and then keep them sat with niche references that they’ve either forgotten about or they’ve never known existed. Uncovering that is how I fell in love with mid-century music, as well as people introducing me to music that no one hears anymore.
I love that you did “More.” It’s a fantastic song that kind of disappeared, because it’s on a Madonna album, I’m Breathless, that most people don’t return to.
I actually didn’t even know what it was from, or that Madonna had done it, for years — because I was obsessed with Ruthie Henshall’s version from Putting It Together, the Sondheim review on Broadway with Carol Burnett. That’s the one I lip synced to, and she’s just a powerhouse. Then when I learned that it was a Madonna song, I was like, “Well, I’ve already heard it sung correctly, so I don’t need to go back now.”
Look, I love Madonna, and her version is great, but I get that it’s certainly not like doing a Barbra song where you’re thinking, “How am I ever gonna match that range?”
Oh, my God, yeah. She has a cup of hot tea on the stage because she wants one. I have a cup of hot tea on stage because I have to do it. I have to treat my voice correctly if I’m gonna sing Barbra’s stuff.
That leads to one of the things I wanted to ask. Of the songs in that setlist, what’s the easiest one to sing for you, and what is the most challenging one?
God, that night, “More” was my biggest challenge. I went into it new, and I love the song, and I’ve known the song, but it is literally a key change minefield. Thank you, Stephen Sondheim. It’s also fast and it’s patter-y and it has some particular vocabulary that you have to really enunciate because it’s theatrical, so you want to make sure everyone is hearing the words. Whereas on something like “Misty” or “Cry Me a River,” you’re gooey, floaty, lovely.
“Cry Me a River” is one of those songs that I could sing if I had just gotten vocal fold surgery. For some reason, the older I get, the more I can put that song on vocal autopilot and listen to the words again and find new meaning in them. It just falls out of my mouth, and then by the end, I’m screaming, and I realize, “Oh, sorry that was really loud.” That one is the easiest, just because it comes naturally. I’m having an organic artistic response. [Laughs.] God, how pretentious.
You open with “Let Me Entertain You” from Gypsy. Did you see the latest Broadway staging of it with Audra McDonald, and what did you think of it?
I adored it. In the album, I talk about how jazz and mid-century music is largely accredited to, or it should be more accredited to, people of color. Because jazz, of course, has its roots in New Orleans and in the Black community. I think we think of jazz and we think of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, but we don’t think about Eartha Kitt and we don’t think about Carmen McRae or Sarah Vaughan or this plethora of Black artists who gave us the gift that, in my world, keeps on giving.
Seeing a production like Gypsy, which is written in a time of oppression but always talking about the white plight of show business, and then having it come under new direction and new vision from George C. Wolfe about Black people fighting even just for minimal visibility, and then still being robbed of it. And then, of course, the spiritual connection of Audra losing the Tony after one of the most pivotal performances in American theater history on the Tonys. Seriously, it feels like we’ve seen one of the first post-Covid truly monumental theater-making attempts with Audra’s Gypsy. And, of course, Joy Woods is a sensation.
Speaking of Tonys, you had J. Harrison Ghee come up for a duet during the show, which was beautiful. How did that come about?
Like all great queer connections, we met at a bar. I met J. a couple times, but the one that really stuck was we met at my friend Blacc Cherry’s Drag Race viewing party at Dive 106 earlier this spring. After that, we ran into each other at the Smash Broadway opening night red carpet. I grew up idolizing Tony Award winners and the Broadway theater excellence that implies. And when I met J., I still felt very much at home and very friendly and very communicative and also sisterly. There’s a lot of kiki energy, there’s a lot of “yes and” energy that you couldn’t quantify in a theater improv class. You could only quantify it by being human adults who have lived a little bit of the queer experience in New York City.
I asked them out of the blue. I was like, “How can I, as a white cisgender man, a twink, celebrate Black artistry through a jazz medium and also not invite a true, gifted informant of Black artistry–Black queer, non-binary artistry—into the room with me?” J. is also so generous. They have their Tony and their Grammy, and then cut to them gluing down my lace on the back of my neck that I didn’t know was there.
That’s a pro.
That’s a pro, that’s an empath. That’s generous. That’s someone who you want in the room with you.
During the show, you performed one song you had written, “80 or Above.” I don’t mean to sound backhanded, but it was surprisingly good. Usually when someone is singing a bunch of classics and then is like, “Here’s one I wrote myself,” you’re thinking, “OK, here we go,” but I was impressed. I could even imagine other singers singing it. What’s your songwriting process like?
Thank you so much. First of all, that’s very flattering. I will also tell you that I had reservations about writing music, because I’ve also sat in rooms where people will say, “You guys, the next song is a song that I wrote,” and it’s just like, oh my god, clench your napkin in your fist — because you’re gonna have to get through three minutes of someone’s passion project. And I will not name names.
I don’t even know what my songwriting process is. I read a lot of poetry in high school. I started back when I had a more regular journaling practice. I find myself writing in rhyme structure — maybe it’s just because I’m dramatic as hell and I’m a secret Shakespearean-hearted dramatic goon. I was feeling silly one day and started writing things out. And I was like, “what if I wrote this little song, and what if I came up with a melody that sounds like it came out of the Anita O’Day songbook?” And did something funny and kitschy and campy, but also poignant? As long as I came up with a melody that wasn’t irritating or TikTok, AI-generated, then I could be comfortable putting it out there, as long as it didn’t interrupt the flow of my grander show.
The fact that you can hear other people sing it means a great deal to me. I really am proud of it, and I’d like to write more. I ever were to record more music, I’d want to do a studio album, because I’ve done the live album, toss, toss [fake tosses hair]. I’d like to do something that’s half-original, half-niche covers, so that the line between things you know I wrote and things you don’t know at all is blurred.
What are your hopes for this album when it comes out? What do you want to do next?
I’d love for every Broadway producer in town to listen to it. It’s a great, big audition for something else. In the theater world, we say every audition is an audition for something else, or every interaction is an audition. At the same time, I am trying to identify myself post-reality TV as a real human with autonomous thoughts and control over my own narrative. I’m trying to position myself for opportunities that come beyond reality TV, for people who are equipped to take on narrative roles and theatrical roles and musical roles.
I would love to collaborate with other jazz artists. I’d love to be on Broadway. I’d love to sing live more. I’d love to blur the line between Plasma and Taylor, which is my legal name. I want to have the full breadth of what is possible for a queer person in 2025 available to me. The whole reason why you listen to a live album is because it doesn’t sound like the studio album, because someone is trying something in real time that is dangerous. If you mess up, everyone will see it, and that’s vulnerable, and it’s scary.
One of my dear friends is Privilege, a drag artist in Brooklyn. The night before I left for Drag Race, they gave me a little totem to take with me and they said, “I just want to encourage you to feel whatever fear you feel, and then do it scared.”
More great advice!
I don’t know a single queer person who’s not scared right now. I’d rather do something scared than rest on technological improvement or the gloss of legitimacy helping me out. I am who I am, and I rest on the laurels that I can present to you in real time and nothing else. And so that’s my priority, to live as authentically and unashamedly as possible.
Anything else you want to add, about the album or your life?
[Jokingly] Well, I’m still single and I’m still drinking too much, so that original song has never hit harder. No, I would encourage Drag Race fans to broaden the scope of what they perceive as possible from a Drag Race alumnus. I would also encourage music fans and theater fans to broaden their perspectives beyond Kinky Boots and La Cage aux Folles into what queer artists are capable of telling.
Trending on Billboard If all you want for Christmas is a Yo Gabba Gabba! holiday album, you’re in luck: A Very Awesome Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas! arrives Nov. 14 on all streaming platforms, via BMG. The album gathers the full collection of holiday music across Yo Gabba Gabba!‘s Christmas episodes over the years, including “Christmas” […]
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Ed Sheeran has celebrated a major victory for his music education campaign as the U.K. government confirmed on Wednesday (Nov. 5) that music lessons will be taught more widely in schools.
Earlier today a major review of the National Curriculum – which dictates what subjects and topics are taught in non-fee-paying state schools – was published by the Labour government. The changes are the first in over a decade, and will see a number of modern topics (such as artificial intelligence) enter the classroom.
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The report says that arts subjects will also be “revitalised” and will see the scrapping of the English baccalaureate (EBacc), which critics – including Sheeran – said limited subject choice for students at a GCSE level (ages 14-16). Under the program, introduced in 2010 by then-education secretary Micahel Gove, pupils were required to study a minimum of seven GCSEs, including maths and a language, but the options did not include any arts subjects.
In March, Sheeran called on U.K. prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the Ebacc, deliver £250 million in spending towards music in a classroom environment and enlist more teachers for music subjects. His letter was backed by over 600 signatories, including Sir Elton John, Harry Styles, Coldplay and more. He also launched the Ed Sheeran Foundation in January to help support careers in music.
“We are at a critical point: a future of no music in state schools, no music teachers to teach, broken instruments and no grassroots venues,” he wrote in his letter. “As a young music student and aspiring artist, I benefited from opportunities in and out of school to learn and grow. Unfortunately, after decades of defunding and de-prioritising, music is no longer a right for all children – it’s a luxury for only a few.”
Sheeran’s efforts have now been recognized both by Starmer and Bridget Phillippson, secretary for education. The former sent a direct response to Sheeran saying that his “voice had been heard”. During her speech in parliament on Wednesday, Philippson credited Sheeran for speaking “so powerfully” on the subject. The final curriculum will be published in spring 2027, and schools will begin teaching it from September 2028.
Sheeran has responded to the news and the success of his letter, writing “With the help of the letter and everyone who signed it, I’m happy to say that some of the key points we raised have been recognized by the government today, marking the first change to the music curriculum in over 10 years. This involves diversifying the music genres taught in schools and removing outdated systems that stop kids from studying music and the arts as part of their school day. These changes give young people hope and the opportunity to study music.” See his full statement below.
The topic of music education was raised by a number of British artists at the BRIT Awards 2025, when winners Myles Smith and Ezra Collective called on action to help foster creativity among young people in education.
Ed Sheeran’s full statement
I set up the Ed Sheeran Foundation because every child deserves to have access to a meaningful music education, and the chance to experience the joy and confidence that musical expression can bring.
Shortly after setting up my foundation, I wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister about the critical state of music education in the UK and the fact it was slipping through the cracks. The letter was backed by so many incredible people across the music industry and education who all said the same thing: music education matters. The Prime Minister replied, recognising the challenges and expressing his commitment to change.
With the help of the letter and everyone who signed it, I’m happy to say that some of the key points we raised have been recognised by the government today, marking the first change to the music curriculum in over 10 years. This involves diversifying the music genres taught in schools and removing outdated systems that stop kids from studying music and the arts as part of their school day. These changes give young people hope and the opportunity to study music.
Without the encouragement I received in school, especially from my music teacher, I wouldn’t be a musician today, and I know so many of my peers feel the same. My music education went beyond learning and playing. It helped me find confidence in myself, and music itself was – and still is – so important for my mental health.
There’s a lot more to do to support music education, especially our music teachers, but this is a step in the right direction.
Thank you so much to everyone who signed and supported the letter.
Today is a good day.
Ed x
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Cardi B & Stefon Diggs are giving big blue energy as they reveal they’re expecting a baby boy.
Diggs recently chopped it up with People Magazine at the CFDA Fashion Awards, where he broke the news, “It’s a boy. That’s enough for me. I can’t wait to make him do push-ups and sit-ups and run around.” The star Wide Receiver didn’t give a date on when they are expecting their baby boy, but said, “It’s supposed to happen real soon, so wish us both luck.”
The couple first announced the pregnancy during a September sit-down with CBS, where Cardi B revealed that she and Diggs were expecting a baby.
Since then, Bardi recently stole the show at the last New England Patriots game where she was posted up with the teams owner, Robert Kraft in the press box. Supporting her boo that had a great game and went home with a dub. Once the stadium peeped the AM I THE DRAMA rapper, they threw her up on the jumbotron. In Cardi fashion, she stole the show and even hit the fans with Digg’s celebration which went viral.
Stefon gave his take on the celebration after the game saying she has some work to do, “She picked it up on her own. Dance moves a little shaky though. I’ll look into that for y’all though.”
After the game they did a drip check with The People Gallery, where Bardi continued to pop it. With Stefon visibly exhausted from the game, but still supporting his girl.
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On a balmy September evening in Staten Island, Chef Shaw-naé Dixon is getting ready for her house to be packed. In just a few hours, her quaint and homey soul food staple, Shaw-naé’s House, will be bustling with guests.
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Tonight, Al Roker and his Weather Hunter team will be in attendance, anticipating a bevy of soulful classics, including oxtail, ribs, fries, mac and cheese and jerk chicken. I am also supposed to stop by, not only to witness Shaw-naé in her element — The New York Times celebrated her personable cooking approach, noting how she often spends her evenings out chatting and bonding with each guest — but to also treat my wife to some of her hearty cuisine. Unfortunately, my wife is sick, so I text Shaw-naé to tell her I’ll be missing her service to be of service to my lady instead.
“Have her boil pineapple skins with soursop leaves and ginger and sip throughout the day,” she texts back. “Mullein extract can also be ordered on Amazon. This knocks that s—t out like LL COOL J. TALK SOON. I LOVE YOU.”
Thankfully, I had already been able to visit Shaw-naé’s House on my own a few days before, where she greeted me with a warm, intentional hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I think a bird just took a s—t on me,” Shaw-naé told me before our embrace. I noted that usually implies good luck. “I don’t need any more luck,” she quipped with a full belly laugh.
Listening to Shaw-naé’s life story, that sentiment could very well be true. Both of these interactions are indicative of her approach to cuisine and hospitality as a whole. She’s a caretaker first, cook second. For Shaw-naé, food is a means of community, a way of expressing love, dating all the way back to her grandparents. As a Staten Island native, Shaw-naé’s father and mother were both born on the island, with her grandparents living out in South Jersey, “sort of doin’ the Jeffersons ‘Movin’ on Up’ thing,” as Shaw-naé tells it. Her grandmother went to Pratt and became a nutritionist, so good food and intentional cooking became a priority in Shaw-naé’s family early on. She has no formal training, but her family taught her everything there is to know about food.
“She used to call her house the, ‘Do Drop In,’” Shaw-naé says. “She always felt like she had to have something prepared for people to eat. She always cooked massive amounts, like for a marching band. When my husband and I met, he asked me, ‘Why do you cook so much food?’ I said, ‘I can’t help it. My grandmother taught me when someone walks in, you have to have food prepared.’”
Shaw-naé’s rich family history has become an instrumental part of her approach to food. While sitting in the “living room” of her petite restaurant, which is stuffed with Wu-Tang memorabilia and other eclectic knick-knacks, she tells me that her ancestors were the first Black settlers to ever reside on the island. Her first ancestor, Captain John Jackson, came over in 1799 and became the first Black purchaser of land on Staten Island. An oysterman and farmer, Jackson “created the farms and created the businesses behind oystering.”
“He also brought Harriet Tubman in multiple times with groups of slaves and freed them here in the community,” Shaw-naé says. “So I have this whole historical legacy attachment to my lineage. I was supposed to be an entrepreneur. I was supposed to be somebody in the community that was doing all this stuff, not just with food, but with empowering my people.”
This historic settlement founded by Jackson in 1828 would be called Sandy Ground and go down in history as the oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the United States. As a successful oyster-gathering and farming village, farmers harvested blueberries, sweet potatoes, asparagus and, most importantly, strawberries.
“Strawberries were the biggest, and that’s because when our counterparts came here and poisoned the water so we could no longer oyster,” Shaw-naé says, “they found out our businesses were staying up because of the farms. So they came and burnt the farm down. But when they burnt the farm down, they burnt the land, and the strawberries grew out of the sand. So they named the community Sandy Ground because when the ground became sandy, the strawberries flourished.”
Shaw-naé Dixon
Colin Clark
As we move to the kitchen, Shaw-naé reaffirms to me that this powerful history is the backbone of her business and her success. It’s why she’s able to stand over her stove, sauté some collard greens, and lather up her ribs in some of the best BBQ sauce the city has to offer. I’d go into further detail about what I saw, but scribed in chalk on a pillar right outside the kitchen reads, “NDA required beyond this point. Deadass.”
While Shaw-naé has worn many hats over the years — social worker, teacher — she got her official culinary start catering in the entertainment industry, more specifically in radio and hip-hop circles. After quitting her job in 2014, she began selling food directly out of her home, spreading the word via handmade flyers. Very soon after, she found herself chasing down 50 Cent’s car outside the Javits Center to give him a few of said flyers. She recalled banging on his car window, crying out to him that she had previously worked with Power star Michael Rainey, who is from Staten Island.
“I’m like, ‘Open the window!’ 50 Cent looks at his driver and is like, ‘Yeah, open the window!’” Shaw-naé recalls. After handing the rap mogul a few flyers, she asked to cater for the set of Power. He allegedly agreed but never called. (50 Cent could not be reached for comment for this story.)
“I figured it was because I was bein’ crazy,” Shaw-naé says with a laugh. She refined her approach but kept her hustler spirit going, and eventually, after “harassing the receptionist for two weeks on the phone,” landed a gig catering The Breakfast Club and iHeart Radio. She didn’t receive any payment for the work at first, because she said all she wanted to do was feed the team and showcase her food.
“I didn’t work for them; I got the opportunity to feed them,” she says. She says she eventually persuaded Charlamagne to actually hire her to cater a special Valentine’s Day meal at his home in February of 2016, and more work transpired from there.
Shaw-naé and I exit the kitchen, and she hands me a plate overflowing with food. While I’m trying to be respectful, every instinct in me wants to gorge on this unbelievable meal. Shaw-naé explains how then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is dying to speak with her, how the Venmo CEO invited her to some fancy app meeting, all while Al Roker is buzzing on her phone to give an update on Friday’s upcoming dinner service.
Shaw-naé’s catering business continued to pick up considerable steam until March of 2020, where she said she cooked meals for everyone from Cardi B to DJ Clue. The way Shaw-naé tells it, heading into the pandemic became a shifting point for her. She said she began experiencing spiritual visions, noting one in particular of faceless people ascending up an escalator as a numbered chart in the corner spiraled up into the millions. Then things came to a head in March of 2020 when Shaw-naé and her husband flew to Las Vegas for a business trip. When they arrived, reports of COVID-19 had begun to spread across the media landscape. It was only a few days before Shaw-naé said it was time to go.
Shaw-naé Dixon
Harry Crosland
“I told [my husband], I think I saw this already,” Shaw-naé says. “I go to Whole Foods and I buy $400 worth of vitamins and extracts. I give my husband all these vitamins. I bought two scarves, I bought sanitary napkins, and I made masks. We get on the airplane and I tell my husband, ‘Don’t take that off! Leave it on!’ My husband was like, ‘She’s nuts, but I’m listening.’”
When they arrived home, Shaw-naé says she told her husband to stop bringing the kids to school. Her husband, Jason, disregarded this, but a day later, school was canceled. As COVID-19 began to spread, Shaw-naé says she felt a spiritual call to take up meditation. She began meditating every day and started studying healthier eating habits and holistic food. As March turned into April and May, Shaw-naé started to rapidly lose weight.
“I felt my body start to breathe without me,” she says. “Like from my feet to my head, it felt like my skin was breathing. I felt something was not right.”
She booked a telemedicine appointment, but the doctor allegedly disregarded Shaw-naé’s concerns and told her she was glowing and looked healthier than ever. Shaw-naé pushed for an in-person appointment, and the doctor obliged. When she went in person, she was allegedly given the all-clear, except the doctor reportedly told her she was “severely anemic,” and they recommended a uterine ablation: an extremely common, low-risk procedure meant to aid in reducing iron loss during menstrual cycles, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Shaw-naé agreed and they booked the procedure for September.
“I don’t remember going into the doctor for that procedure,” Shaw-naé says. “My husband said [afterward] he literally hoisted me over his shoulder to carry me home.”
Shaw-naé said she was couch-bound and slept heavily for two days. On September 11, 2020, her family said Shaw-naé was lucid and cognizant and “sat on the couch, ate chips,” but Shaw-naé says she doesn’t remember any of that day either. The following day, Jason started a bath for Shaw-naé because he said she was “moaning and somehow in pain.” He ran the bath and left to go to the gym. Shaw-naé got into the bath fully clothed and left the water running. Her 13-year-old son found her submerged in the tub unresponsive. When EMS arrived, they pronounced her dead on the scene, but brought her to the hospital and ended up resuscitating her. They then put her in a medically induced coma. She awoke to her family crying and hugging her four days later.
“The doctors told my husband, ‘She’s fighting so hard to die,’” Shaw-naé tells me as I pull apart her BBQ ribs with my teeth. “They said, ‘We don’t know what the outcome is gonna be, but most likely she’s not gonna be able to talk, walk, or get herself dressed.’”
None of that ended up being true, and Shaw-naé made a full recovery. The chef says the doctors diagnosed the situation as a Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, a rare, but serious blood clotting episode. Regardless, Shaw-naé says she experienced a spiritual calling while she was in the coma, noting that God told her to feed and provide for as many people as she could.
“For me, to emerge post-Pandemic and open up this soul food restaurant, it was like, ‘Why is she opening up this soul food restaurant? Who the hell is she?” Shaw-naé recalled. “When I pulled up in front of this building on Van Duzer street. I didn’t know what was in here, I didn’t know what it was. All I heard was a voice say: “That’s your building.”
Shaw-naé’s House opened in June of 2021, and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. The New York Times gave her a rave two and a half out of five stars. She’s been offered book and film deals for her incredibly unique story, and she’s is currently in talks to host her own cooking shows. Not to mention her House continues to be a hot spot for local and national celebrities. Shockingly, despite Wu-Tang inspired memorabilia decorating her space, the legendary rap group has yet to enter her home. Shaw-naé notes that it’ll happen when it’s meant to, and in the meantime, she’s devoted to her diners, her community, and her spiritual mission to help people through her unbelievable food.
“I believe that every single person coming into this restaurant is coming here intentionally,” Shaw-naé says as I finish my plate. “It’s not just the food, they’re coming here for a specific type of experience. Everybody’s not the same, but everyone here is treated the same. I believe that heals people.”
She then looks at my plate, and looks up at me and smiles. “Let’s get you some leftovers for your wife.”
