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Ed Sheeran may love to use a loop pedal on stage, but in life, he’s often out of the loop due to his refusal to own a phone. That’s why he found out about longtime bestie Taylor Swift‘s engagement to Travis Kelce weeks after the fact.
But after learning about the “Fate of Ophelia” singer’s big news at the same time as the rest of the world via her August announcement on Instagram, the British pop star apparently had a long conversation with Swift to get caught up to speed. Revealing that he met up with her just “a week after” he revealed to Andy Cohen in September that he’d not been privy to Swift’s engagement before the general public, Sheeran told Access Hollywood in a Nov. 28 interview, “When I saw Taylor, we had like a four-hour catch-up.”
“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” he continued, noting that he and his pal spent the time talking about “life stuff” together. “We’ve been friends for many years. We’re super close, and we see each other when we see each other. And when we see each other, we lock back into where we left off,” Sheeran added.
The two titans of pop music have indeed been close for a long time, with the pair coming together in 2012 for a collaboration on Swift’s Red album titled “Everything Has Changed.” Sheeran then joined the 14-time Grammy winner on the road for her Red Tour, and the two have teamed up on a number of tracks since.
Despite their bond, Swift forgot to tell Sheeran directly about her engagement because of his commitment to staying off the grid. “He doesn’t have a phone,” the Eras Tour headliner lamented to Jimmy Fallon in October. “And this is one thing I love about him … But when I’m going through, saying, ‘Hey, who should we call? Who should we FaceTime?’ I’m going through my texts and being like, ‘Who have I texted within the last like, month of my life?’”
But while he may have been late to the proposal news, Sheeran will definitely be at Swift’s nuptials to the Kansas City Chiefs tight end (that is, assuming the happy couple sends him an invite with the date and location by post rather than text or email). On U.K.’s Hits Radio Breakfast Show in October, Swift confirmed that Sheeran will be on the guest list and added that it will be “hard to keep” him from giving an impromptu performance at the reception.
“It’s like, Ed, if there’s a stage you know that you’ll be on it,” she said at the time. “He knows what people want, and he wants to give people what they want.”
Watch Sheeran discuss his recent catch-up with Swift below.
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It’s time to pull out those ties, suit jackets, church hats and pearls, because Nick Jonas is slipping into his Sunday Best era with a new solo album coming in 2026.
On Monday (Dec. 1), the Jonas Brothers star announced that he’s gearing up to release his first solo full-length LP in five years, Sunday Best, on Feb. 6. The 11-track project will explore Nick’s life as a husband to actress Priyanka Chopra and a dad to their daughter, Malti, according to a release.
“I’m so excited to share these new stories, candid thoughts, quiet walks home in the city, and snapshots of my life over these past few years,” the pop-rocker said in a statement. “And while this album was made over the course of the last two years, it was truly 33 years in the making.”
On Instagram, Nick shared the Sunday Best cover art, which features him looking at his reflection in a bathroom mirror while getting dressed for the day in khakis. On the wall behind him hangs a piece of construction paper with three paint handprints on it, most likely to represent the musician, his wife and their child.
Serving as Nick’s fifth solo album, Sunday Best will follow 2021’s Spaceman, which reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200. He’s released two albums with brothers Joe and Kevin since: 2023’s The Album and 2025’s Greetings From Your Hometown, both of which charted in the top 10.
As a soloist, Nick has also charted eight songs on the Billboard Hot 100 over the course of his career, including top 10 hit “Jealous.”
The singer has spent much of this year on tour with his brothers in celebration of their 20th anniversary as a band. They currently have dates scheduled through the very end of December, closing out 2025 with a performance at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood on New Year’s Eve.
See Nick’s announcement for Sunday Best below.
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Elton John & Bernie Taupin’s current Grammy nomination (best song written for visual media for “Never Too Late”) is their first as a songwriting team in 54 years. They share the nod with Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt. The song, which was written for the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year.
It’s the first time John and Taupin have been nominated for a Grammy as a team since their music for the British-French teen romance Friends (no relation to the later smash TV series) was nominated for best original score written for a motion picture or a television special at the 1972 ceremony. (It lost to Isaac Hayes’ blockbuster Shaft soundtrack).
Amazingly, no John-Taupin collab has ever been nominated for song of the year. “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” was nominated for record of the year at the 1975 ceremony, but not song of the year. Their Oscar-winning “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman failed to even land a nod for best song written for visual media.
Both John and Taupin have been nominated for songwriting collabs with other partners. John received four nominations for the 1995 ceremony for co-writing songs for The Lion King with Tim Rice. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life” were nominated for both song of the year and best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television. (The songs lost to Bruce Springsteen’s haunting “Streets of Philadelphia” from Jonathan Demme’s AIDS drama Philadelphia, an outcome that John, a longtime AIDS activist, was probably more than OK with.) John and Rice won best musical show album in 2001 for composing the score for Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida.
Taupin received a best country song nod for the 2003 ceremony for co-writing “Mendocino County Line” with Matt Serletic. Willie Nelson recorded the song with Lee Ann Womack for his 50th studio album, The Great Divide.
John broke through in 1970, but didn’t win his first Grammy until 1987, for his featured role on Dionne & Friends’ “That’s What Friends Are For.” He won his first Grammy for one of his own records in 1992 when “Basque” won best instrumental composition. He composed the instrumental for flute player James Galway.
John has won five Grammys, far fewer than you might imagine for an artist of his stature. Taupin has yet to win one. “I’ve never been a favorite of the Grammys, I have to say,” John told writer Chris Willman in a current cover story for Variety. “It’s been very rare that I’ve won anything.”
John’s husband, David Furnish, added: “Elton and Bernie have never won a Grammy — can you believe that? — as a pair of songwriters.”
John received a Grammy Legend Award in 2000 but has yet to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. Taupin has yet to receive a Trustees Award (the equivalent award for non-performers). They have fared better in other prestigious honors programs. They received the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2013, and are the reigning recipients of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
How does John and Taupin’s tepid Grammy showing compare with other legendary songwriting teams? Let’s start with the most fabled songwriting collaboration of them all – John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They received 10 Grammy nods in songwriting or composing categories.
Let’s also look at the nine collaborations that have received the Johnny Mercer Award from the SHOF. All but one has received at least one Grammy nod as a team. That one is the human hit factory known as Holland/Dozier/Holland, who collaborated on some of the biggest and best hits of the 1960s, including “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “I Can’t Help Myself” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” No Grammy nods for any of those songs? Please.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, like John and Taupin, received two Grammy nods as a team. Looking at the other Mercer Award recipients, and listing them in ascending order in number of nods as a team, we find Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (four), Broadway scribes Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (five), Burt Bacharach and Hal David (six), Broadway scribes Betty Comden and Adolph Green (eight), Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff (nine) and Marilyn and Alan Bergman (11).
This year’s other nominees for best song written for visual media are “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” from TRON:Ares (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross), “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters (EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick) and three songs from Sinners – “I Lied to You” (Ludwig Göransson & Raphael Saadiq), “Pale, Pale Moon” (Ludwig Göransson & Brittany Howard) and “Sinners” (Leonard Denisenko, Rodarius Green, Travis Harrington, Tarkan Kozluklu, Kyris Mingo & Darius Poviliunas). “Golden” also received a nomination for song of the year, so it’s probably the front-runner in this category.
Trending on Billboard Britney Spears is back on Instagram doing what she does: dancing and sharing small glimpses into her private life. The singer who deactivated her Insta account on Nov. 2 before quietly reactivating it less than a month later, took to her feed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to offer up a bit […]
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Kylie Minogue is finally sharing the Christmas song she has been holding onto for a decade. The pop icon has released her new single “XMAS,” a track she says dates back to the summer of 2015 and was originally inspired by the Village People’s “YMCA.”
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The song arrives as part of the 10th anniversary edition of Minogue’s holiday album, Kylie Christmas, which returns on Dec. 5 as Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped) with four brand-new tracks.
Speaking to The Sun, Minogue explained that the idea first came to her while she was in Berlin shortly after releasing her first holiday album, Kylie Christmas, that same year.
“The song comes from 2015. I was at Soho House in Berlin, it was summer on the terrace and we’d just done the first Christmas album,” she said. “We’d had a couple of glasses of wine … and it came to us like ‘YMCA’ but ‘XMAS.’ I’ve been sitting on the chorus for 10 years.”
The single arrives with a video that sees Minogue recreating the iconic flying lift from Dirty Dancing. Despite decades of stage experience, she admitted the move was a leap of faith.
“I was a bit scared as I’ve never done it before. It was a fantasy moment. I was told not to overthink it,” she said. “We did a couple of practices before we did the main one. The thing is, you just need to trust the other person. The first one I got up, but I overshot it. The second was fine. The third one was good. The bruises were worth it the next day.”
Minogue also addressed the idea of “XMAS” becoming a holiday chart-topper — something she’s not expecting but would happily welcome. “I’m not counting on it,” she said. “It would be crazy but that’s definitely parked to one side for me. I am just happy that ten years have passed since my last Christmas album and we are all here still going.”
The release caps what has been one of the busiest stretches of Minogue’s career. Over the past two years, she has released two albums, including 2023’s Tension, and completed a 66-date world tour behind the record. After nonstop work, she says she’s ready for a pause — sort of.
“It feels like I haven’t stopped. It’s been a gigantic year but I imagine I will be making music just for the love of it and maybe banking some things,” she said. “I could happily be in the studio most of my time. I love it. I find it just gets richer and more satisfying.”
Still, Minogue admitted that trying to record a holiday album during breaks on her Tension tour “was maybe not so wise,” but the creative impulse keeps her going. “I don’t know about releasing. I think I should just do the background work… maybe.”
Minogue’s “XMAS” is out now.
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Olivia Dean has secured partial refunds for fans after publicly criticizing Ticketmaster and AXS over inflated resale prices for her upcoming North American tour.
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The rising British singer-songwriter called out the platforms last week after fans discovered third-party listings priced at more than 14 times the original cost — in some cases surpassing $1,000.
In an open letter, Dean described the unchecked resale market as “disgusting,” “vile” and fundamentally “exploitative,” urging companies to “do better” to protect fans.
On Wednesday, Ticketmaster responded with a rare concession: a commitment to cap future resale rates for Dean’s tour and to begin refunding fans who paid above face value on its platform.
“We support artists’ ability to set the terms of how their tickets are sold and resold. @OliviaDeano, we will cap resale prices on our site at face value and hope other resale sites will follow,” Ticketmaster initially replied.
Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, later addressed the singer’s concerns, saying: “We share Olivia’s desire to keep live music accessible and ensure fans have the best access to affordable tickets. While we can’t require other marketplaces to honour artists’ resale preferences, we echo Olivia’s call to ‘do better’ and have taken steps to lead by example.”
Dean welcomed the move but made clear that her concerns extend beyond her own tour. Calling the secondary ticketing ecosystem “an exploitative and unregulated space,” she urged the wider music industry to adopt mandatory face-value resale caps for artists who request it.
“Tours steal from artists and they steal from fans,” she said. “They create inequality and hysteria. I am lucky to have had an education about the complexities and corruption of ticketing from @dicefm and will always choose to partner with them where we can. But know that you have power with other partners.
“Capping resale at face value is your right and we have a duty to encourage a fair resale market. We are often made to feel we don’t have a choice but there is always space to ask why and it is always your right to say no!”
Dean, who performed on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage last year and has become one of 2025’s biggest breakout stars, emphasised that live shows remain a deeply personal space for her.
“We are very serious about everything we do but live is a sacred space we have crafted over 10 years,” she wrote. “We lose money on nearly every show but feel passionately it is a worthy investment to create a moment for people to connect and lose themselves for an hour. We always do our best to make those spaces safe and accessible to everybody.
“Touts steal from artists and they steal from fans. They create inequality and hysteria. Capping resale at face value is your right and we have a duty to encourage a fair resale market,” she continued. “We are often made to feel we don’t have a choice but there is always space to ask why and it is always your right to say no!
“It’s not every day that you feel heard and understood,” she concluded, “so today is good day.”
Her comments arrive amid growing international scrutiny over ticketing practices. In the U.K., legislators recently confirmed plans to make it illegal to resell tickets for more than their original price following advocacy from major artists including Coldplay and Dua Lipa, who argued the change would “help democratise public access to the arts.”
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JoJo Siwa says she was hospitalized with sudden “excruciating” stomach pain just hours before her scheduled performance at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Friday (Nov. 28), revealing in a TikTok video that she suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst that caused internal bleeding.
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In the post, Siwa explained that she had been dealing with persistent discomfort for several days, which intensified any time she danced, walked or moved. “Every time that I’ve been dancing for the last couple of days or even just walking, my stomach would just really, really hurt,” she said. At first, she assumed the pain was related to menstrual cramps, adding that she tried to ease it with a warm bath. “That set it off 100 times worse,” she said.
After calling her mother for advice, Siwa said she was urged to phone an ambulance. At the hospital, doctors told her the cause: “One of my ovaries had a cyst on it that burst and was bleeding into my stomach,” she explained. She added that the blood in her abdomen triggered the intense pain. “Anytime that the blood in your stomach moves, that’s the bleeding in the stomach. It’s like brutal pain.”
Despite the medical emergency, Siwa still performed her Mall of America set later that day. She told fans she will undergo follow-up checks next week. “We’re going to keep it pushing,” she said, noting she has been instructed to return to the hospital immediately if she experiences vomiting or a recurrence of the severe pain.
The Minnesota stop followed the conclusion of her Infinity Heart U.K. and European tour, which wrapped earlier this month. Earlier in 2025, Siwa appeared on the U.K. edition of Celebrity Big Brother, where she was the subject of inappropriate comments and behavior from fellow contestant Mickey Rourke.
More recently, she released a cover of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.” Carnes appeared to respond cryptically to the rendition in a TikTok, saying, “There is a difference between singing a song…and embodying it.”
Siwa has continued to tease new music and maintain a high profile across social media throughout the year. In her TikTok about the medical scare, she reassured fans that she expects to recover without further intervention, adding that doctors anticipate the situation will resolve on its own.
Trending on Billboard Vanessa Hudgens and husband Cole Tucker have welcomed their second child together. The High School Musical alum — and singer behind pop songs including 2008’s “Sneakernight” and 2006’s “Come Back to Me” — announced her newborn’s birth on Saturday (Nov. 29) with a photo of herself hooked up to monitors in a hospital bed. […]
Trending on Billboard Kelly Clarkson has officially joined Spotify’s Billions Club. The 43-year-old pop superstar and talk show host earned her place in the streaming service’s elite circle as her hit “Since U Been Gone” became her first song to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify. The pop-rock anthem was released as the second single […]
Trending on Billboard Taylor Swift continues her reign over the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart, landing her sixth non-consecutive week at No. 1 with “The Fate of Ophelia” (Nov. 28). Explore See latest videos, charts and news The track appears on the superstar’s 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl, and first hit the summit […]
