Music News

First things first. There are (officially) no wedding bells, wedding plans or even an engagement announcement from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The couple have been making headlines for the past year for their very public, globe-hopping romance, but despite the persistent rumors, as far as anyone knows they are still just dating.
That didn’t stop a caller on Travis and his brother Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast this week from trying to Trojan Horse some news out of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis by asking the siblings how they feel about fall weddings. The caller, William, said he and his girlfriend talked about getting married in the fall, but he unequivocally told her “good luck with that, I’m gonna be at a football game.”

“Ridiculous,” Jason laughed. “Sounds like this marriage is gonna work out great!”

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Travis — who has gotten used to all manner of back door efforts to get him to talk about the couple’s relationship — countered with a very diplomatic answer. “I actually don’t know people who’ve gotten married in the fall,” he said on Wednesday’s (Jan. 8) episode. “My friends always do it in the summer.” Jason noted that “we can’t go usually,” when it comes to nuptials that take place as the NFL season is heating up as the leaves fall.

Travis agreed, counseling the couple to find a weekend when their preferred team is not playing a good team. “Also, if you really do have a problem with that, maybe it’s in her best interest to not have it in the fall so that she knows you’re invested in the anniversary every time it comes around,” he said diplomatically.

He added that the brothers really have no say on the matter, adding that he’s seen weddings in “f–kin’ February… [and] everywhere but the fall. So I’m not sure if the fall is a good wedding season.” Married father of four — with another on the way — Jason also noted that William can record the game because, “there are certain things that are more important than football and if the wedding is not more important than football, we got some bigger issues here.”

“Don’t make my friends have to not go,” Travis said about autumn wedding planning. “Don’t make my friends choose whether or not they’ll have to sell their tickets that week.” In his finest advice, retired Eagles Super Bowl winner Jason said that there are many things more important than football, and “not arguing with your wife is high up there.”

There was, of course, plenty of actual football talk as well, with the brothers setting up this weekend’s first round of NFL playoff games and answering another burning, intimate, “not dumb” question from a caller about their equipment. A woman who rang noted that after watching football with her family she had a query only the siblings could answer: “what happened to the jockstrap?”

“I don’t think you boys wear ’em anymore,” she said as Travis and Jason looked, well, dumb-founded. “You just see everything hangin’ and movin’ and runnin’ and, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!”

“Not as aware as this woman about what’s going on with the genitals throughout the game,” Travis said. “But watch the game for whatever you watch the game for. I’m not here to judge.” Three-time Super Bowl champ Travis will have some time to ponder that some more this weekend thanks to the first-round bye the Chiefs have because of their top seeding in the AFC. Their first game in a bid to be the first NFL team to win three Super Bowls in a row will take place on either January 18 or 19.

Check out the Kelce’s answer about fall weddings below.

Ed Sheeran has long talked about how vital music education was in his youth, helping him to sort out his feelings and, of course, paving the way for him to become one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the modern era.
Now, the singer is paying it forward with the announcement on Thursday morning (Jan. 9) of the Ed Sheeran Foundation. In an Instagram post announcing the venture, Sheeran explained, “I set up @edsheeranfnd because recently there’s been less and less importance being put on music education. Even when I was in school it was seen as a ‘doss subject’ and not taken seriously. There’s a misconception that it’s ’not a real job’ – when the music industry accounts for 216,000 jobs in so many different fields, and bringing as much as £7.6 billion($9.3 billion dollars) in a year to the UK economy.”

He added, “Not to mention the power our art has worldwide to bring joy to people. It’s something we should be proud of and championing in the UK, not sweeping under the rug and pretending we are just bankers (no offence to bankers obvz). It was incredible for my mental health as a kid, feeling a sense of purpose and achievement, even just learning piano or cello at a young age way before songwriting.”

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Sheeran said the goal of the foundation is to help children learn to play instruments, as well as learn production and songwriting and performance skills and “apprenticeship schemes” to teach them about different skills that could help them enter the music industry. As an example, Sheeran said his operation employs 150 people on tour, all with different skill sets, in addition to those that work with him on the label, management, publishing and promotion side.

“Music is such a key part of our society,” he wrote. “The more I do travelling around and visiting schools and grass roots projects, the more I see there’s passion and inspiring people, who are being undervalued and underserved. I’m hoping this foundation is a start to giving them the support they need to keep going, and show them they are hugely important to us.”

Back in 2019, Sheeran launched the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation, aimed at helping young people under 18 living in the Suffolk region of England with “small but useful grants” to help them study or play music.

In the accompany video to the announcement of his latest charitable venture, Sheeran said that music education “shaped who I am,” and that it has given him a sense of purpose and achievement since he was a kid. He noted that he went to a state-funded school, where a supportive teacher gave him the confidence to get on stage and perform.

He said he hatched the idea for the foundation after having a cup of tea with an old music teacher who told him about the poor state of music education. “There are venues getting shut down and there are organizations that do out-of-school music clubs that are getting shut down and I think the foundation’s key is to help those organizations carry on, because they are struggling,” Sheeran said in the video.

At press time no additional information was available about how the Foundation will distribute funds, though on the group’s website it promises to work with “communities, industry and government to make a change in how music is taught across the UK. We want every child to have equal access to express themselves through music and opportunity to pursue a music career.”

The site also says that it will advocate for school-based learning to encourage young musicians, as well as stronger funding and government policies to ensure access to high-quality music education and an investment in schools and grassroots organizations to “help them secure the resources needed for vibrant music programs, from instruments to teacher training.”

The announcement came after Sheeran told Variety in December that following the release of two albums in 2023 — – (Subtract) and Autumn Variations — as well as touring the world for the past two years, he might eschew the typical break he takes after his album/tour cycle because he already has another LP on deck. He said the as-yet-untitled LP is done, with two music videos shot, and plans to shoot two more early this year, as he continues touring in India, China and the Middle East before returning for dates in Europe in the spring and summer.

It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” he said. “It’s quite exciting.”

Check out the announcement video and see the first posts from the Foundation below.