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Britney Spears can’t stop gushing over her younger son, Jayden James Federline, following their emotional Christmas reunion. On Tuesday (Dec. 31), the 43-year-old pop icon took to Instagram to share a series of photos of her 18-year-old son, reflecting on their similar appearances and appearing to praise his musical talents. “Mine forever !!! It’s weird […]
The end is nigh. At least according to a series of ominous billboards that have popped up across the globe featuring the message “The End Is Near” that fans are speculating are part of the elaborate roll-out of The Weeknd‘s next permutation.
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According to fans sightings, the messages — which are written out in six different fonts representing Abel Tesfaye’s various eras — have gone up in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Paris, London and Melbourne, according to fan snaps.
In two posts on Monday (Dec. 30) teasing the tease, Tesfaye wrote “8 beautiful chapters in this story,” accompanied by a composite image featuring iconic looks from those eras — with the same TheEndIsNear branding — followed by a list of his albums. It begins with 2012’s compilation/major label debut Trilogy (which scooped up his three previous mixtapes: House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence), followed by 2013’s Kiss Land, 2015’s Beauty Behind the Madness, 2016’s Starboy, the 2018 EP My Dear Melancholy, 2020’s smash After Hours, 2022’s Dawn FM and his upcoming sixth studio album.
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In a second post, he shared a 24-second video of “The End Is Near” billboards compiled on a digital display atop a building on a busy street. At press time a spokesperson for the singer had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information on the billboards.
Tesfaye has been teasing his next LP for months, with Hurry Up Tomorrow slated for release on Jan. 24. The set will be the third and final installment of the latest trilogy in the Weeknd’s career, following on the heels of 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM. To date he has released three singles from the collection, including “Dancing in the Flames,” “Timeless” with Playboi Carti and “São Paulo” featuring Anitta.
He debuted those songs and other tracks from Hurry Up Tomorrow during his one-night-only show at the Estádio MorumBIS in São Paulo, Brazil. Weeknd has planned a one-night-only gig at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles on January 25. Earlier this month he again hinted at the major reboot, posting “New Album, New Tour, New Movie, New Everything.”
In addition to the album, Weeknd is slated to make his feature film debut in the parallel Hurry Up Tomorrow big screen psychological thriller, directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes At Night) and co-starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan; the film is due out on May 16.
Back in May 2023, in a W Magazine interview, Tesfaye intimated that his next studio release would be his final one as the Weeknd. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn,” he said at the time. “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd. This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”
Check out Weeknd’s teases below.
Morgan Wallen ended 2024 on a somewhat somber note with the surprise release of the contemplative ballad “Smile” on Monday (Dec. 30). The song — written by Wallen along with Rocky Block, John Byron, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak and Luis Witkiewitz — is described in a press release as being a continuation of themes established in the singer’s previous lovelorn singles, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Love Somebody.”
In the accompanying video directed by Justin Clough, Wallen plays himself gearing up to perform on a New Year’s Eve-style broadcast. Sitting nervously in his green room as the announcer teases his set, Wallen stares anxiously at a woman sitting silently across the way before getting his call. Glumly marching to the stage, Wallen appears to tune out the anxious producer’s notes about looking at the camera and remembering to smile. “People will love that,” he says as Wallen seems to ignore him completely.
Introduced as one of the “biggest pop stars in the world,” the host tells viewers that Wallen is gearing up to perform “Love Somebody,” the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single he released in October that is slated for his upcoming fourth studio album. Wallen pulls an Elvis Costello, though, snapping on his Field & Stream baseball hat and staring at the song’s lyrics in the Teleprompter before going rogue and playing “Smile” instead.
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“I can’t remember the last time/ You looked as happy as you did tonight/ Your tipsy friend grabbed that bartender/ Gave him her phone and pulled us over there with her,” he sings over gentle acoustic guitar as the TV show’s crew freaks out about the bait-and-switch while the prompter reads “[OFF SCRIPT].”
Wallen is unbothered, though, crooning the song’s gentle, pleading chorus, “It was good to see you smile/ Girl you know it’s been a while/ It was good to see you smile/ Even if it was just for the picture,” lamenting that after all the good times what’s left is only happy memories caught in photos.
Though it was an unplanned detour, Wallen’s sincerity appears to click, with the network brass turning from exasperated to elated as they watch the viewing numbers spike during the performance. As he sings about capturing a precious moment in time, Wallen’s love comes out to watch the performance, with the two sharing a last, longing look before she walks away.
“Smile” is the third single Wallen has release this year from his as-yet-untitled fourth album, the follow-up to 2023’s Billboard 200 No. 1 double LP One Thing at a Time.
Check out the “Smile” video below.
It’s an understatement to say that Chappell Roan had a huge 2024. But as the hours ticked down to 2025, the singer was in a reflective mood on Monday (Dec. 30) in an Instagram post in which she ran down her top 10 personal ranking of her most “Iconic” looks of the year. The singer […]
The whole Barker/Kardashian crew slipped into their holiday finest last week for a Christmas photo shoot featuring Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker‘s kids, including the couple’s 13-month-old son, Rocky.
The blended family is posted up in front of a Christmas tree in a series of snaps posted by Kardashian on Monday (Dec. 30), captioned, “‘Twas the night before Christmas.” Kardashian is in the center of the main shot, with her arm draped around son Reign Disick, 10 — the youngest of her three children with ex Scott Disick — who is killing the Christmas fashion with baggy zebra-print pants and a black bomber jacket.
Right next to her is Blink-182 drummer Barker, who is holding up and giving a sweet kiss on the cheek to baby Rocky, whose face is disguised by a heart emoji. Like his rocker dad, Rocky is kitted out in an all-black ensemble too. Also in the mix are Barker’s son Landon, 21, as well as stepdaughter Atiana De La Hoya, 25, Kardashian’s daughter, Penelope Disick, 12, and eldest son Mason Disick, 15, who is just in front of family friend Carl Dawson.
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Barker’s eldest daughter with ex Shanna Moakler, 19-year-old Alabama Barker, was not featured in the shot; TMZ reported on Monday that the aspiring singer decided to give up vaping cold turkey to take care of her voice and after not feeling well recently she was transported to a local hospital, where experts said she was suffering from nicotine withdrawal.
The photo roll featured a sweet image from behind of Barker holding Rocky while staring at the Christmas lights, in addition to Kourtney’s sister, Kendall Jenner, singing karaoke while wearing a Santa hat and an all-white outfit. There is also a glam shot of Kourtney with sister Kim Kardashian, mom Kris Jenner with longtime love Corey Gamble and a series of photo booth snaps of the family goofing off.
Last week, Kourtney posted a roll of pics with Travis in which she dressed as Mrs. Claus while they snuggled and listened to some favorite from Nirvana and Frank Sinatra on vinyl.
Don’t expect new music music from veteran electronic producer Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) any time soon, with the artist revealing that live shows have taken over as his main focus in recent years.
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Cook, who began his professional musical career as a member of indie rock outfit The Housemartins in the ’80s, has been an electronic producer since his work with Beats International at the advent of the ’90s, ultimately going solo as Fatboy Slim in 1996.
Though massively popular in his native U.K., Cook’s success also extended globally, with his breakthrough record – 1998’s You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby – reaching No. 34 on the Billboard 200, and third single “Praise You” hitting No. 36 on the Hot 100. However, he’s been largely absent from the charts for most of the past two decades, with his 2004 album Palookaville arriving as his last studio album to date.
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Instead, Cook has largely turned his focus towards his live show, though new music does arrive sporadically. In 2024 alone, Cook released the singles “Role Model” and “Bus Stop Please”, which were his first new tracks since 2022’s “Speed Trials on Acid” with Carl Cox.
Speaking to British publication The Sun’s Bizarre column recently, Cook explained that his output has slowed dramatically due a lack of passion for creating new material.
“My last two singles just came out of a live show,” he explained. “They were both things that I made just to play on the side. I had tunes that nobody else had in my set. And that kind of caught on with people when we worked out that we could clear the samples and release them.
“The thing is, you can’t make music unless you’re absolutely passionate about it and it drives you from the moment you wake up in the morning,” he added. “I just don’t seem to feel like that any more. I feel like that about DJing and about putting on things like this, but I’ve kind of lost my passion for making music.”
In 2010, Cook collaborated with Talking Heads frontman David Byrne for Here Lies Love, a joint concept and soundtrack album about Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. To date, this is the closest thing he’s come to making a new full-length record, though he admits to struggling with a sense of obligation alongside his live sets.
“For five years, I tried to beat myself up about it and go, ‘You should be doing this’, but then I thought, ‘Well, everybody likes my DJing and I enjoy that more, so I’ll do that’,” he continued. “I’m hoping that one day the passion will come back.”
The Doobie Brothers are readying their 16th studio album, with the group revealing that Michael McDonald will return to perform vocals on the newly announced Walk This Road.
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News of the band’s forthcoming record was shared during a year-end wrap-up post shared to Facebook on Monday (Dec. 30). “It’s hard to believe another year just shot by like a rocket!” the band wrote. “We’re currently celebrating almost 56 years together as a band. 55 years since we released our very first self titled album The Doobie Brothers.
“It’s been a long winding road since those early days but we’re still working together, doing our best to remain creative, and looking forward to bringing our music to you folks out there again next year.”
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Reflecting on their activities across 2024 (which included close to 60 live shows and featured U.K. opening for the Eagles), the Doobie Brothers closed by looking ahead to the coming year and their plans for new music.
“Here’s the goal we’ve set for 2025,” the post continued. “This train keeps rollin’ down the track and we’re almost ready to release our new album Walk This Road sometime after the first of the year. We have 10 new songs sung by Tom [Johnston], Michael [McDonald], and Pat [Simmons]. The three of us wrote songs and collaborated together. We had a lot of fun recording it and we feel very proud of the results.
“John McFee added his incredible musical talents as well. Once more we turned to the amazing John Shanks who produced, wrote, and played on the tracks with us. Fortunately we’re back working with our friends at Warner Brothers/Rhino Records on this release. We’ll probably debut a song soon after the first of the year and the full album will follow sometime in the Spring/Summer.”
The most notable takeaway from the band’s update is the return of McDonald on an album of original music. Joining the band in 1975 ahead of their Takin’ It to the Streets album the following year, McDonald remained lead vocalist of the band until their 1982, overseeing some of their most popular releases, including 1978’s Minute by Minute – their only album to top the Billboard 200.
Though the Doobie Brothers would reunite in 1987, McDonald’s time with the band was somewhat sporadic, with stints within the group in 1992, 1995, and again in 2014 as a studio member. His last studio album of original material recorded with the Doobie Brothers was 1980’s One Step Closer, though he would feature on one song from 2010’s World Gone Crazy, and feature on the band’s 2014 covers/collaboration album Southbound.
While McDonald rejoined the band as a full-time member in 2019, he was ultimately absent from their 2021 album, Liberté.
Rapper and songwriter BigXthaPlug previously appeared on “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hitmaker Shaboozey‘s song “Drink Don’t Need No Mix” (from Shaboozey’s album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going)–but he says he has plenty more country collaborations ahead.
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In an interview with Complex, BigXthaPlug noted that he has an upcoming country music EP in the works and it’s packed with country music luminaries.
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“I got a country EP loaded up, you got Shaboozey, you got Morgan Wallen, you got Post Malone, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll…” BigXthaPlug said. The rapper also noted he has a second project in the works, though he hasn’t decided which to release first.
“I also got another project I’m putting together, kind of like a ‘South Mix’ of me, Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, NLE Choppa…” he said.
Of course, prior to Jelly Roll’s transition into country music, he spent years releasing rap projects, and still incorporates a medley of rap classics into his headlining shows, alongside his hits such as “Son of a Sinner” and “Halfway to Hell.” Meanwhile, Wallen previously teamed with Moneybagg Yo for the song “Whiskey Whiskey,” and with Lil Durk for the songs “Broadway Girls” (which topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart in 2022) and “Stand By Me.”
Texas native BigXthaPlug previously hinted about his Wallen and Post Malone collaborations in January during an interview for Los Angeles radio station Real 92.3, when he recalled that Wallen came to one of his shows in Arkansas and they hung out. At one point during the interview, BigXthaPlug called Wallen “the Drake of country,” and teased the collaboration, saying, “We actually cooking something up…I got something coming with Morgan Wallen. I got something coming with Post Malone.”
In 2022, BigXthaPlug released the song “Texas,” which cracked the top 40 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. And last year, he mentioned the possibility of a country collaboration, telling Complex, “I also really want to do an actual country version because a lot of country playlists and whatnot have been reaching out to me because of the song. I figured, “Why not do a song with a popping country artist and just expand it on some Lil Nas X-type deal?’”
2024 has been a big year for genre-traversing artists with collaborative projects, including Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter project and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, both of which topped the all-genre Billboard 200. Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter featured collaborations with artists including Shaboozey, Linda Martell, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, while Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion featured collabs with artists including Wallen, Tim McGraw, Lainey Wilson, Parton, Luke Combs and Sierra Ferrell. Meanwhile, Kane Brown’s collaboration with Marshmello has spent 33 weeks entrenched atop the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
Depending on when BigXthaPlug releases the EP he’s teasing, it seems those cross-collaborative country hits could keeping coming in 2025.
Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning have seen Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo‘s viral Wicked meme — and yes, the A Complete Unknown costars are holding space for them.
In a recent video posted by The Advocate‘s Tracy Gilchrist — who went viral in November for a confusing but hilarious interaction with the Wicked actresses regarding the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” — the stars of James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic recreated that much-analyzed moment during their own interview with the journalist.
The clip begins with Gilchrist immediately breaking the ice. “First, I just want to let you know that I am holding space for you,” she says, referencing her own viral catchphrase and making Chalamet and Fanning laugh.
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The Dune actor the sticks out his finger as Fanning grabs onto it, mimicking how the “Yes, And?” singer held onto the Pinocchio actress’ finger in Gilchrist’s memorable interview with the Wicked leading ladies. “It’s an honor talking to you,” Chalamet proceeds to tell Gilchrist earnestly. “I feel like, sort of starstruck. I was like, ‘Tracy! Holy s–t. Okay, this better be good.’”
“There’s nothing that we can do that can trump what happened, you know what I mean?” Fanning chimes in as all three laugh.
Gilchrist’s interview with the A Complete Unknown stars comes a little over a month after the “holding space” meme originated. While chatting with Grande and Erivo about Wicked for Out magazine mid-November, the journalist began by saying, “This week, people are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that.”
Erivo immediately got emotional as the Victorious alum, looking a little bit confused, held her friend’s finger for support. For days afterward, fans online went wild dissecting the exchange, with the uproar focusing in particular on what the definition of “holding space” could be.
Shortly afterward, Grande and Erivo revealed that they were just as perplexed during the interview as everyone else was when watching it. “I didn’t know what any part of it meant,” the “7 Rings” vocalist said, laughing, in a Variety video breaking down the meme with the Harriet star and Wicked director Jon M. Chu. “I remember in the moment, asking myself, ‘Am I okay? Did I not hear something?’” Gilchrist herself has since explained the meaning of “holding space” in addition to having some fun with the viral moment in a commercial.
Watch Chalamet and Fanning recreate the viral “holding space” meme below.
Shortly after Ashley Avignone helped celebrate Taylor Swift‘s birthday, the pop star returned the favor. In photos shared by the stylist on Instagram Sunday (Dec. 30), she and her longtime bestie celebrated another trip around the sun at what appears to be a cozy restaurant gathering, sharing drinks and a colorful cake.
One photo finds Swift — sporting a sleek black top, cherry red lipstick and sharp white-and-black eyeliner — wrapping Avignone in a big hug while seated at their table. Another snap shows off the sprinkle-covered cake the pair shared, featuring pink and purple frosting reading, “Ash is 25 (again).”
“Happy birthday to me, emphasis on the *happy,*” Avignone captioned the post.
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The post comes exactly 10 days after the interior designer shared pictures from Swift’s own birthday bash, which Travis Kelce, Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, the HAIM sisters and more friends also attended earlier this month. The party appeared to be themed around the 14-time Grammy winner’s global Eras Tour, which closed Dec. 8 in Vancouver.
“When she thought she was going to a small, quiet dinner but it was actually a giant surprise party with her friends and family, props included,” Avignone wrote at the time.
Avignone and Swift have been besties for well over a decade, with the latter including the former’s first name in the secret liner-note message for Red single “22” back in 2012. The influencer has also attended a few Kansas City Chiefs games with the “Karma” artist, including the 2024 Super Bowl in February.
Swift seems to be closing out her 2024 by enjoying quality time with family and friends following a blockbuster 2024, which, for her, included spending 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with The Tortured Poets Department, winning two new Grammys — including album of the year for Midnights — at the February ceremony and setting a new record for most Billboard Music Awards wins in December, in addition to raking in more than $2 billion at the close of her Eras trek. Over the weekend, she and Kelce stepped out in New York City with Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley, one day after Swift and the tight end went out again on a date night at the private supper club Chez Margaux, per reports.
