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Sabrina Carpenter isn’t the only entertainer in her family, but her aunt — Simpsons star Nancy Cartwright — thinks that she will be their first EGOT winner someday. In an interview with Good Morning America posted Monday (Dec. 16), one day ahead of the premiere of the famous cartoon’s 2024 holiday special on Disney+, the […]
Gracie Abrams opened 49 Eras Tour shows and to hear her tell it the final day on Taylor Swift’s mega world stadium outing was a lot like the last, weepy hours of a high school year. “Everyone had been crying all day. It felt like the last day of school backstage,” she told Nylon magazine in a new feature about her magical year. “Everyone was walking around with their [Eras Tour] books, signing each other’s books. We were all walking around with Sharpies.”
Abrams spoke to the magazine less than 36 hours after the final Eras Tour show in Vancouver on December 8 and admittedly was struggling with the stages of grief as she put the life-changing experience behind her. “I watched the live streams on shows that I wasn’t at,” she said. “I’m feeling emotional and grateful and in a state of shock that we don’t, as a global community, get to experience that source of light anymore.”
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As she ascends to her own new pop plateaus — including a recent debut Saturday Night Live musical guest spot and a fifth week at No. 1 on the U.K. charts with her “That’s So True” single — Abrams, 25, said the time spent on tour with Swift was like pop star boot camp. “I was just soaking up every moment of her show, too. I’ve basically been studying it for a year-and-a-half,” she said of Swift, who returned the favor by scattered some of her musical pixie dust on Abrams’ The Secret of Us track “Us.” “Every time I’ve opened for her, I watch and learn. I learned from her every time we have a conversation about the weather, even,” Abrams said.
Though she initially got hit with the dreaded “nepo baby” tag thanks to famous parents Star Wars and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams and production exec Katie McGrath, Abrams said the tables are starting to turn. The Nylon writer described a recent New York show where they observed fans approaching director Abrams to take selfies with “Gracies dad.”
“They’re like, ‘What in the world?’” Abrams said of her parents’ take on her rising fame. “But it’s really sweet,” she adds, noting that watching the sweet way her mother interacts with people is the model for how she wants to be. “Her support and encouragement of my writing my whole life is the reason that I’m doing any of this now,” she said.
The one thing she didn’t want to discuss, however, was her rumored relationship with Gladiator II star Paul Mescal, who she’s been photographed with a number of times this year. Asked how she’s dealing with a high-profile relationship amidst her rising fame, Abrams kept things vague. “That has nothing to do with me,” she said. “It doesn’t affect me.”
The singer announced her own 2025 North American headlining tour the day after wrapping her Eras run and told the magazine that she’s re-teamed with The National’s Aaron Dessner at New York’s Electric Lady Studios with an eye toward releasing her third album by late 2025.
“I am inspired by Taylor in a million ways, but especially by the pace with which she puts things out into the world,” Abrams said. “There’s less pressure the more you release — that’s how I consider it for myself. I want to just keep it coming while I’m in this period of writing as frequently as I am. I think it would be a waste to not be open.”
Watch Abrams take the Rorschach Test with Nylon below.
Beyoncé now has more Recording Industry Association of America certified titles than any other female artist, the organization announced Tuesday (Dec. 17). With the superstar earning dozens of new badges Tuesday — including a 2x-Platinum certification for Billboard Hot 100-topper “Texas Hold ‘Em” and Platinum honors for Billboard 200 No. 1 album Cowboy Carter — […]
Lily Allen has long been an open book about her mental and physical health, but in a new chat on her and Miquita Oliver’s Miss Me? podcast, the “LDN” singer said that she’s currently going through a rough patch that she was initially reluctant to discuss with her therapist.
“I don’t think that I lie in therapy, but I do often not talk about things I should be talking about,” the singer said in this week’s episode. “It’s not intentional. I’ve been going through a tough time over the last few months and my eating has become a real issue.” Allen said her eating issues have been going on for almost three years, but she only recently opened up about them to her therapist.
“She was like, ‘Why haven’t you mentioned it before?’” said Allen, who tagged her creative pursuits as a form of “performative therapy,” because she finds it easier to sing about those things than to have “honest, vulnerable” conversations with people she cares about. “It’s not because I have been lying about it. It’s just because it hasn’t seemed at the top of the list of important things that I needed to talk about. But obviously it is.”
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Acknowledging that she sometimes struggles to paint the “big picture” when looking at her mental health — which, she noted, might have to do with her ADHD diagnosis — Allen said, “My body and my brain are two very separate things to me. I know a lot of people feel those two things are very connected to each other, but for me, it’s very different. I spend a lot of time in my head, and not a lot of time thinking about my body.”
Allen then got very candid about her current state of mind and the ways that has manifested physically. “I’m really not in a great place mentally at the moment, and I’m not eating. But I’m not hungry,” she said. ” I obviously am hungry, but my body and brain are so disconnected from each other that my body… the messages of hunger are not going from my body to my brain. I’m not avoiding food, I’m just not thinking about it because I’m so in my head. My body’s like, a few steps behind me.”
Allen, 39, married Stranger Things actor David Harbour in 2020 and has two daughters, ages 13 and 10, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper.
Oliver reminded her pod partner and lifelong friend Allen — who said that she did family therapy when she was young when her mom went tor rehab and then returned to therapy as an adult to deal with the initial rush of fame –that her awareness of what’s going on in her body is one step toward healing, a message the singer appreciated. In 2021, Allen opened up about her long battle with addiction, which she said started in school whens she turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the resentment she felt from her classmates when she dropped out to pursue music.
Allen revealed her ADHD diagnosis in 2023, saying it “sort of runs in my family,” after sharing that she was suffering from PTSD after a stillbirth in 2010.
In July, Allen revealed that she had begun selling pictures and videos of her feet on OnlyFans, later saying that just a few months in she was earning more with her toes than her music streams. “imagine being and artist and having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on spotify but earning more money from having 1000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet,” she wrote in October.
Listen to the episode below (food discussion begins at 9:55 mark).
If you or someone you know are struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder you can contact the ANAD helpline at 1 (888) 375-7767 or the National Alliance for Eating Disorders at 1 (866) 662-1235.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” notches its 20th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart dated Dec. 21, tying the record for the most weeks atop the tally since its 2013 inception. Carey’s holiday classic reigns with 42.7 million official U.S. streams earned in the week ending Dec. 12, […]
Olivia Rodrigo is leaving the countries she visited on the Guts World Tour better than she found them. As announced Tuesday (Dec. 17), the 21-year-old pop star is donating a hefty chunk of her net proceeds from ticket sales to charities all over the globe, marking just the latest initiative she’s taken through her Fund […]
Global Citizen announced on Tuesday (Dec. 17) that John Legend will headline the 2025 installment of the group’s Move Afrika touring series next February. The international advocacy organization with a mission to end extreme poverty has tapped the singer/producer to topline the next iteration of the first-of-its-kind African tour circuit headlined by international artists.
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The 2025 edition will expand beyond the East-to-West Africa route to include stops in Nigeria and Rwanda, kicking off on February 21 with the Move Afrika: Kigali show at the BK Arena. The tour will then move on to Lagos for a show at the Palms on February 25.
“I’m honored and excited to perform in Kigali and Lagos as part of the Move Afrika tour – an initiative that not only brings unforgettable shows, but also creates entrepreneurship and job opportunities, empowering young people to engage with Africa’s growing music and creative industries,” said Legend in a statement. “Africa has always been a global cultural powerhouse, and it’s an honor to be part of the future of live music on the continent.”
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The first Move Afrika event, Move Afrika: Rwanda, was held in Kigali in December 2023 and was headlined by Kendrick Lamar and, according to the release, hailed as the most successful live music event ever staged in the country. The series aims to drive economic investment, job creation and support entrepreneurship opportunities in each host country it visits.
“Move Afrika is Global Citizen’s initiative to address the world’s inequities by creating job and entrepreneurship opportunities for the continent’s emerging generations through an annual series of live music events,” reads a release announcing next year’s lineup. “Showcasing the best of Africa to the world, these events will drive transformative investments within local communities, engage local artists, vendors, agencies and crews, and provide opportunities for on-the-job skill development and training.”
The goal is to add additional counties to the circuit each year over the next five years. The 2025 edition will spotlight a citizen-led advocacy campaign championing sustainable development and economic growth, with a focus on strengthening health systems across the continent. A limited number of tickets for Move Afrika: Kigali and Move Afrika: Lagos are available for purchase here; additional details about the February tour and how to earn free tickets by taking action with Global Citizen will be announced soon.
“We’re thrilled to have John Legend, our longtime Global Citizen Ambassador and friend, headline Move Afrika, as we expand the tour from Rwanda to Nigeria,” said Global Citizen co-founder and CEO Hugh Evans in a statement. “As Move Afrika grows year over year, our goal is to equip and inspire Africa’s dynamic, young population to participate in the live music and creative industries, while investing in its future with lasting infrastructure that will mean the continent no longer needs to be excluded from the international touring circuit.”
It’s not exactly a Christmas miracle, but it’s definitely better than a sharp candy cane in the eye. After cancelling a string of shows due to a battle with the flu, Mariah Carey promised her fans that she will close out her Christmas Time tour in style by making it back to the stage for the final scheduled show.
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“Lambs, thank you for making my #Christmastime so special,” Carey wrote in a post on Monday (Dec. 16) that featured photos and videos from previous stops on the holiday tour. “I’ve loved singing with you every night, and I can’t wait to see you all tomorrow in Brooklyn for the last show of the tour.”
The accompanying photo dump included a dramatic shot from behind of Carey staring out at an arena of fans holding up their phone flashlights, as well as a video of that moment in which she’s singing her beloved 1993 classic “Hero” and her Lambily help her out with group backing vocals. The slides also included pics of fans freaking out as the singer wades out into the crowd and a homemade sign that read “You are my safe space,” which Carey signed.
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Carey was forced to cancel her show at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena on Dec. 11, writing, “Pittsburgh, I am sorry to say, I’ve come down with the flu. It breaks my heart that I unfortunately have to cancel tonight’s show. I love you all so much.”
Then, in a message posted on the morning of her planned performance in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center on Friday she told Lambs she was “still sick” and had to call off that show, as well as the one slated for Sunday (Dec. 15) at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY.
No worries, though, MC promises she’ll be back at it tonight (Dec. 17) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Carey’s perennial holiday hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” is back at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 dated Dec. 14, marking the song’s 15th collective week at No. 1 on the chart.
When Cai Xukun — the 26-year-old Chinese singer-songwriter better known as KUN — began working on his smash single “Afterglow,” he wanted to capture fleeting moments of change by connecting time and space with art and fashion. “I pondered for a long time about what kind of word could represent this imagery and mood,” he says. “Finally, the word ‘afterglow’ came to mind. We often see this scenery during various travel moments — including while driving; it represents our feelings in that instant. I chose this theme and combined it with some of the images in my mind: models on the runway, flashing lights, shifting time and space and changing people.”
“Afterglow” immediately connected with audiences. On its release day in early June, the song achieved a score of over 95 on the Tencent Music Uni Chart, which aggregates data from nine major platforms and over 100 radio stations. The song remained on the chart for 10 weeks and became the fastest song to receive gold certification on the Tencent chart; it also made the June edition of the Tencent Music Wave Chart, which is voted on by over 200 Chinese music industry professionals. That success has informed his selection as China’s representative for Billboard’s Global No. 1s, as chosen jointly by Tencent Music Chart and Billboard China.
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KUN created “Afterglow” with soul and rock sounds, and his integration of modern and classic production influences helped to give the song a timeless feel. And the song’s success marks the beginning of a new musical phase for KUN. “In my upcoming works, I will include some classic or modern elements,” he says. “I hope everyone can gradually sense a recognizable style in my music.”
In fact, several new singles KUN released in 2024 represent his fresh musical explorations. For instance, “Remedy” features clean piano sounds paired with a vintage vocal style, revealing his more minimalist side. It also reflects his listening habits: “I often enjoy classic songs, especially in quiet moments alone, listening to music and savoring that dialogue with myself,” he says.
While his previous works were warmer, KUN’s 2024 release “RIDE OR DIE” introduces a sound that’s new for him. “This song serves as a signal I’m conveying, heralding a transformation in my future musical style,” he says. “I believe it is essential to present something distinct to my audience, which has always been my aspiration. Consequently, the production process for ‘RIDE OR DIE’ extended over a considerable period and traversed numerous iterations, aiming to express the ‘stormy night’ concept that has long resided in my heart.”
KUN photographed for the Billboard China Global No. 1s Issue.
Tianyao Wang/Billboard China
Looking ahead, KUN plans to continue to expand his online live concept Art Lab, chronicling his growth and reflecting his changes from year to year — while strengthening his connections with audiences. “I can feel their enthusiasm, and they can feel my energy,” he says of his live performances. As time progresses, KUN is learning to “enjoy the process,” he adds. “Whether you genuinely enjoy the experience or merely fulfill a task can yield entirely different results. I believe that embracing this journey is paramount.”
Now, KUN is relishing a journey of “accumulation.” He’s preparing for a long journey ahead and accumulating new musical energy that he plans to direct toward producing more great songs. “This year, through the process of production and performance, I have engaged in numerous discussions and collaborations with various artists, which have profoundly influenced my personal perspectives and aesthetics,” he says. “Next year is likely to be a year where I unveil the fruits of my introspection.”
As Chinese artists increasingly gain international acclaim, KUN believes that the intersection of music across diverse cultures transcends language and geography, fostering cultural exchange. “I aspire for more individuals globally to experience music that is authentically ours as Chinese,” he says. “This has consistently been my ambition.”
Gracie Abrams had lots of new eyes on her during her Saturday Night Live musical-guest debut over the weekend, including Barbra Streisand‘s — and Babs liked what she saw.
Two days after the 25-year-old pop star performed on the live comedy series for the first time ever Saturday, the Broadway legend shared a photo of Abrams singing and playing guitar on the 30 Rock stage and wrote, “I just saw a wonderful new singer named GRACIE ABRAMS (@gracieabrams) on Saturday Night Live this weekend.”
Streisand also pointed out the former Eras Tour opener’s famous parentage. “And it turns out she’s the daughter of my friend JJ Abrams!” the Funny Girl actress wrote, shouting out the Star Wars: The Force Awakens director.
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Gracie performed two tracks on the Chris Rock-hosted episode of SNL, starting with runaway hit “That’s So True.” Released in October as part of her The Secret of Us deluxe album, the track became the California native’s first-ever Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit in November, so far peaking at No. 6.
The star followed it up with “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” a hit from the original The Secret of Us track list, which peaked at No. 19 on the Hot 100 in October. In a recent year-end conversation with Billboard, Gracie spoke about both of the tracks, noting, “When ‘I Love You, I’m Sorry’ ended up being the song that took off the most, I felt like it was — not that we needed it — permission to allow acoustic guitar to remain the driving force behind ‘That’s So True,’ which came from the feeling of living with a burning, fiery rage of jealousy.”
“Seeing the life that song is having right now is psychotic to me,” added the musician, who recently announced a run of North American tour dates in support of her deluxe album.
Streisand also released new music this year, dropping “Love Will Survive” in April for Peacock’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz. “Because of the rise in antisemitism around the world today, I wanted to sing ‘Love Will Survive’ in the context of this series as a way of remembering the six-million souls who were lost less than 80 years ago,” she said of the project in a statement at the time. “And also to say that even in the darkest of times, the power of love can triumph and endure.”
Gracie and the Yentl star also have something else in common: Both are up for awards at the 2025 Grammys. The former is in the running for best pop duo/group performance thanks to her “Us” duet with Taylor Swift, while Streisand earned nods for best song written for visual media thanks to “Love Will Survive” and best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording for memoir My Name Is Barbra.