Category: Pop Daypop

Five years after a deadly bombing at her concert in Manchester, England, Ariana Grande continues to give back to the community. Per Manchester Evening News, Grande once again sent gifts to children spending their holidays in a hospital.

The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity shared photos,” on Twitter from Christmas Day of dozens of gifts surrounding a Christmas tree with a caption reading: “Thank you Ariana! We were so excited to receive Christmas gifts for young patients across our hospitals from Ariana Grande.”  The charity added that the gifts were distributed to babies, children and teens at several hospitals around Manchester.

This isn’t the first time Grande has sent gifts to kids spending Christmas in a Manchester hospital. In 2021, she reportedly gave 1,000 presents to make sure each child got two gifts, while in 2020 she donated an Amazon voucher to every child at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary.

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SZA’s sophomore album “SOS” is on top of the Billboard 200 chart again this week, earning 180,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 22. SOS moved 315,000 album equivalent units in its opening week.  SZA is now the first Black female artist since Beyoncé to see her album spend its first two weeks atop the Billboard 200 (Beyoncé accomplished the feat with her self-titled 2013 album).

Taylor Swift’s latest album Midnights, held steady at No. 2 with 155,000 album equivalent units. BTS’s RM is a newcomer in this week’s Top 10, and becomes the first member of the K-pop and to chart a solo album within the Top 10. RM earned his first top 10 solo album with Indigo, which re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 3 with 83,000 equivalent album units. Indigo was released on Dec. 16.  Rounding out the Top 5 are Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains, and Michael Buble’s Christmas at No. 5.

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Diddy is showing off his newborn daughter in his latest Instagram post. The 53-year-old welcomed his youngest child, Love, earlier this month, and on Christmas Day shared photos of the baby along with his six children (minus his 28-year-old son Justin Dior).

The photo showed the family posing in matching green and red striped pajamas and Santa hats. Diddy held his newborn daughter in his arms surrounded by other children: Quincy, 31, King, 24, Chance, 16, and twins, D’Lila Star and Jessie James, 16, along with the caption: “Merry Christmas from my family to yours! LOVE ”

Diddy’s Christmas photos come shortly after he announced the birth of Love in a Twitter post earlier this month, where he wrote: “I’m so blessed to welcome my baby girl Love Sean Combs to the world. Mama Combs, Quincy, Justin, Christian, Chance, D’Lila, Jessie and myself all love you so much! God is the Greatest!”

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Mariah Carey has made history again with her Christmas classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.  The song, which was originally released back in 1994, now ranks the all-time records for the biggest single-day streams in Spotify chart history. According to the platform, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was streamed 21.27 million times a day before Christmas, the biggest peak in Spotify history. The song also recently earned a milestone 10th week at #1 on Billboard Hot 100, making her the first woman with three songs that have led the chart for double-digit weeks.

“All I Want For Christmas Is You” was released as part of Carey’s first-holiday album “Merry Christmas” back in 1994. The song was produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, and released through Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings. It is estimated that “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has sold over 14 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling holiday song by a female artist, as well as one of the best-selling physical singles in music history.

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Grammy-winning musicians Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift are all nominated for songs from movies that have are expected to also earn them Oscar nominations.

Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Wakanda Forever, and Swift’s “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing are up for the Outstanding Song from a Drama/Documentary award from the Society of Composers & Lyricists. Actor Darren Criss will host the awards which take place at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 15.

The women will be competing against songwriter Diane Warren for her song “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for “You Made It Feel Like (Home)” from the movie Bones and All.

For the full list of nominees, head here.

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Real-life besties Meghan Trainor, Joshua Bassett and Chris Olsen celebrated their shared birthday together, marking the occasion with a group birthday party.

Trainor turned 29 years old, while Bassett and Olsen turned 22 and 25, respectively. Trainor shared photos on Instagram that showed herself, Bassett and Olsen wearing matching pink hoodies and posing in front of a wall of pink balloons.  Trainor captioned the post: “Loved sharing a womb with these two! Happy birthday @chrisolsen and @joshuatbassett and meee.”  Olsen responded in the comments, writing, “I’ve never loved sharing a bday more.”

Olsen also shared a video of himself, Trainor and Bassett on Instagram, singing and dancing to a remix of “Birthday” by Katy Perry and writing in the caption: “Just one of the best birthdays I’ve had in years.”

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Justin Bieber is close to signing a deal to sell his music rights to Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for around $200 million.  The deal, which has been rumored for weeks, is not yet done. However, it includes Bieber’s shares of his publishing and recorded-music catalog, which sources tell Variety will continue to be administered and owned (respectively) by Universal even if the deal closes. Bieber’s catalog contains shares of his multiple hits over the past 15-years.

Bieber postponed the remaining dates in his “Justice” tour dates until an unspecified time next year.  The tour was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, but has been postponed and delayed several times — initially the reasons for the delays was due to the pandemic, but most recently the issues followed Bieber’s bout with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare virus that in his case caused facial paralysis. It finally launched in March and covered most of North America, but he postponed the remaining dates early in June after announcing his difficulties with the disease.

Companies such as Hipgnosis have embraced newer catalogs; the Bieber deal would be the largest music-rights acquisition for Hipgnosis to date. Earlier this year, the company acquired the song-catalog rights of Justin Timberlake in a deal reported to be worth just over $100 million.

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Taylor Swift has made global music history just eight weeks after the release of her 10th album Midnights. Swift is now the only artist to have five albums with more than one million units sold during release week. Midnights has sold six million units total, including three million in the U.S. alone, within eight weeks of its release.

Midnights became the fastest-selling album of Swift’s career, helping her break records in streaming, physical and vinyl album sales worldwide. The album sold a record 1.6 million units within its debut week and is also the first release to sell more than one million physical albums since 2015. To date, Swift has sold 22.4 million albums and has had 36.6 billion combined streams of her music. Midnights had more than one billion streams within its first week of release.

Midnights features collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Zoë Kravitz, and includes Swift’s No. 1 single “Anti-Hero.” Swift described Midnights as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life”. She will also embark on her The Eras Tour in 2023, featuring supporting artists including Paramore, HAIM, GAYLE, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, MUNA, OWENN, beabadoobee, and Gracie Abrams.

Taylor Swift makes global music history again in 2022

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The upcoming NBC special ‘Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party’ has added additional talent to its lineup. NBC confirmed Wednesday that co-hosts Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton will be joined by singer-songwriter Fletcher, rapper Latto, Los Angeles rock band Liily, hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd and Grammy Award nominee Sia.  Additionally, Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman and the comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy will also appear.

Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party, executive produced by SNL’s Lorne Michaels and Cyrus herself, is returning to NBC for the second year in a row. Cyrus will be joined by her godmother, Dolly Parton, as co-host to ring in the the new year (Parton replaces Pete Davidson, who co-hosted the special with Cyrus last year).  Jen Neal, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Live Events, Specials and E! News, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a statement: “The inaugural ‘Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party’ was an unqualified success and we know this year’s show will be just as spectacular, with plenty of surprises and lots of fun. We can’t wait to get the party started.”

Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will air live on NBC from Miami on Saturday, Dec. 31 from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET and will also be livestreamed on Peacock.

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Sports Illustrated revealed the headliners for the publication’s 2023 Super Bowl Weekend event: Sports Illustrated The Party: Machine Gun Kelly and The Chainsmokers. The event will take place at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., Saturday, Feb. 11, where guests planning to attend can expect over-the-top production, a custom-built festival- sized “mega-structure” and an “immersive” main stage experience

The announcement comes shortly after SI‘s recent reveal that Shaquille O’Neal will stage an event called “Shaq’s Fun House” on Friday, Feb. 10, also at Talking Stick Resort. Tthe fifth annual event will be headlined by Snoop Dogg, featuring a performance by Diplo.

Super Bowl LVII will take place Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Tickets and VIP Tables for  Sports Illustrated The Party: Machine Gun Kelly and The Chainsmokers are on sale now via the event’s official website.

The Chainsmokers, Machine Gun Kelly headlining celebration of sports and music

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