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Taylor Swift has released a new line of Christmas merch, including ornaments modeled after the cleaning cart that brought her to the stage every night during the Eras Tour, the moss-covered piano she played onstage during the tour and the friendship bracelets that became a symbol of the tour. There's also holiday winter wear and items for each album, like a Tortured Poets Department stationery set and a The Life of a Showgirl candle.

Speaking of candles, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons recently shared on the Table Manners podcast that when Taylor came to his home studio to finish her evermore album, she brought along a "killer" candle. "Her candle game was excellent," he said, noting Taylor "was the most phenomenal house guest."

Sabrina Carpenter received a slew of Grammy nods for her album Man's Best Friend, and now she's celebrating the album's latest achievement. She wrote on Instagram Thursday, "What in the world. Man’s Best Friend just went platinum. thank you for listening to this album. i love you guys so much."

Ariana Grande explained to Entertainment Tonight why she's reverted to a hair color closer to her natural brown for the Wicked: For Good press tour. "It's fun to play with the storytelling," she said. "With the first [Wicked] press tour, I wanted to celebrate Glinda in a more on-the-nose way, and be an extension of her and extend the time with her through clothes, through the blond and through everything. Now I can show up as the actress who played her and play into the darker tones of the movie."

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Lady Gaga hasn't directly commented on the seven Grammy nominations she received for her albums Mayhem and Harlequin on Nov. 7, but a new Instagram post Thursday she seems to have written in reaction to the recognition.

"MAYHEM is my personal chaos ... produced with a desire to embolden my own voice as a musician," she wrote. "I’ve spoken a lot about MAYHEM being a collection of gothic dreams and in a way Lady Gaga was my first one. She has always been an expression of my human reality. What does it sound like to feel like you’re drifting far away from yourself, what does it sound like to re-enter your body?"

"And Harlequin…it feels like much more than a year ago," Gaga continued, referring to the album inspired by her film Joker: Folie à Deux. "It’s an album about empowerment and refusing to be minimized or left out in the cold."

"These arrangements are my first new steps since Tony [Bennett] died," she continued. "I’m so proud of Harlequin and how it prepared me for the most incredible year of MAYHEM. Sometimes I forget this has been just one single year." Harlequin has been nominated for best traditional pop album.

Summing up, Gaga noted, "Somehow through my relationship and my deep love for my fans I really accepted that I can do it all as long as I am the one who is creating the storm instead of the one just standing in the center of it. ... I’ll be fine. Because it’s my dream and no one else’s. I’ll decide for myself how this ends."

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Selena Gomez hasn't stopped making music, but actually bringing it to her fans live via a tour? That's something she's not sure is going to happen again.

Speaking on Apple Music's The Zane Lowe Show, Selena says that when she performs live, she feels the "passion behind every word I say." But when Zane asks her if she misses live performances, she says, "I think the only thing I genuinely miss is probably the interaction [with fans]."

"I don't know about ever performing. And I'm not going to say I would never again, because who knows? And I'm always saying 'I'll never,' and then I'm back. So I'm fully aware of my tendencies. But I do feel the connection is so strong when I'm onstage and I can actually feel the power of what my music stands for."

After speaking about how she dislikes the "performative" aspect of singing on award shows, Selena says, "I'm not sure that's something I'm willing to entertain again. However, the idea of doing, I don't know, an acoustic set or some sort of soft version, I would love to do that. I miss being with fans for sure."

As for why she moved away from performing live in the first place, Selena said the "pop star" thing was wearing a bit thin.

"[As an actress] I can dive into somebody else's world, but when you put yourself out there and it's just you, it can be a bit more frightening," she says. "And I think I was just a little tired of it."

Selena appeared on The Zane Lowe show in part to promote her new Apple Music Sound Therapy series, which features instrumental mixes of her songs blended with sound waves that are designed to either help you focus or help calm you down.

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Melissa Etheridge helped raise over $1 million for her Etheridge Foundation at the nonprofit's inaugural Rock Jam fundraiser, which featured performances by Etheridge, co-host Hugh Jackman and country star Ashley McBryde.

The gala event took place Oct. 30 at VEA in Newport Beach, California, with the money funding research and development of plant-based and psychedelic medicines in the treatment of opioid use disorder.

“Raising a million dollars for our foundation’s work is just incredible,” said Etheridge, whose son Beckett died from OUD in 2020. “I want to thank everyone who stepped up to make it happen – the innovation needed in treating opioid use disorder has never been more important. This was an amazing night that I will never forget.”

Those in attendance were treated to Etheridge's performances of “Come To My Window” and a new song, “Call You,” while Jackman, who stars with Kate Hudson as half of a Neil Diamond cover band in the upcoming movie Song Sung Blue, performed Diamond’s classic “Sweet Caroline.” Etheridge, Jackman and McBryde also performed “A Million Dreams,” from Jackman’s 2017 movie musical The Greatest Showman.

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Train's "Jupiter" is now Diamond.

While appearing on Live with Kelly and Mark on Thursday, the band was surprised with a plaque marking the fact that their signature tune, "Drops of Jupiter," has been RIAA certified for sales of 10 million units. It's the band's second Diamond single, following "Hey Soul Sister." In 2026, the band will launch a summer tour marking the 25th anniversary of the song and its parent album of the same name.

In other Train news, back in 2023 there were reports that a musical version of the 2013 film Begin Again, which starred Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo, was in the works, with songs written by Train singer Pat Monahan. The musical is now a reality: The show, featuring music and lyrics by Monahan, will open at The Old Globe theater in San Diego on Sept. 6, 2026, in what's described as a "pre-Broadway run." 

Begin Again is about a struggling singer/songwriter, played by Knightley, who is discovered by a record executive, played by Ruffalo. They work together on an album, but things get complicated with her ex-boyfriend, a now-successful artist played by Levine.

The songs in the Begin Again movie were written by a collection of musicians, including Gregg Alexander of '90s band New Radicals, best known for their hit "You Get What You Give." The song they wrote for Adam to sing in the film, "Lost Stars," was nominated for an Oscar.

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After the success of Brat turned her world upside down, Charli XCX says she's "euphoric" that she's been able to get back to making music.

Writing on Substack, Charli says, "Feeling creativity in abundance is such a f****** blessing and relief. It doesn’t even matter if the ideas are good or not, it just feels euphoric to feel the fountain flowing again."

"After my previous album, brat, I had this feeling that I wouldn’t be able to make music anymore. When I vocalized this, [my husband] George said 'Yeah, but you always feel this way. We all do.' And he’s right, we do, but it felt so potent this time, sort of like being hit by a truck and left on the side of the road to bleed out."

Charli then writes that Brat left her feeling "so depleted," adding, "I was stuck, I was empty, I was barren. ... I couldn’t really even listen to music without feeling depressed. "

A 2024 invitation to create the music for Emerald Fennell's upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights changed everything, she writes. "Without a cigarette or a pair of sunglasses in sight, it was all totally other from the life I was currently living," she says.

Of the Wuthering Heights soundtrack, she writes, "This collection of songs is an album, and sure, my name’s on the credits, but is it a Charli xcx album? I don’t even know. Nor do I really care to find out. All I know is that it’s a celebration of my freedom as an artist right now and that I feel passionate about what I’ve created and how it’s been created."

Wuthering Heights will hit theaters Feb. 13, 2026 and so will Charli's album, which you can preorder now.

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New Kids on the Block will be "Hangin' Tough" in Las Vegas in 2026.

The boy band has just added 16 new dates to their THE RIGHT STUFF residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM, bringing the total number of dates there next year to 24. To announce the extension, the group went to Las Vegas' famous Little White Wedding Chapel, where they received the keys to the Las Vegas Strip and then "married" the city for the long term in a mock ceremony.

The new dates, which are scheduled for June, July and October, will go on sale Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. PT. A fan club presale starts Nov. 17 at 10 a.m. PT; a Citi presale begins that same day at noon PT via citientertainment.com. Other presales will run through Nov. 20.

New Kids member Donnie Wahlberg said in a statement, "What we’ve built here in Vegas, together with our incredible [fans, the] Blockheads, feels truly magical. The energy in that room each night — the lights, the lasers, flying up to the balcony to see all our blockheads dancing and singing along — is so far beyond anything we’ve ever done before." 

He added, "Vegas has been so welcoming to us, we couldn’t leave just yet! We are having the absolute best time and are so excited and honored to be asked to extend our stay here."

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Lady Gaga is having a good week: On Nov. 7 she was nominated for seven Grammys, and now she's landed on the cover of Rolling Stone for the fourth time in her career. In the cover story, Gaga discusses her Mayhem album and tour, her relationship with fiancé Michael Polansky and more.

According to Rolling Stone, Gaga and Polansky, who got engaged in 2024, plan on "getting married soon, either during the tour or just after." Polansky tells the publication, "We have these breaks, and they’re tempting. It’s like, ‘OK, can we get married that weekend?’ We don’t want a really big wedding, but we want to enjoy it. In a lot of ways, we already feel married, so it’s not like it’s gonna change much.”

And after marriage will come children. “Being a mom is the thing I want the most,” Gaga says. “And [Michael is] gonna be a beautiful father. We’re really excited about that.”

But being happy and in love — what she describes as a "healthy, whole person" — has been a long journey for Gaga. "I did A Star Is Born on lithium,” she shares, adding that after shooting that film, she had what she calls "a psychotic break."

"I couldn’t do anything … I completely crashed. It was really scary. There was a time where I didn’t think I could get better.…  I feel really lucky to be alive. I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go.”

While making Mayhem, she notes, "It was months and months and months of rediscovering everything that I’d lost. And I honestly think that’s why it’s called Mayhem. Because what it took to get it back was crazy.”

She adds, "Being in love with someone that cares about the real me made a very big difference."

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Meghan Trainor's new single "Still Don't Care" is her remedy for online hate, and now she wants her fans to believe it as much as she does.

Speaking to People, Meghan explained that she wrote the song after her socials were flooded with negative comments. "My page is usually a friendly, happy, mom-loving place, but it took a dark turn," she says. "People started commenting about my body, saying I'm too thin, and that they don't recognize me anymore. And I was like, 'Oh, I've just been focusing so hard on my health and my fitness that I've never felt better.'"

"So, I was confused and sad and was like, 'Oh, it's almost worse now.' I don't know what happened," says Meghan, who admits she would cry over the cruel comments.

However, she eventually learned in therapy to stop giving "strangers" so much "power" over her. In the song, she sings, "Oh, let me take a moment, think it over/ Does it touch me at all?/ Nope, I still don't care."

"I'm rewiring my brain to finally believe this. And I know when I sing it a hundred times, I will," Meghan says of her upcoming tour. "So, I recommend playing the song every morning and learning every word and screaming it as loud as you can until you start believing it, because that's what it takes. It takes a lot of work."

"I believe in it so much and I love it so much," Trainor says of the song. "I think it's so important, especially now more than ever, the world's a very dark, hateful place. If this is a little bit of light in the world, that'd be sick."

"Still Don't Care" is from Meghan's upcoming album Toy With Me, due out April 24.

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Jimmy Kimmel isn't the only celebrity mourning bandleader and saxophonist Cleto Escobedo III. 

Before Cleto became the leader of Cleto and the Cletones on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he toured the world with Paula Abdul. She shared a clip on Instagram that showed her performing her hit "Forever Your Girl" onstage with Escobedo and wrote, "My heart is heavy today as we say goodbye to the incredible Cleto Escobedo III."

"I first met Cleto when he was playing sax in a small bar at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas," she continues. "I was putting together my band for my first world tour and the moment I heard him, I knew I had to hire him, even though he didn’t have any touring experience yet."

Paula goes on to say that Escobedo's "talent and energy were undeniable," and adds that he "went on to have an amazing career" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She concludes, "Cleto was pure light and soul, both on and off stage. Sending so much love to his family and everyone who loved him."

In his emotional monologue bidding farewell to Escobedo, who died Tuesday at age 59, Kimmel showed the same clip that Paula posted and commented on his late pal's long, curly, Kenny G-like hair, "We never stopped making fun of that hairstyle."

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