Month: December 2021

Garth Brooks may have more Stadium Tour dates up his sleeve. 

As Garth continues to roll out shows for 2022, he shared on Inside Studio G Monday night that fans can expect to see additional dates on the Stadium Tour schedule before the end of the year. And while many of the shows have been in the South and Midwest, the superstar suggests his territory may be expanding.

“There's going to be at least a couple more, including maybe a third one that's huge for us,” he hints, adding with a laugh, “I can't imagine the West Coast and the East Coast both getting Christmas presents, but who knows!” 

Garth continues to break records with his Stadium Tour, selling more than 70,000 tickets last week to his show at University of Arkansas' Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on April 23. He’s also set to play Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April 30. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday. 

The “Callin’ Baton Rouge” singer will conclude the Stadium Tour with five sold-out shows at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland in September.

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Jimmie Allen says country music is in the midst of a “movement” when it comes to diversity.

Chatting with The Nick Cannon Show, Jimmie cites Charley Pride as a major source of inspiration for his career and paving the way for other Black country artists. 

“I remember I was growing up listening to country music and my dad was like, ‘you should sing country music’ and I was like, ‘it’s cool, but I don’t know if there’s anybody that looks like us.’ And then he showed me what Charley Pride looked like,'” Jimmie recalls. 

He also points to his contemporaries including Darius Rucker, Mickey Guyton, Kane Brown, Blanco Brown, Breland, Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones and Tiera as important voices in the genre. 

“It’s a whole movement coming up. It’s beautiful to see where country is starting to get like every other genre where it’s not about the color of your skin, it’s about the music,” Jimmie observes. “It’s good to see that.”

The “Make Me Want To” singer is set to headline his first tour, the Down Home Tour, in 2022. His current single, “Freedom Was a Highway,” featuring Brad Paisley, is currently in the top 10 on country radio.

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Florida Georgia Line are the latest artists to have their legacy cemented at the Country Music Hall of Fame with the upcoming exhibit, Florida Georgia Line: Mix It Up Strong. 

Opening in 2022, the exhibit chronicles the duo of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley‘s journey from meeting as students at an on-campus worship service at Belmont University in 2008, to becoming one of the biggest acts in country music history. 

Among the items on display are childhood memorabilia including the saxophone and guitar Tyler played as child, and the cap Brian wore while playing on his high school baseball team. Momentous accomplishments from their career are also captured, including the guitar Brian used when writing FGL’s RIAA Diamond-certified hit, “Cruise,” plus outfits worn in their music videos and more.

“To be chosen for an exhibit is the ultimate honor as an artist, and we can't thank?the?Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum enough,” Tyler says in a statement. “I can't wait for opening day, when we can?stand back and take in this blessing with everyone that's supported us along the way.” 

“We are both dreamers and always striving to?go big. To have the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum now feature our wild ride is surreal and humbling,” adds Brian. “I couldn't be more excited about?this exhibit and?to be able to relive?each step of our journey. Here's to the good times!”

The exhibit opens on January 21. FGL will sit down at the CMHOF for an interview and performance on February 6.

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These days, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman are happily married, but it turns out they almost didn’t even go on a first date.

While appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Keith revealed that he was hesitant to pursue the Nine Perfect Strangers actress simply because he was “nervous.”

“Literally, I was like, ‘There’s no way this girl is interested in me at all,'” Urban said. “Somebody had given me her number. I couldn’t bring myself to call that number…I was nervous!”

The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer also set the record straight on reports that, at first, he wasn’t interested in Kidman. When Clarkson joked, “Where was your bar for humanity if Nicole Kidman doesn’t make the cut?,” he explained that the comment wasn’t about how high his bar was for women, but “how low mine was about myself.”

Urban and Kidman, both 54, now have 15 years of marriage under their belt. They also share two daughters, 13-year-old Sunday Rose and 10-year-old Faith Margaret. 

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Sounds like Blake Shelton is going all-out for wife Gwen Stefani this Christmas. 

Blake reveals that each year, the couple encourages each other to not buy gifts. But Gwen hasn’t always followed that advice when it comes to shopping for her now-husband and her three children: Kingston, 15, Zuma, 13, and Apollo, 7. 

“We do the deal every year where it’s like ‘don’t’ get me anything for Christmas’…and then sure enough, I’m sitting there on Christmas morning and there’s a pile of crap that tall of gifts that she gets me,” Blake explains on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I don’t like that feeling of ‘here’s your earring’ and then whatever the kids got her, and we have these mountains.”

But it appears the tables have turned this year. With this being their first Christmas together as husband and wife, Blake says he went so over the top with gift buying that he had to call the company he had been ordering from online to dispute charges they thought were credit card fraud.

“I’m getting her a bunch of stuff. I don’t know that she’s going to like any of it, but it’s going to look good in the wrapping paper,” he jokes. 

Blake and Gwen got married on their ranch property in Blake’s native Oklahoma on July 3.

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For Carrie Underwood, Christmas is a time for family, making new memories and music. 

Growing up in Checotah, Oklahoma, Carrie recalls the beloved family tradition of traveling to a local nursing home with her parents and two older sisters to spread Christmas cheer through song. 

“Christmas was always about family. One thing that we always did growing up that was one of my favorite memories, on Christmas Eve we would go to my grandparents' house. Us kids were always responsible for putting oranges and apples and bananas in little paper bags and we would go down to the nursing home and sing Christmas carols,” the singer explains.

And while Carrie and family would sing holiday classics, the superstar has since written some of her own original holiday songs, including “Favorite Time of Year.” Featured as an Amazon Music bonus track off her 2020 debut Christmas album, My Gift, the festive track can now be heard in an ad for Ring Video Doorbell. 

Carrie says the song is intended to wrap the listener in Christmas joy and reflect the true meaning of the holiday.

“'Favorite Time of Year' is a song about all of the things that make you smile during Christmas. There's so much about Christmas that is absolutely wonderful,” she describes, referencing such staples of the holiday as family, presents and decorations. “All those things all wrapped up to make the favorite-ist time of year, the favorite of year. I love the song because it's hard to sing it without smiling, it's hard to listen to it without smiling. I think it's a perfect addition to the rest of my Christmas song collection.”

Carrie has been getting into the holiday spirit with recent performances on CMA Country Christmas and Christmas in Rockefeller Center. 

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