When is SZA dropping her new music?
Variety’s Actors on Actors Season 21 lineup Ariana Grande's Spotify milestone, and will we ever get this new SZA project!?
I feel like I would be doing you all a disservice if I started this week’s newsletter without mentioning Doechii’s performance on Stephen Colbert. I haven’t thought about anything else. It. Is. Incredible.
Anywho! It’s finally cold in New York which means it’s finally starting to feel like Christmas (sans the manhunt going on for the gunman who killed the UHC C.E.O.) and I got to get in the holiday spirit with no other than Sabrina Carpenter this week - how fabulous!? Her Nonsense Christmas Netflix Special is out now and let me tell you, it checks all the boxes: fabulous Christmas covers with Chappell Roan, hilarious skits with Quinta Brunson, and even features the final (?) Nonsense Outro in Sabrina’s career. Definitely add this special to your list this holiday season.
This week’s podcast episode was all about my Top 10 Albums of 2024, Beyoncé being the #1 pop star of the century, and Kendrick and SZA going on tour together - you can listen below ICYMI or read the podcast notes.
But for those of you looking for some extra pop culture moments to squeeze into your weekend brunch convos, you know I’ve got you covered.
Variety reveals their Actors on Actors Season 21 List
One of my favorite series to look forward to each year is Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors.’ I think it’s such a fun and refreshing approach at hearing about the projects we saw this year and takes the star quality out of an interview by having two mega-stars sit down with each other.
Personally, I’m most excited for (in no particular order) Andrew Garfield & Ryan Reynolds (hot), Ariana Grande & Paul Mescal (giving Margot Robbie & Cillian Murphy 2.0), Angelina Jolie & Cynthia Erivo (holding space for these two divas), Zendaya & Nicole Kidman (coming to this interview for magic), and Pamela Anderson & Mikey Madison (cannot wait for these divas).
May we never forget the ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ reunion we got last year with Anne Hathaway & Emily Blunt.
Let me know in the comments which interview you’re most looking forward to!
Ariana Grande surpasses 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify
Remember at the top of the year when I predicted that everyone would immediately be back on the Ariana Grande train once Wicked came out after spending months of calling her a homewrecker? Just me? Cool.
Last week, Ariana became one of four women this decade to have a number-one single, album, and movie in the same year, and this week, she became one of four women to surpass 100 million monthly Spotify listeners, which can be assumed to be from of the success of the Wicked Movie Soundtrack. She joins fabulous company with this accomplishment including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Lady Gaga This has been such a monumental year for Ariana, and as someone who never said a bad thing about her, I feel on top of the world watching everyone flock back.
This feels like an appropriate time to recirculate one of my favorite tweets of all time:
SZA teases S.O.S Deluxe on her Instagram Story
I have been talking about SZA releasing new music for almost a year to date, and I think we’re finally getting it. Last December, she started teasing a new project called ‘LANA,’ and now here we are a year later with no new music. Two weeks ago, she shared that a new project will be released before the end of the year during a live stream with Kai Cenat. It feels like she’s been dangling the carrot in front of our faces for an entire year and it appears she’s keeping it going.
She is literally playing in our faces with this new music and you know what? That’s fine. SZA can do no wrong in my eyes and if she wants to tease us for a year, so be it. That being said, there are only three more Fridays left this year for her to release whatever project is coming before 2025…time is ticking Solána…