Lauren Alaina was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night (December 18th). The Opry was the first major stage Alaina played just a week after she was named runner-up on Season 10 of American Idol, making her Opry debut on June 10th, 2011. Earlier this fall she marked her 50^th appearance on the Opry.

Opry member and friend/mentor Trisha Yearwood surprised Alaina on stage with the invitation. Throughout the evening, the Opry played video greetings from artists sharing their 2021 Christmas wishes. When Yearwood appeared to share her wish via video on the Opry House screens during a break in Alaina’s set, she ended with, “Hey… is that Lauren Alaina?” Yearwood then made her way on stage. “Junior (her nickname for Alaina), I have a present for you. And I have some surprises for you too. I know your Mom is here and I know your Dad is as well. He’s super proud of you right now because I have the honor of asking you on behalf of the Grand Ole Opry if you will please accept our invitation of becoming our newest member.”

An emotionally overcome Alaina dropped to her knees and finally uttered a winded, “Yes!” Holding Yearwood’s hand after many minutes catching her breath, “I did not expect this. You are my hero. I could not have picked a more perfect person to ask me. She calls me Junior- ya’ll I’m in her phone as Junior which is the coolest thing to have happened to me besides this!”

“You are the real deal,” Yearwood went on to say. “You’ve played over 50 times. It’s obvious what this means to you. This is a very special club to be in so you have to understand what the Opry means to be asked. It’s such an honor. Country music is in good hands with you. Soak up every second!”

Yearwood duets with Alaina on her Gold-certified song “Getting Good” from her recent album Sitting Pretty On Top of the World and also wrote the foreword to her just-released inspirational book Getting Good At Being You.

Alaina will be formally inducted into the Opry family on an early 2022 date to be announced soon.

“Lauren has been visiting us for 10 years, yet she still brings youthful exuberance and excitement with her every single time she plays the Opry,” said Dan Rogers, Opry vice president and executive producer. “We are thrilled that her name will be added to the Opry member roster next year.”

Lauren is currently making her way up the country charts with “Getting Over Him,” featuring Jon Pardi.

Tickets for 2022 Opry performances January 1 – June 11 and the 97^th Opry Birthday Bash shows taking place October 7 and 8, 2022 are on sale now. Go to opry.com/2022shows to learn more or call 1-800-SEE-OPRY.

Jon Pardi likes a good holiday movie. One of his favorite Christmas films is Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thornton, but for the PG crowd, it would have to be Elf.

“Bad Santa’s pretty good,” he says. “But I have to say if you’re gonna watch it with little cousins, I would have to say Elf is pretty much probably one of the funniest Christmas movies to ever be that new and beat out all of the old Christmas movies. It is definitely up there.”

This year, he and his wife, Summer, will once again spend Christmas at their home outside of Nashville. “We’re excited. We already called all the family and said, ‘We’re staying in Nashville. We’re not coming out to California or to Texas. We’re staying in good ole Goodlettsville and we’re gonna relax at our house and enjoy our decorations,’” says Jon. “So, that’s kind of like our new thing is having Christmas at the house, ‘cause we’re gone so much. It does get tough because my mom wants to have Christmas at her house. She’s in Northern California and Summer’s parents are out there, so we just kind of juggle, but  ‘cause this was such a crazy year of touring, we kinda just said hey, we’re gonna stay home. And so I think Summer’s parents are coming out. I think my sister is gonna come out, and that’s just kind of our new thing is having people out at the house, ‘cause it’s fun. It’s fun around Christmas time in Nashville, you know?”

One of his favorite memories is of his grandmother’s Christmas tree, and he attributes that to his love for Elvis and the song, “Blue Christmas.” “One of my favorite memories of my grandmother’s tree, and I think …why I love Elvis so much, and she loved Elvis. She had an ornament and it was Elvis, and it was always on her tree. You’d go and you’d hit a button, and it’d sing ‘Blue Christmas.’ And it just went, ‘I’ll have a Blue Christmas without you.’ And I’d just always t hit it, and he’d be doing like his pose with a microphone, so yeah, ‘Blue Christmas’ and that ornament, I think that’s probably why I like Elvis so much. Hey man, I’ll have a Blue Christmas…”

Jon’s latest single, “Tequila Little Time,” is closing in on the top of the country charts.

Keith Urban and his family, including wife Nicole Kidman and daughters Sunday and Faith, usually head Down Under for the holiday, visiting family and hitting the beach, which is what he did on Christmas Day when he was a kid.

“We had great Christmases growing up. I really, really enjoyed them,” says Keith. “Mostly, we’d go to the beach, you know, ’cause there it’s summertime. Load up the station wagon and head off to the beach.”

He and his family still love to do that when they’re in Australia since it’s summer there. “We still love going to the beach at Christmas time, as long as we’re in Australia, because it’s like the Fourth of July. It’s huge. Everybody’s out. It feels very celebratory. It’s in the ‘90s. It’s crazy, but having grown up with that, it feels very natural to me. Albeit it, we still had all of the same Christmas songs, so we’re in like 90-degree heat with shorts and tank tops singing ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland,’ and I remember getting Christmas cards of like Santa on a surfboard, so that probably explains a lot.”

Keith also enjoys a holiday movie or two. “I love A Christmas Story, that’s a good one, and It’s a Wonderful Life, of course. I have one of my main guitars is called Clarence, and it’s named after the angel (in It’s a Wonderful Life), and then for some reason, I swear, no matter what you’re doing flicking around the TV, but you’re gonna land on Charlie Brown (Christmas). I don’t know how that happens, but it happens every year.”

One of his favorite Christmas gifts as a child was a toy that was not easy to tear up. “I got a yellow Tonka truck when I was about 6, I think, and it’s probably still (one of) my favorite Christmas gift ever. Those things last forever, too.”

Keith released his first Christmas song, “I’ll Be Your Santa Tonight,” a couple of years ago.

After the holidays, Keith, who is making his way up the country charts with “Wild Hearts,” will be getting ready to head out on The Speed of Now World Tour 2022. He’ll kick off the world trek in the U-K beginning April 28th and is back in the States in late May.

Lauren Alaina released her own version of the holiday classic, “O Holy Night,” last year. She loves Christmas music so much she’d like to release a full album of holiday songs some day. She has a few favorite songs that she’d have to include on the collection. “I have a few favorites. It’s like a fast favorite actually. Surprisingly is ‘Oh Santa’ by Mariah Carey. I jam to that, girl. I mean I am crazy about that song,” says Lauren. “And I also like ‘O Holy Night,’ like when I just want to really sing and kind of get in the Christmas spirit. It was my grandmother’s favorite, one of her favorites. My grandmother loved Christmas.”

When it comes to her favorite holiday movies, she can’t pinpoint just one. “Oh gosh! I have so many favorite Christmas movies, but I usually like the funny ones like The Grinch and Elf,” declares Lauren. “I don’t know. I like all of it. It’s so hard to pick. I love Christmas.”

Lauren’s favorite Christmas gift would have to be the reason for the season. When she was a little girl, she really wanted a Bible with her name on it, just like her parents had. “My favorite Christmas gift I’ve ever been given, gosh, that’s so hard to pick, but my Mom and Dad had their names on the front of their Bibles, and I was so jealous of that as a kid. So, I begged my Mom to get me a Bible that had my name on it, and she actually got this Bible that you design the whole thing yourself. And she designed this Bible for me and it had my name on it and I still have it, and it’s one of my favorite gifts I’ve ever been given.”

As for her favorite Christmas gift as a child, Lauren goes back to the time Santa Claus brought her a Barbie bicycle, and she felt like she was in charge. “My favorite Christmas memory is when I got my Barbie bike when I was six years old, and I thought I ruled the world because it had a horn and it had Barbie’s picture on it.”

This year, Lauren will be heading back to Georgia to spend the holiday with family. “For Christmas this year, I’m going back home to Georgia. I’m gonna spend it with my mom and my dad and my nieces and nephews. My brother has two brand new baby girls. It’s gonna be our first Christmas celebrating them and they’re twins, so we get to buy double of everything (laughs) for them, but that is so exciting. My nephews are precious. They are six and three and they are just so much fun. So, I always look forward to spending it with them.”

Platinum-selling duo Maddie & Tae released their first ever holiday EP, We Need Christmas, last year (2020). The six-track project features two originals, “Merry Married Christmas” and the title track “We Need Christmas,” plus beloved holiday favorites including “This Christmas,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”

Maddie Font (Marlow) says some of her favorite traditions with husband Jonah include a real tree, wooden nutcrackers and more. “We always get a real tree every year, because Jonah’s a stickler for a real tree thing. We always shave off a little part of the bottom of the tree and make an ornament out of the little thing, so we’ll put the year on all of them and collect them. We’ve actually just started collecting nutcrackers, which is super weird, but we name them all. Oh, and White Elephant. We play White Elephant on the Font side of things, and I always end up with the best gift somehow, because Jonah and I tag team White Elephant.”

Taylor Kerr (Dye) says one of her favorite and most personal Christmas memories was in 2017, and it involves a new family member making her appearance right before the holiday.

“This is gonna be a personal one for me. Christmas 2017 was right around the time my niece was born,” says Tae. “She was born on December 11th, so right before Christmas, she was like the best Christmas gift ever, so basically I got to spend the whole month of December with her and my sister-in-law and brother, just holding that baby. So, that’s probably going to be one of my favorite Christmas memories ever.”

Find more audio with this platinum-selling duo about their favorite childhood Christmas gifts, favorite Christmas movies, favorite Christmas food and much, much more.

Gary Allan proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Molly Martin, earlier this week. He popped the question at Nashville’s Cheekwood Estate and Gardens with a beautiful pear-shaped diamond engagement ring he designed. By the way, she said yes!

He posted photos of the joyous event on his socials. Check it out below.

She said yes! pic.twitter.com/UMZUL3ZxQa

— GaryAllan (@GaryAllan) December 8, 2021

Carrie Underwood joined John Legend on his informal social media “talk show” called “Trailer Talk,” which is on the set of NBC’s The Voice.  The two chatted about her Christmas album, My Gift, her gospel album, My Savior, her Las Vegas residency and much more. Check out the conversation, as well as a special performance below.

You can hear both of them on Carrie’s Christmas album, My Gift (and My Gift: Special Edition) on a duet of “Hallelujah,” a song John co-wrote.

When Josh Turner was working on his first-ever Christmas album, King Size Manger, he and his producer Kenny Greenburg were going back and forth on certain standards they wanted to put on the album. One classic Kenny suggested was “Silent Night,” but it wasn’t one of Josh’s first choices. It was on a father-son trip with his youngest son where the ideas for the arrangement of the song started flooding the singer’s brain.

“I just had gone to South Carolina to my cabin with my youngest, Hawke. Because I’ve taken all of my boys on a father-son trip to our cabin, at a certain point, but Hawke was a lot older than the other three were when I finally got to take him because life’s been so crazy lately,” says Josh. “And so, I had taken him, and we were there one night, and he had already gone to bed, I had gone to bed, but all of a sudden, this idea popped in my head of the ‘Silent Night’ and the string arrangement and all that. So, I got up and got my guitar out and, and just started playing it, you know, to my phone, and the ideas kept flowing, of how to, you know, make it impactful. And then we eventually had Stuart Duncan come in and play a fiddle part on top of that with like, kind of a two-string Appalachian kind of vibe. It turned out to be a pretty cool thing with all that combined and it’s you know, it’s like a five-minute version, but you kind of get wrapped up in the song and what it’s all about.”

Josh is taking his Holiday & The Hits Tour to Mount Vernon, Kentucky on Thursday (December 9th).

Josh Turner is set to hang with two talented ladies — Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager — on NBC’s Today Show on Wednesday (December 8th) to chat about his new Christmas album, King Size Manger, and his Christmas tour, Holiday and the Hits.

I lucked out and I get to hang out with both of these wonderful ladies — @HodaAndJenna, tomorrow (12/8) on @TODAYshow! Tune-in! @HodaKotb @JennaBushHager #kingsizemanger pic.twitter.com/rh3ZN0z2b2

— Josh Turner (@joshturnermusic) December 7, 2021

Chris Stapleton and H.E.R. appeared on CBS’ National Tree Lighting television special to perform “This Christmas” together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh3p-bnCf2U&t=132s

It was announced earlier this week that Travis Denning will hit the road with pal and fellow Georgia native, Cole Swindell beginning February 17th in Peoria, Illinois.

In 2016 I went on my first tour. I had no record deal and no music out, but this guy believed in me and gave me a shot. So pumped to hit the road next year again with my man @coleswindell and @theashleycooke on the #DownToTheBarTour 🍻 pic.twitter.com/YETHwBGewi

— Travis Denning (@Travis_Denning) December 6, 2021

Parker McCollum has teamed with MusicFX, a digital community platform connecting artists to their fans through NFTs, to launch the Gold Chain Cowboy Club. “I’m thrilled to be the first artist to partner with MusicFX,” said Parker. “Without my amazing fans, I would not be where I am today. MusicFX is really going to allow us to support one another as we continue this incredible journey.” The NFT fan club is set to go live on Christmas Day.

Taylor Swift is No. 78 on the Forbes list of the Most Powerful Women In Entertainment for 2021. Other amazing women on the list include Vice President Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey, Rhianna, Beyonce, Reese Witherspoon, Queen Elizabeth and at No. 1 is billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Christmas for Carrie Underwood hasn’t changed that much from when she was a young girl. She usually still gets together with her family, which includes her parents, two sisters and their families…as well as her own husband, Mike Fisher, and sons Isaiah and Jacob.

Carrie says some of her Christmas traditions include a lot of traveling to visit her family and her husband Mike Fisher’s family…but also cooking and celebrating the season. “My perfect Christmas, generally we do a lot of traveling around Christmas. We’ll go see either my family or my husband’s family,” says Carrie. “I’ll spend all day cooking. I’ll make a small turkey, even though I don’t eat turkey. I’ll make myself some tofurkey; cranberry sauce, of course. Of course, sweet potato casserole. You have to have that. That’s one of my favorites because it’s a side dish and dessert, but I’ll just make a ridiculous amount of food. Just celebrate, have a fire, we wait for Santa and open our presents, then we’re off to see the next group of family. It’s all about watching it through my sons’ eyes and just getting to spend time with family.”

She continues: “For me growing up, Christmas was always just comforting. We always had the same stockings and the same tree and the same decorations, and we would always decorate the weekend right after Thanksgiving. You know, flip the Christmas switch, put the tree up. Now that we’re adults and have kids, we can go to the Christmas tree farm and we can walk around, and we can pick out which one and ask Isaiah, ‘Which one do you think?’ Just things like that, making those memories. It’s just a joyful time of year.”

One of the traditions she enjoys with her own family is picking out a Christmas tree with her husband and two sons. “We were an artificial tree family growing up. It was easier, you know, but now in our own home, we do the real tree thing, and we kind of try to make that a little bit of a tradition. We go and we pick it out. The boys have some say in which one we get, and they feel some ownership and we all decorate it together and of course, have Christmas music playing in the house. I make cookies that were my husband’s grandmother that my kids call Gigi. It’s her recipe, her ginger snap cookies, and we make those and it’s super sweet. Isaiah loves makes Gigi’s cookies, because he still remembers her a little bit. So, it’s something special we get to do.”

One of her favorite memories from childhood was singing Christmas carols for folks in nursing homes. “Christmas was always just about family,” she says. “One thing that we always did growing up that was one of my favorite memories, we would 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.”

Carrie released a special edition of her Christmas album, My Gift, this year, featuring “Favorite Time of Year,” and she says there’s nothing like Christmas music that gets you in the spirit of the season. “There is no other like part of the year that gets its own music, like exclusively. When you think about it, like entire radio stations switch over to play Christmas music around Christmas time. So, I feel like it just puts you in the mood for Christmas. Christmas is something that everybody looks forward to and to have Christmas music start playing way before Christmas. It usually does because people just can’t wait to get there. It puts you in a mood. It changes your state of mind. It gets you ready for it and it just makes you feel a certain way.”