Today marks the debut of the official music video for Keith Urban’s first Christmas song, “I’ll Be Your Santa Tonight.”  Co-written with Shane McAnally, Urban describes the track as “classic in its melody, retro 50s vibe in its structure.”

“I’ve always wanted to record a Christmas song, but I really wanted to try and write something new,” says Urban.  “So, Shane came to my house and we wrote, really about a Christmas gone terribly wrong.  No snow. Too much fog.  Nobody can make it to the party.  It’s going to be a colorless Christmas, until her man comes through.”

“I’ll Be Your Santa Tonight,” possesses a whimsical, playful feeling that comes through in its lyric, so it’d only stand to reason that Urban’s attempt to create an ‘appropriate’ Christmas environment, during Nashville’s Summer months, would prove… unsuccessful.

As Urban explains, “We started writing in my studio, which I decked out with colored Christmas lights, a tree, tinsel and of course I put the A/C on artic, so it was freezing! Shane says to me, ‘Do you have a piano? and I say, Yeah, but its upstairs.’  So, we head upstairs to the living room – nice and warm and toasty, with no Christmas decorations of any sort.  Of course, we end up writing the whole thing there – go figure.”

The song’s video was directed by one of Urban’s longtime video collaborators Chris Hicky.  It depicts several Keiths, snow falling, simultaneously playing piano, guitar and bass.  “I wanted to keep the video loose and a bit more performance-based than the actual story line, because everybody has their own version of what a song should look like, so I didn’t want to touch on that too much.”

“I’ll Be Your Santa Tonight” is now available to stream at https://strm.to/IllBeYourSantaTonight

Keith is currently poised to take over the top of the country charts with his latest single, “We Were.”

In October, Keith Urban released a new version of “We Were” featuring one of the song’s writers, Eric Church. Keith says as soon as he heard Eric co-wrote the song, he wanted to hear his voice on the tune.

“As soon as I found out he was a writer, the first thing I wanted to do is I wanted to hear him sing that song, ’cause in my head I heard it top to bottom, so I called him and I said, ‘Would you come in some time and do a version?,'” says Keith. “At the end of the summer, he came by and spent a couple of hours at Sound Emporium Studios. Just hearing him sing the song and do his own thing to it — changing all the phrasing, changing the melody, the odd lyric changing. I sat there and watched him sing it several times back to back, and he never did it the same way twice…ever. And I said to him, ‘You change it every time.’ He goes, ‘Yeah. Why would I do the same thing twice?’ It’s just the way he rolls, [and] it’s because he’s a storyteller. He’s an amazing songwriter; one of the best in town period, and he’s a great storyteller.”
Eric, who penned the song with Ryan Tyndell and Jeff Hyde, didn’t realize just how perfect the song was for his pal until after Keith recorded it.

“That was the coolest thing for me is I didn’t send Keith the song and say, ‘Here’s a song I wrote.’ He found it, and honestly, it fits him more than it fits me. There’s a line in there about ‘two heartbeats in the moonlight/leather jackets on a back of a Harley.’ I don’t ride a Harley. That’s a line, call it ‘poetic license.’ That’s where it came from. He and Nicole used to do that when they first started dating, and they were touring, they would jump on his Harley and they would put on their leather jackets and they’d go ride up in the countryside before the show. I did not know that until after he cut that song,” says Eric. “I truly believe songs find the path that they’re supposed to find, and that one was supposed to be with him.”

“We Were” is closing in on the top of the country charts. Keith and Eric previously collaborated on the 2015 hit “Raise ‘Em Up,” from Keith’s 2013 Fuse album.

Kassi Ashton grew up in a rural town called California, Missouri, and she took ballet and other dance classes for many years. So, one of her favorite Christmas memories include being in The Nutcracker every year. “One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was always being a part of The Nutcracker,” says Kassi. “[I took] ballet my entire life, and now that I’ve graduated and moved on, I go see The Nutcracker at the Nashville Ballet every year. I can’t wait to have a little girl some day and put her in ballet class.”

Kassi loves Christmas music, especially the holiday classics. “My favorite thing about Christmas hands down is Christmas music. I start playing eh, the day after Thanksgiving usually, if not a little sooner. I love the classics – Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, anything that you know by heart and you don’t have to really think about. Christmas songs are the best,” she says. “My favorite Christmas song is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ by Judy Garland in the key of G, because that’s my key [laughs], and I can sing along perfectly.” [laughs]

Kassi is set to join Jordan Davis on his Trouble Town Tour, kicking off January 10th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Kacey Musgraves is set to appear on The Late, Late Show with James Corden on Thursday night. The talk show host appeared on Kacey’s Amazon Prime Christmas Special, which is available to stream now.

The life and career of Chris Stapleton will be featured in an exhibit at The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum beginning next year. “I’m proud to get to share pieces of our musical journey at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,” says Chris. The superstar’s exhibit will open June 26^th, 2020. Martina McBride and Bill Anderson will also receive new exhibits.

Luke Bryan joined Jimmy Fallon and The Roots’ Tariq Trotter for a funny video skit for NBC’s Tonight Show this week. The clip showcases the three guys wearing mullets and gold uniforms crashing a football-watching party as they rapped snacking ideas.

Caylee Hammack and Parker McCollum have been announced as part of MusicRow’s Next Big Thing for 2020. MusicRow Magazine’s Next Big Thing Class of 2020 has set itself apart from today’s artists with talent and hard work. Some of these NBT artists have just released their first singles, while others are celebrating chart-topping hits. All have broken through by bringing unique styles and by surrounding themselves with team members who champion them.

Darius Rucker is scheduled to perform a pre-race concert before the Daytona 500 February 16th.

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Kacey Musgraves celebrates the holidays with the Ellen DeGeneres Show this week. She performed “Christmas Makes Me Cry” from her A Very Kacey Christmas album she released a few years ago.

Kacey also chatted with Ellen about her album Golden Hour, Tom’s One-Hour Photo, her Amazon Christmas special and all of her recent accolades.

Following the season finale of this year’s Dancing With the Stars, Lauren Alaina released the video of her latest single, “Getting Good.” The beautiful clip showcases Lauren, as well as her dance partner Gleb Savchenko.

Check it out below:

Mickey Guyton usually goes home to Texas for Christmas every year, and the thing that has to be on the dinner table is her mom’s Italian Cream Cake, which is also a staple at Thanksgiving.

“My mom makes this homemade, from scratch, Italian Cream Cake. It’s so freaking good, and every Christmas and every Thanksgiving, she makes this,” says Mickey. “Our families all come to my parents’ house, and we have a big dinner, and that’s the first thing that to go. That’s like the first thing that people eat the most.”

The songstress released her version of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman,” from the smash hit, Frozen, a few years ago. She says it, along with a classic, are her favorite holiday songs. “My favorite Christmas song is ‘O Holy Night,’ but I really love ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman.’ So, both of those are like my all-time favorite.”

Jon Langston’s father tried to pull a fast one on Christmas. Jon kept pestering his parents for a green bicycle when he was a young child, but something seemed a little off when Jon came downstairs on Christmas morning.

“When I was like five or six, I had a red bike, and all I wanted was a green bike. I wanted a cool, green, long goose bike. So, I came downstairs to see what Santa brought me, and I see a green bike down next to the tree, and I come rushing to it and I’m looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Hold up. Something’s not right.’ It’s the SAME bike. My dad just spray painted it green,” laughs Jon. “I was like, ‘This is the same bike!’ I’m like picking at it, looking at the paint under it. Oh yeah, that’s one of my favorite Christmas memories is dogging on my dad, because it’s just funny.”

Jon can’t really pick out one Christmas movie, because he loves them all, but if he had to watch just one, it would have to be The Christmas Story. “My favorite holiday movie would have to be Elf, The Grinch, Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation. I could go on,” says the Georgia native. “I love Christmas movies, but I think I would have to say my favorite is probably The Christmas Story ‘cause I just grew up watching it.”

Jon is making his way up the country charts with his latest “Now You Know,” which is the title track from his new EP.

2019 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS.® – Hosted by Ciara and broadcasting live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 8:00 p.m. EST, on ABC. (ABC/Image Group LA) CARRIE UNDERWOOD

Superstar Carrie Underwood broke the record for most wins for Favorite Country Album with her 6th win in the category on the “2019 American Music Awards,” broadcast live on ABC from the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 24th.  Underwood was recognized by fans this year for her critically acclaimed album, Cry Pretty, giving her the most wins in the category and making her the only artist in the history of the AMAs to win Favorite Country Album for all six of her studio album releases (Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, Play On, Blown Away, Storyteller, and now, Cry Pretty).  Other nominees in the category this year included Dan + Shay’s Dan + Shay and Kane Brown’s Experiment.

Underwood also won her 7th award as Favorite Female Artist – Country.  With previous wins for Favorite New Breakthrough Artist in 2006 and the T-Mobile Text-In Award for Artist of the Year in 2007, this year’s ceremony brings Underwood to 15 career total American Music Awards, tied with Reba McEntire as the most awarded female country artists in AMA history, and ranking her among the top 10 all-time winners in all categories, across all genres.

The American Music Awards is the world’s largest fan-voted award show, paying tribute to today’s most influential and iconic artists.  The show is produced by dick clark productions and is seen in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.  Nominations are based on key fan interactions as reflected on Billboard.com, including streaming, album and digital song sales, radio airplay, social activity and touring. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Music and Next Big Sound, and reflect the time period of September 28, 2018 through September 26, 2019.

Underwood recently completed her stellar The Cry Pretty Tour 360, closing out the tour in the #1 spot on Pollstar’s LIVE75 chart (11/04/19), which ranks worldwide active tours by average tickets sold.  On November 13, she hosted ABC’s CMA Awards for the 12th consecutive year.  She was joined this year by special guest hosts Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton for the three-hour live telecast, which dominated the night, ranking #1 in all 6 half-hours of primetime, as well as the becoming the #1 most social entertainment program across broadcast and cable for the night, with 2.4M total social interactions across all platforms, marking a 104% increase over the 2018 telecast, as measured by Nielsen Social.