Category: Music

Sylvester Stallone, KISS, George Strait and Gloria Gaynor are among the luminaries being celebrated Sunday (Dec. 7) at the annual Kennedy Center Honors, with Donald Trump hosting the show, the first time a president will command the stage instead of sitting in an Opera House box.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has made Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.

Trump said in August that he had agreed to host the show. The Republican president said Saturday at a State Department dinner for the honorees that he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” He predicted that the broadcast, scheduled to air Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.

“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen” on Sunday night, Trump said.

Trump is assuming a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian and Trump nemesis Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees. Trump skipped the honors altogether during his first term.

Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year’s class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his Rocky and Rambo movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and KISS for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and fire. Country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford are also being honored.

The ceremony is expected to be emotional for the members of KISS. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. The band’s co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of KISS in memory of Frehley.

Crawford called it “a beautiful honor” and said, “It’s humbling, especially at the end of a career.”

Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who is performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said on the red carpet. “What an iconic song.”

Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell).

Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center

Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair. He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.

Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face to face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes. Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.

During Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump stayed away during that entire term.

Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke.” While Stallone is one of Trump’s Hollywood ”special ambassadors” and has likened Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday’s other guests are less clear.

Honorees’ views about Trump

Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.

KISS co-founder Gene Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “out for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.

Fellow KISS member Paul Stanley denounced Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 were “terrorists.” But after Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.

“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. “If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 13), up from No. 3 a week ago, collecting its eighth nonconsecutive week atop the list. The set earned 99,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the tracking week ending Dec. 4 (up 12%), according to Luminate, aided by Black Friday promotions at retail and newly available signed CDs sold through the artist’s webstore.

Also in the top 10, holiday music returns to the region, as albums by Michael Bublé, Bing Crosby and Vince Guaraldi Trio jingle up the list.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 13, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 9. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of The Life of a Showgirl’s 99,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 53,000 (down 18%, equaling 69.38 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks — it holds at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 46,000 (up 121%; it climbs 4-2 Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 (down 76%).

Three former No. 1s are Nos. 2-4 on the latest Billboard 200, as Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem rises 4-2 (71,000 equivalent album units, down 6%), the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack steps 5-3 (66,000, down 1%) and Stray Kids’ DO IT falls 1-4 in its second week (64,000, down 78%).

The Wicked: For Good soundtrack drops 2-5 in its second frame, earning 63,000 (down 49%).

Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas returns to the top 10, climbing 12-6 with 58,000 equivalent album units earned (up 70%), largely driven by streaming activity (48,000 SEA units, equaling 64.86 million on-demand official streams of the project’s songs; it zooms 11-3 on the Top Streaming Albums chart). Christmas was released in 2011, spent five weeks at No. 1 in December 2011 and early January 2012 and has returned to the top 10 in every following holiday season. The set boasts Holiday 100-charting favorites like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”

The Billboard 200’s latest tracking week captured the first seven days following the Thanksgiving Day holiday (Nov. 28 through Dec. 4). There are three more tracking weeks during the Christmas season, as the Christmas holiday (Dec. 25) falls on a Thursday this year.

Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas rises 16-7 on the Billboard 200 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned (up 78%). Nearly all of that sum is powered by streaming activity, as SEA units comprise 48,000 (equaling 63.55 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks). The album also rockets 14-4 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.

The Ultimate Christmas best-of set was released in 2024 and peaked at No. 3 on the Jan. 4, 2025-dated chart. It marked the late Crosby’s highest-charting album in 66 years, dating to when his former No. 1 Merry Christmas ranked at No. 2 on the Jan. 5, 1959 chart. (Merry Christmas previously spent a week at No. 1 on Jan. 6, 1958-dated chart.)

Ultimate Christmas contains such classic Holiday 100-charting tunes from Crosby as “White Christmas” (featuring The Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra), “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “Mele Kalikimaka” (with The Andrews Sisters).

Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving falls 7-8 on the latest Billboard 200 (48,000 equivalent album units earned, down 1%).

Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to the A Charlie Brown Christmas animated TV special is back in the top 10 for the first time in nearly three years, as it surges 18-9 with 46,000 equivalent album units earned (up 68%). It was last in the top 10 on the Jan. 7, 2023-dated chart, when it ranked at No. 10. Of the 46,000 units the album earned for the week, SEA units comprise 26,000 (up 72%, equaling 33.81 million on-demand official streams of its songs; it rises 43-13 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 20,000 (up 64% and largely owed to vinyl purchases; it jumps 10-4 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 42%). The album earns its biggest sales week in three years, since it sold 23,000 copies on the Dec. 31, 2022 chart.

The A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack was released in 1965, the same year that the Emmy Award-winning special premiered on CBS, but it did not reach any Billboard ranking until 1987. That year, it debuted on the Top Holiday Albums chart, where it later peaked at No. 2 (Jan. 27, 2007). On the Billboard 200 chart, the set visited the top 10 for the first time on the Jan. 2, 2021-dated list, later peaking at No. 6 on the Jan. 1, 2022-dated chart.

The A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special aired annually on CBS during the holiday season from 1965 through 2000. ABC picked up the rights to the show from 2001 to 2019. In 2020, Apple TV acquired the rights to the special, along with other classic animated Peanuts programs. Each year, Apple TV also makes A Charlie Brown Christmas available free for a limited time; this year, the free window will take place Dec. 13-14.

Closing out the top 10 on the latest Billboard 200 is Tate McRae’s former leader, So Close To What, which falls 6-10 with 44,000 equivalent album units earned (down 31%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

Violet Grohl is officially dropping original new music.

On Friday (Dec. 5), 19-year-old daughter of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl announced through social media the release of her debut solo track “THUM”, accompanied by the B-side “Applefish.”

“I’m beyond excited to finally share a little bit of what i’ve been working on over the last year,” Grohl wrote on Instagram. “I made these tracks with the most badass group of musicians, so happy they’re finally yours:).”

The songs are available as a 7-inch vinyl for $8 through Bandcamp. The alt-rock-leaning “THUM” is available for streaming, while the moody “Applefish” can be purchased digitally or on vinyl.

Violet’s new music follows rumors that she has been working on her debut album since last year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she spent time in a studio gifted by her father for her birthday, collaborating with producer Justin Raisen, who has worked with Charli XCX, Drake, John Legend and Kim Gordon.

Violet first emerged as a musician in 2018 at age 12, performing a cover of Adele’s “When We Were Young” with her father. Since then, she has performed with the Foos frontman and surviving members of Nirvana on a cover of “Heart-Shaped Box,” and provided backing vocals for artists including St. Vincent and Beck.

She has also contributed backing vocals on the Foo Fighters’ albums Medicine at Midnight and But Here We Are, and performed at tribute concerts honoring the late drummer Taylor Hawkins. In 2021, she released a cover of X’s “Nausea,” in collaboration with her father.

Most recently, she sang lead vocals on Nirvana’s In Utero hit “All Apologies” at the 2025 FireAid LA Benefit Concert, sharing the stage with her dad, Krist Novoselic, Pat Smear and Gordon.

Check out Grohl’s Instagram post below.

President Donald Trump on Saturday (Dec. 6) presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.

This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band KISS and actor-singer Michael Crawford.

Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”

“This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans,” said a tuxedo-clad Trump. “This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled.”

Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center

Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its premier awards program during his first term as president. But the Republican has instituted a series of changes since returning to office in January, most notably ousting its board of trustees and replacing them with GOP supporters who voted him in as chairman of the board.

Trump also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance, and has vowed to overhaul both.

The president placed around each honoree’s neck a new medal that was designed, created and donated by jeweler Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.

It’s a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center’s image and rainbow colors. The honoree’s name appears on the reverse side with the date of the ceremony. The medallion hangs from a navy blue ribbon and replaces a large rainbow ribbon decorated with three gold plates that rested on the honoree’s shoulders and chest.

Trump honors the honorees

Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was first to receive his medal. When the country singer started to take off the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” But Strait took it off.

The president said Crawford was a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running Phantom of the Opera. Of Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”

Trump was effusive about his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person and “one of the true, great movie stars” and “one of the great legends.”

KISS is an “incredible rock band,” he said.

Songs by honorees Gaynor and KISS played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office as members of the White House press corps waited nearby for Trump to begin the ceremony.

The president said in August that he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, the first slate chosen under his leadership. The honorees traditionally had been announced by press release.

It was unclear how they were chosen. Before Trump, it fell to a bipartisan selection committee.

“These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.”

“Each of you has made an indelible mark on American life and together you have defined entire genres and set new standards for the performing arts,” Trump said.

Trump was also attending an annual State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday. In years past, the honorees received their medallions there but Trump moved the ceremony to the White House.

Trump to host the Kennedy Center Honors

Meanwhile, the glitzy Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute speeches and performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday at the performing arts center for broadcast later in December on CBS and Paramount+. Trump is to attend the program for the first time as president, accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

The president said in August that he had agreed to host the show, and he seemed to confirm on Saturday that he would do so, predicting that the broadcast would garner its highest ratings ever as a result. Presidents traditionally attend the program and sit with the honorees in the audience. None has ever served as host.

He said he looked forward to Sunday’s celebration.

“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen tomorrow night,” Trump said.

See a video from Saturday night uploaded by the White House below.