Category: Music

Phil Upchurch, an iconic guitarist and session musician who collaborated with Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson and countless other music legends, has died. He was 84.

Upchurch passed away on Nov. 23 in Los Angeles, according to his wife, Sonya Maddox-Upchurch. A cause of death was not revealed.

“Phil Upchurch was my personal gift from God, he was my best friend, my music partner, my life, and my hero,” she said in a statement. “Our love was supernatural, endless, timeless and as true as his favorite color blue. He was a master of chords and emotions. Anything that he placed his mind to complete — he did it. Well done my love. I love you more than words can say and the heart can hold.”

Over a remarkable career, Upchurch recorded nearly 30 albums and appeared on more than 1,000 recordings. Notable contributions include Chaka Khan’s 1978 hit “I’m Every Woman,” which topped Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for three weeks, and Jackson’s “Workin’ Day and Night,” from his 1979 solo album, Off the Wall.

Upchurch was also featured on all of Hathaway’s solo studio and live albums, as well as Curtis Mayfield’s soundtracks for the films Superfly, Claudine, Let’s Do It Again and Sparkle, the latter featuring Aretha Franklin.

He also performed or recorded with other music legends, including George Benson, Bob Dylan, Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lee Hooker and Stan Getz.

Born on July 19, 1941, in Chicago, Upchurch began making music at a young age, starting with the ukulele at 13 before quickly mastering guitar, bass and drums. Influenced by jazz greats Oscar Peterson and Jimmy Smith, he began his professional career touring with the singing group the Spaniels after graduating high school in 1958. In 1961, he scored a hit under his own name with “You Can’t Sit Down.” Two years later, he was part of a studio band that backed Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) on the spoken-word/comedy album I Am the Greatest!

In the mid-1960s, Upchurch served two years in the U.S. Army in Germany. Upon returning, he became a regular session musician at Chicago’s Chess Records, collaborating with legends such as Ramsey Lewis, John Klemmer, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, the Dells and Etta James.

Beyond performing, Upchurch authored two instructional music books and completed an autobiography, which is set to be released posthumously.

Miley Cyrus is giving an encouraging update on Dolly Parton‘s health.

The 33-year-old pop star spoke about her godmother’s recent health challenges while attending the Avatar: Fire and Ash premiere in Los Angeles on Monday (Dec. 1).

“She’s always gonna keep the show going,” Cyrus told Entertainment Tonight. “The show must go on. She’s just excited to get back to work.”

In late September, the 79-year-old country music icon announced she was postponing her Las Vegas concert residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace due to undisclosed medical procedures. The residency, originally set to start in December, is now scheduled to begin in 2026.

The following month, Parton addressed her health publicly after rumors about her condition began circulating online.

“I don’t think God is through with me and I ain’t done workin’,” the Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton said in a video on Oct. 8.

“I wanted you to know that I’m not dying,” she added. “There’s just a lot of rumors flyin’ around and I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was OK.”

Parton and Cyrus share a long-standing bond as both friends and collaborators. In 2024, genealogy-tracking website Ancestry.com revealed they are distantly related. Parton also appeared as “Aunt Dolly” on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, and the duo collaborated on a reimagined duet of Cyrus’ hit “Wrecking Ball” for Parton’s 2023 album, Rockstar.

Meanwhile, Cyrus — who recently confirmed her engagement to musician Maxx Morando — contributed the song “Dream as One” to the Avatar sequel. At Monday’s premiere, she attended with her fiancé, showing off a sparkling gold band on her left ring finger.

The couple’s engagement comes four years after they started dating in 2021. The former Hannah Montana star was previously married to Liam Hemsworth.

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau just went Instagram official.

On Saturday (Dec. 6), the 41-year-old pop star shared a series of photos and videos from her trip to Japan, including several cameos by former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, 53.

“tokyo times on tour and more,” Perry captioned the Instagram gallery.

In one snapshot, the former American Idol judge and Trudeau pose cheek-to-cheek outdoors, while another shows the pair sharing sushi in a black-and-white clip. A third image captures them admiring what appears to be a sparkly art installation.

The Instagram carousel arrives amid Perry’s travels to Japan, where she has been performing dates on her ongoing Lifetimes Tour. During her visit, the “Dark Horse” singer joined Trudeau as he met with former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, following a formal lunch.

Earlier in the week, Kishida shared a photo of the two couples smiling together in front of a colorful Christmas tree in an ornately decorated room.

“Former Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau visited Japan with his partner and joined my wife and me for lunch,” Kishida, who now serves in the House of Representatives of Japan, wrote on X. “During [Trudeau’s] time as [Canadian] prime minister, we met multiple times as fellow leaders. “I am delighted that we continue to maintain this friendship in this way.”

Trudeau replied in the comments, “Katy and I were so glad to have the chance to sit down with you and Yuko. Thank you, Fumio, for your friendship and your continued commitment to both the international rules-based order and to a better future for everyone.”

Speculation about Perry and Trudeau’s relationship arose earlier this year. They were publicly seen together in Paris in late October, marking one of their first widely reported appearances together.

Check out Perry and Trudeau’s first Instagram photo together here.

Live Nation was the standout music stock for the week ended Dec. 5, though it rose only a modest 6.0% to $139.33. Its share price was up even as the company faces a barrage of legal issues, including an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice, another lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and yet another brought by Taylor Swift fans. At the same time, though, Ticketmaster isn’t suffering as much as its peers in the secondary market. Amid efforts to cap profits on ticket resales, StubHub shares are down 47.1% from the company’s Sept. 16 IPO price, and Vivid Seats shares have fallen 91.8% this year. Ticketmaster operates a secondary market, but the company encourages artists to raise the price of primary tickets to capture revenue that would otherwise go to scalpers.  

This week, the 19-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) added to its woes by falling 2.1% to 2,542.64, marking its ninth decline in the last 11 weeks. The BGMI now stands 18.4% below its all-time high of 3,117.20 set the week ended June 30 and sits at the same level it reached in April.

Elsewhere, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 9,667.01, lowering its year-to-date gain to 17.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index, which has gained 67.9% in 2025, rose 4.4% to 4,100.05. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 3,902.81, raising its year-to-date improvement to 21.5%. 

Music is underperforming other indexes as stocks have remained resilient in the face of tariff uncertainty and job losses. Since the week ended Sept. 12, the Nasdaq composite index is up 4.2% and the S&P 500 has risen 3.1%. The BGMI, on the other hand, has fallen 18.0% over those 11 weeks through the week ended Dec. 5. Many of the index’s largest components have sank over those 11 weeks, including Universal Music Group (down 7.3%), Warner Music Group (down 14.7%), Live Nation (down 14.9%) and Spotify (down 23.1%). 

The previously high-flying Spotify fell another 5.7% to $564.93 this week, making the Stockholm-based company the second-worst performer behind French music streamer Deezer, which dropped 6.0% to 1.03 euros ($1.20 ). Spotify shares have fallen 22.4% since the company’s Sept. 30 announcement that CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek would step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chairman at the end of the year. And although Spotify is still up 21.1% in 2025 — besting the Nasdaq’s 20.2% gain and the S&P 500’s 15.6% improvement — its share price has dropped 28.0% from its 52-week high of $785.00. 

MSG Entertainment was the week’s second-greatest gainer after rising 4.7% to $51.79, while sister company Sphere Entertainment Co., which has capitalized on the success of The Wizard of Oz, fell 0.3% to $84.31. The company announced on Tuesday (Dec. 2) another milestone for its Oz motion picture: Through Monday (Dec. 1), Oz grossed more than $200 million in sales from over 1.5 million tickets sold since debuting on Aug. 28. Unlike previous milestones, however, this latest threshold didn’t goose the stock price. 

Other notable movements included SiriusXM (up 3.6%), Warner Music Group (up 1.3%), Universal Music Group (down 1.3%), CTS Eventim (down 3.6%) and iHeartMedia (down 5.6%). 

DJ Khaled recently turned 50 and received a gift from Jay-Z and record executive Lenny S that blew him away.

Khaled posted a video on Instagram of Lenny S standing in his living room giving him framed pictures from Khaled’s early days as a teenage DJ when he purchased a red 1991 BMW M3 with money he made hosting parties along with model of the same car.

“That’s in the ’90s, I had an M3, hustlin’,” said Khaled while holding a picture of himself posing with the same car when he was 15. “Listen, the vision was so clear. We used to do parties, rent out halls and we used to charge $5 at the door, and the flyers were graffiti. … I bought an M3, and this M3, I put a system in it. I was like, 15, 16, and I put a system in it, and the whole car caught on fire.”

Lenny then told Khaled that he had good news and that he had bad news. The good news was that he had the car outside waiting for him, but the bad news was that it didn’t have a custom system in it yet. Of course, Khaled couldn’t believe it.

“No way,” he said. “Nah, nah, nah, nah, that’s crazy. Yo, listen, that’s crazy. Nah, this legendary. Oh my God, yo, that’s crazy. Yo, Jay-Z, Lenny S, y’all went crazy on this. You know I used to have one of these sh–s? This is crazy. An M3? You know how classic this is? You know Hov and that Lexus? Yo, Hov, yo Len, stop, man. Y’all gonna make me cry, don’t do this. Yo, I was selling Pelle Pelles out the back of the trunk, mixtapes, I used to sell alligator shoes out the back of this trunk. This that real deal. … Lenny S and Jay-Z got me an M3.”

DJ Khaled turned 50 on Nov. 26.