Mariah Carey performs onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 1, 2019 in Las Vegas.

Kevin Winter
After all, "Diamonds are a girl's best friend."

Mariah Carey had the perfect reaction to her latest career landmark. In a celebratory tweet on Friday morning (Dec. 3), the Christmas Queen wrote, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” along with diamond and heart emoji. In a pair of accompanying pics, the singer clutched a Diamond Award from the RIAA for 10 million in sales and streams for her perennial holiday smash, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

MC posed in front of a Christmas tableau for the shot, which was posted just days after “All I Want” topped Billboard‘s Holiday 100 ranking of the top seasonal songs of all eras, marking the 46th week it held that No. 1 position in the 51 total weeks since the list launched in 2011. Mariah’s holiday classic has has topped the tally for 31 consecutive weeks, dating to the start of the 2015-16 holiday season.

Carey’s 1994 carol crowned all three Holiday 100 component charts (with all surveys dated Dec. 4): Holiday Streaming Songs (17.5 million U.S. streams, up 57%, in the Nov. 19-25 tracking week, according to MRC Data), Holiday Airplay (15.2 million audience impressions, up 87%) and Holiday Digital Song Sales (3,800 sold, up 42%).

Clearly all that holiday cheer is spreading, as evidenced by Mariah’s response to a fan who shared a classic “All I Want” anecdote on Friday morning. “While jamming in my car to @MariahCarey (All I Want For Christmas Is You, of course), a truck full of construction workers next to me at the stop light rolled down their windows & started singing along w/me while waving wildly. The Christmas spirit is alive & well in #Charlotte,” the woman tweeted.

Mariah loved it. “I wish I could see it!!!! Long live the Christmas spirit!!!” she responded, along with a string of appropriately festive emoji.

Check out Mariah’s tweets below.

 

Gaz Coombes and co. shared a mysterious teaser online, highlighting Monday’s date (September 16)

Supergrass are teasing an upcoming announcement with fans, according to a new post.

The British band, fronted by Gaz Coombes, shared a cryptic new post across their social media channels this morning (September 13), suggesting to fans that a new announcement is on the way.

Posted at 9am BST, the post simply shared artwork of the band’s logo in red, alongside next Monday’s date, September 16. In the caption, the band simply wrote: “Sign up now”, alongside a link to their website’s homepage.

Upon clicking the link, the page prompts fans to sign up for future updates, and asks them to input both their email address and the country they live in. Check out the post below.

 

While details on the announcement remain sparse, the post has already caught fans’ attention, with some speculating that the news could be around the upcoming 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘I Should Coco’.

Released in May 1995, the release marked the record that first put the band on the map, and contained singles ‘Mansize Rooster’, ‘Caught By The Fuzz, ‘Lose It’ and ‘Lenny’. It also saw Coombes and Co. nominated at the 1995 Mercury Prize, and contained what would soon become their biggest track to date, the Ivor-Novello winning ‘Alright’.

At time of writing, the band haven’t shared any further indication as to whether the announcement is related to the huge upcoming milestone – whether it be an anniversary tour or reissue – nor whether it has anything to do with new music that could be on the way.

The band’s last studio album was ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’, which arrived in 2008. Since then, they have shared remastered versions of both their 1999 self-titled album and their 2003 record ‘Life On Other Planets’.

In other news around the band, last year it was reported that the band’s frontman joined Johnny Marr onstage last month to perform The Smiths‘ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ at Lakefest 2023.

Before then, Coombes opened up about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.

Supergrass split up in 2010 but reunited for a series of live shows in 2019. They released a live album in 2020, Live On Other Planets, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”

Coombes’ fourth solo album, ‘Turn The Car Around’, came out in January of last year.

CONTINUE READING