When she was 9 years old, singer Ani DiFranco’s guitar teacher gave her a Beatles songbook. She now has reason to consult it again.

A group that holds a John Lennon benefit concert has selected DiFranco for its John Lennon Real Love Award, and she’ll perform his music at the tribute on Dec. 10 in New York City.

DiFranco and her teacher, Michael Meldrum, would use the book to learn the songs together.

“It’s a very dear, fond memory of mine,” DiFranco said. “It’s been a long road since then. It’s cool to be wrapping around full circle to a John Lennon tribute, to be tasked with learning some John Lennon songs.”

She shares a drive toward social activism with Lennon, a point his widow, Yoko Ono, made in a statement announcing the award. Past honorees include Natalie Merchant, Rosanne Cash, Patti Smith and Donovan.

One song DiFranco has been kicking around lately — not in the songbook — is “Woman” from John and Yoko’s 1980 album, Double Fantasy. She’s impressed with his bravery in writing the unabashed love song at a time many in the media were critical of their relationship.

“I listen to a song like ‘Woman’ and I could cry from yearning that my man would write me such a song,” she said.

She’s also learned the plaintive Beatles plea “Help” and is open to suggestions for her setlist. The concert will be held at Symphony Space, with tickets on sale Friday. Run by the nonprofit Theatre Within, the show benefits a songwriting program free to public schools and workshops for people with cancer and their family members.

California’s governor issued an upcoming COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children attending schools in the state, a move that country star Jason Aldean finds troubling.

“So let me get this straight! It is no longer our decisions as parents (or free Americans) to make decisions about our kids, Gavin Newsom makes those decisions for us now?? You gotta be kidding me!” Aldean wrote to his 3.4 million followers on Sunday (Oct. 3) on Instagram, where he shared a screenshot of a news headline from the San Francisco Chronicle.

“People in California should be outraged and people everywhere else better start standing up and speaking out NOW. This is not how America and being free works,” he said.

Aldean was reacting to an Oct. 1 announcement from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said that once the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approves the coronavirus vaccine for younger age groups, it would be added to the list of inoculations that are required for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Right now, the FDA has fully approved Pfizer’s vaccine for those that are 16 and older, while the vaccine is available for ages 12 to 15 under emergency use authorization.

Newsom expects that the requirement would apply to grades seven and up starting in July 2022. “We want to end this pandemic,” said the governor, as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpassed 700,000. “We are all exhausted by it.”

Aldean, whose “If I Didn’t Love You” duet with Carrie Underwood currently sits inside the top 5 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, has recently been vocal about his beliefs on social media, where he defended his family after wife Brittany received backlash for posting photos of their kids wearing anti-Biden T-shirts.

“I will never apologize for my beliefs or my love for my family and country,” Aldean wrote earlier this week. “This is the greatest country in the world and I want to keep it that way.” On a photo of his son wearing one of the shirts, he commented, “My boy!”

Aldean is set to release a 30-song double album, called Macon, Georgia, in 2022.

It was a Hot Girl Fall for concertgoers at the first weekend of ACL Fest 2021, where Megan Thee Stallion’s set welcomed a surprise guest: Miley Cyrus.

Miley rushed onto the stage to dance with Meg, and the pair shared a hug in front of the crowd.

“Dreams DO come true! Me & @theestallion doing hot girl s—!” she posted on Instagram, where she uploaded a video clip from the Friday’s (Oct. 1) show.

“Love youuuu,” Megan wrote back.

“ACL WEEKEND 1 was Maybbbbe just A LITTLE TOOOOO ICONIC!” Cyrus said in another post that included clips from her own performance (and a video of Shawn Mendes singing along).

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is taking places over two weekends, Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10, at Austin’s Zilker Park. See the full lineup here.

Watch the fun footage Cyrus shared from Austin City Limits below.

Harry Styles confirmed the meaning of his hit ‘Watermelon Sugar’ on stage Friday night (Oct. 1).

“It doesn’t really matter what it’s about,” Styles began at one of his Nashville concerts, attempting to leave things somewhat up for interpretation before stating that “Watermelon Sugar” is about “the sweetness of life … It’s also about the female orgasm.”

“But that’s totally different. It’s not really relevant,” he added. Delighted fans caught the “Watermelon Sugar” introduction on video at the show.

Styles shared that “Watermelon Sugar” tidbit while starting to sing the Grammy-winning, chart-topping track from Fine Line with the audience’s help. “Watermelon Sugar” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020, becoming Styles’ first song to do so.

Previously, when asked about the song’s sensual undertones — Apple Music’s Zane Lowe once made a reference to “the joys of mutually appreciated oral pleasure” — Styles had simply responded, “Is that what it’s about? I don’t know.”

His rescheduled Love on Tour trek has been one brimming with live music and memorable moments — like the time he helped a pregnant fan reveal the sex of her baby in front of the crowd earlier this week, and the time he gave some golden dating advice to a fan at a show in September.

Check out the clip of Styles talking about the meaning of “Watermelon Sugar” below.

On Friday (Oct. 1), a project dropped on Netflix that is unlike any other: Diana: The Musical. What sets it apart is not just that it tells the story of the late Princess of Wales’ life through song and dance, although that is certainly a unique approach. It’s also the way in which it is being released to the world.

“It’s the first time a play is opening on Netflix before opening on Broadway,” explained Frank Marshall, one of the producers of the show and the film, in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Friday while en route to the film’s premiere — complete with tea — at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York. “That’s never happened before.”

Diana: The Musical was one of the dozens of Broadway projects derailed when the pandemic shuttered the Great White Way on March 12, 2020. “We were in previews,” says Marshall. “We had done nine previews, and we were due to open in 10 days, but we shut down on the 12th. Of course, back then, we thought it was going to be for two weeks or something, not 18 months.”

Before long, Marshall and his collaborators got restless. He recalls, “It seemed to me, as a movie producer, we’ve got the sets, and we’ve got the cast ready to go — everything was kind of in place at the theater. And it had just been announced that Hamilton [the filmed version for Disney+] had been moved up a year. I thought, ‘Maybe we could try to do this ourselves.’ So Beth [Williams, one of Marshall’s Broadway partners] and I called [Come from Away Tony winner] Chris Ashley, our director, and he said, ‘I’m in.’ And then I called Netflix.”

The streamer signed on, and then it was up to Marshall and his team to carry out a safe shoot. As it turned out, his work as a producer of major motion pictures helped him to prepare. “At that same time,” he says, “we were trying to get Jurassic World: Dominion back up and running in London, so I was able to learn from that experience how to film in COVID times.”

The Diana shoot took place over four days in September 2020. Marshall emphasizes, “It really wasn’t what’s called ‘live capture,’ which Hamilton was, because we didn’t have an audience. We shot it much more like a film. We were able to put the camera in the right places and not have to shoot around the audience, and we didn’t have reaction shots, we didn’t have to wait for applause or anything, so Chris Ashley designed into the show cinematic transitions. It’s much more like a movie.”

Marshall says the experience of filming Diana has convinced him to pursue a similar course with future theatrical productions, even if or when COVID is no longer a consideration.

“This is a way to reach a broader audience with a Broadway show,” he argues. “I don’t think it competes at all with the stage version; I think they actually help each other. We saw that with Hamilton and even, looking back, Chicago. The movie Chicago didn’t impede the Broadway production at all. It actually helped. And they also saw ticket sales on Hamilton go up after the Disney+ release. So I just think of it as another way to see things. Now, millions of people around the world get to see our show.”

But will they check out another project about Princess Diana coming off of an Emmy-winning season of Netflix’s The Crown in which she figured prominently or with Pablo Larrain’s film Spencer, which centers on the late princess, currently rolling out on the film fest circuit? “Well, she was an amazing woman, and there’s a lot of ways to celebrate her life, and we’re one of them,” Marshall says. “She’s fascinating, and I think the public is really interested in seeing behind the curtain.”

Diana: The Musical is on Netflix now. Broadway previews will resume on Nov. 2 with opening night on Nov. 17.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.