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After tons of jaw-dropping twists and turns, The Traitors season four is coming to a close.
The season finale and reunion of the beloved whodunnit romp will air back-to-back exclusively on Peacock tonight, Thursday, Feb. 26, at 9/8c. After we see who prevailed in escaping elimination or death, the winner will be crowned with the ire, or appreciation, of their fellow last-standing players. Heading into the finale, we have faithfuls Mark Ballas, Maura Higgins, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir and traitors Eric Nam and Rob Rausch. The reunion, hosted by Andy Cohen, will air after the finale Keep reading below to find out how you can stream the finale and reunion.
How to Watch The Traitors Season Four Online
As previously mentioned, the finale and reunion for season four of The Traitors will premiere tonight, Thursday, Jan 8 at 9/8c on Peacock.
The only way you’ll be able to watch the show’s new season for now is via Peacock. You’ll be able to watch all the drama unfold via Peacock Premium (with ads) for $10.99 a month or the Peacock Premium Plus plan for $16.99 a month. When you subscribe to one of those two plans, you’ll have access to The Traitors, along with a slew of other titles, including music-themed productions like Wicked, Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia, The Voice (which you can watch after the show airs on demand), America’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, among others.
How Does the Finale Work?
We have four Faithfuls left, but two or more contestants will leave on finale night. One will be murdered by a traitor(s) and one will be banished. Once they do leave, their identity will not be revealed to the other players at the roundtable. This means the remaining faithfuls will not know who is a faithful or a traitor going into the final bonfire.
If a traitor or traitors are left in the end, they’ll take the cash prize for themselves and split with their fellow traitor if applicable. If the faithfuls or the faithful manage to weed out all the traitors, the winner or winners will obviously get gloating rights, and a cash prize of up to $250,000, an amount that was accumulated by completing challenges throughout the season.
What is The Traitors?
If you’ve been living under a rock, the reality show features a rotating cast each season with a group of “Faithful” contestants that live in a fantastical castle alongside the host Alan Cumming. The contestants are tasked with completing missions to build a collective cash prize, but hidden among them are secret “Traitors” whose goal is to murder the “Faithfuls” one by one until they steal the entire pot for themselves.
Some missions offer a chance to win a shield, granting immunity from being murdered for a night. It’s a cutthroat game of strategy where contestants must build alliances and suss out those pesky Traitors before it’s too late. Much like prior seasons, this fourth iteration is bound to be a scream that’ll leave you on the edge of your seat until the very last episode. Speaking of, there will be 12 total episodes, including a special reunion episode with the entire cast, giving members the opportunity to debrief on the season.
Who Was On The Traitors Season Four?
Below, you’ll find a list of all the cast members for season four both eliminated and still present.
- Lisa Rinna (“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”)
- Porsha Williams (“Real Housewives of Atlanta”)
- Caroline Stanbury (“Real Housewives of Dubai” / “Ladies of London”)
- Candiace Dillard Bassett (“Real Housewives of Potomac”)
- Dorinda Medley (“Real Housewives of New York City”)
- Rob Rausch (“Love Island”)
- Maura Higgins (“Love Island”)
- Colton Underwood (“The Bachelor”)
- Natalie Anderson (“Survivor”)
- Yam Yam Arocho (“Survivor”)
- Rob Cesternino (“Survivor”)
- Tiffany Monique Mitchell (“Big Brother”)
- Ian Terry (“Big Brother”)
- Monét X Change (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”)
- Mark Ballas (“Dancing With the Stars”)
- Kristen Kish (“Top Chef”)
- Stephen Colletti (“Laguna Beach” / “One Tree Hill”)
- Tara Lipinski (Olympic figure skater)
- Johnny Weir (Olympic figure skater)
- Eric Nam (singer / TV host)
- Michael Rapaport (actor / comedian)
- Ron Funches (comedian)
- Donna Kelce (TV personality)
It took patience, plenty of false-starts and a bit of cosmic timing for Help(2) to come to life. “The universe had to finally align,” says Rich Clarke, head of music at War Child, whose team had long dreamed of marking the 30th anniversary of the original Help, the era-defining charity album featuring Paul McCartney, Oasis, Sinéad O’Connor and Radiohead, with a new star-studded compilation.
Released in September 1995, Help was recorded in one day, with Brian Eno at the helm. It was nominated for both a BRIT Award and the Mercury Prize, sold 70,000 copies on its first day, and raised £1.25 million ($1.68 million) for children affected by the Bosnian conflict of the mid-’90s. Its success stands as a benchmark that no subsequent charity LP in the U.K. has managed to replicate since.
The move to make a second charity compilation, says Clarke, came from the severity of the current humanitarian crises in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and Syria, as well as civil wars across Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo. War Child estimates that the number of children affected globally by war has jumped from one in 10 when the Help(2)’s predecessor was released, to one in five today, around 520 million children.
Revisiting the Help series was not a decision taken lightly. Clarke notes that while War Child has a presence in the live arena (their BRITs Week shows raise substantial funds for the charity), the dynamics of the music industry has changed and that compilation LPs are something of a rarity.
Throughout the 2000s, War Child put out several compilations (featuring works by David Bowie, Muse and George Michael) but none of them hit similar heights, largely because they were released at a time when demand for physical music was declining, limiting commercial reach despite the stature of acts involved. Yet Help(2) arrives at a period of renewed growth, with the 2025 BPI figures reporting 7.6 million vinyl LPs and 9.7 million CDs sold in the U.K. last year.
Ongoing news of conflicts and artists speaking up encouraged Clarke that the time was right: “I think all of that builds to a point where artists go, ‘Actually, I’m going to take action – and this is how I’m going to do it.’ Asking a songwriter to write a great song is the best way of making use of their skills,” he notes.
When the decision to press on with Help(2) came the logistics almost became too complex for Clarke and his team to untangle: touring cycles clashed, and acts had their own recording time booked. Their fortunes would change when “three bits of good news” came within a week towards the end of 2025: producer James Ford – who had previously been approached for the project prior to a personal health scare – signed up, as did Arctic Monkeys and Fontaines D.C., two of the most influential modern rock acts to have come out of the U.K. and Ireland this side of the millennium.
“We decided that if we were going to make something like this, it would be a legacy piece as opposed to a random collection of songs,” Clarke explains. “The name on the top of everyone’s lips here was James. He was the missing puzzle piece we needed to move forward.”
Arctic Monkeys
Phoebe Fox/War Child
Ford’s outsized influence on contemporary music came into full focus as the tracklist came together for Help(2). The collaborative effort, which lands on Mar. 6, spans 23 tracks and features several other acts that he has worked with, including Geese’s Cameron Winter, Depeche Mode, Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party. There are also appearances from Olivia Rodrigo, Ezra Collective, English Teacher and Kae Tempest, among many others. The sheer breadth of talent underscores just how remarkable and carefully curated the record is.
The majority of the featured artists descended upon London’s Abbey Road Studios last November, where concurrent recordings led to a number of unexpected collaborations over the course of a week. Most of the tracks are new and original songs, a challenge set by Clarke to match the original’s high quality. There were also dozens of young children running riot, filming the sessions through handheld cameras under the supervision of Jonathan Glazer, the Oscar-winning director of The Zone of Interest.
The laid-back atmosphere of the sessions created an open-door feel, with other acts wandering in and out as they pleased. Speaking to Billboard UK, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker recalls entering Abbey Road’s Studio Two after lunch one afternoon to find Blur and Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn working on a fresh demo.
He soon found himself catching up with Johnny Marr – formerly of The Smiths – a friend he “had not seen for a very long time,” before being introduced to Kae Tempest, Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten and Carl Barât of The Libertines. In a moment of spontaneity, all four voices came together to contribute backing vocals to Pulp’s fervent “Begging for Change” track.
A sense of inclusion was pivotal throughout, continues Cocker. “Bands have always been competitive with each other, or least certainly back in the days when I first started doing music,” he says. “It felt important to just put anything like that aside, and realize that everybody’s working towards the same thing and you can actually help each other out. It was a really good week.”
Adam Ajalloh
Pulp have long maintained a uniquely meaningful relationship with War Child. In 1996, the band’s album Different Class was nominated for the Mercury Prize alongside the original Help compilation. After winning the award, Cocker praised the work of War Child, and donated the £25,000 ($33,700) prize money to the charity during his acceptance speech. As such, it was a “no-brainer” to accept Ford’s offer to join Help(2), he says, explaining that the album was an opportunity for the band to use their platform for something far bigger than themselves.
“Childhood is such an important time: it’s when you learn how to be a human being, and that’s a difficult thing, even more so when living in a war zone,” Cocker says. “For a child to grow to be an adult in a place surrounded by chaos, or to try and get an education while feeling in danger all the time… you have to do what you can to try and provide some respite for them from that.”
Following an uphill battle to turn Help(2) from idea to reality in its earlier stages, the War Child team soon faced a new, unforeseen challenge that nearly set the project off course. A week before the Abbey Road sessions took place, Ford – who was diagnosed with Acute Leukaemia towards the end of 2024 – was rushed into an intensive care unit, where he would need to remain for an extended period of time.
With the clock ticking on a non-movable studio booking, there was no room to postpone. A team of external producers and engineers were drafted in under the supervision of Transgressive Records co-founder Toby L, who stepped up to help with day-to-day operations at Abbey Road while also guiding tracklisting and A&R decisions. “People moved mountains to make these sessions happen,” says Clarke. “It was the sort of collective spirit that reaffirms your faith in community, particularly in an industry as fragmented as music can be.”
As Ford’s condition stabilised and he moved into recovery after receiving a blood transfusion, he found a way back into the room. From his hospital bed, as his strength gradually returned, he resumed his role via Zoom in order to oversee production in real time, offering arrangement notes and weighing in on mixes. Seemingly, the circumstances surrounding the completion of Help(2) only deepened its meaning as a testament to resilience in the face of adversity and emotional hardship.
“As a patient, remotely attending some of these sessions made me feel attached to the real world. Making sure I was part of finishing the album was beneficial for my state of mind,” says Ford. “There was this feeling of responsibility that made me want to go above and beyond my own situation at the time. But it was pretty heartbreaking to not be in the room and hang out with people that I know and love – it was like missing my own personal Glastonbury!”
This mode of working forced Ford to expand his approach in ways he might never have explored under normal circumstances. Having been involved in Arctic Monkeys’ output consistently since 2007’s Favourite Worst Nightmare, Ford counts frontman Alex Turner as one of his closest collaborators, and the pair sent each other passages of the band’s track “Opening Night” via text.
Through this process, the track evolved into the “obvious lead single” for Help(2), thanks to its grand, expansive sonic feel and how its title carries a declarative weight. When it was released in January, it marked Arctic Monkeys’ first song in four years; the band have been on hiatus since they wrapped up a long-running world tour for seventh record The Car in autumn 2023.
Ford also credits Olivia Rodrigo with bringing a fresh perspective to a cover of The Magnetic Fields’ classic “The Book Of Love,” accompanied by Blur’s Graham Coxon on guitar. “I talked Olivia into doing what we were calling a ‘Sinatra-style’ take, which was recording live with a string section,” he explains. “She was such a pro and was happy to take a gung-ho approach to it – she just walked into the studio and nailed it.”
He continues: “I was in the hospital with my headphones on, and I could press my space bar on my laptop and talk to everyone in the studio. It was a very surreal experience, but one that gave me such a warm, fuzzy feeling of pride towards what we were achieving together.”
Above all else, everyone involved takes pride in what Help(2) represents: a bold declaration that artists can still unite around a cause to make a tangible difference, and to advocate passionately for the values driving it. All participating acts have donated the master rights to their Help(2) tracks in perpetuity, while publisher Beggars Group played a key role in coordinating logistics to bring everything together. Or, as Clarke puts it, “threw the kitchen sink at it all in order for the album to make a big impact” as well as waiving their distributor fees.
Ford adds, “It’s pretty hard to be hopeful in the modern world – there’s a lot of ruin in it. But what else have we got?”
He lets the thought linger for a moment, then adds, “I don’t really have anything else in my life that gives me hope, apart from music, quite honestly. It’s something that I value so deeply. If a little bit of that feeling translates to other people through this project, then that’s the best anyone can hope for.”
On Wednesday, Suno CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman posted about two new milestones for his AI music company on X: 2 million paid subscribers and $300 million annual recurring revenue (ARR).
This is double the subscriber count Billboard reported in November. According to Suno’s investor pitch deck, obtained by Billboard, Suno noted 1 million subscribers, up 300% year over year. It also noted that approximately 25% of subscribers remain after 30 days. On a weekly basis, Suno says it has 78% retention for subscribers and 39% weekly retention for all users.
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“We launched Suno 2 years ago to let the world feel the joy of making music,” Shulman wrote on X. “Since then, over 100M people all over the world have used Suno, from music lovers to Grammy winners. We reached a new milestone: 2M paid subscribers, $300M ARR.”
He continues, saying: “We are building the entertainment platform of the future. Endless scrolling and passive consumption have flattened culture and reduced people’s taste to a homogeneous, lowest common denominator. People yearn for more, and the future of consumer entertainment is creative. Suno lets everyone actively participate in music culture creation, bringing to life the music that’s inside millions of people. The future is creative entertainment.”
At the end of Shulman’s post, he notes that Suno is hiring. “If you love the nexus of technology and art, please get in touch.”
C.C. Gong, a principal with Menlo Ventures, which was the lead investor in Suno’s recent $250 million Series C funding round added her own thoughts on Shulman’s post on X, saying, “What’s remarkable isn’t that Suno makes music generation easy. It’s that it’s changing the default relationship people have with music. Creation improves consumption…. I’ve personally shifted most of my listening to Suno. I was so tired of Spotify giving me the same overplayed recommendations…[Suno’s technology represents] a fundamental shift, treating music as a catalog to music as a canvas.”
The announcement comes after a busy few weeks of news in AI music in general. Last week, AI remixing app Hook announced $10 million in a series A funding round and Google launched its latest AI music model, Lyria 3, which creates up to 30-second tracks as part of Gemini; On Monday, Feb. 23, Suno announced the hiring of Jeremy Sirota, former CEO of Merlin, as its new Chief Commercial Officer; On Tuesday, Feb. 24, a number of artist rights groups released an open letter titled “Say No to Suno,” criticizing the AI platform’s approach to training and downloads — and that same day Google announced the acquisition of AI music start-up ProducerAI.
Taylor Swift danced through all the competition on the Feb. 28 2026-dated Billboard Hot 100 as “Opalite” surged to No. 1, becoming her 14th career leader.
Among other feats, Swift linked a seventh straight year with a new Hot 100 No. 1 — tying The Beatles for the longest streak in the chart’s history, which dates to its 1958 start. Swift has added to her chart-topping totals each year since 2020, when “Cardigan” began her run. In 2020 and 2023, she doubled down with a pair of No. 1s each.
The Beatles solely held the mark of seven consecutive years with new Hot 100 No. 1s for more than half a century, since “Let It Be” led in April 1970, extending the group’s streak that began with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964. Notably, of those seven years, six included multiple No. 1s each, with only 1968 represented by one leader — and, making up the difference, that was the band’s longest reigning hit, “Hey Jude” (nine weeks). The run encompasses all their record 20 No. 1s.
Mariah Carey and the Supremes follow with streaks of six years each adding Hot 100 No. 1s, in 1995-2000 and 1964-69, respectively. Carey, meanwhile, maintains the record for the most consecutive years being at No. 1: 11, from 1990 through 2000. She first notched new No. 1s in each year from 1990 to 1993, and while she didn’t tack on another in 1994, “Hero” led that year, for three weeks that January after reaching the summit on the chart dated Christmas Day 1993.
(Carey also holds the second-longest run of years, and perhaps eventually the longest, ranking at No. 1 on the Hot 100: eight, all thanks to the recurring rule of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on charts dated from 2019 to 2026.)
Seventeen artists boast 19 streaks of claiming new Hot 100 No. 1s in four consecutive years or more (with Carey and Madonna on the list twice, thanks to stretches in 1990-93 and 1995-2000, as noted above, and 1984-87 and 1989-92, respectively). Plus, Paul McCartney is the only person to achieve the feat via two billings, The Beatles, with him as a member, and Wings.
Browse the full rundown below, reflecting the acts with elite longevity and consistency in returning to the Hot 100’s top spot.
When the nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 2026 class were announced on Wednesday (Feb. 25), few paid much attention to the fact that women were well-represented among the nominees. Mariah Carey, Melissa Etheridge, Lauryn Hill, P!nk and Shakira were all nominated, as was the British group Sade, fronted by Sade Adu.
That’s how the Rock Hall has rolled for several years now. Each of the last four induction classes has included at least four women (or groups including women) across the various induction categories.
It was not ever thus. When the inaugural class was inducted in 1986, all 10 performer honorees were men: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley.
The Rock Hall could have brought in some gender diversity that year with its other selections, but they too were all men. The inaugural early influence (now called musical influence) honorees were Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmy Yancey and Robert Johnson. The inaugural non-performer selections (now called Ahmet Ertegun Award) were Alan Freed, John Hammond and Sam Phillips.
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There were likewise no women in the induction classes of 1992, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2016. John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, has made diversifying the roster of inductees along gender, genre and racial lines a priority. As such, it’s likely we’ll never see another all-male induction class.
In honor of this year’s gender-diverse class of nominees, here are 18 women who have made history at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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First it was Taylor Swift, now Selena Gomez was seen capturing moments seaside with pal Nina Dobrev on a retro Camp Snaps camera.
The “Love On” singer was seen in a set of photographs posted to Instagram by Duexmoi capturing moments from her vacation in Cabo San Lucas, filming and snapping pics on the CS-8 Digital Video Camera currently retailing for $199 on Camp Snaps website. The model was made in limited quantities and can be shipped to Gomez fans immediately after purchase.
Camp Snap’s tech has sold out numerous times, no doubt thanks in part to Swift and now Gomez, so if you want the camera, you’d better get your hands on it now. While Gomez doesn’t have a long history with snapping photos, at least not on a professional camera, she seems to love a candid moment as seen on her Instagram.
Swifties know that the “Blank Space” singer has always been into photography, capturing meaningful moments on retro-inspired tech. While she’s best known for her use of the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV, the musician has added a new retro model into her rotation, as seen during her appearance in the stands at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Dec. 14 game. The musician captured moments in the stands and on the field also with Camp Snaps’ CS-8 Digital Video Camera.
The digital video camera is inspired by the Super 8 camera — just reimagined for today. The camera is rechargeable, features no playback screen and no instant previews. When you film on a CS-8, you can choose your aspect ratio controlled with the crank of a dial, capturing cinematic scenes at a music festival or classic home-movie moments. Users can also scroll through vintage-inspired filters to change up the scene, giving your videos an old-timey feel with black-and-white or a textured look with the analog setting.
A built-in microphone captures crisp and clear audio, ideal for concertgoers, while a built-in stand stabilizes your hand, letting you capture steady footage every time. When you press the trigger, it records a new video file, which is excellent for capturing moments in short bursts. There’s also a wrist strap that helps keep the camera tethered to you at all times. The digital camera comes with a 4GB memory card, which holds around 30 minutes of footage. It does, however, work with an up to 128GB SD card, which will record up to 16 hours of video.
The only downside is there’s no screen to play back footage. You can’t watch or delete clips until you transfer them to your device. The point is to keep the user present in the moment, filming what comes naturally and capturing moments that mean something.
Over the course of eight episodes and more than 520 minutes, the sprawling Amazon Prime Civil War drama The Gray House tells an epic tale of four brave women who risk it all to help the Union cause in 1860 as the country is torn asunder.
The massive project, out today (Feb. 26), was executive produced by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman and stars Mary-Louise Parker, Amethyst Davis, Daisy Head and Ben Vereen. The series spared no expense in recreating the darkest period in the nation’s history — and neither did the team behind the equally ambitious soundtrack, anchored by a voice that, for many, sums up the hope, faith and promise of the American dream.
“When we wrote this [song] we thought Willie [Nelson] would be the perfect spokesperson for it,” says songwriter Jim “Moose” Brown (Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood), who along with Erin Enderlin (Reba McEntire, Luke Bryan) and veteran actor Jeff Fahey co-wrote the soul-stirring ballad “Heart of America,” which anchors the series’ final episode and serves as a kind of emotional coda to the project.
“Open arms, guiding light/ A beacon of hope in the night/ The stars and the stripes/ A spirit that’s always gonna fly/ What makes us different makes us strong/ Together we will carry on,” Nelson, 92, sings over his signature nylon string guitar picking and a string section. The country legend reminds us that there is “room for everyone” and that just when you think this nation is torn and bent beyond repair, it bounces back and “rings out good and loud, like the Liberty Bell.”
“This song strikes in a way that’s important at a point in history where it feels like what I would envision the Civil War felt like,” adds Brown of this era riven by divisiveness and a song he and his cowriters hope will capture the “spirit of coming together.” He notes, “We’re at our best when we meet in the middle. and who better to sing that than possibly the greatest singer who has ever sung to or for America?”
The trio say it was a bit “daunting” to present the song to Nelson. But in their own ways, all three came to the project with that patriotic spirit already baked in. Enderlin’s grandfather, Paul Enderlin, was a son of immigrants who fought in World War II before rising to be Purina’s salesman of the year. Fahey, 73, a veteran actor (The Lawnmower Man, Lost) who’s traveled the world since he was 17 and is making his first major foray into songwriting on the project, agrees with Enderlin that “Heart of America” is meant to spotlight all this beautiful country has to offer and, most importantly, encourage us to come together.
The songwriters’ marching orders from series executive producer and co-writer, Emmy-nominated producer/writer Leslie Greif (Hatfields & McCoys, Walker Texas Ranger) were to write a song cued to the end of the war, at a time when the nation was desperately trying to mend itself and recapture the dream of America. “It was incredibly moving to me, Moose and Jeff to watch,” Enderlin says of the final episode. “We talked about when you see something so visceral as a creative person it makes the music want to pour out of you.”
When Greif sent the songwriters the footage from the final episode, Brown says it was so dramatic the words “just poured out.” That said, the original version was kind of an up-tempo, rocking tune that had a Bob Seger feel, before it was downshifted into a more midtempo attempt that still felt a bit too happy for a war-ending scenario. “Leslie called and said, ‘Moose, you’re gonna kill me, but we have to get this right,’” Brown recalls of Greif’s musing on how Nelson might want to approach it, and if there was a “more healing, deeper” approach the team could take.
“I said I’d already done that, but Leslie said ‘humor me’ — so I went in the studio with a more minor key take and I didn’t change the lyric or melody and doggone it, he was totally right,” Brown admits.
And while the emotional pull of “Heart of America” — with it’s haunting chorus “The heart of America/ It’s still dreaming, dreaming of things to come/ It’s beating, beating like a drum” — sounds quintessentially Willie, Greif and the soundtrack’s music supervisor, Greg Cahn say they initially had a very different idea.
“I wanted to do a ‘We Are the World’ thing and get all these artists to sing one great song, artists from every genre to show a united country with all its differences and how music can bring us together,” says Greif. “But Greg said, ‘You’re out of your mind!’ You’re not Quincy Jones.”
At that point Greif knew he didn’t want a single voice speaking for the whole project, but also wasn’t interested in getting into a political, red/blue, urban/rural trap on the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary. So he landed on trying to represent as many genres as possible, with a different original song anchoring the end of each episode.
That’s why the soundtrack opens with The War and Treaty’s searing, gospel-touched “Blood in the River” (one of four of the album’s songs co-written by Enderlin, Brown and Fahey), and also features the sweeping Adrienne Warren ballad “Unholy Water” (co-written by Jon Bon Jovi, Butch Walker and Desmond Child) as well as gospel great Yolanda Adams’ “Love Will Rescue Me.” Viewers will also hear another War and Treaty song, the Diane Warren-penned “If This Day,” as well as Creed singer Scott Stapp’s flag-waving rock anthem “Red, White & Blue,” and tunes performed by Lainey Wilson, Larkin Poe, rapper Killer Mike and Shania Twain with Drake Milligan; the official soundtrack is due out on MCA Nashville/Universal Music on Thursday as well.
Knowing his idea sounded expensive, Greif says he decided to get an undeniable group of songs written first, and then approach the artists. “Nothing attracts an artist like a song; it’s like an actor with a script,” he says. Soon enough, he had award-winning pop-rock hitmaker Child on board with a pair of co-writes, and Wilson chiming in with her own idea.
But he still needed that one last tune.
“To me, the holy grail [for the soudntrack] was Willie Nelson,” he says. That’s not only because of the country icon’s built-in respect, but because the Dust Bowl-born singer — who’s seen the nation through World War II, the Korean War, the Civil Rights era, the moon landing and the rise of the internet — has “lived American history” for the last century. “Who has the breadth and gravitas to tell a story of unity of a country held together by its differences than Willie Nelson?” poses Greif.
Once they got the song to Nelson, Cahn says word got back to them that the singer immediately loved it. But between health issues, false starts and waiting on the legendarily hard-to-predict “Willie time” to get it done, the team were on pins and needles as they breathlessly anticipated the last, crucial piece of the puzzle.
Then, ironically, after Nelson cut the song in just one or two takes in late 2024, the project was delayed for more than a year due to circumstances beyond their control. “We knew we were writing this before the [2024 presidential] election, and knew what was coming was a bit ominous — and then the timing and irony of it is that I think there’s some songs on here that really stand the test of time,” says Cahn. “It’s an old story of the Civil War, but here we are 250 years later dealing with the same stuff.”
Check out the soundtrack cover and listen to “Heart of America” below.
Courtesy MCA Nashville/Universal Music
From Houston to Broadway! Megan Thee Stallion will be making her Broadway debut as part of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
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The record-breaking production made the Houston Hottie’s recruitment official on Thursday (Feb. 26), with Megan slated to play the role of Zidler, who serves as what the press release described as the “impresario of the titular nightclub.”
The Grammy-winning rapper’s eight-week run on stage will take place from March 24 to May 17 at the famed Al Hirschfeld Theatre in NYC.
“Stepping onto the Broadway stage and joining the Moulin Rouge! The Musical team is an absolute honor,” Megan said in a statement. “I’ve always believed in pushing myself creatively and theater is definitely a new opportunity that I’m excited to embrace. Broadway demands a different level of discipline, preparation and storytelling, but I’m up for the challenge and can’t wait for the Hotties to see a new side of me.”
Megan Thee Stallion will be making history when she debuts as the first female-identifying star to play Zidler in the global performance history of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
“Welcoming Megan Thee Stallion into the Moulin Rouge! The Musical community is a thrilling moment for us,” producer Carmen Pavlovic added in a statement. “Megan is a true global superstar. She is one of the most influential artists of her generation and her impact on music and culture is undeniable. This historic casting is a major part of our closing celebrations: our farewell gift to Broadway audiences and one of our biggest announcements in the history of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
She continued: “We want our show to go out with a spectacular bang, and Megan is the force of nature to lead us there. And yes, there will be a hint of music from her own iconic catalogue. It’s an unmissable moment for both Megan’s fans and ours.”
Fans interested in purchasing tickets can do so in person at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre box office, as well as on the Moulin Rouge! The Musical website.
As Paul McCartney watched a final cut of Man on the Run, Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville’s documentary on the musician’s time in Wings, the former Beatle sat with a pad of paper and pen. When the movie ended, he stood up, looked at Neville and — flashing him a blank piece of paper — said, “Here are my notes.”
“Somebody said, ‘You should have taken that piece of paper and framed it,’” Neville says with a laugh over Zoom. The film, which begins airing on Prime Video worldwide on Friday (Feb. 27) examines McCartney’s life throughout the ‘70s after the Beatles dissolve and he leads another extraordinarily successful group and navigates family life with wife Linda and their chidren.
McCartney’s longtime manager Scott Rodgers and Universal Music Group executive vice president Michele Anthony approached Neville about making the film, which was financed by UMG’s Polygram Entertainment (UMG also distributes McCartney’s music).
Though Neville, the director of such films as 20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Keith Richards: Under the Influence, was trying to take a break from doing music docs, “I think within 60 seconds, I was all in,” he says. “I’ve made music films for a long time, and I think some part of me was always wondering, ‘Are you ever going to do anything related to The Beatles?’ I mean, I went to my first Beatlefest when I was 12.”
Though the band toiled in the Beatles’ shadow and had a revolving lineup other than the McCartneys and guitarist Denny Laine, Wings was one of the most successful rock groups of the ‘70s, scoring such hits as “Band on the Run,” “Live & Let Die,” “My Love,” “Jet,” “Listen to What the Man Said” and “Silly Love Songs.” The prolific group also landed four consecutive albums at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart between 1973 and 1976.
Neville had access to a tremendous amount of archival material and music — there are 80 needle drops in the film — and unlimited access to McCartney, whom he interviewed six times, as well as all living members of Wings (Linda McCartney is represented by interviews prior to her 1998 death), McCartney’s children, John Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon and friends including Mick Jagger and Chrissie Hynde.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your first meeting with Paul, who served as executive producer, like?
Paul came to L.A. because he was rehearsing for a tour in Burbank. We were left alone in a room, sitting on a couch next to each other. At that point, the initial idea was nothing more than Paul’s interest in doing something about Wings. I said to him that the story, to me, really begins the moment the Beatles break up because that’s [what] sets everything in motion. And to me, the end of it is really John [Lennon’s] passing [in 1980], because Wings never play again.
Had you seen the 2001 documentary about the band, Wingspan?
Oh, yeah, I remember seeing it on ABC when it came out. I devoured everything Beatles. Wingspan is a very — I’m trying to be nice about it — like a very kind of ordinary telling of Paul’s version of what he did in Wings. He tells lots of stories I’ve heard him tell lots of times, and there’s great footage in it and everything. But for me, I thought there were a lot of [missed] opportunities. For starters, none of the other members of Wings talk ever. They’re not in Wingspan. Also, Linda doesn’t talk in it. That early time about the breakup of the Beatles, it’s very quickly glossed over, as it is in Anthology too.
And I just thought the machinations of what really happened as The Beatles were coming apart was something that I could explain. I didn’t want to make a film about Paul’s discography of the 1970s, great though it is. I thought, “What is this character, this guy named Paul, who’s coming out of [a band] divorce and trying to figure out who he is?’”
Was there an immediate way in?
Right in the beginning, [something] that gave me a key into the story was that written Q&A with the release of McCartney, the one where he announces The Beatles are broken up. That last question says, “What are you going to do now?” And he says, “My only plan is to grow up.”
That’s what the film is. How do you grow up? Being a rock star is a state of arrested development for most people, but Paul kind of goes in the opposite direction. He was 27 when the band breaks up — and rather than living in the South of France, surrounded by women or whatever, as some rock stars might, Paul gets married instantly, has a child, adopts Linda’s child, and moves to a totally dingy farmhouse in nowhere in Scotland and he starts growing food and shearing sheep and mending fences and kind of becomes a farmer. If you want to stay grounded, it’s about as literally grounded as you can be.
Given that his manager came to you with the project, how do you make sure you have editorial control?
The thing about music films is that no matter what, if they control the music, there’s always some element of control [for the artist]. I have been doing this long enough that I say if you come to me that I’m not here to praise you, I’m not here to bury you, I’m just here to understand you. Let me tell the story I want to tell. I didn’t even say this to Paul — because, honestly, Paul, from the first meeting, just said, “It sounds good.” And then we did interviews and interviews and interviews. Paul didn’t see the film until it was done.
Beyond no notes, what was his reaction?
It was very emotional for him to see the film. Paul said, “It’s very honest. It’s maybe a little too honest.” I said, “Understanding your failures and your struggles actually is so relatable.” I tried to take the idea of Paul the music genius and kind of put it on the shelf… The thing that I really wanted to communicate is the center of Paul’s life through this time was the family. Every tour they did, all the kids were there. There weren’t nannies. They did it all themselves. When they went to the studio, they brought cribs, and the kids would be crawling around in the middle of the studio. Paul and Linda never spent a night apart from the time they were married until he went to jail in Japan [for drug possession].
A big part of the movie explains why Linda was in the band, even though she was criticized for her lack of musical ability.
She says it: “It wasn’t because I was the best keyboard player, it was because we loved each other.” He’s making music at home. Linda was his first audience, and he trusted her, and he didn’t want to be apart from her, and so she becomes part of the band. I think a lot of people thought, “Oh, Linda fancies herself a rock star and she wormed her way into being in the band.” None of that is true… I like Linda’s singing…It’s not like she’s an incredible singer, but she can hold her own.
What the film really brings across was how much Paul got slapped around post-Beatles in the early years of Wings and how painful that is. Even though it was John Lennon who instigated the breakup, McCartney buys into maybe he was to blame, even saying, “I thought, ‘That’s the kind of bastard I am, you know.’” And had also confesses he thought, “I may never, ever be able to write a song again.” He’s so hard on himself. Did that surprise you?
There were a couple of character elements that came out that I felt like I was getting someplace really beyond the normal, charming, funny Paul. And part of it is the insecure part of him. He told me in the first conversation I had with him, “You know, I can remember the names of the reviewers who gave me all those bad reviews.” Here’s Paul McCartney relating that those hurt and still to some extent hurt because he told me their names.
Did you try to interview them?
No, I don’t think they’re alive. Then the other thing is occasionally seeing Paul’s kind of steeliness come out. The “f–k you” mode. You don’t have the career Paul McCartney’s had just being a pushover. Sean even says in the film that both John and Paul were strong, and Paul just had a softer way of showing it. He would maybe disguise it more, but Paul has a lot of grit to him. These are boys from Liverpool. They know how to scrap if they need to.
For all the interviews, not just Paul, you recorded audio only. There is no video, so there are no talking heads in the film. Why did you make that decision?
There’s an intimacy you can have. When I would interview Paul, which I did over many months at different times, it was just the two of us talking on the couch, having conversations. I don’t want it to feel like I have an agenda. It’s getting them to a place that feels like, “Oh, we’re having a real conversation,” as opposed to you’re just going through a list of the hits [he] had in the 70s. I will burn lots of time just to try and get in that zone. But the other thing is when you don’t have people on camera, the film becomes a present tense story. And I really like that. It’s not old people looking back. It feels like you’re living through it more in real time.
Do you think this is an opportunity for people who may have discounted Wings to hear how great these songs are? Or hear them for the first time?
Yeah. When I hear “Let ‘Em In” or “Let Me Roll It” or “Band on the Run,” these are amazing songs, and they do stand up with the best of anything he’s written. I think to some extent that Paul’s coming to terms with Wings again. Wings took so much stick back in the day that I think he internalized a lot of the attitude that, “Oh, we must not be that good.” And I think the more he hears people like me or others saying, “I love this music” and sees how audiences react to it, it’s been this kind of gradual coming to embrace it more and more. In a way, I think this film helped him see his own story in a way that’s actually been very therapeutic. I’ve sat in the theater and watched it with him four times. So, it obviously speaks to him on some level.
What do you want people to learn about Wings from this?
He put out 10 records in these 10 years. I’m not saying everything’s great, but there’s great stuff on every record. People have said when they finished the film, they immediately go down a wormhole of listening to this music, which is great. That’s not my goal. That’s a byproduct. My goal is to tell a great story about an artist struggling with their voice and trying to figure out how to live the artist life of a creative. That is my filmmaker goal for the film. My fan goal is thrilled that people are getting into the music.
You included footage of his cheesy 1973 television special that includes him singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with a red clown nose on. How did he feel about that being in there?
He never flinched. I mean, he said, “It’s embarrassing,” and then just at the premiere the other night, I heard him saying to somebody, “Yeah, I didn’t make a smart decision the whole decade.” [Laughs.]
As the documentary shows, Wings plays a 1979 charity show, which Paul says is the worst show he’s ever played in his life, and then they go to Japan to play 10 dates, and he’s arrested on the drug charge and the shows never happen. Did you get any sense that he regretted ending on that note?
The writing was on the wall. [Last Wings studio album] Back to the Egg comes out in late spring of ’79. Rather than touring right away. Paul goes to Scotland and records McCartney II and he records “Wonderful Christmastime,” too, which gets released as a solo single in ’79. They go to Japan. Everything blows up. Japan was definitely the thing that put it all on hold. And then the success of McCartney II. And then John’s death. It was over. Paul said they might release more stuff, [but they never did], so it went out with a whimper. I think Paul really was ready to go to the next stage. And John’s death just solidified that.
You’re three-quarters of the way to an EGOT. You have an Oscar and Grammy for 20 Feet From Stardom and an Emmy for Best of Enemies. How are you going to get the Tony?
I do think about it. I just have to come up with the idea. I’ve always been interested in theater, and it’s one of the only parts of culture I haven’t made a film about too. So, who knows? Maybe next.
