Get your bows ready, slip into your most charming attire, and add a touch of festive flair with some adorable stockings—because A Very Laufey Holiday is coming back to town. Hurrying down the chimney is Iceland's third best-known musician (after Björk and Sigur Rós) Laufey and her rendition of the Christmas classic "Santa Baby."
This edition of "Santa Baby" adds to Laufey's ongoing A Very Laufey Holiday project, where each year, the winger adds a Christmas song to the album. It started in 2021, with "Love To Keep Me Warm" (featuring dodie), followed by "The Christmas Waltz" in 2022, and "Christmas Dreaming" in 2023.
"This is a story of a nice and naughty girl... as you might have guessed, our tale begins here, on this very stage," Bill Murray quips as the narrator in Laufey's "Santa Baby" music video. There's a whimsical puck to the visual. A hint of a Wes Andersonian fancy, if you ask us. American Ballet Theatre's principal dancer, Isabella Boylston, performs with an ensemble of dancers with a choreography by Alex Wong (So You Think You Can Dance; The Greatest Showman; Smash).
A Very Laufey Holiday will be available on vinyl for the first time, featuring her "Santa Baby" cover. The box set has an expandable design, allowing more addition of Laufey's holiday covers and originals in the coming years. A Very Laufey Holiday is available as a limited edition box set online.
In keeping with the festive vibe going, Laufey's debut concert film, Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl will hit the cinemas and IMAX theatres for a limited run from 6 December. Filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Sam Wrench (Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour), Laufey performs with the renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The film offers a rare, behind-the-scenes perspective on this unforgettable concert.
For more information and ticketing details, click here.
Well, well, well, it looks like Barry Keoghan’s boxing lessons have finally paid off. The actor put his athleticism to good use in Sabrina Carpenter’s latest video, “Please Please Please.” His role? Carpenter’s jailbird boyfriend. Don’t worry, though—he’s a bad boy with a big heart.
In case you missed it, Carpenter and Keoghan have been dating for a while. In January, eagle-eyed fans spotted them at Luna Luna, an interactive art museum in Los Angeles. Then he was seen filming her Coachella performance, stage-mom-style. Now they seem to have taken their courtship to the next level—which, in 2024, is a buzzy music video. Don’t you love it when a couple maximizes their joint slay? (Look it up.)
In “Please Please Please,” Carpenter spots Keoghan in jail. She walks out, he walks in, and it’s love at first sight. When it’s Keoghan’s turn to leave his confines, Carpenter scoops him up, and thus begins their whirlwind romance. “I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy,” she sings. “Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight.” Carpenter is ready to take a chance on the man. He has a rough reputation, but it’s fine!
Wrong. Keoghan’s character can’t stay out of trouble. He takes her to a gang’s den and promptly gets into a brutal fistfight, then he robs a bank and is arrested again. Meanwhile, his poor girlfriend begs him to chill out. “Please, please, please / Don’t prove ’em right,” Carpenter sings. “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherfucker.” It’s no use. The man is who he is—which, by the way, is a pretty decent fella. Despite the chaos, he still remembers to hold her hand. He’s not all bad.
The cheeky video appears to be a nod to Keoghan’s onscreen bad-boy reputation. (None of us are over Saltburn’s Oliver Quick, are we?) Still, in “Please Please Please,” Carpenter asks him to behave. If not for his sake, then for hers. It ends with her cuffing Keoghan to a chair and kissing his duct-taped mouth while he lovingly gazes at her. I guess you can’t get into trouble if you can’t get up.
Originally published on Esquire US
Childish Gambino is up to something. Then again, when isn’t he? The rapper—who is, of course, the great Donald Glover—is a Swiss Army knife. Glover began his career as both an actor and a musician in the early aughts, impressing fans on Community as well as with albums such as Camp, Because the Internet, and Awaken, My Love. Then he dropped the viral political anthem “This is America”—and flexed his acting chops on Atlanta (which he wrote and produced, too). And let’s not forget the recent Mr & Mrs Smith reboot. (He a co-creator and Mr Smith.)
Got all that? Good. Now he’s back in the booth. Early this morning, Glover dropped Atavista—the “finished version” of his 2020 album, 3.15.20. He announced the news on X, teasing a special vinyl, upcoming visuals, and another (!) new album that we’ll hear this summer. He also posted a link to the music video for his latest song, “Little Foot Big Foot,” which you can watch in the video streaming above.
Fans of Glover will recognize most of the tracks on Atavista, but “Little Foot Big Foot” is a new treat. The song features a verse from Young Nudy—and the Hiro Murai–directed music video stars Quinta Brunson, Monyett Crump, and Rob Bynes. Now that Atavista is out, we can appreciate the record in all its glory. But for those surprised by the release, perhaps it’s time we pay closer attention to Glover—he’s been dropping hints since April.
Last month, Glover played a few tracks for fans on Instagram Live, telling a stunned listener, “It’s a rollout, dummy.” His Instagram includes posts for Gilga Radio—a mysterious website named after his production company—and an album visual with the social-media star Casey Frey, along with dates for his upcoming world tour.
So what’s the difference between Atavista and 3.15.20? The new record boasts refreshed arrangements, but the most significant difference is that the tracks have names. Each song on 3.15.20 has a time stamp for its title. At the time, Glover decided to keep the titles simple amid personal and global strife from the pandemic. “I took that approach because I guess that’s what I was going through,” Glover told Complex. “People are always going to want what they want, but I have to express what I’m going through. I had just lost my father, I had just had a kid, and I was going through a lot. I was having a lot of different new experiences, and that’s what I expressed.”
