It took a minute, but Kanye West finally showed up this week with Jesus Is King, his long-awaited, much-delayed album. The project leans heavily toward gospel and praise music, which is in line with Kanye’s Sunday Service gatherings over the past year. 

He joined James Corden this week, but you know ‘Ye’s got to keep it unique. So instead of singing in the car, they move it all the way up to a 747. And since there are so many seats, an entire gospel choir is able to join them!
Kanye seems slightly uncomfortable and not entirely on board for the first few minutes, but James is able to loosen him up before we get an unbelievable version of “Jesus Walks”… with some notable lyric changes. 

‘Ye spends a lot of time talking about his spiritual awakening, but also boosts his Yeezy line and insists his marriage to Kim Kardashian is “heavenly”. In fact, he reveals that their family won’t be complete until they have 7 children. 

Throughout the clip, Kanye looks on edge and kind of tired. But the experience of a full choir flying the friendly skies is unforgettable. Check out the clip above, and listen to Jesus Is King now, or check out his biggest hits ranked according to your listens, hearts, and shares on Kanye West: DNA!

It was a random Thursday night in Nashville, and a normal songwriters round at the downtown Listening Room Café that included Jimmy Robbins, who has written such big songs as Blake Shelton’s “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert’s “We Were Us” and Maren Morris’ “I Could Use A Love Song,” among many, many others. And Jimmy invited a friend and co-writer on stage to join him on their joint effort…. And the friend was Kelsea Ballerini.

She tells the story about the background of the song, and the pressure she’d been putting on herself to make it look like her life was perfect, and the realization that the world wouldn’t end if her life looked like everyone else’s, and that sometimes that means it’s not all great.

And then she did the song, “homecoming queen?” Watch here.

Well, George Strait has done it again – he’s made country music history. When his song “The Weight of the Badge” got enough air time on FM country radio, it became his 100^th song on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart, and nobody else has ever done that.

Now, that chart only started in 1990, so it doesn’t even count the songs he had on the radio all the way back to 1981, when he had his first hit. Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which uses a combination of radio airplay and streaming and sales, includes 124 George Strait songs, and that list does go back to ’81.

No matter, which chart you’re looking at, George Strait is still the King of Country Music. You can hear all of those hits and learn more about how he got that way, with his influences and collaborations and the music that made him, him, by listening to our George Strait: DNA station.

What happened in music and pop culture five years ago this month? Let’s break down the big stories: 

Taylor’s Big Release: Taylor Swift dropped her fifth studio album on Octber 27^th, 2014, and it marked the beginning of a massive new era: Taylor the pop star. Up until then, she was hugely popular with the country crowd, but the #1 debut of “1989” cemented her status as a crossover queen. 

Katy’s Dirty 30: Katy Perry turned 30 on October 25^th, 2014, and at that point in time, she was on top of the world. Riding high on the wake of her smash album “Prism,” Katy was in the planning stages of her performance at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show.  

Top Halloween Costumes: 2014 Halloween costumes were all about the movies: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain America, Groot, Maleficent, Black Widow, and the characters from “Frozen” all wandered the streets asking for candy five years ago. For these stories, and more—including the top 30 songs of October 2014, check out the latest episode of LiveXLive’s Throwback Thirty! 

First of all, have you learned the dance to Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” yet? He teaches you all the steps you need in this video, and let me just warn you from my own personal experience: have water nearby. And maybe a towel.  It’s a workout!

Blanco told Billboard that he knows the lyrics to the song don’t include “the git up” anywhere, but that title comes from his grandmothers. He says when he was young, his grandmothers wouldn’t let him lay around in bed and sleep, they’d wake him up early in the morning and yell, “git up!” “You had to get outside and be productive, find purpose and enjoy and just celebrate as a kid,” he said. 

Blanco calls his style of music country trap, and it’s something he’s wanted to do for a long time. He says when you hear this particular song, he wants you to feel full of life, joy, and purpose. You can’t be in a bad mood when you hear it, that’s for sure. 

After you learn the dance, listen to it on repeat on our stations like Nashville Now, Country Hits, Party Country and New Pop Now, among others, and check out the official music video here.

50 years ago, The Beatles unveiled what was essentially their last album.  Yes, “Let It Be” was released last, but “Abbey Road” was the final one they recorded. It remains their top-selling record and now, to celebrate its golden anniversary, it’s being reissued in the same epic manner that we saw last year with the "White Album” and the previous year with “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.”  In other words, if you’re a Beatles’ freak, this will blow your mind. Again.

And, because we love you, LiveXLive is offering you the chance to listen to the entire thing, on-demand, whenever you want.

The original release boasted 10 songs, including the legendary medley and :23-seconds of “Her Majesty.” The reissue has no less than 38 tracks, including never-before-heard alternative takes and demos and some songs that have never been released previously.

Beatle producer George Martin’s son Giles has overseen a a new mix in stereo, 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos. There’s an amazing alternate version of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” from Trident Studios in London, where the band were  interrupted by angry complaints about noise from the neighbors. John turned down the volume—but only after one final take. "“Last chance to be loud!” he said.With that in mind, join us in returning to Abbey Road…and crank it up!

She did it – Lauren Alaina made it through the first week of Dancing With The Stars. I mean, nobody gets eliminated in the first week, so that was easy, but she got some pretty great scores with her partner Gleb Savchenko and they wouldn’t have been eliminated anyway. For their first performance, they danced the Cha Cha to Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” and they scored 19 points out of a possible 30. That’s third to Bachelorette Hanna Brown’s 20 points, and James Van Der Beek’s 21, so really close. 

The judges were mixed in their reactions: Len thought it wasn’t enough Cha Cha, but Carrie Ann and Bruno like it, and Bruno said, “it was like watching a sultry southern belle.” Well, that’s kinda what she is, so yeah. 

Watch their dance here.