Getting in the Christmas spirit. After an incredibly successful year, Morgan Wallen is slowing down and taking the time to reflect on some of his favorite holiday traditions. The country superstar was named Billboard’s #1 all-genre artist of 2025 this week, beating out the likes of Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Super Bowl halftime show headliner Bad Bunny, and more. With his placement as the Top Artist of 2025, he is the first country artist to secure the #1 spot since Swift in 2009 and just the second male country artist to ever be crowned Top Artist since Garth Brooks flew to the top with back-to-back wins in 1992 and 1993. He is also the most-listened-to album on Apple Music globally for 2025, and has the #1 most-listened-to album in the U.S. on Spotify and the Top Country Album on Billboard’s year-end chart with I’m The Problem. Wallen is already planning a massive 2026 tour, and word is that new music is also on the way, but for now, Wallen is taking the time to relax and enjoy the holiday season. In a recent interview, he talked about some of his favorite Christmas traditions, and he revealed what his favorite Christmas movie is, and he went with the classic film Elf, which stars Will Ferrell: “I don’t watch many Christmas movies, but if I had to pick, Elf.” Morgan says he prefers a real tree, but his mom always put up several fake ones in his house growing up, though he does prefer real: “My mom is a big decorator, so I kinda got some of that from her. I enjoy the decorations. I like real, but I didn’t grow up with real. My mom always kept a fake one — well, a few fake ones.” There really is nothing like a real tree… Morgan also said he’s a huge Christmas guy, and he is always sad when all the decorations get taken down and the holiday cheer goes away: “It’s always like the saddest day of the year to me whenever the Christmas tree goes away and all that goes away.” If I was as busy as Morgan has been this year, putting out the biggest album of the year as well as being on a stadium tour, I think I would be hibernating and spending as much time as I could at home doing nothing. But he really doesn’t show many signs of slowing down, as he already announced an extensive list of tour dates for next year, which you can view below. Still The Problem Tour Dates April 10 || Minneapolis, Minn. || U.S. Bank Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason April 11 || Minneapolis, Minn. || U.S. Bank Stadium w/ HARDY, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason April 18 || Tuscaloosa, Ala. || Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Vincent Mason, Zach John King May 1 || Las Vegas, Nev. || Allegiant Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason May 2 || Las Vegas, Nev. || Allegiant Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason May 8 || Indianapolis, Ind. || Lucas Oil Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Hudson Westbrook, Zach John King May 9 || Indianapolis, Ind. || Lucas Oil Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Flatland Cavalry, Zach John King May 15 || Gainesville, Fla. || Ben Hill Griffin Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King May 16 || Gainesville, Fla. || Ben Hill Griffin Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King May 29 || Denver, Colo. || Empower Field at Mile High w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason May 30 || Denver, Colo. || Empower Field at Mile High w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason June 5 || Pittsburgh, Penn. || Acrisure Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King June 6 || Pittsburgh, Penn. || Acrisure Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King June 19 || Chicago, Ill. || Soldier Field w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King June 20 || Chicago, Ill. || Soldier Field w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King June 26 || Clemson, SC. || Clemson Memorial Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat June 27 || Clemson, SC. || Clemson Memorial Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat July 17 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat July 18 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat July 24 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten July 25 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ HARDY, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten July 31 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ ​​Brooks & Dunn, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten August 1 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ Ella Langley, Hudson Westbrook, Blake WhiteThe post Morgan Wallen Reveals Some Of His Favorite Christmas Traditions And Memories first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Making history. This weekend, Riley Green and Ella Langley scored their second #1 hit together with their duet “Don’t Mind If I Do,” which topped the Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, one of two charts labels use to officially track their songs performance. It marks Riley’s fourth Country Airplay #1 and Ella’s second, and they’re now just the second pair since the list launched in January 1990 to have earned multiple collaborative #1s, after Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani led in 2020 with “Nobody but You” and “Happy Anywhere.” For Riley, he becomes the first artist since Taylor Swift to land back-to-back Country Airplay #1s with songs written entirely on his or her own. One of his other solo writes, “Worst Way,” led the chart for two weeks in June. View this post on Instagram “Don’t Mind If I Do” is the title track to Riley’s 2024 third studio album, and it’s actually a solo write by Riley. I firmly believe that Riley’s solo writes are some of his best songs, and that is NOT easy to do, actually, and this is easily one of my favorite song Riley has put out in years. It’s slow, heartfelt, and full of heartbreak, a Riley Green specialty, but it was apparently intended to be an upbeat beer drinkin’ song at first. Riley told Katie Neal during an interview on her Katie & Company radio show that he penned it while backstage at a show in Rogers, Arkansas: “I was in the green room in Rogers, Arkansas, I played a show at the Walmart amphitheater. And there’s a Topgolf next door, and I had a bunch of buddies from Arkansas come to the show, and they were all going to Topgolf, and remember thinking, yeah I’ll send them all over there and then I can like have some quiet. So I sent everybody to Topgolf, and I wrote the song in the green room. I remember my security guard kept busting in and checking on me, and I was like, ‘I’m fine.’” He had a guitar lick that was a bit slower, and once he tried that out with this idea of “don’t mind if I do,” Riley says it was “really easy to write”: “I had the idea for a while. I think it was gonna be like a fun, beer drinking song. Don’t mind if I do, like, I went out last night. And that was the way I pictured it. So I sat down with the song, and I had this little guitar lick I was doing, and I thought about, man, how cool would it be if it was like, don’t mind if I do to that call from that ex or whatever it is. And so I went down that road, and it was a really easy song to write. And the first song I had written as a duet without a female involved in it. So that’s a little weird, you know, to write a females perspective on a chorus at the end but I thought that was cool.” It’s impressive how well he wrote that last chorus, and I very much prefer this Riley and Ella duet to their award-winning viral hit, “You Look Like You Love Me.” Speaking of that viral hit, Riley and Ella are coming off a huge showing at the CMA Awards last month, where they took home three awards for their 2024 smash hit, winning Single and Song of the Year as well as Music Video of the Year, sweeping its three eligible categories and becoming the FIRST song in the history of the CMA Awards to take home all three awards on a single night. They’ve had a huge run with both songs, and I’m sure “Don’t Mind If I Do” will win multiple awards as well in 2026. Riley has said he’s open to doing another duet with Ella, and clearly, it’s a recipe for success, so to speak, and people love them as a musical duo. Congratulations to Riley and Ella on another hit, that’s truly a great country song. It’s extremely well-deserved, and if you somehow haven’t heard it yet, it’s high time to change that… “Don’t Mind If I Do” The post Riley Green & Ella Langley Become Just The Second Pair Ever To Earn Multiple Collaborative #1s On Country Airplay Chart first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Who's got your vote this week? Continue reading…

Joel and Luke Smallbone visited with Evan Paul of Taste of Country Nights. Continue reading…