Jan. 27: 'God Only Knows' Wins Grammy, 'Girl In The Movies' Loses Dolly on Sunday won her ninth regular Grammy Award, thanks to her collaboration with For King & Country on "God Only Knows." The Australian duo's remix featuring her duet vocals was the version of their tune nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, which is awarded to the performers (For King & Country and Dolly) and writers (Josh Kerr, Jordan Reynolds, Tedd Tiornhorn and the brothers who comprise For King & Country, Joel and Luke Smallbone).
They beat Casting Crowns' "Only Jesus," Danny Gokey's "Haven't Seen it Yet," Tauren Wells' "God's Not Done With You" and Zach Williams' "Rescue Story." (Her collaboration with Williams, "There Was Jesus", came out four days after the cut-off for consideration for this year's awards and may be considered for next year in this category.)
In accepting the award, Joel Smallbone noted it was Australia Day and encouraged Americans to visit their home continent because tourism is suffering greatly from the wildfires. He also thanked Dolly "who is an incredible human being" in making "one of the great moments of our career," explaining she told them she loved the song "because it is reaching to the marginalized, the depressed, to the suicidal, which is all of us at some point." Coverage of the win included The Australianhere. For King & Country also won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Album for the record that contained the original version of the song without Dolly.
Unfortunately, Dolly lost Best Song Written For Visual Media, for which she had been nominated with co-writer Linda Perry for "Girl In The Movies" from the Netflix film Dumplin'. That award was won for the second year in a row by Lady Gaga and crew for a track from A Star Is Born, this time "I'll Never Love Again." ("Shallow" had been released as a single prior to the Grammy deadline two years ago and won at last year's awards, while the remainder of the soundtrack came out after that deadline and qualified for this year's awards.)
The win brings Dolly's regular Grammy count to nine awards, plus a 10th special Grammy for Lifetime Achievement, which usually isn't counted officially. (She was also part of a Louvin Brothers tribute album that won Best Country Album several years ago but since it was credited as Various Artists instead of each performer's individual name, the Academy doesn't count it toward her official total.) In addition, she won the Grammys' MusiCares Person of the Year last year and has had four songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her career total of 49 nominations is second only to Beyonce (with 70) for the record of the most-nominated woman in the awards' history, and her total of 32 Grammy ceremonies at which she has received at least one nomination out of the total 62 Grammy years that have taken place is the record for the most by any woman, the most by any country artist, and the most for any vocalist (she moved one ahead of Sir Paul McCartney with this year's nominations). Including non-vocalists, she is tied for No. 2 with pianist/composer Chick Corea behind No. 1 composer John Williams with nominations at 39 ceremonies.
'Live From Here' Sings Dolly Songs Chris Thiele's Live From Here public radio show (formerly known as Prairie Home Companion) paid tribute to Dolly last week for her birthday with some cover tunes of her songs. Check them out here.
Australian Chart Updates Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) slips two to No. 6 in its 436th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.
Jan. 21: Galantis Releases More Remixes After releasing the original version and three remixes, Galantis on Friday put out a six-song EP album of their "Faith" collaboration with Dolly and Mr. Probz featuring four all-new remixes. The collection, titled Remixes, includes the previously-issued Galantis & Bali Bandits VIP Mix and Jewel & Sparks Remix, adding the MOTi & Terry McLove Remix, JORD Remix, John Dahlback Remix, and Elliot Fitch Remix. The song's Acoustic mix is not included on the EP. Download your copy of the new remix EP here!
'Faith' Still Strong On U.S. Charts, Trio On U.K. The song also remains hot on the charts, the Jan. 25 Billboard tallies released Tuesday showed. The track "Faith" by Dolly and Galantis featuring Mr. Probz, moves back into the top 10 on the hot dance/electronic songs and dance/electronic digital sales charts, sitting at No. 10 on both, up two and six places, respectively, although it slips one to No. 3 dance airplay and five to No. 38 club play. "There Was Jesus", her duet with Zach Williams, drops two to No. 40 hot Christian songs. Across the pond, after two weeks at No. 1, Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) dips one to No. 2 on the British top 20 country compilation albums chart this week, it was revealed Friday, as Essential Dolly Parton loses nine to No. 15, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt inches down one to No. 8, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) gains five to No. 8 and Harris' Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) re-enters the top 20 at No. 17.
Thursday's Benefit Sells Out In Two Minutes As Dollymania was the first non-Facebook media outlet to report earlier this week, Dolly will headline next week's Dustin J. Wells Foundation Gift of Music fundraising concert for the third time. A total of 100 presale tickets were sold mid-week to patients of the dentist who founded the foundation in memory of his son, and the remaining 2,200 seats at the Ryman Auditorium went on sale to the general public on Friday morning and reportedly sold out within two minutes.
Dolly's Meme Goes Viral Dolly's social media staff this week sent out a meme of her in different poses alleging they represent different attitudes taken on various media outlets (professional network LinkedIn, social network Facebook, photo sharing service Instagram, and dating service Tinder). She didn't originate the meme, as I found someone who had posted a version back in August, but she was responsible for it going viral, with dozens of celebrities and thousands of normal folks posting their versions hours later. Check out a story about what is being called the #DollyPartonChallenge from Good Morning Americahere.
Denver Dolly Day Coming Sunday Folks in Colorado this weekend will want to head out to Denver for the Dolly Day Denver, an event at The Oriental Theatre Sunday that will benefit the city's affiliate of Dolly's Imagination Library. The 3-6 p.m. family-friendly portion of the day features line-dancing lessons, a drag queen story hour, vendors, food and an attempt to set the world record for the biggest gathering of Dolly look-a-likes. Tickets are $15 for adults and free for kids 5 and under. The evening brings a 7 p.m. adults-only variety show, for which tickets are $20 (or $30 for the entire day).
Jan. 21: Dolly Headlines Gift Of Music For Third Time Dolly was announced Sunday as the headliner for the Jan. 30 7 p.m. Gift of Music fundraiser concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium to benefit the Dustin J. Wells Foundation. Tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday, six days before the show. Tickets are $100 for unobstructed views and $85 for obstructed views plus a limited number of VIP tickets for $1,200 each featuring seating at the foot of the stage, heavy hors d'oeuvres throughout the show, and an open bar throughout the show. (VIP seats are only availably by calling organizers at 615-371-8878.) This marks Dolly's third time helping the Foundation at the show. She provided a solo concert in 2015 and performed as one of many supporters at its 2009 benefit. This show, like 2009's, will have several other entertainers over the course of the evening: Lee Greenwood, Lonestar, Collin Raye, T.G. Sheppard, Drew Baldridge, Abby Anderson, Artimus Pyle Band, Eric Lee Beddingfield, Red Mountain Bluegrass Band, Brad and Maisy Stella, Taylor Hope, and Scott Bass in addition to Dolly. The Foundation primarily funds the W.O. Smith School of Music in Nashville.
Dolly Inks Deal With American Greetings Dolly announced last week a multi-year partnership with American Greetings to create digital and physical greeting card products that integrate her music and "Dollyisms." They will initially be available online followed by physical cards in coming months. In a release, Dolly said: "I am so thrilled to begin this relationship with the folks at American Greetings. When presented with this opportunity I knew it was perfect for me. I love connecting with people in unique ways and being able to integrate products that take inspiration from my music, and the life lessons I have learned through the years makes this extra special. I know first-hand how a few words in a card can change someone's day for the better. I am looking forward to working with the creative group at American Greetings to develop cards that do just that!"
'Unlikely Angel' Gets DVD Re-Issue Dolly's 1996 holiday film Unlikely Angel will be re-issued on DVD (with digital movie included) on April 7, Mill Creek Entertainment has announced. Reserve your copy here!
Birthday Recap: Collection Story And Quiz Dolly's 74th birthday was celebrated all over the world with various parties and events, and East Tennessee's WVLT even took the opportunity to recognize Pigeon Forge couple Patric Parkey and Harrell Gabehart and their massive collection of Dolly costumes and memorabilia with a story here. Dolly's official website released a quiz in honor of her birthday. Take it here.
Variety: Grammy Producer Fought For Dolly Tribute Last Year With Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich stepping down after 40 years at the ceremony's helm, Variety sat down with him last week to reflect on his time at the awards, and he said the segment he was most proud of in last year's telecast and "really one of my favorite things I've done ever on the show" was the Dolly tribute as MusiCares Person of the Year. He said she wanted to do a new song but he resisted and finally let her include "Red Shoes" in the hits medley but paired her on it with Little Big Town, about whom she didn't know much and worried they wouldn't be able to keep up with her. After her first rehearsal with them and seeing how good they were, she thanked him for adding them to her tribute. He added that the 12 minute length of the tribute was controversial with the Recording Academy, leaders of which had complained that it wouldn't keep an audience, but it turned out to be the highest-rated 12 minutes of the entire broadcast last year, he noted. Read his full interview here.
U.K., Aussie Chart Updates Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) gets a second week at No. 1 on the British top 20 country compilation albums chart this week, it was revealed Friday, as Essential Dolly Parton loses one to No. 6, Dolly falls off the top 20, down from No. 7, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt inches up one to No. 7, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) gains two to No. 13 and Dolly's Gold re-enters the top 20 at No. 17. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) remains steady at No. 4 in its 435th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.
Jan. 16: Library Documentary Premieres April 2 The premiere for the Imagination Library documentary The Library That Dolly Built will take place April 2 in New York City with Dolly in attendance, it has been announced. If you want VIP access to the premiere, a meet-and-greet with Dolly, two nights at the Marriott Marquis, and airfare from Knoxville to New York, that prize package will be auctioned off to benefit the Friends of the Smokies at its Evergreen Ball Jan. 25. Although the event is sold out, people interested in bidding on the auction may contact organizers at info@friendsofthesmokies.com or (800) 845-5665.
U.S. Chart Updates "Faith," Dolly's collaboration with Galantis featuring Mr. Probz, increases eight places to No. 16 digital dance sales and four to No. 12 hot dance/electronic songs, slipping one to No. 33 dance club play, the Jan. 18 Billboard charts released Tuesday showed. (The dance airplay chart, where it was No. 3 last week, was not updated this week.) "There Was Jesus", her duet with Zach Williams, drops three to No. 38 hot Christian songs. Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers falls off the country catalog albums chart, down from No. 25.
Whitney Makes Hall Of Fame The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame on Wednesday announced its new class of inductees which includes Whitney Houston, most famous for her cover of Dolly's signature song, "I Will Always Love You." Billboard noted here that the induction of such a pop star with no rock connections should open the door for future induction of other innovative superstars from other genres including Dolly. They also said here that she's one of 10 women who should already be in the Hall of Fame.
Jan. 11: 'Faith' Gets Acoustic Remix
It's common in dance music for multiple remixes to be released over time, and Dolly's collaboration with Swedish duo Galantis and Danish rapper Mr. Probz. "Faith (Acoustic)", the fourth version of the song to come out since October, was released Friday. It features an acoustic arrangement of the accompaniment and different vocal arrangement of Dolly and Mr. Probz. Listen to it here or in the media player above, or download it here.
U.S., U.K. Chart Updates "Faith," Dolly's collaboration with Galantis featuring Mr. Probz, holds steady at No. 3 dance airplay on the Jan. 11 Billboard chart released Tuesday. The song slipped five to No. 24 digital dance sales and three to No. 32 dance club play, remaining steady at No. 16 hot dance/electronic songs. "There Was Jesus", her duet with Zach Williams, gains six to No. 35 hot Christian songs. Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers falls off the top country albums, down from No. 29, losing 19 to No. 25 country catalog albums, gaining two to No. 20 holiday album sales, and re-entering the holiday albums chart at No. 49. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" jumps up 22 to No. 22 holiday digital song sales. Across the pond, following the Linda Ronstadt documentary on New Year's, her Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) shoots up a dozen digits to No. 1 on the British top 20 country compilation albums chart, as Essential Dolly Parton rises three to No. 5, Dolly increases two to No. 7, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt drops three to No. 8, and Ultimate Dolly Parton falls off the top 20, down from No. 16, while Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) inches down one to No. 15.
'Heartstrings' Earns GLAAD Nomination Dolly was nominated this week for the GLAAD Media Awards. The "Two Doors Down" episode of her Netflix series Heartstrings is nominated for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBTQ character) against Drunk History's "Love," Law & Order: SVU's "Murdered at a Bad Address," Easy's "Spontaneous Combustion," and Watchmen's "This Extraordinary Being." Winners will be announced April 16 in Los Angeles.
Dolly Birthday Celebrations Planned Birthday celebrations for Dolly abound! Bay St. Louis, Miss., holds its fifth annual Dolly Should celebration this Saturday, WLOX reports here. As was previously reported, Indianapolis will celebrate the following Saturday, Jan. 18, The Indy Channel covered here. Then on her actual 74th birthday Sunday, Jan. 19, Chicago has a party at Cell Block here, New York's 54 Below presents two concerts in her honor headlined by Diana DeGarmo here, Portland, Ore., will host a drag brunch at Hey Love here and even Hayesville, N.C., will observe the event and the sixth anniversary of their local Imagination Library affiliate here.
PaleyFest Tickets On Sale Next Week PaleyFest as announced ticket information for its March 14 panel with Dolly on her television career. At noon Tuesday supporting, fellow, and patron circle members and Citi cardmembers will be able to purchase tickets, followed at 9 a.m. Thursday by individual members. They'll go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. Pacific Friday. Learn more here.
'9 To 5' Documentary Completes Filming The documentarians behind Hollywood To Dollywood announced this week that they interviewed Jane Fonda for their documentary about the various incarnations of 9 To 5 and their impacts on society. Now that all three of the original leads plus performers from the television show, Broadway musical and West End musical have all been interviewed, they go to editing and finishing up fundraising to complete the project for release. Learn more, including how to give, at www.stillworking9to5.com.
Dolly To Build Major Soundstage, Recording Studio Dolly and her manager Danny Nozell on Friday revealed plans for her to build a multi-million-dollar film and television soundstage complex in Nashville. In addition to a full-sized filming soundstage with complete film crew, the facility will house a full-sized scoring studio larger than any other in the city, capable of holding a full symphony orchestra. Dolly said in an interview with Brentwood High School's WBHS 9 here or in the media player below she plans to use the building not only for her film projects but to prepare her tours and to record her albums. Nozell said the construction time should be about eight or nine months, allowing the facility to open by October.
Jan. 7: 'Heartstrings' Snags Three Movieguide Nods Dolly's Netflix series Heartstrings' episode "These Old Bones" has been nominated for three Movieguide Awards, it was announced Monday. The episode is up for Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Television Program (which she won in 2016 for NBC's Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors and again in 2017 for the network's sequel Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love) as well as the Faith & Freedom Award for Television and its star, Kathleen Turner, is nominated for the Grace Prize for Television, which Coat's star Alyvia Alyn Lind, won in 2016. For the Epiphany Prize, the show is up against the "I Am He" episode of The Chosen, "Joseph: The Nativity" episode of Jesus: His Life, "Moondust" episode of The Crown, "The Passion of Paul" episode of Last Man Standing, "Home For Christmas" episode of When Calls The Heart and the TV films A Christmas Love Story, Christmas Town and Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses. For the Faith & Freedom Award, it competes against the final episode of Ken Burns' Country Music documentary, the "Moondust" episode of The Crown, the "Dare To Dream" episode of Heartland, the "Home for Christmas" episode of When Calls The Heart and the TV film Togo. For the Grace Prize, Turner's competition is Jill Wagner from Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses, Candace Cameron-Bure from Christmas Town, Tobias Menzies from The Crown and Jonathan Roumie from The Chosen. Awards will be handed out Jan. 24 at the Avalon Theater in Los Angeles and be broadcast at a later date on the Hallmark Channel. No word on whether Dolly will attend. She participated in the 2016 ceremony but not the 2017 one.
Carl Dean Photos Published Paparazzi apparently snapped some shots of Dolly's reclusive husband, Carl Dean, as he took her car to the Brentwood Post Office recently. An American gossip tabloid published the photos in print as did the British tabloid The Daily Mail, which also made the images available online here.Dolly's released about a dozen or so photos with the publicity-shy Carl over the five and a half decades they've been together, but the most recent authorized images before this one to come to light from her were from about 30 years ago (although family members occasionally share photos and video on Facebook that include glimpses of him).
U.K., Aussie Chart Updates Dolly's BBC Two documentary from Christmas helped spur sales of her albums overseas, the charts released by the U.K. Official Charts Company showed on Friday. The Grass Is Blue re-entered the top 20 country albums chart at No. 20, and while The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt fell three to No. 5 on the British country compilation albums chart, Essential Dolly Parton gained four to No. 8, Dolly re-entered at No. 9 and Ultimate Dolly Parton rose three to No. 16 while Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) inched down one to No. 14 and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) held steady at No. 13. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) slipped one to No. 8 in its 433rd chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.
Indianapolis Dolly Party Planned Thanks to organizers for alerting me that Indianapolis is having its annual Dolly birthday bash! The city's 9th annual event takes place Saturday, Jan. 18, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at FortyFive Degrees. A $10 donation to Trinity Haven, a homeless shelter for LGBTQ youth, is requested at the door. Dolly and Burt Reynolds look-a-like contests will take place hosted by drag queen Dolly Woods as well as live performances including one by Justin Hiltner, the openly gay bluegrass artist featured in the "Jolene" episode of Dolly Parton's America, the cast of the Footlight Musicals' production of Fun Home and the Indy Bag Ladies. Check out their Facebook event page here.
Jan. 2: 'Faith' Gets New Remix, Chart Changes
Already a dance No. 1 hit, "Faith," Dolly's collaboration with Swedish EDM duo Galantis featuring Danish rapper Mr. Probz snagged another remix as a Christmas release last week, this time featuring most of Dolly's vocals. The Galantis & Bali Bandits VIP Mix, available here, was released Friday. Check it out on YouTube here or in the media player above. Meanwhile, the original version of "Faith" this week fell one on the Dance Airplay Chart to No. 3, the Jan. 4 numbers Billboard released Tuesday showed. The former Dance Digital Sales chart No. 1 dipped five to No. 19 on that tally, held steady at No. 16 Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and inched up two to No. 29 dance club play. "There Was Jesus", her duet with Zach Williams, dropped six to No. 41 hot Christian songs. Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers lost four to No. 29 country albums, two to No. 6 country catalog albums, and seven to No. 22 holiday album sales, falling off the holiday albums chart (which includes streaming), down from No. 47. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" fell nine to No. 44 holiday digital song sales.
Did 'Heartstrings' Bring In 27 Million Viewers? Netflix is notoriously secretive about how many people watch most of its programming, only releasing viewership numbers on a handful of shows and movies over the years, but Dolly's management may have let the ratings slip on her Heartstrings series this week. They posted to her social media accounts a celebratory meme for 2019 recognizing "over 75 million audience impressions," or ratings viewers, and then listing the programs that presumably comprised that number. They gave totals of 20 million viewers for her February performance in a tribute segment at the Grammy Awards, 12 million viewers for her November co-hosting and performer duties at the CMA Awards, 7 million viewers for her NBC special in November celebrating her 50th anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member, and 4 million viewers for ABC's hour-long documentary Dolly Parton: Here She Comes Again. They then listed her eight Netflix Heartstrings movies without ratings and her Hallmark Channel Christmas At Dollywood movie without ratings. It was previously reported here that the Hallmark project saw 5.6 million viewers, which when combined with the other shows listed and subtracted from 75 million would leave approximately 27 million viewers remaining for her Netflix series, or an average of 3.3 million for each of her eight Heartstrings episodes.
Podcast Ends Nine-Episode Run The podcast Dolly Parton's America on Tuesday released its ninth and final installment, focusing largely on Dolly's personal faith (including the news that she has sold her long-anticipated project to star as a televangelist/gospel singer-type character to Lifetime under the title Sister Shine), repeating the truth about her tattoos, and addressing what will happen to her career after she passes away – explaining she has enough recorded material in the vault to continue releasing new projects for many decades posthumously, including even recording a lot of her unreleased songs with a "click track" vocal so that any future producer could pair that with any arrangement and instrumentation he or she chooses to use in releasing it. In related news, the series has made several critics' best of the year lists and was chosen this week by Forbes magazine as the No. 1 best podcast of 2019. Read that here, and check out tattoo aficionado publication Inked magazine's take on her tattoo discussion here.
A Gaggle Of Dollys To Set World Record Organizers of Australia's largest queer country pride festival, ChillOut, have announced plans to break two world records at this March's event in Daylesford, Victoria, LGBTQ Nation reports here. First, they hope to get 30,366 people to make the world's largest human rainbow and second, they hope to attract more than 145 Dolly impersonators to break the record for the longest line of dancing drag queens, in tribute to the "LGBTI and global icon."
